Rod’s Belle has busked her own way back to the Albert Hall
IT has been a rollercoaster ride, from busking to singing with Rod Stewart at the Royal Albert Hall – and back to busking again.
When Amy Belle was whisked from the streets of Glasgow to perform alongside the rock legend, she was set for the big time – only for her album to be dropped and to find herself singing for her supper again.
But the 34-year-old has turned her career around once more and will this month return to the Royal Albert Hall.
The brunette has found her way back to the limelight again with Nugent & Belle, a musical duo with her friend Audrey Nugent.
Supporting American folk singer Rodriguez at the Royal Albert Hall, it is a far cry from singing Oasis covers in Glasgow, where she was when Stewart discovered her more than a decade ago.
Miss Belle said: ‘ The Royal Albert Hall was absolutely fantastic, I was terrified when I first played there with Rod.
‘But the music industry can be a heartless place and it kind of fizzled out after that. I was pretty disappointed at that time.
‘I have had a rocky relationship with music and I started again. But now it is amazing to have a second opportunity, incredible to be back at the Albert Hall.’
It is now 20 years since Belle began busking, singing REM and Alanis Morrissette songs. She said: ‘I didn’t make too much money, some days you would make your bus fare home. But one day a man gave me £100 and we had a great night out in the pub.’
At 17, like many musicians, she left for London to find her fortune and was signed up to a manufactured pop-folk girl group called the Alice Band. She was delighted to have a record deal, but dismayed at how little control the trio had over their careers. ‘ We had hardly any input into what we were singing or even what we were wearing,’ she said.
‘The clothes started coming off us as the videos progressed because they knew we weren’t selling well. None of us enjoyed it much towards the end.’
Three years on from starting the band, she was back busking, taking to the streets of Glasgow whenever she visited her parents.
Then she was introduced to Rod Stewart’s management and invited to join the star on stage in a duet of his famous song I Don’t Want To Talk About It.
Miss Belle said: ‘The story at the time was that Rod Stewart discovered me busking.
‘He was quite clever on stage, saying that just weeks ago I was busking on the streets of Glasgow, which was true. It was really awkward pretending, but I tended just to fudge how it came about.’
Fame beckoned following the concert in 2004 and she flew to Los Angeles to write an album of songs, one of which was later recorded by pop superstar Miley Cyrus.
But the record was never released and her five-album deal was not completed, with Miss Belle moving back to Glasgow and busking again.
But she did not give up – and on returning to London in 2009, formed Nugent & Belle.
They were invited to record an album at the studio owned by Scots pop singer KT Tunstall near Hungerford, Berkshire. After supporting Led Zeppelin star Robert Plant, Rodriguez, the folk artist at the heart of cult film Searching for Sugar Man, asked them to be his warm-up act.
On May 27, 11 years after her concert with Stewart, Miss Belle, now married to a solicitor, will perform again at the Royal Albert Hall.
She said: ‘Last time the Albert Hall was an amazing experience and I am so grateful to Rod Stewart and everybody who made it happen. This time Audrey and I have done this and no one else can take the credit.’
‘Music can be a heartless place’