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Archive 18
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426 - 450
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Here
you will gain exclusive access to my own personal record collection! I
try to bring you mp3s of rare tracks, deleted material, long forgotten
artists, total flops and down right obscure shit. Often, my choices were
only available on vinyl or were just plain unreleased, the aim being to
indulge an old fan or inspire a new one. I try not to post up
forthcoming releases or anything that's too readily available. Honest,
Gov!
There's a tenuous thread running through the tracks but
your requests are always welcome and I'll try and squeeze them in amongst my
own fancies... eventually.
Do read all the blurb, as there's often links to extra tracks lurking in
there... ; )
Tracks are only available for a 'limited
time' folks (sometimes months!), so get them while you can!
Now for the science bit! To access the music, please click on 'Download' and
you'll be whisked off to those nice people over at Sharebee.
Tracks are ripped at 192 kbps and wherever possible taken from the
highest quality source available. All of the music offered here has been
purchased by myself and is part of my own collection. Tracks are for
evaluation purposes only and wherever possible, purchasing is always
encouraged. If you own any of the material posted here or anywhere else
on this site and are very cross with me, please
email me with threats and such like...
Luscious
Jackson was an all-female, groovy pop-rock group formed in 1991.
They were named after former Philadelphia 76ers pro basketball player
Lucious Brown 'Luke' Jackson and they
played all their own instruments and wrote all of their own material. Their
story begins when Jill Cunniff (vocals,
bass) and Gabby Glaser (vocals, guitar)
made the first Luscious Jackson demo
tape with tip money from their waitressing jobs in 1991. Their first live
performance was opening for Beastie Boys
and Cypress Hill in lower New York City
and they were invited by Beasties to be
the first band on their new Grand Royal label. Former
Beastie Boys band member
Kate Schellenbach soon joined the band on
drums and Vivian Trimble took keyboard
and backing vocal duties. Three tracks from the original
Luscious Jackson demo and four new songs
were released in 1992 as the excellent 'In Search Of Manny'
mini album. They released their first full length album, 'Natural
Ingredients', in 1994, spawning three minor hits with 'City
Song (NY State Of The World)', 'Deep Shag' (ahem) and
'Here', which is, err, here. The latter featured in the
Alicia Silverstone film,
'Clueless'. It also has a wonderful B-side, too, 'Queen Of
Bliss', which I have to post as well, but I'm out of server
space so get it from those lovely people at Rapidshare over
From
spraying their audience at live gigs with beer, to charity events for Tibet,
to a giant inflatable cock, Beastie Boys
have become International treasures. Mike D,
MCA and Ad-Rock
began life as an angry hardcore punk group in 1981 but for much
of the 80s, they were considered a bunch of obnoxious, macho, frat-boy
parodying clowns, largely thanks to their debut album, 'Licensed To
Ill' and hit single '(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To
Party)'. Watch a great live performance, on 'The Joan Rivers
Show', if you please,
Bis
were a Scottish indie punk-pop trio composed of
Sci-fi Steven (Steven Clark), John Disco
(John Clark) and Manda Rin (Amanda
MacKinnon). They formed the cartoon-like Bis
in 1994, when Manda and
John were still in secondary school and
within a year, they appeared on 'Top Of The Pops' performing
the inanely catchy 'Kandy Pop' from their 'Secret
Vampire Soundtrack' EP. It was the first appearance on the show by
an unsigned act! The band's early releases were on Glasgow's Chemikal
Underground label, run by The Delgados,
before transferring to Wiiija. Bis
then released a rush of lo-fi, DIY singles and EPs that almost troubled the
UK top 40 between 1996-97, including 'Atom-Powered Action!',
'Everybody Thinks That They're Going To Get Theirs' and 'Sweet
Shop Avengerz' (
Whistler were a three piece featuring
Kerry Shaw, Ian Dench and
James Topham, who signed to indie label
Wiiija (Bis,
Cornershop, Brassy,
Velocette) after their self-financed
debut 7", 'Please Don't Love Me Anymore', got them noticed.
They recorded two albums ('Whistler' and 'Faith In The
Morning') between 1998-2000, both containing exquisitely sparse
acoustic arrangements, deep filled with melancholy and wistful melodies.
They garnered rave reviews for their singles and made an appearance on
Radio 1's 'Evening Session', then hosted by
Jo Whiley and
Steve Lamacq. They earned 'Single Of The Week' for the cute and
fragile 'If I Give You A Smile' in 'NME' in 1998
and also in 'Melody Maker' (RIP) for follow up single,
'Don't Jump In Front Of My Train', the same year. The band called it
quits in early 2001, sadly. The real gem in their forgotten back catalogue
is the 'Intermission' EP, a stop gap release between albums
from 1999. The EP features their interpretations of four classic tracks by
Dusty Springfield,
The Who, Nirvana
and Janis Ian. This is their cover of
'At Seventeen' by the latter. I think it's beautiful... The
band's website is long gone but Wiiija still has a page about them
Ladies
and gentlemen, welcome back to the stage...
Velocette! We first sung their praises in entry 72 and
we've honestly listened to them an awful lot since. They still sound
gorgeous... like a sun soaked marriage of Stereolab's
retro chords (both the trouser and the musical variety) and
Lush's shimmering sugary coos. Three of
the members of Velocette had previously
played in mod aficionado, indie-pop combo Comet
Gain; Sarah Bleach,
Sam Pluck and
Jax Coombes left David Christian
with the moniker and departed for greener pastures, forming
Velocette in 1997. This was a smart
move, giving Sarah's gentle harmonies
some much needed freedom to play amongst some better suited pastoral tunes
and swinging 60s pop sounds. Their journey began with their minty cool debut
single, a 'Melody Maker' 'Single Of The Week', no less,
'Get Yourself Together' (
Brassy are British punk/funk/hip hop band comprising of
Muffin Spencer on vocals/guitar,
Stefan Gordon on guitar,
Karen Frost on bass and
Jonny Barrington (AKA
DJ Swett) on drums.
Muffin Spencer is the sister of
Jon Spencer, of Jon Spencer Blues
Explosion. They released three singles on independent label
Costermonger (also home to Gene)
between 1996-97; 'Boss', 'Straighten Out' and
'Sure Thing'. However, the label ran out of money and left
Brassy to fend for themselves. After two
years, countless gigs and the introduction of Jonny's
long-held scratching techniques (his dad ran a mobile disco in the early
'80's) to the live show, Wiiija Records signed them and showed the
world what it had been missing. In 1999, the 'Bonus Beats' EP,
was the band's debut for their new label, followed a few months later by
'I Can't Wait', both of which were met with a flurry of praise
from the media and plenty of Radio 1 exposure.
Brassy toured as part of a Wiiija
triple-bill live showcase in 1999, with label mates
Bis and Velocette (I went to
the Newcastle date) and issued their debut album, 'Got It Made',
in early 2000. A third single, 'Play Some D' (
Brit
Pop sophisticates Gene rose from the
ashes of Woolwich-based The Go Hole,
later renamed Sp!n, a
Stone Roses-like band who had fell apart
after a string of promising releases in the early 1990s. Two surviving
members, Steve Mason and
Matt James, still with musical aspirations,
recruited bass player Kevin Miles and
after seeing Watford-based Welshman Martin Rossiter
across the floor of a local nightclub, they had found their frontman (his
business card allegedly read 'Martin Rossiter: Soothsayer to the Stars').
Adopting the name Gene, the band wrote
several songs and got some live experience under their belts, encountering
favourable reviews from 'NME' journalists
Keith Cameron and
Roy Wilkinson. The pair were so impressed with the band that they
formed independent record label Costermonger, with the sole purpose
of promoting Gene to a wider audience,
issuing their debut single, the double A-side 'For The Dead'/'Childs
Body', in May 1994. With a fast developing devotional fanbase,
'Be My Light Be My Guide' was released in August 1994, achieving
the top spot in the UK indie chart and number 54 in the UK national chart.
The band played their first UK headlining tour and
Gene eventually signed a major deal with Polydor Records.
After a successful appearance at the Reading Festival, the band
released their third single, 'Sleep Well Tonight' (
Deceptive Records was a British
independent record label formed in 1992 by Steve
Lamacq, Tony Smith and
Alan James, all with a passion for indie and
alternative rock. The most famous group signed to the label were
Elastica. Other acts on the label's
roster were
Earl Brutus, Jonathan Fire*Eater,
Unun, Lauren
Laverne and Angelica. Deceptive also facilitated early one-off single
releases for Placebo,
Gene and Idlewild.
They released a compilation in 1998 called, 'Deceptive Fifty'
(their 50th release - Get it
Placebo
was founded when former Luxembourg schoolmates
Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal
met by accident at South Kensington tube station in 1994 and decided to form
a band. While briefly known as Ashtray Heart,
the band quickly settled on the name Placebo.
The band could not decide on a drummer at first, with
Steve Hewitt and Robert Schultzberg
both in the running. While Hewitt was
the preferred choice, he also had other commitments as drummer for London
band Breed, leading to
Schultzberg being the drummer when the
band signed it's first contract with Hut Records. Prior to this deal,
Placebo had already issued two limited
singles; 'Bruise Pristine' (Fierce Panda) and
'Come Home' (Deceptive). Later singles 'Nancy Boy'
(
Linoleum
were Caroline Finch
(vocals/guitar), Paul Jones (guitar),
Emma Tornaro (bass) and
Dave Nice (drums). They were a top band. I loved them... all velvety and noir-ish,
stylish, glamorous... you name it, they had it. We first wrote about them in
entry 74 and I
thought it was about time we re-visited. Since the last post, they're still
split up, sadly. Caroline Finch has been
involved in the composition of soundtracks for various independent films
since 2000. As for the others... who knows? 'Sing To Me' is a track from their second and final
album, 2000's 'Race From The Burning Building' (which is cheap
over
Kish Mauve
are the band behind Kylie's
'2 Hearts' single. When I say behind, I mean it's one of their
old songs which they dusted off for Kylie
and she just stuck her vocal over the top. Initially,
Kish Mauve were fleetingly promoted as three girls;
Miranda (bass);
Gemma (percussion) and
Mima (vocals), armed with producer and
songwriter Jim Eliot. Their debut
release was the 12" red vinyl-only 'Kish Mauve' EP, released
in July 2005 on Sunday Best Records. They followed this up in 2006
with a double A-side single, again vinyl-only, 'Modern Love (
Like yin and yan,
or left and right, or
'Terry & June', it's hard to think of one
Minogue, without the other. Kylie
and Dannii began their careers as
children on Australian television, and from the age of eleven,
Kylie Minogue appeared in soap operas
such as 'Skyways', 'The Sullivans' and
'The Henderson Kids'. Dannii Minogue
became successful as a regular performer on the weekly music
programme, 'Young Talent Time', in which
Kylie gave her first singing performance in 1983.
Kylie was always overshadowed by her
younger sister until achieving success in 1986 with her role as feisty
teenager Charlene
Mitchell in the soap opera 'Neighbours'.
Emilíana Torrini
first started warbling in a choir at the age of 7 and she went to opera
school at the age of 15. In 1994, she became well-known throughout Iceland
after winning a junior song competition at the age of 17, singing 'I
Will Survive'. She also held down a waitressing job in her father's
well-known Italian restaurant in Iceland at the time. Between 1994 - 1996
she released three albums in Iceland; 'Spoon' (with a band of
the same name), 'Crouçie D'Où La' and 'Merman',
all of which are now highly collectable. She joined Icelandic multi-artist
group Gus Gus in 1996, contributing
vocals to several songs on their debut album, 'Polydistortion'
(1997), most notably 'Why?', which she still sometimes
performs in her live sets. She achieved international fame with her next
solo album, 'Love In The Time Of Science', released on One
Little Indian Records in 1999 (which was co-produced by
Tears For Fears'
Roland Orzabal). 'Unemployed In Summertime' was
the final single issued from the set and is just sublime...
listen out for the line, "Please don't be mad at me, I just did the sex
quiz from your magazine".
Torrini got the chance to sing
'Gollum's Song', the end theme of Peter
Jackson's film 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers',
when fellow Icelander Björk backed out
due to pregnancy. In 2005 she released the album 'Fisherman's Woman',
featuring the singles 'Sunny Road' and 'Heartstopper',
and in 2006, Torrini was nominated in
four categories at the Icelandic Music Awards held in Reykjavík; Pop
Album of the Year, Song of the Year ('Sunny Road'), Singer of
the Year and Video of the Year ('Sunny Road'). She won all
except Song of the Year. She has also contributed vocals to songs on
Thievery Corporation's 'The
Richest Man In Babylon' album in 2002 and has toured with
Moby, Sting,
Dido, Travis,
Tricky and Adem.
A new album from Emilíana is expected in
2008. Trivia! Emilíana Torrini co-wrote
Kylie Minogue’s 'Slow' in
2003. She also produced the track, along with Dan
Carey, and the two were nominated for Best Dance Recording at the
Grammy Awards for the song in 2005.
Lhooq
was a short-lived musical collaboration between
Jóhann Jóhannsson and
Pétur Hallgrímsson.
Jóhannsson is an Icelandic-born musician,
composer and producer. He also runs an art organization/record label which
specializes in instigating collaborations, promoting concerts and
exhibitions, performances, chamber operas, film production, book publishing and
hosting radio
shows based around experimentation and artistic collaboration.
Hallgrímsson is an Icelandic guitarist
and the two were joined by Sara Guðmundsdóttir
on vocals. The name Lhooq came from the
Marcel Duchamp painting of
Da Vinci's 'Monna Lisa',
with an added moustache. Lhooq's sound
is quite ambient, like a down tempo version of trip hop, definitely in
keeping with the booming chill out genre of the late 90s. They debuted with
a track called 'Flicker' on an untitled Echo Records
label sampler in 1996, which came in a cute mini-pizza box style package,
with the CD acting as the pizza (TASTE1). That's pretty cool. Then they
contributed an exclusive track to issue 15 of 'Volume', the
cool little CD-sized magazine with a full length CD each issue, also in
1996. This track was called 'Vanishing' and featured
Emilíana Torrini on vocals.
Lhooq then released two singles,
'I Don't Want To Know (Bogus)' and 'Losing Hand'
(a re-worked version of 'Flicker'), as well as an album,
'Lhooq', all issued on Echo in 1998. The project was very
much a one-off collaborative venture, like much of
Jóhann Jóhannsson's work, with no further material being released
under the Lhooq name to my knowledge.
Jóhannsson worked on tracks for
Emilíana Torrini's 'Love In The
Time of Science' album in 1999 and Marc
Almond's 'Stranger Things' in 2001. He has also
since written and produced music for theatre, documentaries and film soundtracks in his native Iceland.
Mono
were Siobhan De Maré (vocals) and
Martin Virgo (keyboards, synthesizers,
production) and they formed in London, in 1996.
Virgo, who trained in classical piano at the Guildhall School
of Music and Drama, had been working as a session musician since the
early 1990s as part of the production team of
Nellee Hooper, which led to credits on a remix of
Massive Attack's 'Unfinished
Sympathy' and Björk's 1993
album, 'Debut'. De Maré
comes from a family with a strong entertainment history; her father was
Tony Meehan, the drummer for
The Shadows; her grandfather was one of the
original 'gong men' featured in the opening logo sequences in Rank
Organisation films (how amazing is that?!) and her grandmother
was a dancer for Shirley Bassey. She had
been working as a session singer when she was introduced to
Virgo. Despite different musical
influences (De Maré loved R&B and soul,
Virgo loved 1960s pop and classical
music), their collaborative songwriting efforts meshed perfectly. Their
sound is a collage of Bacharach, spy
themes, break beats , samples and cinematic strings. Their demos attracted a number of
offers from record labels and they quickly named themselves
Mono, derived from the title of the
Phil Spector release, 'Back To
Mono'. The band signed with Echo Records (Moloko,
Feeder, Baby
Bird), passing up labels like Warner, Island and
London, releasing their debut single in 1996, 'Life In Mono'.
This was followed by the beautiful, yet criminally overlooked 'Formica
Blues' album in 1997 (watch the TV ad
Here's
The Bunton. She's like a cross between a
toothpaste commercial, a kids catalogue model and a Cabbage Patch Kid
doll, with a bit of Farrah Fawcett
thrown in. Am I the only one who dreams of seeing her without her sunny
disposition, in a fowl mood, snappy and bitchy and at the end! Of! Her!
Tether! I'm sure I'm not. Anyway, she is (and always will be)
Baby Spice from Spice Girls
and she joined the group, then called Touch,
in 1994 after the original fifth member, Michelle
Stephenson, had left. She'd done a bit of acting before that,
mugging Mr Tavernier in an episode of 'Eastenders'
(she'd auditioned for the role of Bianca Jackson originally) and also
in 'The Bill', putting her Sylvia Young Theatre School
education to good use. Outside of Spice Girls,
Emma's first solo outing was a
collaboration with dance outfit Tin Tin Out
on a cover of Edie Brickell's
'What I Am' in 1999. She went up against ex-band mate
Geri Halliwell in a heavily publicised
chart face-off and came out the looser as she peaked at number 2. Since
then, she's released a run of very successful singles; 'What Took You
So Long?' (1,
'Step
To Me' was a track recorded and released by
Spice Girls in conjunction with Pepsi, in 1997. It was
given away as a free CD single when you collected a load of pink ring-pulls
and put them in an envelope with a cheque for about £1.50... so not free at
all! My, how quaint that seems ten years on! Envelopes?! Anyway, it was one
of three tie-ins the band did with the evil cola company, the others being
And
so, Spice Girls have reformed, but what
about Period Pains?
Period Pains were four angry young school girls called
Felicity, Chloe,
Laura and Magda.
They hailed from the Reading area and knocked out short, sharp, punk songs
reminiscent of early X Ray Spex or
The Slits. In the first flush of
Spice Mania, in the summer of 1997,
Period Pains released their debut
single, 'Spice Girls (Who Do You Think You Are?)', on the
Damaged Goods label. The track, which slagged off
Scary, Ginger,
Sporty, Baby
and Posh, was championed by
John Peel and
Steve Lamacq and as a result, it hit number 87 on the UK singles
chart. The track also made it to number 4 in Peel's
annual end of year 'Festive Fifty' in 1997. In the autumn of 1997, they also
recorded a five track radio session for John Peel,
previewing new songs such as 'Daddy I Want A Pony' and
'Ex-Boyfriend', but unfortunately, they decided to spilt up. I think
they went back to school to finish their GCSE's, actually... The
Peel session was released posthumously in 1999, as the 'BBC Sessions'
EP. Where are you, girls?
Here's
the original Posh! Again... (see 70)!
Formed in 1995, Posh consisted of
Pippa Brooks (Vocals),
James Dearlove (Keyboards) and
Richard Evans (Guitar). The trio did a
nice line in cheap, glammy, council estate indie-pop and released their
debut single, 'Mermaid' (
Now I present the best solo
Spice single that ever was! Although considered to be the least musically
successful solo Spice Girl (there's not much in it between
Posh and
Scary, to be honest), Victoria Beckham is a bit of a pop joke. However, I have always felt
that Posh had a rough old ride and this track is definitely a very, very
good, decent pop song. Don't you think? It reached number 3 in the UK
singles chart in December 2003, a double A-side with the more
urban-flavoured 'This Groove'. The
I've written far too much
about Crush already and they were just a tiny blip on the music radar. This
is their third appearance on my mp3 blog now (see entry 39 and 313) and almost
certainly their last... or is it? This track is from their 1996 Japanese-only album,
'Teenage
Kicks' (although it's also on the easier-to-find remixed USA version
named 'Crush' from 1997, on which recently re-invented dance
terrorist Luciana replaced
Jayni Hoy). It's written by
Sarah Cracknell from
Saint Etienne, who has three songwriting credits on the album in
total. Her own recording of 'Penthouse Girl, Basement Boy'
appeared on her solo album, 'Lipslide', in 1997.
Crush were signed to Telstar
Records in the UK, which is the label that poured a lot of money into the
Posh Spice solo project, which is
rumoured to be the reason that the label went bust! Ooops...
Much like
PJ & Duncan/Ant
& Dec, Byker Grooove! were a
spin-off pop band from BBC1's Geordie teen soap, 'Byker Grove'.
Featuring Donna Air,
Jayni Hoy (both later of flop pop duo
Crush - firm favourites of ours) and a
third girl whose name escapes me, Byker Grooove!
were to Newcastle Upon Tyne what Shampoo
were to Plumstead. Releasing just one inane pop single, 'Love Your
Sexy...!!' in 1994, the single reached 48 in the chart and the trio
lasted only a few months. Crush were on
the pop scene by 1995 but we've told you all about them before. Twice. Since
we last spoke of
Donna Air, she has left her millionaire
fiancé Damien Aspinal, to whom she has
one daughter, Freya. Trivia! This is probably a load of bollocks but I read
on the net, totally unconfirmed, that Donna
provided the Madonna-a-like vocals for
Mad Donna's 'The Wheels On The
Bus' single. If that's true, she certainly isn't doing them
Jan Graveson
is a British actress from Durham, up in the North East of England, where I
am! She has appeared in episodes of TV shows 'Spender' (1991),
'Heartbeat' (2001), 'Casualty' (1989 and 1992),
'Wycliff' (1998), 'A Touch Of Frost' (1996) and
'Byker Grove' (2004-2006). Her first big television break came
when she played pregnant runaway Disa O'Brien in the BBC soap opera 'EastEnders'
between 1990-1991. She befriended Diane Butcher (Sophie
Lawrence) when she ran away from home before moving in with Dot
Cotton for a bit. Anwyay, she's a bit like the poor man's
Jill Halfpenny.
Jan had a very brief spell as a pop singer in the early 90s,
like almost everyone else in soap land. She released a dance-pop cover
version of the 1964 Cilla Black/Sandie
Shaw/Dionne Warwick song
'Anyone Who Had A Heart' in 1991, on East West. It kinda
sounds like a Lindy Layton soul-pop
effort. If you look at the cover, she's
dressed in that trendy clubwear sported by Kylie
and Deee-lite's
Lady Miss Keir at the time. The single was a flop, but
'Smash Hits' wrote a tiny piece on her, I remember.
Graveson has gone on to appear in many
stage plays, including the musical 'Blood Brothers' in both
West End and New York productions of the show. In 1993 she earned a Tony
Award nomination in the 'Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a
Musical' category, for her role. Musically, Jan
continues to perform occasionally and sang at the British Acoustic
Festival with her band Disco Indians in July 2007...
E'voke
were female vocal duo Marlaine Gordon
and Kerry Potter. Both girls fresh from
graduating from The Sylvia Young Stage School, they went on to star
in the BBC sitcom 'Us Girls', before releasing several
dance/trance club hits in the mid 1990's. Kicking off with a cover of
Stevie Wonder's 'I Believe',
released on Pete Tong's Ffrr Records
in 1994, the duo were rewarded with only a number 79 placing in the charts.
Fairing slightly better, reaching 30, was second release 'Freedom'
almost a year later in 1995. In 1996, E'voke
scored their biggest commercial and club hit with 'Arms Of Loren',
hitting number 25 in August 1996. All went quiet until early 1998 when
E'voke almost released a dance cover of
John Waite's 'Missing You'. However, original label
Pulse8 went bust and the song was hugely delayed, not getting picked
up by another label, WEA Records, until late 1998. Despite a new
'Christmas Mix' being readied, the track was not actually released until
after Christmas, in early 1999! The track was a flop and the
E'voke concept was dropped.
Marlaine Gordon went on to launch a solo
career in 2000, recording one track, 'Step Away', written by
the team behind E'voke and featuring
Kerry on backing vocals (so it was just
E'voke really!). Although promoted, the
track was never officially released. In 2002, influential DJ
Ferry Corsten orchestrated a new remix
of 'Arms Of Loren' which was picked up by Inferno Records
and released in January 2002. It charted at 31, six places lower than the
original version. Trivia! Marlaine
starred in 'Eastenders' between 1994-96. She played Lydia, a
gobby apprentice in Della's hair salon and girlfriend of Chef Steve.
Kym Marsh (now
Ryder) first rose to fame as a
contestant on reality TV show 'Popstars', which produced the
short-lived pop group Hear'Say. The band were famously troubled and there were reports of
Marsh
and fellow band mate Myleene Klass clashing viciously, apparently seen having
violent spats in the street. One tabloid headline read that Kym actually
punched Myleene in the face (well, she is rather annoying). All reports were
denied on both sides, but soon after their unsuccessful second album,
Kym announced that she was leaving the band. After a while out of the spotlight,
Kym emerged again, with a solo record deal
courtesy of Island Records. Her first
single, 'Cry', went to number 2 in the UK singles chart, whilst a 2nd
single, 'Come On Over', reached number 10. In July of 2003,
Kym released her
debut solo album, 'Standing Tall', and a third single, 'Sentimental', which stalled at number
35, leading to her being dropped by her label. 'I Think It's Gonna
Rain Today' was ear-marked to be the 4th single. In a surprise move in early
2006, she entered 'Making Your Mind Up', the UK TV show
screened to pick a singer and
song for the Eurovision Song Contest. She performed a song called
'Whisper
To Me' and came fourth in the contest, losing out to winner
Daz Sampson.
Reportedly unhappy in the music business, she turned her hand to acting and
presenting, appearing in the hit West End musical, 'Saturday Night Fever',
co-hosting ITV1's 'Loose Women', guesting in BBC dramas
'Doctors' and 'Holby
City', and Kym also had a recurring role in the
'Hollyoaks' spin-off series,
'Hollyoaks: In the City', which was screened on E4. She is presently most
recognisable for her award-winning role as barmaid Michelle Connor on the
long-running ITV1 soap opera 'Coronation Street', which she has played since
2006. Trivia! Kym married ex-'Eastender'
Jack Ryder on the 10th of August
2002.