Lorraine Bowen

Lorraine Bowen
Bowen performing on stage at Brighton in 2012
Background information
Birth name	Lorraine Bowen
Born	(1961-10-31) 31 October 1961 Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter, comedian, musician
Website	Official website

Lorraine Bowen (born 31 October 1961) is an English singer, songwriter, comedian and musician. ^[1] Born in Cheltenham, Bowen was brought up in Chelmsford, Essex.

Early career (1985 - 1990)

She studied music at the University of Surrey,^[1] and then busked around London. She was a member of two bands in the 1980s: See You in Vegas and The Dinner Ladies,^[2] as well as performing regularly with Billy Bragg on stage and on record. She has also made many appearances on BBC Radio 4 including John Shuttleworth's show Radio Shuttleworth and the 1999 all-female sketch show Heated Rollers, starring Lynda Bellingham, Gwyneth Strong and Joanna Monro. She has also written for BBC Radio 4's Loose Ends.^[1]

Solo Music career (1990 onwards)

Image of Lorraine Bowen in concert at The Vauxhall Tavern, London.

In 1990, Billy Bragg encouraged Bowen to start a solo career. She started to perform solo shows under name of The Lorraine Bowen Experience; her act featured three songs, a Casio keyboard and an ironing board. This has led to shows all over the world, including festivals in Winnipeg, Toronto, San Francisco, and in the UK, Glastonbury, Edinburgh, Glasgay, Bestival, The Big Chill, and The Secret Garden, and many shows in Italy and Spain. Her songs are quirky, funny and often with a sense of kitsch.^[3] Themes include: food, film stars (one of her most popular songs is about Julie Christie), mobile phones, fish fingers and launderettes. They have catchy choruses and she encourages audience participation.^[3]

Live Shows

Lorraine Bowen's Vital Organs

Vital Organs was the name of Bowen's first solo musical comedy show celebrating her collection of portable Casio electronic organs, omnichord and other eccentric portable organs. First performed at London's Drill Hall, the show toured extensively between 2005 and 2009.

Lorraine Bowen's Comfort Zone

Lorraine Bowen Comfort Zone show was a 'durational project' of three connected concerts exploring hibernation in connection with Brighton's Pink Fringe and the Nightingale Theatre. Supported by Arts Council of Great Britain, the show ran through the winters of 2011 and 2012, drawing upon a series of experiences provided by Charlotte Glasson, Mick Jackson and others.^[4]

Lorraine Bowen's Polyester Fiesta!

Image from Lorraine Bowen's Polyester Fiesta

Lorraine Bowen's Polyester Fiesta show celebrates polyester and has 4 models, a scientist and a wardrobe mistress. Bowen acts as hostess, model and sings down the catwalk. Bowen has been a collector of vintage polyester outfits since visiting jumble sales as a girl and the collection has been featured on BBC1's The One Show^[5] and BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.^[6]

Polyester Fiesta! toured during 2015, been performed at Glasgay,^[7] The South Bank Vintage Festival, Brighton Fringe,^[8] Colchester Arts Centre ^[9] and Royal Vauxhall Tavern among others.

Lorraine Bowen Meets Barbara Moore

In 2011, Bowen discovered that Barbara Moore was alive and living in Bognor Regis, while recording an episode of Lorraine Bowen's Stereo Spectacular radio programme. Barbara Moore is a composer, arranger and fixer, who was active in the British music scene for over twenty five years. After starting as a member of The Ladybirds, Moore went on to work with Elton John, Jimi Hendrix and Tom Jones amongst others, but she is not widely known today. Bowen created 'Lorraine Bowen meets Barbara Moore' to provide a platform to show others how prolific Barbara had been in the 1960s and 1970s. This show presented Barbara Moore and her work to a new audience and featured in the Brighton Fringe festival in 2014.

Work with other artists

Billy Bragg

Lorraine was discovered by Billy Bragg at the Hackney Empire performing with The Dinner Ladies.^[10] After a successful audition to fill in for Cara Tivey's maternity leave, she found herself performing her first show with Billy at the Liverpool Opera House as part of the Workers Playtime Tour. She then toured East Germany just prior to reunification, performing in Army camps and stadia.

John Shuttleworth

Lorraine made an appearance in two episodes of Radio Shuttleworth with John Shuttleworth (Series 1, episode 2 and Series 2, episode 3).

Radio

Lorraine Bowen's Stereo Spectacular^[11] is a much loved quirky sonic radio experience made up of binaural field recordings, interviews and eclectic tracks. Award winning,^[11] featured on Brighton's Radio Reverb, the shows are now available as a podcast.^[12]

Film

Lorraine provided the soundtrack for No Deposit, No Return by Dallas Campbell.^[13] Lorraine Bowen's original song "Julie Christie" appeared on the Canadian independent film, Better Than Chocolate soundtrack.^[14] Bowen also provides vocals on "There Must Be An Angel"^[15] in Sorrentino's 2013 film, The Great Beauty.^[16]

Television

She sang on the Fantastic Plastic Machine cover of the Eurythmics' hit "There Must Be an Angel", which featured in the British sitcom Spaced.

Britain’s Got Talent 2015

Bowen also entered Britain's Got Talent in May 2015 and was sent through to the live semi-finals by David Walliams' golden buzzer after she sang her own song "The Crumble Song",^[17] which was about her love of apple crumble.^[18] On 25 May, Bowen was voted out of Britain's Got Talent by the public in the first semi-final after singing a song about space.^[19] She came fourth in the votes, which was not enough to get into the final.

Outside music

Teaching

Image of Lorraine Bowen conducting a Choir Workshop at The Dome, Brighton.

During her early career, Bowen also worked as a part-time music teacher in schools across Hackney. Now based in Brighton, Bowen runs singing workshops at the Brighton Dome^[20] and Bexhill's De La Warr Pavilion.^[21]

Discography

Albums

• Greatest Hits Volume One (1995)^[22]
• Greatest Hits Volume Two (1998)^[23]
• Bossy Nova (2000)^[24]
• Songs from the Living Room (2002, Italian)
• Vital Organs (2006)^[25]
• Suburban Exotica (2010)^[26]

Singles

• Faffing Around on Facebook (2012)
• Drinking Song (in German) (2012)
• Valentine's Day (in a 21st Century Way) (2013)
• Japanese Crumble Song (Sushi Song) (2013)
• Bears (2015)
• Give My Love to Hull (2015)
• Christmas Crumble (2015)
• Crumble de Noel (2015)
• Reggaeton Crumble Song (2016)

Contribution to other artists

Billy Bragg

• The Internationale (1990)^[27]
• Don't Try This At Home (1991)^[28]

Dope Smugglaz

• The Word (1998)^[29]

Fantastic Plastic Machine

• There Must Be An Angel (Playing with My Heart) (Mix for Mirror Ball) (1998)^[30]
• Bossa For Jackie (Dedicated to Mrs Kennedy) (1998)^[30]

The Damned

• So, Who's Paranoid? (2008)^[31]

References

External links

• Lorraine Bowen's official website
• Lorraine Bowen at the Internet Movie Database