Star is born at festival
by David Whetstone, Culture Mag
CAN the Hexham Abbey Festival be a step on the road to fame? David Whetstone talks to one young hopeful.
She looks like a star and sounds like a star, and who would bet against Laura-Jayne Hunter fulfilling her celestial promise?
The 22-year-old is one of the first performers on stage at this year’s Hexham Abbey Festival and the first to occupy the Young Artist Platform.
A good festival always blends old and new, established and up-and-coming, and that’s the case with the second festival put together by artistic director Graham Coatman.
Talented young performers from Leeds College of Music, where Graham lectures, punctuate the festival programme, all keen to show us what they can do.
Laura (to her friends) is a singer and songwriter from Coleraine, Northern Ireland, who graduated from the Leeds college last year with a degree in popular music.
Graham is a fan. In the festival brochure he praises her eclectic mix of vocal tones, beautifully crafted harmonies, narrative use of lyrics and delicately played guitar.
You can hear it for yourself on her MySpace page, where you can also appreciate her songwriting talents. It is no real surprise that Laura was one of 15 young musicians from Leeds chosen this year for its Bright Young Things promotion, winning a photo shoot, studio time, inclusion on a compilation CD and a gig.
When I catch up with Laura she is back home in Northern Ireland for the summer and earning some cash as a tour guide at the Bushmills Whiskey Distillery.
When she returns to Leeds, where she has now settled, she has a full-time job lined up in a gym. Music is the long-term ambition, but she is pragmatic enough to realise you have to pay the bills while you get established.
“I haven’t put as much effort as usual into my own music over the past year because I concentrated on my college work,” she says.
“It was a great experience being at the college because it opened my eyes to different kinds of music.”
How long has she been singing? “Pretty much since I was able to,” she says. “My mum has film of me singing at the age of three or four.”
At 13 she started playing guitar and at 14 she was playing in rock bands. “I was into heavy rock at the time but playing acoustic guitar makes you listen to singer songwriters and now I like a bit of everything.”
Cited influences include Scottish rock band Biffy Clyro and English singer songwriter Imogen Heap.
Several people have remarked on Laura’s resemblance to Eva Cassidy, the celebrated American interpreter of jazz, blues, folk, gospel and pop who died in 1996, aged just 33.
It can only be a matter of time before Laura gets her foot on the first rung of a music career. Maybe Hexham Abbey Festival will provide it.
She reveals that she is also committed to a successful functions band called Vibetown and a fun group called Dollypop which will also be in action in Hexham, performing during the Street Festival on September 27.
Other performers lined up for the Young Artist Platform are violinist India Patel, percussionist Martin Batchelar, baritone Philip Wilcox and flute and oboe player Laura Skyers
Hexham Abbey Festival: September 25 to October 4. Hear Laura-Jayne Hunter at the Forum Cinema (September 26, 9.45pm). Visit www.hexhamabbey.org.uk/festival
