Heather Small
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Template:Infobox musical artist 2 Heather Small (born 20 January 1965) is an English soul singer, best known for being the lead singer in the Manchester based band M People.
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[edit] Beginning
Small was born and raised in West London and joined her first group, Hot House, while she was still a teenager. However after a chance meeting with a Manchester DJ called Mike Pickering, formerly of Quando Quango, her distinctive voice, similar to Vic Reeve's pub style, helped sell over 10 million albums worldwide singing with his group M People. They had considerable success with songs such as Moving on Up and Search for The Hero.
[edit] Solo Work
In 1998, after M People's 'best of' album, Heather and the band took some time off to pursue solo projects.
In 2000, Heather released her solo album Proud and a single of the same name, closely affliated with the British Olympics team of the time. This was then followed by another single, Holding on and in November 2000 a duet single with Tom Jones, called You Need Love Like I Do (which can also be found on the 1999 album Reload).
Since then, she has been taking time off to look after her son and start recording her new solo album. She was occasionally seen on various TV programmes as Parkinson and Songs of Praise. She also sang three songs at the Tsunami Relief Concert at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
Heather released a new single, 'Radio On' in the UK on July 17th 2006 and her second solo album, 'Close To A Miracle' was released on July 24th, followed by a second single of the same name. The album was a huge commercial failure charting for one week at No 57 with both supporting singles charting outside the Top 100. A short UK solo tour which followed in the Autumn of that year was received well. [1]
[edit] M People
In 2005, another M People album was released. Titled M People featuring Heather Small, The Ultimate Collection, the album featured both band and solo singles.
M People have announced that they will be touring once again this year. First to be announced were four forest gigs for the summer. They played at Delamere Forest Cheshire, Dalby Forest North York Moors, Thetford Forest Suffolk, and Westonbirt National Arboretum as part of The Forestry Commission’s 2007 Forest Tours.
The shows will be supporting The Forestry Commission’s valuable social and environmental programmes. Heather Small from M People says: "We have played in many different locations but never in forests so we’re really looking forward to doing these gigs".[2] In addition to these gigs M People also performed at the Hampton Court Festival in Surrey, London on the 12th June and the Chichester Real Ale and Jazz festival.
[edit] International Success
Heather has collaborated with Icelandic Tenor singer Garðar Thór Cortes on a song called "Luna", Which reached number two in the Icelandic Charts.
Heather has also been busy as a solo artist this year. Performing at the opening of Spinning Field building in Manchester in June followed by an appearance on Songs Of Praise in July. She performed "Love Is Always There" from her second album "Close To A Miracle". In addition she performed a set from her two solo albums and a few of M Peoples greatest hits at The Festival Too concert in Kings Lynn, headlining the weekend as a Solo artist.
Small played in Poland this September, at the Congress Hall in Warsaw along with M People. [3]
Heather has confirmed that after the summer tour with M People she will be concentrating on recording. [4] She has also confirmed she will be visiting Burma for a charity project and a new song has been recorded to celebrate 200 years since the abolishment of the slave trade. A concert is lined up in London to mark this anniversary on the 10th November [5]
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
| Year | Album | UK Albums Chart |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Proud | 12 |
| 2006 | Close to a Miracle | 57 |
[edit] Singles
| Year | Song | UK singles | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | "Proud" | 16 | Proud |
| 2000 | "Holding On" | 58 | Proud |
| 2000 | "You Need Love Like I Do" (with Tom Jones) | 24 | Proud (Re-Release) |
| 2005 | "Proud" (Re-Release) | 33 | Proud |
| 2006 | "Radio On" | 107 | Close to a Miracle |
| 2006 | "Close to a Miracle" | 117 | Close to a Miracle |
| 2007 | Luna (with Garðar Thór Cortes) | -- | Cortes |
