Manchester Scenewipe

Lauren Pritchard

Friday, November 26th, 2010, 9:36 am

Lauren Pritchard was born and raised in Jackson, Tennessee, archetypal deep south small town USA. She’d always sung and played piano from an early age and when she reached the age of 16, she headed, alone, to LA where she sang in a band, fell in love, broke up, ran out of money and was on her way back to Jackson, dream in tatters, when one of her close friends, insisted she move in with them.

The friend was Riley Keogh whose mum is Lisa Marie Presley. Newly invigorated, Lauren lived with them for 8 months during which time she landed a starring role in the highly acclaimed, hard-hitting contemporary musical ‘Spring Awakening’. The show hit the big-time and soon Lauren was re-locating to New York where she performed on Broadway for two years.

A meeting with Ivor Novello-winning songwriter Eg White, who had heard and been blown away by Lauren’s demos, led to her decision to once again up sticks and move, alone again, to her third big city, London. Her collaborations with Eg were soon producing a batch of incredible songs and Island Records, aware that they has found a serious talent, wasted no time in securing Lauren’s signature. Work on the debut album started in earnest and just a year after arriving in England, to make the record she had long dreamed of making, ‘Wasted In Jackson’ was finished.

Since the beginning of the year Lauren has performed live across the UK building an ever growing fanbase. The young American was personally invited by Paul Weller to join him on stage during an In Concert Radio 2 session after he had heard her debut ep The Jackson Sessions. Weller was so impressed their duet, the Holland Dozier Holland classic ‘How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You’, ended up as the B-side to his single ‘Find The Torch/Burn The Plans’.

Audiences have had plenty of opportunities to see Lauren performing live over the summer including appearances at Glastonbury and Latitude, shows with Professor Green, James Morrison and Florence & The Machine to name but a few. The Professor Green date came about after the two recently met at a rehearsal studio in London, immediately hit it off and wrote and recorded a song together.

A remarkable voice and a rare song-writing talent to match, the debut album ‘Wasted In Jackson’ is out now on Spilt Milk/ Island Records.