The Staves and The Folkroom!

This week has been mega busy! I got a call about a last minute support slot for The Staves who are just about the most beautiful sisters around:

I performed supporting them at The Hope in Brighton as part of their Communion tour and it was a fantastic show. As well as being lucky enough to actually receive their first Radio 1 play that day, I realised that on the 5th December 2010 I supported these girls for the first time at a Communion christmas show in Notting Hill! A year later and we were reunited on the same day, for the same promoter but in a different town, crazy!

The show was all round successful, I really enjoyed their set and look forward to seeing how they do in the future, after chatting to them after the show they told me that they only had 4 days off for christmas, hectic times for busy ladies.

Later in the week I played with  a dear friend of mine Alex Wells from Twin Brother at The Folk Room in Kings Cross, a lovely night was that, whiskey fuelled and all!

Gearing up for christmas, everyones getting ready. madness.

Taraa!! x

Goldsmiths Vocal Ensemble

I joined the most WONDERFUL choir recently, lead by the beautfiul ESKA:

She is just amazing! We're singing three really fantastic shows this month with her, singing parts for songs that she has written (like the one above!) and also some fabulous christmassy tunes.
The first show we're doing is at The Bedford in Balham on the 11th December for One Taste's 7th Birthday! http://onetaste.co.uk/events/2011/onetastes-7th-birthday/
The second show we're doing I am VERY excited about, as I'm playing at one of my favourite venues in the whole of London: The Union Chapel!! On the 13th December we're supporting The Choir with No Name! Watch out for some photos for that.. I hope someone films it!

Gotta get my rehearsals on for that... x

Lindi Ortega!

So I haven't updated  this in a while! Just to update you on what has been happening.

The single launch went really well, since then I have just been writing and rehearsing since then, playing a few more shows too!
Here's a couple pictures of a show I did with Lindi Ortega in October:

I'm going to start trying to blog properly from now one, things are happening but i'm keeping them to myself... haha.
Expect some wonderful choir photos/videos/rants about my wonderful new choir.
and lots of christmassy stufff! (some christmas tree cookies and a santa plate ooooh yeah)

Love x

Zimbalam!

Zimbalam interviewed me on monday! and you can see it here: http://zimbalamfeatures.tumblr.com/post/8729612083/bella-spinks-big-interview

It's very exciting to be featured on their website; they've done a lot to promote the single and for that I'm very grateful. Last week they wrote a lovely piece on me and my single:
http://zimbalamfeatures.tumblr.com/post/8640468763/bellaspinks

Keep an eye on them, they write very nice things!

Bella x

Single Launch Week!!!

SO the single is officially out! yaay! I had the single launch on sunday night 24th July in Brighton, which was really lovely. Despite the bill not being particularly suited to me (down to the promoter..) the venue packed out as I was playing, which was such a compliment because I didn't know many of the people there! The atmosphere was really great, it was quiet and everyone seemed really relaxed! The set went well, even though I had planned to play a new song but got cut short because of timings :(. But overall, it as a really wonderful night.

The launch in London happened on wednesday 27th july at Strongroom, which was also a good night. The two supporting acts were two lovely ladies, one of which was a little ill so only played 3 songs :(! But it was nice to play with artists who were similar to eachother and to me, it was a good feel to night.

Overall this week has gone extremely well, it's made me very excited for the months ahead! Watch this space for  some news of shows etc. :)

Bella x

Balcony TV, Station Sessions and Strongroom

Yo yo.
On Monday I was supposed to be playing Balcony TV in Brighton on the lovely bandstand on the seafront, which all these photos from this shoot were taken back in the day...

....but unfortunately I didn't get to do it because of a problem with the guy getting there. It was a real shame, but it was absolutely chucking it down and very windy, so perhaps a blessing in disguise. I did have my wonderful wonderful string players with me, and my guitar which is quite modest. I imagine the sound would have totally got lost in the wind!! 

Here's an example of what they do. Milk Kan are a really fun ska-poetic band and this is their BalconyTV show;

Anyhow, the next day (Tuesday 19th July!) I played the wonderful Station Sessions for their Summer Stages Festival. I also had my lovely string girlies with me, and it was the first time we all played together which was v exciting. The show itself went so well, we had to first sign in as 'official visitors' and got our photos taken (mug shots..). Mine was revolting, one of my eyes seemed to have slipped down my face... anyway once we were all signed in and coffee-ed up we started the set. I was really happy with how it went and it sounded SO nice with the strings. We sold a fair amount of singles via 'karma pricing' which people gave incredibly generously to....! 

Here's an example of what Station Sessions do. This one is Alana Stewart who was once billed before me for a Communion show but she couldn't get over for the states :(, anyway, this vid is awesome:

So that was what started off my week. Last night I also sang with Alex Wells i.e Twin Brother at Strongroom Bar in Shoreditch, which was a lot of fun. We played a few new songs that Alex has recently written, which were a bit scary but sounded good in the end! I'm having my launch at the Strongroom Bar next wednesday and shall post about that a bit later.

So that's my week in a nutshell, music filled which is always a bonus. This morning I did an interview for Bob from The Undercurrent in Waterloo Station, some good questions about the upcoming release. Very exciting!

Keep well.
Bella x

The Leftover Sessions

There is a lovely little blog called The Leftover Sessions based in Manchester who have been so lovely to put on their blog about my video and my single! I also did an interview with them and all pieces are up on their website.Mary Machin of The Leftover Sessions also did the cutest illustration for the interview, I love love love it! (above)

Read the interview here! 

Read the single review here! 

Read the video post here!

I hope to go and visit them one day up in Manchester, they're lovely people. It means a lot that little blogs like this that take an interest and put it up on their page, and it's mutual promotion, so go and check out what else they have on their site!

Bella x

My debut single!

Deary me, not posted ages!
Lots to catch up on! So last time I posted I was in the stages of planning my video for my debut single 'Words' which is out officially on the 25th July, but it's already available on Itunes and Amazon and Spotfiy and places like that :) So anyway, I was planning that last time I blogged and since then the video has not only been shot, but also edited! So it is now online and available for anyone to see! Here is the video, it was done by the wonderful Unzip Media and we shot it in Brighton's Stamner Park and St. Barts Church. It was a wonderful day and everyone involved was so lovely and efficient! So happy with the outcome, hope you enjoy:

We also received all the copies of the single, which was designed by me and my sister, and hand drawn by my sister Lola, who's only 14! Here is the artwork:

So the single is all ready to go, which I'm so excited about! It's had such a lovely response from friends, family and a few fans too! Can't wait till everyone can hear it. 

There are also a couple of cheeky shows in celebration of the release. Because i'm so between London and Brighton we may have decided to do both.....watch this space for details on the shows, there should be some nice additions to the set up on the day too, if I can get it all together in time. 

Anyway thats what I've been up to on the single front, which is very exciting. There's lots more to write up on but I'll do those in separate posts so as to keep it all a bit neat :)

eeeeeeee! x

Show supporting Alex Winston

Next week I'll be playing a show in Brighton! Which I always love because I do miss being in Brighton. I'm playing supporting the lovely Alex Winston who most people will probably know from her track 'Choice Notes' on the advert for Hyundai and Tk Maxx! There's a really cool vid she did for La Blogotheque:

Its a wicked song, and a wicked video although I kept trying to find which one she was, because there are a few girls singing, but the filming is a right tease, think it gets to about half way through before you get a proper look. haha silly. I'm really looking forward to playing again, the shows have become less and less frequent over the last year due to location change (now living in london) uni and also lots of things happening with writing and recording etc etc!

I also had my sister and her three friends round yesterday and today, we wrote a really cute little song, with a riff that i'd been sitting on and some lyrics from one of the girls. Will post it up when we record it properly, for about 2 hours work it's not bad!
My other sister now wants to bring her friends round haha so we'll see when I can house another group of teenagers... Mike might get a bit fed up...

We're off to Greenwich market today, did deptford market yesterday and bought a sinful amount of clothes between us for £1 each....terribly good.
Hope we don't find too many bargains in Greenwich, I've little space left in my house..
Bella x

Vinyl, Video and Fondu!

Bonj

So on Wednesday I went down to Deptford Market with my sister and found some absolute jems! We first went to lunch at The Deptford Project and then had a stroll around the markets, where we spent about half an hour at a book/record stall where I picked up 6 albums (12inch) and two book for £6!!
Here are a few:

West Side Story soundtrack! Not a huge musical theatre fan (at all, even though i teach it.....) but this is one of my all time favourite film soundtracks!
Next up a guilty pleasure....

Not much needs to be said. It's naughty I know, but I love Abba...

Finally one that I'd be looking for because I borrowed some sheet music off a friend:

(shes the one off the specsavers advert....)

So I bought these and a Carpenters album, a Stevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra single for £5! I also bought a book of Tchehov plays and a little book of Musical Terms. Very cute!
I also got a chance to listen through to this record for the first time on vinyl yesterday, it was raining which was actually a nice addition to the tracks!

I love love love Regina, everything she does, but this will always be my favourite album.

Finally, I found this little cutie in the charity shop:

Some chocolate and cheese dipped dinners are coming my way I think!
Anyway time to get on with the last of this year's revision. Got my last exam tomorrow morning at 10 and then I'm free free freee! This weekend I have some exciting plans with my friend Kenya who is a film maker and she's kindly decided to do a music video for me for 'Personal Demons'! We're shooting this weekend on Sunday (because Saturday I'm at Bushstock.. very excited) but Kenya's shooting some shots without me on Saturday. Also waiting on a new mix for the song from Sam Hanlan (babe) who I re-recorded all the vocals with last month! Will keep you updated, and put the video up here when it's done.
Very exciting stuff. Even more exciting stuff to come in the next few months ahhh!
x