Call Me Laura (aka Laura Critchley)
Gig Seeker Pro

Call Me Laura (aka Laura Critchley)

| INDIE

| INDIE
Band Rock Singer/Songwriter

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"Bush Hall Headline Act"

A Scouse Carrie Underwood or the love child of Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks? Laura Critchey looks as though she should be starring in a high-budget US TV series: lots of glossy blonde hair; huge doe eyes and long legs in skintight, low-slung jeans. Yet a small club in west London was the venue of choice for the Liverpudlian's first headline gig, and the sound of the evening was a hybrid of country, rock and pop that would be equally at home in a Nashville bar or at Wembley Stadium supporting Aerosmith.

The opening song, 'Getting Over You' (co-written with Steve Booker, who wrote Duffy's debut, 'Mercy'), was the most 'pop' song of the night. Musically at odds to the rest of the set, its lyrics revealed that an ex-boyfriend had left her with a cracked, if not quite broken heart, and ample inspiration for her songs. 'It's Then', for example, dwells on those moments when she misses him, but humour was rescued with and aside: "Sod him, he was a crap bass player anyway".

Accompanied by her five-piece band for the most part, she broke up the set with three stripped-down songs. Neither she nor her sometime songwriting partner Dave Whitmey blinked an eyelid when the keyboard went into 'circus mode', forcing the duo to perform the love song 'Lullaby' with guitar for the first time.

Having served her apprenticeship supporting Boyzone, Deacon Blue and Sugababes, Critchley is supremely comfortable on stage. Throughout her hour-long set she bantered easily with the audience, providing insight into her life and lyrical influence without becoming a bore.

Not surprisingly for an artist with just one album, the set was peppered with covers, including Dusty Springfield's 'Take Another Little Piece of My Heart', Kiki Dee's 'I've Got the Music in Me', which Critchley truly made her own, and a rocked-up take on Billie Ray Martin's Nineties dance hit 'Your Loving Arms'. Perhaps dipping into the back catalogue of others is the way forward: Martin's song will also serve as Critchley's next single.

Radio 2 has already given this soft-rock chick plenty of airtime, but the rest of the British media is dragging its heels. Rejected by a reality-TV show for being blonde - "we've put too many through today" - there is more than a sniff of American Idol's Underwood about her.

But while Underwood had the might of the US show behind her, Critchley is on a small British label, and in the absence of Simon Cowell, she must rely on her songs and her Bonnie Tyleresque voice to do the talking. - Independent


"Supporting Boyzone Interview"

Arriving backstage at the Boyzone concert to interview their support act, Laura Critchley, I didn’t really know what to expect. I mean, this young girl from Liverpool is friends with Ronan Keating, has already toured with the Sugababes, has recorded a music video in LA and has sang vocals for Robbie Williams. Not to mention, she’s also worked with songwriter Diane Warren, who has penned hits such as “Can’t Fight the Moonlight” for Leanne Rimes and “Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing” for Aerosmith. And she’s only 23! Her music is reminiscent of country-pop and her originality comes in her powerful voice. Taking influence from the likes of Karen Carpenter, it finally seems that Britain has finally produced a singer that can rival the likes of Sheryl Crow and Leanne Rimes. With that in mind, I was fully prepared to come face to face with a diva surrounded by a huge entourage. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I was introduced to a stunning young woman (even prettier in the flesh) who was pleasant and down to earth. She was sitting backstage in the canteen surrounded by crew and dancers. As we were introduced she greeted me warmly and apologised profusely for having to run off and do a quick sound check. When she returned we were brought down to her dressing room so we could have some peace and quiet to chat. I loved how animatedly she talked about being on tour and how she explained she was happier doing her own make-up and hair before a gig. Born in Little Sutton, the Wirral, 23 year old Laura has had a tough road to success but 2008 sees her achieve the things she used to dream of. Laura wrote her first song ‘Changes’ at 16, which was played on her local station, Radio Merseyside. During her continuing pursuit of a musical career she reached the last group of auditionees in Fame Academy 2001, the last 6 in First Up on Sky TV out of 10,000 people, and was turned down by X-Factor for being one blonde too many! She persevered. She relentlessly played gig after gig trying to gain attention from record labels. Her determination paid off and a huge record label soon discovered her. However, just after being signed by Big Print Music, Laura feared her career could be over before it had even begun, when she was diagnosed with Acid Reflux. “That was one of the hardest times in my career so far,” she explained. “At the time I didn’t know what it was! I was going on stage and singing but by the end of my set I could barely speak. I thought to myself ‘I’m not meant to be a singer’. It was only when Laura was sent to legendary voice coach, Paul Farrington, that she was properly diagnosed. “I’ve sorted all that now and am on the right medication. I just have to keep an eye on my diet. It’s a bit annoying but at least I’ve found out now.” Boyzone’s lead singer Ronan Keating soon heard of Laura and they were introduced through her manager. Impressed by her obvious talent, Ronan invited Laura to his annual Emeralds and Ivy Ball which sees all profits going to the Marie Keating foundation, which the singer set up following the death of his beloved mother. They kept in touch and the following year Ronan asked Laura to sing at the event. Asked about the experience, Laura says, “It went really well. There were loads of famous people at the ball and I had a really good time.” When the Boyzone tour came up, Laura’s manager asked if they would have Laura on tour. “Then one day we got a call saying, ‘Would Laura like to do it?’” the singer beams, “It was really nice of them to keep me in mind.” Boyzone have already received rave reviews for the opening night in Belfast which saw huge crowds attending their come back gig. The nerves must have really set in for Laura then. “I really enjoyed it.” She says, “I don’t normally get nervous but seeing the lads jumping up and down and nervous, I was thinking, ‘God this is a big night!’ It got me a little bit more revved up than usual. But I absolutely loved it and I just know this tour is going to be amazing because last night was so good – and it can only get better!” Laura is now making major waves in LA. Despite the fact she’s only been there three times, for two weeks at a time, she has already received interest from huge record labels and TV programmes wanting to use her music. However, a chance email via her My Space page proved to be the biggest success story of all. “A guy emailed me – Jeff – and said how my songs helped him get over the death of his mother. I thought that was really nice – that someone from California would email me randomly.” ‘Jeff’ turned out to be Jeff Arch – the writer behind the iconic romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle. A friendship was soon formed and Jeff directed one of Laura’s music videos in LA. He is now working on a new romantic comedy and he’s not only written a part for Laura but he’s asked her to write a song for it. With all of that going on, Laura couldn’t possibly have any spare time to partake any charitable activities, right? Wrong. As well as recently - Birmingham Post


Discography

Album
Sometimes I - November 2007 (BBC Birmingham album of the month)

Singles
Sometimes I (70 regional radio, and Radio 2 playlisted)
Todays another day (75 regional radio and Radio 2 playlisted - top 10 all radio prerelease UK chart)
What do we do? (50 Regional radio and Radio 2 playlisted)

Photos

Bio

In April 2009 Laura visited Basra in Iraq, to perform for the troops. This was in association with the Sun newspaper, who are flying the flag for Help for Heroes and will aim to bring the troops home with a warm welcome.

The last two years have seen her come from having just £50 and a MySpace site to being a recognised artist in the UK, with significant Radio 2 support and with numerous sublicense deals in Asia. She has sung live to over 500,000 people at over 200 gigs in the UK, including two major Arena tours, supporting the Sugababes and Boyzone. Laura was also asked by Robbie Williams to sing on three new tracks of his and has landed a Hollywood film role as well.

Her first album, produced by Steve Power (Robbie Williams, Nelly Furtado), was a MOR album, aimed at the Katie Melua/LeAnn Rimes audience. Whilst it received critical acclaim, and we moved about 10,000 units – it wasn’t where Laura felt most comfortable performing as an artist.

A months writing trip to Nashville last August, altered Laura’s approach to singing and she developed a raw husk that has since, many times, been likened to a female Rod Stewart. Rod himself has commented very positively on Laura’s voice. Her song writing changed too to account for this, and her new music is far more edgy, dangerous and dark than it was before.

Currently being produced by Ash Howes, Laura now has a full time band behind her. The image has changed. The music has changed. The name has changed.

“Call me Laura” has attracted much support in the last few weeks, having taken in an 8 date tour of the US, and securing Synch deals with E channel and with renown LA Producer Danny Saber now wanting to write and produce with Laura.

The fact is there is no female out there with a voice like Laura.

“We haven’t heard a voice like this for 25 years” – was a recent review of one LA gig.

“Daily Discovery: Holy moly, Laura Critchley is smokin' hot with a sexy voice to match; no wonder she's a UK pop phenom “ – Twitter blog from SxSW

“Call me Laura” is set to break worldwide, with China, Japan, India, Italy, South Africa, Thailand, Taiwan and the Middle East all securing deals for the first album. Her name is known. It is her time.