Donna Gardier; yet another British Soul singer criminally overlooked.
Her early musical influences are all strong-voiced US females – from the Jones Girls and Chaka Khan to Vesta Williams and Patti Labelle and Aretha Franklyn. Gardier, a lifelong Londoner, began singing in church at the age of five, but only broke into the music business by accident. “A friend of mine who was a professional singer had double-booked herself and asked me to cover for her,” she recalls. She went to the session, for a band called Kid Can’t Dance, and found herself asked to join the band, going on the road with them and singing on their album.
This was followed soon afterward by her debut solo album on Virgin Records, which launched her professional career with the singles Reach Out and I'll Be There.
In the mid-90's she fronted UK band Raw Stylus, who recorded the classic singles Pushing Against The Flow and Believe In Me and toured extensively with them in Europe, the US and Japan. Believe In Me made Billboard No1 for Hot Dance Music. Her stint with Raw Stylus began by complete chance. A friend was auditioning for the band and called Donna in the middle of the audition after telling the band "I know who would be perfect for this".
“I went along the next day and they chose me as the band’s lead singer,” says Gardier. “The friend who recommended me became one of the backing singers.”
Donna describes her style as “a strong gospel type of vocal” and her interest in gospel grew greatly following the break-up of Raw Stylus; in recent years she has sung with different gospel choirs, along with doing a lot of session work.
When the opportunity came along to cut an album for Dome and resume her recording career as an artist in her own right, she jumped at the chance and immediately began working on material with Lennox Cameron. Her last album, Home was written and recorded by herself and Cameron. Donna says: “I enjoyed doing my first solo album, but the reason why I particularly like this new album is that it is true to me, coming from the heart, true to the person I am today. On my original solo record I didn’t write any of the material, whereas on this album I have written all but one of the songs”. The exception is an intimate acoustic version of the Marvin Gaye favourite How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You), produced by the Birmingham-based Full Flava team.
From 2004 to 2005 she recorded with Sting and was part of the Sacred Love tour. She has also been on tour with the Four Tops and the Temptations and more recently with Billy Ocean.
At present Gardier is writing songs for another solo album and is a member of the Sunburst Band, who are the live performance of the creative works by the famed dance music DJ, Joey Negro.
Info courtesy of Donna Gardier's website.
No comments:
Post a Comment