Joni Mitchell,KT Tunstal, Amy Mcdonald, Kate Nash, Cold Play and the biggest... Life!
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LIVE AND UNSIGNED MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS REVIEW
Singer's competition joy
Emma Mountford
18/ 1/2008
SINGER-songwriter Jessica Kershaw has taken a giant step towards her dream of a record deal after wowing judges in a music contest.
The 16-year-old student, from Middleton, beat 10,000 other hopefuls in a heat of Live and Unsigned - a nationwide contest looking for the next big thing.
Now she has to get to June's grand final in London by beating 15 others at The Willows in Salford on February 24.
Jessica, who studies musical theatre and plays the guitar and keyboard, could record a song written by Lemar and Craig David producer Mark Hill as part of the winning record deal.
Live and Unsigned gives unknown acts the chance to perform their own songs. Artists are encouraged to be individual, original and perform their own genre and style live on stage.
Chris Grayston, of Live and Unsigned, said: "This cannot be compared to any other talent searches as the acts' talent is the show. We are interested in discovering talent as its best - live."
'Up next was a young Jess Kershaw, with a selection of gentle acoustic ballads much in the tradition of revered old folk storytelling by artists such as Joni Mitchell and Judy Collins and more recently Dawn Landes.Her own material was certainly of more interest than her cover of the overplayed, over-rated 'Use Somebody' by Kings Of Leon' Johnny Smith BBC
REVIEW from Edinburgh's
The Roadhouse 18th July 2008
Every week I get quite excited sitting waiting at the start of the night at these sessions as you never know who is going to turn up . You send your emails and visit other sessions and do your PR for these nights but you never know who is going to come through those doors (yes tonight Mathew I’m going to be ) . I had an incline that there maybe something different on the cards as one of our congregation had asked me to bring along a set of keyboards and as all rules are there to be broken ( it being a acoustic session that is ) I dully brought down my Yamaha PSR – 170 keyboards and waited to see who would turn up . Was Jools Holland going to drop in or was Sir Elton in town . No , even better than the afor mentioned , Who did walk in was a young singer / song writer from Manchester . Her name was Jessica Kershaw ( check out www. myspace. com/jesskershawmusic ) and along with the other musicians and singers ,she helped the night be a yet another roaring success , all playing into the wee small hrs . Jessica is a young talented multi-instrumentalist who studies musical theatre and has her future firmly seated in a musical career . Jessica (from Middleton ) beat 10,000 other hopefuls in a heat of Live and Unsigned - a nationwide contest looking for up and coming talent . Her influences are Mandona ,Oasis ,Kate Nash , KT Tunstile ,Joni Mitchell , KD Lang , Van Morrison , Paul Weller and says the biggest influence is Life ( wise words indeed ) . Her new album is called AmBiGiOuS and she played tracks from her new album (recorded at Tea For One studios ) on the night . Jess has also been interviewed on the Channel M Breakfast Show (which there is a link from her Myspace page ) and played a song with her band live on air .This is a classical example to anyone young or old of what can happen if you stick in and learn an instrument or sing , doors open and you are always going to be sought and like Jessica you may even play music on TV one day , so stick in . So here is one hot diva who is a great ambassador for keeping music live and original . I’m sure we are all going to hear more about this talented singer / songwriter , so keep watching your screens and listening to your radios , you will here her name again for sure .
Hello im jess Kershaw singer/songwriter from Manchester.Welcome to my life
Hey Jess! Thanks to you and the other great bands playing at my Red Cross gig, and thanks to Starbucks, a grand total of £152 has been raised so far for charity! Thank you again and again! :-) Hope to seeya again soon! Sara X
Here's the full to bursting line-up for Sunday 7th June, as always we are at the lovely Nexus art cafe in manchester's northern quarter, and because of the huge amount of performers we will be kicking off around 2.30pm this week. We have returning favourites, touring artists and some brand new local talent, all yours and all for free, enjoy...
ooh i'd love to come to one of your gigs :D i'll see if i can fit it into my schedule
do you still happen to live on Sandy Lane? i forgot whether it was just Helena that just moved or both lol
btw i really do love those photos that were done by your photographer Emma its got me all creative if you dont mind i could produce you a prototype for an album cover/booklet if you haven't already got a designer for it (:!
hey jess thanks for the add, hope you enjoy my songs. just listening to green eyed monster - you have a great voice! i like the string arrangement as well. keep in touch, matt x
heya thanx for acceptin the add and cool to meet you....wicked set last night and songs sounded great with the violin as well..:) have a great week luke xxx
Jess - are you using Joni's keyboard or are you bringing own. Joni's keys are gigantic and it might be better if you borrow hers rather than having two keys in Taurus as Taurus is so small? Can you please let me know.
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