This week I spent a beautifully alive evening with Anna and Simon Hall in their home in Leeds.
We talked about the beautiful human - Corinne Bailey Rae.
Low and behold - here she is on the front cover of todays Observer Music Monthly magazine.
I love this small section in the article. A slice of life. A pen picture of fellow Greenbelt Festival Trustee Simon Hall.
love it love it
Jason Rae's influence on Corinne's musical development was equally dramatic. She had grown up in Leeds, the eldest of three daughters of an English mother and a Caribbean father, who separated when she was a child. At school, she studied classical piano for a time. Her mother, she says, "found religion when I was about 10, and I started singing in church". She describes it as "a nice, middle-class Baptist church in the mainly white suburb of Moortown". There, she was taught by youth leader Simon Hall, a maverick who encouraged the singing of Primal Scream songs, albeit rewritten, at worship alongside hymns. He also encouraged her to play guitar and write songs of her own.
"He was this radical, questioning guy who had studied philosophy and theology at Oxford and had a liberal and intellectual approach that I don't think the church was that keen on. But he was a big influence. He introduced me to Led Zeppelin and Radiohead and gave me the first Björk album."
The full article, and a great little movie clip, HERE::
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/oct/04/corinne-bailey-rae-interview
