MusicMafia presents English singer/songwriter Gabby Young
Fronted by flame-haired eccentric English singer/songwriter, Gabby Young, her 7-piece band brings a fresh new perspective to music that has wowed crowds in Europe, the USA, Japan and Australia.
Gabby and the band appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends recently and Clive Anderson refers to her as “The World’s finest purveyor of Circus Swing”. Graham Norton is a fan, and has played her singles “In Your Head” and “Walk Away” on BBC Radio 2. He says, “We are playing this a lot because we love it. She is terrific live, really big wall of sound”
The new single Goldfish Bowl is released in October via Gift of the Gab Records and Gabby has announced a UK tour to promote the current album and single.
Gabby’s unique perspective of the world around her is inspired as much by imagination as real events, but when thyroid cancer threatened to take her classically trained voice at the age of 22, she got serious about recording her stories. Using her recovery time to pen her melodies, Gabby took in global influences to fuel her heartfelt emotion, which shines through her beautifully haunting songs. ‘I feel blessed rather than afflicted,’ she says simply.
Gabby recently formed the existing band, normally a 5-7 piece, who complete the magical musical fairground we know today, using a wide range of instruments, most notably trumpet, trombone, piano and accordion. Young’s avant-garde fusion of globally-influenced folk combines Balkan brass, jazz and swing in an aural antiques shop from the future to produce what has been affectionately dubbed Circus Swing by those who realised there was no existing genre to encompass Young’s sound.
The debut album, “We’re All In This Together” topped both Amazon UK's folk and rock download charts during June 2010 as part of the 'Storm the Charts' campaign. Positive coverage appeared in many of the UK's major newspapers, including The Guardian, The Sunday Times and the London Evening Standard. The Guardian named the band in the list "Our anti-tips for 2010: the acts who deserve to be heard.’
Her ‘if I can balance it on my head, I’ll rock it’ approach to dressing-up recently inspired Stylist and Artrocker to hail her as a fashion icon, it’s all part of the same DIY, fan-engaging ethos that saw GYOA fund their releases through crowdfunding sites. In style and business, as in music, Young is one of life’s collectors and upcyclers.
With a new album due for release in Spring 2014, and as a true independent without any backing, Gabby turned to her fans again to help finance this, via ‘Kickstarter’. They raised the amazing amount of around £9,000 in just four weeks.
Gabby and the band have been as busy as ever in 2013, touring in Europe and the UK, as well as being filmed playing in a scene for BBC1’s very popular serial “Frankie”, in an episode that was the most watched TV programme in the UK that evening.
“In every good sense, Gabby Young is and has the true and unselfish energy of a real entertainer, and her talented Animals and she will surely go on to please others where they are heard” (The Agent Apsley)
“The sound that Gabby Young and her zoo create on stage can only be hinted at in a recording. Even though her new album is rollicking carnival fun, the live production is closer to musical theatre, an orgasm of Big Band Jazz and shades of Bebop. In addition to lapses into gypsy swing, this is the closest you will get to spending a night at the Copacabana during 1940s.” (Kentishtowner)
Graham Norton – BBC Radio 2
"we're playing this a lot because we love it"
"I saw them live a few years ago and they're terrific live, really big wall of sound"
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