Here are ten suggestions from me (Dean Jackson). I’ve included two very different Sekou tracks and also one by FFion Rebecca who is performing live on the show. The others are arranged in descending order of how much I’m guessing Jo and others on the show might enjoy them. They are all good (IMHO) and all very “Leicester”. I hope that you love them even if they’re not for the show. If you can’t find what you’re looking for here, there are plenty more where these came from!
Dean 🙂
Meet Sekou. He’s an eighteen year old from Ashby (in Leicestershire of course!) He is a huge buzz artist at present. These are two tracks from his debut EP Out Of Mind. He held listening parties in London, LA and Berlin. All were massively oversubscribed. Sekou’s debut public performance was on the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury 2022 when he was seventeen years old. Now signed to NWS/Island Records/Republic Records. I could go on and on about him. But as he’s involve in the show I better let him tell his story.
Ffion Rebecca first came to Leicester from Cambridge to study Contour Fashion at De Montfort University. She started working on building her career in the area and it has been a continuous ascension for the young songstress. Here’s our “Later” style session with Ffion.
Martin Luke Brown makes incredible pop songs! His new album, Damn, Look At The View has received rapturous reviews. He’s written tracks for BTS, Dylan, Jacob Banks, Gavin James, Greta Isaac, James Smith, Orla Gartland, Sody, Jack Kane, and many more. .Here’s our recent stripped back session.
Rainbow Frog Biscuits (or Amber to their family /friends) is a solo artist I’ve been playing for a couple of years. She has recently blown up on TikTok. They played the BBC Introducing stage at Latitude this year as well as a Hundred cricket at Trent Bridge (up the road in Nottingham) to around 17,000 spectators! Our recent sess.
Holly Humberstone is probably the biggest artist to have emerged through my show in the past five years. Here is our simple session through which her manager discovered her. She smashed it at Leeds festival two weeks ago and has toured the US with Olivia Rodrigo! Her debut album, Painting My Bedroom Black drops next month (and i think you have her booked for a session around its release.) This is one of the lead tracks from that album. Holly is from a tiny village in the far north of Leicestershire so not a “Leicester” city artist in the purist of definitions. But she’s local!
Vona Vella are a duo from Leicestershire. Everybody here is so excited about them. Their self-titled debut album has just dropped. This is our session which Pete Doherty (of all people) discovered them through, signing them up to his Strap Originals label, though their sound has moved on significantly in the last three years.
Easy Life have been played on my show since they were at school! Here they are playing the BBC Intro stage at Reading in 2021. They recently played a packed arena tour and have very narrowly missed out on a number 1 album… twice (but they’re not bitter)! The weird looking title below is correct (“wav” and all!)
Sofy. Lots of excitement about Sofy. Though she is now based in London she is a proud Leicester gal and headlined our Independent Venue Week gig at The Shed in Leicester last year.
Sea Girls received their first ever radio play on my show whilst still in school (just). Now with two Top 3 albums under their belt they lead the vanguard of great festival indie bands. It never fails to “go off” when they’re around. This is one of the singles from their current Homesick album.
Mahalia should need no introduction. She has won multiple awards including Best Female Act and Best R&B/Soul act at the MOBOS. She recorded her first ever radio session with me when she was fourteen years old and has been a regular on my show ever since. She was back just a few weeks ago to reveal her new album IRL. She launched it by busking by the Leicester Clocktower… the place she started her musical journey as a kid.
I hope you found what you need. If not, please shout up! Cheers!
Dean Jackson.