Born in Newcastle in the North East of England in 1986, Zoe started to play classical guitar at the age of 9 after watching her teacher Christine Ramm playing a classical guitar. Zoe discovered a record of a guitar instrumental by Hank Marvin and The Shadows called Apache which was a hit in 1960. After that Zoe changed from a classical guitar to a Fender Stratocaster which she had for her 11th birthday. Just 5 months later and Zoe was playing at a Shadows Festival at St Donats Castle, South Wales. In the audience were several members of The Shadows including bassman Jet Harris who after leaving the Shadows had several big instrumental hits of his own. Following the Festival Zoe was invited to join the Young Stars on Guitars developement programme which had her playing all over Europe.
When Zoe was 13 years old Jet Harris invited her to record a Duet with him for a new album he was making. They went on to play this live in London, England and Oslo in Norway. That same year Zoe recorded an album of Jet Harris and the Shadows music called Zoe with Love. This is now available as a free download on her web site. Quickly after that Zoe recorded and album of Abba Music as instrumentals. By now Zoe's music was being played on radio stations all over the world and fans in Brazil named her Queen of the Stratocaster. Still only 14 years old and the Instrumental Rock Guitar Hall of Fame voted her Best New Artiste 2000.
Tommy Emmanuel the Australian Superstar guitar player invited Zoe to play the Chet Atkins Convention in Nashville with him and the small tour ended with Zoe playing on Muriel Andersons ALL STAR GUITAR NIGHT at the Wildhorse Saloon Nashville. Back Stage she met and became good friends with Nokie Edwards of the Ventures and he invited her to play his festivals in Oregon and she even opened for The Ventures on a Cruise Ship. Zoe has played all over America and on one of her tours she met one of her guitar heroes Mason Williams who composed Classical Gas and they to became good friends. This resulted her recording a previous unreleased composition by Mason call Gypsy Noodle which she went on to play live at a tour of the big arenas of England and Ireland. At the Manchester MEN in front of 20,000 Zoe was filmed for a TV show.
The album that followed in 2004 included 3 tracks by Mark Knopfler and Mark Invited her to his Back Stage party after his Cardiff concert. They both got on really well and Mark told Zoe she was one of the fastest flat pickers he had every met.
In 2005 Zoe was invited by Mason Williams to record on his label an album of his music which was entered for consideration for the Grammy Awards. Zoe has since become a member a New York Chapter of the Recording Academy.
While still at school Zoe studied the 1976 musical War of the Worlds by Jeff Wayne. Recently she has been talking to Jeff Wayne and working on this master piece. Zoe has taken sections and made them into guitar instrumentals. These together with some other works by Stephen Housden and Mark Knopfler may form part of a future album if she can get the right deal to release it.
ZOE'S ALBUM'S:
ELECTRICAL GAS
Classical Gas, Riding The Low Moon, The Last
Crusade, Largo Deluxe, Gypsy Noodle, Eddie I'm Ready, Santa Fe Souvenir,
Baroque-A-Nova, Destinations of the Sun, Doot-Doot, Country Idyll, Eddie,
I'm Ready (vocal)
GIRLS WITH GUITARS
Girls With Guitars, You're Still The One, Living
La Vida Loca, Let It Be Me, Dance The Night Away, Read 'em and Weep, Born To
Run, Even Now, Bat Out Of Hell, Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad, Faster Than The
Speed Of Night, Total Eclipse Of The Heart, Holding Out For A Hero, Loving
You's A Dirty Job But Somebody's Gotta Do It
GYPSY NOODLE
Gypsy Noodle, Canto Alla Vita, What It Is, Largo
Deluxe, Big River, Forever, Baroque-A-Nova, Cardiff Bay, Sacha, Santa Fe
Souvenir, Sailing To Philadelphia, He's Gonna Be With Me, Classical Gas, My
Secret Hiding Place, Sultans Of Swing, Moonshine
NEVER GIVE UP NEVER GIVE IN
Pinball Wizard, Downtown Train, Young Turks,
Suspicion, Loaded, To Sir With Love, You Are Not Alone, Everybody Hurts,
Lough Erin Shore, Angel Of The Morning, Only In America, If Tomorrow Never
Comes, Never Give Up Never Give In, Nobody Wants To Be Lonely, Have I Told
You Lately, We've Got Tonight
Hi Zoe how are you? I hope everything's ok :) I have just uploaded new videos of my dIRE sTRAITS tribute band, the Rocking Fingers. I am sure you will like them, so go to my youtube page! The link is in my myspace's blog. By the way, I will be in Pesaro (Italy) on 7th June to see Mark live on stage. Cheers from Italy AF
