Lorraine Bowen

Lorraine Bowen

Bowen performing on stage at Brighton in 2012
Background information
Birth name Lorraine Bowen
Born (1961-10-31) 31 October 1961
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England
Occupation(s) Singer, songwriter, comedian, musician
Website Official website

Lorraine Bowen (born 31 October 1961) is an English singer, songwriter, comedian and musician.[1] Born in Cheltenham, Bowen was brought up in Chelmsford, Essex.

Early career

She studied music at the University of Surrey,[1] and then busked around London. She was a member of two bands in the 1980s: See You in Vegas and The Dinner Ladies, as well as performing regularly with Billy Bragg on stage and on record. She has also made many appearances on BBC Radio 4 including John Shuttleworth's show Radio Shuttleworth and the 1999 all-female sketch show Heated Rollers, starring Lynda Bellingham, Gwyneth Strong and Joanna Monro. She has also written for BBC Radio 4's Loose Ends.[1]

Solo career

In 1990, Billy Bragg encouraged Lorraine to start a solo career. She started to perform solo shows under name of The Lorraine Bowen Experience; her act featured three songs, a Casio keyboard and an ironing board. This has led to shows all over the world, including festivals in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Vancouver, San Francisco, Orlando, Michigan, and in the UK, Glastonbury, Edinburgh, Glasgay, Bestival, The Big Chill, and The Secret Garden, and many shows in Italy and Spain. Her songs are quirky, funny and often with a sense of kitsch.[2] Themes include: food, film stars (one of her most popular songs is about Julie Christie), mobile phones, fish fingers and launderettes. They have catchy choruses and she encourages audience participation.[2]

Polyester Fiesta!

Lorraine Bowen's Polyester Fiesta show celebrates polyester and has 4 models, a scientist and a wardrobe mistress. Bowen acts as hostess, model and sings down the catwalk. Bowen has been a collector of vintage polyester outfits since visiting jumble sales as a girl and the collection has been featured on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour[3] and BBC1's The One Show[4]

Polyester Fiesta! has been performed at Glasgay,[5] The South Bank Vintage Festival, Brighton Fringe Festival,[6] Colchester Arts Centre [7] and Royal Vauxhall Tavern among others.

Vital Organs

Vital Organs is the name of Bowen's current solo musical comedy show celebrating her collection of portable Casio electronic organs, omnichord and other eccentric portable organs. First performed at London's Drill Hall, Lorraine has performed it at Brighton's Komedia and The Lost Theatre, London.

Comfort Zone

Lorraine Bowen Comfort Zone show was a 'durational project' of three connected concerts exploring hibernation in connection with Brighton's Pink Fringe and the Nightingale Theatre. The show ran through the winter of 2011 and 2012 [8]

Lorraine Bowen Meets Barbara Moore

Lorraine Bowen discovered Barbara Moore in Bognor Regis in 2011 while interviewing for Brighton's Lorraine Bowen's Stereo Spectacular radio programme. Barbara Moore is a legendary 1960s composer and arranger who worked with Jimi Hendrix and others but is not widely known. Lorraine created 'Lorraine Bowen meets Barbara Moore' to interview Barbara on stage and to show others how prolific Barbara had been in the 1960s and 1970s. Barbara plays the piano during the show with moving examples of how she arranged 60s pop songs including Elton John's Border Song.

Work with other artists

Billy Bragg

Lorraine was discovered by Billy Bragg at the Hackney Empire performing with The Dinner Ladies.[9] After a successful audition to fill in for Cara Tivey's maternity leave, she found herself performing her first show with Billy at the Liverpool Opera House as part of the Workers Playtime Tour. She then toured East Germany just prior to reunification, performing in Army camps and stadia.

John Shuttleworth

Lorraine made an appearance in two episodes of Radio Shuttleworth with John Shuttleworth (Series 1, episode 2 and Series 2, episode 3).

Outside music

Teaching

Bowen also worked as a part-time music teacher in schools across Hackney. Since relocating to Brighton, she has been running singing workshops at the Brighton Dome[10] and Bexhill's De La Warr Pavilion.[11]

Radio

Lorraine Bowen's Stereo Spectacular[12] is a much loved quirky sonic radio experience made up of binaural field recordings, interviews and eclectic tracks. Award winning,[12] featured on Brighton's Radio Reverb, the shows are now available as a podcast.[13]

Film

Lorraine provided the soundtrack for No Deposit, No Return by Dallas Campbell.[14] Lorraine Bowen's original song "Julie Christie" appeared on the Canadian independent film, Better Than Chocolate soundtrack.[15] Bowen also provides vocals on "There Must Be An Angel"[16] in Sorrentino's 2013 film, The Great Beauty.[17]

Television

She sang on the Fantastic Plastic Machine cover of the Eurythmics' hit "There Must Be an Angel", which featured in the British sitcom Spaced. Bowen also entered Britain's Got Talent in May 2015 and was sent through to the live semi-finals by David Walliams' golden buzzer after she sang her own song "The Crumble Song",[18] which was about her love of apple crumble. On 25 May, Bowen was voted out of Britain's Got Talent by the public in the first semi-final after singing a song about space.[19] She came fourth in the votes, which was not enough to get into the final.

Discography

crumble music, 2014 OTHER ARTISTS BILLY BRAGG

THE DAMNED

References

  1. 1 2 3 Gregory, Andy (2002) International Who's Who in Popular Music, Europa, ISBN 1-85743-161-8, p. 56
  2. 1 2 Maupin, Elizabeth (1993) "Bowen's Perkiness Won't Stop: Bubbly and Uninhibited Lorraine Bowen Even Gets the Audience Involved in Her Wackiness", Orlando Sentinel, 29 April 1993, p. E1
  3. ↑ "BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, 14/03/2011". BBC. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  4. ↑ Polyester Fiesta on The One Show. YouTube. 12 April 2013. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  5. ↑ <https://www.list.co.uk/article/38346-interview-lorraine-bowen-celebrates-material-world-in-polyester-fiesta/
  6. ↑ "The New Current". The New Current. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  7. ↑ "Martin Newell’s Joy of Essex: Polyester Fiesta would bring crackle back to Saturday night". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  8. ↑ "Lorraine Bowen’s Comfort Zone, The Nightingale Theatre, Brighton, February 11". The Argus. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  9. ↑ http://www.discogs.com/Dinner-Ladies-These-Knees-Have-Seen-The-World/release/1845941
  10. ↑ Brighton Dome. "Brighton Dome / Brighton Dome". brightondome.org. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  11. ↑ "Deck The Halls With Bexhill Voices!". dlwp.com. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  12. 1 2 "Modulate 2014 Stereo Spectacular – Photos from my live radio recording!". commedia.org.uk. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  13. ↑ "iTunes - Podcasts - Lorraine Bowen's Stereo Spectacular by Lorraine Bowen". iTunes. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  14. ↑ "BBC - Film Network - Films - No Deposit, No Return". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  15. ↑ Better Than Chocolate discogs page
  16. ↑ OST "La Grande Bellezza" - Lorraine Bowen - There must be an angel (remix). YouTube. 4 January 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  17. ↑ "Lorraine Bowen". IMDb. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  18. ↑ Daly, Emma (16 May 2015). "Meet David Walliams's BGT Golden Buzzer choice Lorraine Bowen". Radio Times. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  19. ↑ Denham, Jess (26 May 2015). "Britain's Got Talent 2015 semi-finals: Lorraine Bowen wins fans in Snoop Dogg and Nick Grimshaw as Twitter shows her some love". The Independent. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  20. ↑ "Greatest Hits Vol. 1". amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  21. ↑ "Greatest Hits Volume 2". amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  22. ↑ "Bossy Nova!". amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  23. ↑ "Lorraine Bowen's Vital Organs by Lorraine Bowen: Amazon.co.uk: Music". amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  24. ↑ "Suburban Exotica by Lorraine Bowen: Amazon.co.uk: Music". amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  25. ↑ http://www.discogs.com/Billy-Bragg-The-Internationale/release/739981
  26. ↑ http://www.discogs.com/Billy-Bragg-Dont-Try-This-At-Home/release/1712955
  27. ↑ http://www.discogs.com/Damned-So-Whos-Paranoid/release/2087087

External links

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