Rebecca King

June 2013

Rebecca King, 23, from Clifton, is a mother-of-one and an aspiring singer/ songwriter who has performed in front of thousands of people as a guest on the Professionals On Ice arena tour...

I GREW up in Surrey and came to Nottingham four years ago to study for a degree in childhood studies at Nottingham Trent University.
My plan was to become a social worker or a teacher. I’d intended to do a PGCE after the degree but I had a baby in my third year. He’s 18 months old now.
I still hope to go back to university to do that, maybe by home learning when he’s in nursery full-time, or I’ll be an amazing singer.
The first recording of me singing was when I was three. It was my own song called Flower Shop. You can’t really understand any of the words, apart from Flower Shop.
I always did talent shows at school and I went to Stagecoach before doing a music performance course at college.
I sang at a fashion show in a club when I was at college and that was probably my first gig.
I’d grown up listening to very cheesy pop like Britney Spears, the Spice Girls, 911, Steps and Take That. But when I was at college my mind was opened up to a whole new world of music.
I really got in to Angie Stone, Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu and Raphael Saadiq.
I take a lot of influence from soul and roots reggae. My son’s dad, who I met at Trent, is from Barbados, and he introduced me to a lot of that music.
It’s funny because I never really wanted to go to university; I actually wanted to be a police officer. But in London, at that time, you had to become a PCSO first and that did not appeal to me at all.
None of my family are in the police. Both my parents are retired. My dad was in computers and it was a really well paid job but neither he nor my mum would spoil me and I’m thankful for that. It helped to prepare for me for university.
I had a great time at Trent. I wish I was still there now.

It was after I finished last summer that I started taking music more seriously, but I knew I needed to find someone to help me.
I heard William Kofi on Kemet FM one afternoon talking about what he does as a manager so I emailed him. I think after about ten emails he realised I was quite serious.
It was through William, who acts as my manager now, that I got to perform on the Professionals On Ice arena tour. It was very exciting to be a part of that. Although, it was offered to me five days before the first show at the arena in Sheffield.
There were about 2,000 people in the audience and all I could think was ‘please don’t fall on the ice’.
I wasn’t on skates but I had to walk in the dark across a carpet on the ice and on to the stage.
I did two songs at the beginning and two at the end. I sang two of my own called Come To Life and Damn It I Do and Christina Aguilera’s Ain’t No Other Man and Rihanna’s Diamonds.
It went down really well. The scariest bit was talking to the crowd in between the songs.
It was the first time I’d ever sung my own songs to anyone.
Now I do an open mic night every Thursday around Nottingham.
I’ve finished my album, Racing The Earth. There is a soulful undertone to the songs, so there are influences of Erykah Badu and Angie Stone but with touches of Aluna George. I love how weird but listenable their music is.
The first single from my album, called Damn It I Do, will be released in August.
For more information about Rebecca and to listen to her songs, go to www.rebeccaking-official.com

Elena Hargreaves

April 2012

I WAS actually born in Norwich but only lived there for two years before the family moved on to Liverpool and then Nottingham when I was seven.

We moved around because of my dad’s work. He’s a scientist and also a lecturer at Nottingham Trent University. My mum is a paediatric nurse and she’s Columbian. They met while they were studying in Spain.

They settled in West Bridgford and I lived there until I went off to do an acting degree at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London.

After that I came back to Nottingham for a year, which is when I started to write music with a band.

I now live in London but I spent half my life in Nottingham. And I love Nottingham. I like the peace and quiet. I’ll usually hide away in places like the Malt Cross, Lee Rosy’s and Bell & Jerome in West Bridgford, where I used to work.

I moved to London because it’s where the work is. I have a paid residency in a bar, where I also work. I also teach acting and keep busy auditioning for acting jobs.

After graduating from drama school, I played Gladys in The Skin of Our Teeth in New York. It was an off-Broadway production at The Lee Strasberg Theatre. That’s where Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and Robert De Niro studied, so that was amazing. I went with a friend to the school to train and while we were there we got parts in their latest production. It was crazy and a little surreal, to be with all these hardcore theatre people for three months.

On the back of that I got the lead in a short feature film in Los Angeles. My character is a well-paid escort and it’s a love story of sorts but there’s no nudity in it. There aren’t even any kissing scenes. It’s a film noir; it’s very stylised. The director said he found the English accent was exotic enough. It’s not finished yet but he plans to screen it at all the major film festivals.

I’ve also appeared at the Palace Theatre in Mansfield in a play called In Manifest and The Merry Wives of Windsor at The New Red Lion Theatre in London with a company called Grassroots. I’ll be acting with them again in the summer at The Scoop Theatre in London. We’re currently rehearsing Much Ado About Nothing, which will go on an open-air tour, including Hyde Park.

I’m currently in rehearsals for the opening ceremony of the Olympics, which is being directed by Danny Boyle. I met him last weekend and he’s lovely. I felt like saying “I’m an actress!” but that wouldn’t have been too professional.

I actually auditioned to sing but I was recalled to dance, which is really cool.

I’m not allowed to give anything away about what we’re doing. We’re being told where to go on a need-to-know basis. He’s really worried about people finding out on Twitter and Facebook.

The singing started at the kitchen sink. My parents were really strict and made me and my sister, Stephanie, wash and dry the pots. And we’d start harmonising while we were doing it.

We do perform together as The Hargreaves but we also do our own thing. Whenever I have a big gig I get her to support me, which she’ll be doing at Nottingham Playhouse tonight.

We’ve an older brother, Alan, who is the most sensible out of all of us. He studied international business and runs his own company.

As well as my sister, I’ll be telling a few stories, screening a short film and a friend of mine has created a really nice set, so it’s going to be good. It won’t be your usual gig.

Friendly Fires

February 2009



BEFORE he arrived in Nottingham Ed MacFarlane wasn't capable of writing the sort electro-funk that made Friendly Fires self-titled debut album one of the critical picks of last year.
"I was some kind of indie snob," he admits.
"I started understanding pop music properly when I was in my first year at Nottingham uni. Now the art of writing a good pop song is something that I'm really interested in."
He'd even sling a tune together for Girls Aloud if they asked.
"I wouldn't say no to be honest."
Ed graduated two years ago from The Nottingham Trent University with a degree in photography.
"I did photography as an excuse not to get a job. I think I've always had my heart set on making music."
He adds: "It was great. I met lots of people that influenced me a lot. People doing things in Nottingham, promoting gigs, DJs, bands and musicians.
"The Liars at The Social was always really great and Rescued on the Saturday night (at the Rescue Rooms)... they had one room that was more indie/electro and the main room they were playing house. It had a nice variety of music.
"And I saw some amazing shows. Do Make Say Think at the Rescue Rooms was probably one of my favourite gigs of all time. And there's an amusing picture of my friend Matt watching Bloc Party at Liars Club. There's about ten people in the audience and he's right at the front with his arms folded."
Liars Club was at The Social (now The Bodega Social Club) and along with putting on pre-fame gigs by Franz Ferdinand and the like, influenced its punters to make mix indie with electro.
First out the traps were Late Of The Pier.
"We played our first gig with Late Of The Pier in London."
A fine product of Nottingham.
"They're a Castle Donington band."
But they live in Radcliffe-on-Trent so we're having them.
And we can claim one third of Friendly Fires.
St Albans has a greater claim of course, the trio were school mates there and shared a passion for Fugazi, Sonic Youth, Mogwai and And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead.
"When we first started we sounded like a rip-off of Trail Of Dead," he laughs.
"We weren't trying to write pop music at all."
Not that friendly Fires are pure pop protagonists.
"We've written music with the intention of it being accessible but we've always wanted to incorporate styles of music that aren't pop."
And the intentions are clear.
"We want be massive."
For now they're content with sharing the bill with three other great new British bands.
"We've played with all of them. We supported Glasvegas in Aberdeen. We did a little tour with White Lies when they were first coming out. It's funny because we're sandwiched between two No. 1 album selling artists so there's a bit of pressure but I think we sound different enough that people will pay attention."
Maybe they'd pay even more attention if he threw on the smoking jacket he used to wear when he was at Nottingham uni (which we know because a fellow student at the time is now a Post photographer).
"(Laughs nervously) I went through a stage of trying to wear the most overly debonair clothes I could think of."

The NME Awards Tour featuring Friendly Fires, White Lies, Glasvegas and Florence & The Machine, Rock City, Talbot Street, Wednesday February 11