Saturday 19th January

Alongside the giants of Music being lauded, maybe a small cheer should be raised for those who make slightly smaller ripples.   One such is the silver-throated Julia Fordham.  Girl singers come and go; and sad to say are generally even more manipulated by the Music industry than boys, though some may argue otherwise.  Occasionally though a singer emerges who is totally individual and appears uninfluenced by the demand for hits or ‘looks’ and just sings.  One such is Julia Fordham.  I first discovered her by buying a CD single of hers in the late 80’s.  I had a magpie habit of picking up whatever glittered in second hand record shops and found ‘Happy Ever After’ in a remaindered bin for about 50p.  It turns out that this was a minor hit, not that Julia has really bothered the chart compilers too often.  Her voice is incredible and goes from a deep sultry murmur right up through the octaves; in fact she re-recorded Millie Ripperton’s ‘Loving You’ and hit all the notes like some trilling exotic songbird.

She writes almost all her own songs too, and they are mostly sad, but with one or two happier ones in there to lighten the mood.  Songs of lovers leaving, of betrayal and trust misplaced, but also just plain love songs, full of yearning and desire.

I have followed her down the years since her eponymous title in 1988 and though she is currently not releasing music (no record contract, unbelievably) she still performs occasionally.  Unfortunately though English as tuppence she is based in California these days, but as she is my friend on Facebook I hear quite a bit about her still.  Her best album for my money if you are interested is ‘Concrete Love’ where she manages to mix in a few more modern beats and every song seems a small masterpiece of its own.