Big Spender Ltd
Tel No: +44 (0)7801 370920
Email:
[email protected]
Mary Spender is a 19 year old singer/songwriter from Salisbury, Wiltshire. Influenced by a diverse range of music, Mary’s style of song writing and her singing voice have been compared to the likes of KT Tunstall, Debbie Harry and Kate Bush.
Mary has recently been in the recording studio with producer Gareth Henderson (HL Studios, Southampton) creating her new record, Mirrors EP. This will be available on iTunes, Amazon MP3 and in CD format at her shows.
Mary plays most shows with her bassist (Dominic Guasch) and drummer (James Gilbert). Together they have played at the Dare 2 Festival, Guilfest 08 (headliners included Blondie, Bowling for Soup and Fightstar) and their most important gig yet at the Larmer Tree Festival (also playing were Jools Holland, Kate Rusby and Seth Lakeman). The band has played at Salisbury’s City Hall, Arts Centre, the Old Ale House and The Talking Heads in Southampton.
Acoustically, Mary has played at The 100 Club (Oxford Street, London), The Halo Club (Bristol), The 12 Bar Club (London), The Lights (Andover), The Railway Inn (Winchester), Candle Club (Southampton), and the acoustic tents at Guilfest and Larmer Tree Festival. She also took her guitar to New York and played at Dominie’s Hoek (Long Island city).
Mary is always keen to collaborate with other artists and has already recorded with The Cavaliers and Rob Johnson (see her Top Friends). She has appeared on many radio shows for BBC Wiltshire, AndoverSound, ForestFM (Mary was their Breakthrough Artist of the Month - Jan '09), Spire FM and recorded live acoustic sets for most of these stations and also been interviewed by Athens International Radio (Greece).
Mary Spender’s 'Mirrors EP' will be available to buy from 14th July, however ‘Melancholy Parade EP’ (2008) is already available on most iTunes music stores.
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Mary Spender "Waltzing Ghosts"
Mary Spender "Captivity"
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Forest FM Review (3rd January 2009)
Forest FM are really pleased to announce the winner of the January 2009 BREAKTHROUGH award.
We're delighted that we are opening the year with a superb young singer/songwriter from Salisbury, MARY SPENDER. Mary will be our featured artist throughout January
Mary Spender is a highly talented singer-songwriter. We were impressed by the quality and confidence that exudes from her debut EP Melancholy Parade and we're confident that Mary and her band will launch our second year in real style.
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Acoustic Night (20th October 2008) at The Halo Bar, Bristol
Mary gave us a really gutsy, polished and accomplished performance of her own songs. Captivity starts with neat finger picking and a smooth vocal delivery on the solitude of city life. Waltzing Ghosts was a spooky plea for consideration of spectral feelings. The audience were keen to hear a third song and Mary finished with Melancholy Parade, an upbeat driving song on the contemporary global situation. Well done!
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Mary Spender's Larmer Tree Festival Performance
Reviewed by the Salisbury Journal
24/07/08
One of the things the Larmer Tree organisers do so well is to encourage younger acts. Among them was Salisbury's own Mary Spender, a teenage singer-songwriter promoted from an open mic spot at last year's festival. Her sound has something of KT Tunstall about it and at times, especially in the higher register, her voice has a Kate Bush quality. Mary is one to watch.
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'A NEW VOICE IN BRITISH MUSIC'
18/6/07
Mary Spender's music should come with a health warning; listening to Spender's body of work would elicit the green eyed monster in anyone. Spender has produced tracks which lyrically and musically extend far beyond her 18 years.
Spender has a startling mature voice, sounding Debbie Harry-esqu in the seductive 'Illiterate Songwriters' track. This track is definitely the more ear-catching and rockier out of Spender's current tracks as Spender's voice sways over pounding drums. 'She' is a laid back track which allows Spender to show off her vocal range, while you can almost hear the teenage hormones racing throughout 'Male Harpie'. "He torments me with his eyes[...]he wins again".
As with all bands now-a-days Spender has a myspace page with can be found at www.myspace.com/maryspender. If you appreciate discovering fresh music (and you must if you're an Acrylic Tom Tom reader) then Mary Spender is definitely one act to check out both in cyberspace and at live performances. Claim you were there from the start!
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