The Grey Lady Music Lounge, Sunday 10th June 2012

The haunting vocals and versatile song writing skills of Cyrano’s Joe Ackerley join the exciting new singing style of his hitherto unknown sister Alice to form The Ackerleys.

Joe Ackerley, lead singer and rhythm guitarist of Tunbridge Wells rock heroes & Grey Lady favourites Cyrano is already well known for his catchy riffs and melodic harmonies. His younger sister Alice, at 15 years of age has an originality and purity to her voice that will pierce you to the heart. Together their voices blend and intensify, complementing each other as siblings often do. The simple directness yet compelling beauty of their lyrics complete the experience.

If it is possible to make draw a comparison - perhaps Kings of Leon meet Laura Marling. The result is a new folk rock duo bursting with talent just waiting to be discovered.

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London-based troubador Drew Worthley has been immersed in the music scene since growing up in Kent. In the last decade he has focused on developing a passionate and distinctive approach to playing the acoustic guitar with other artists, even playing a live session on the Bob Harris show on BBC Radio 2. His debut album ‘The Ember’ is a collection of wistful and honest ballads about love and loss. Although all the tracks are centred around a spine of acoustic finger-picking or strummed guitar, a sprawling web of banjos, ukuleles, cajon, bass and trumpet weave their way around Worthley’s heartfelt vocals to create a diverse musical tapestry. Rhythm&Blues magazine awarded the “intoxicating” record a 10/10 review, whilst Maverick magazine called it an album which “will take an extraordinary effort to even match let alone better.” With a track recently featured in Wired magazine, this is an album and acoustic performance not to miss.

A free download of '3am' is available at Drew's website.

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Likened by Punk Globe magazine to a young Jeff Buckley, Will began singing seriously when he was just 6 years old and soon began doing so in competitions as part of a choir, then as a soloist. When he was 14, he heard a song called Immune, by KT Tunstall (it was a bonus track on her first album) and the guitar on it inspired him to teach himself to play. Pretty soon, riffs started coming into his head and he began writing songs. His tastes in music cover all genres but his strongest influences are songwriters such as Michelle Branch and John Shanks . Now 17, Will has an impressive catalogue of original songs and has been playing gigs around Kent and in London for over 2 years. His sound is his own but strongly influenced by the likes of Kate Voegele, Avril Lavigne, Paramore and the Goo Goo Dolls. London Summer Jam described his music as "smooth pop with an edge".

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Sophie says:

My name is Sophie Draper and I am seventeen years old. I have been singing since I was young. I used to write poems from a very early age and recently I have started writing songs since I took up learning the guitar. I performed last year in a show called ‘Live and unsigned’ where I was spotted by agents that then signed me to their Artist academy, where artists like Pixie Lott and Rui Da Silva have emerged from. In this I am writing and recording new songs with an acclaimed songwriter/ producer with an aim to have an album of demos and to be signed up. 

I would say my influences are Michelle branch, Taylor Swift and The Band Perry as my voice fits in the country/pop genre. I have won a few music festivals and played my own song called ‘Your eyes’ in Trosley festival in 2010. I performed at various school events and am now at my first year of college (Kcollege) studying music performance where I have performed at a few college gigs. 

In the future I wish to be a recognized recording artist and reach out to people with my music as others have to me.

Sophie is accompanied by George Priddle on guitar. 

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