SOUL SISTERS!
Singers set to launch career with performance on iconic former pirate radio station
NORTHERN Soul singers Sally Molloy and Poppy Beresford are set to launch their singing career from the deck of Radio Caroline’s radio ship.
The duo – who perform with a talented band of musicians under the name Passion & The Veins – have recorded a double A-side single. In true Northern Soul style, it will be released on limited edition vinyl in the New Year.
Tomorrow they will film a video on board the famous ex-pirate radio station’s third and final radio ship, Ross’s Revenge, a former Icelandic trawler moored on the River Blackwater near Essex. Radio Caroline will broadcast the performance as Passion & The Veins belt out their songs Let You Go and March On. Sally, aged 23, from Tean, said: “I was raised on Northern Soul music. My mum was a big fan and she played it all the time. I’ve been brought up with music, but from the age of about 19 I started listening to Northern Soul religiously, I really felt a connection. “I introduced Poppy to Northern Soul and she got it straight away. “After leaving college I decided I wanted to do music. We started singing together and then we started looking for some musicians.
“Eventually we found a band who are really up our street, they really know how to play.”
Sally and Poppy met while studying musical theatre at the Jill Clewes Academy in Bradwell.
Poppy, aged 22, of Werrington, said: “When I listened to Northern Soul for the first time, I just thought, ‘wow’. I just loved it straight away.
“I listen to it all the time now. I thought we could really do something with this music.
“We are so excited to be going to the Radio Caroline ship to film the video.”
The duo starting gigging around North Staffordshire with their band. But this year Trent Vale record producer Jon Aldersea played Sally and Poppy some songs he had co-written some years ago.
Those songs have now been re-recorded in Passion & The Veins’ style and will feature on an album set for release next spring.
Jon, who has worked with Robbie Williams, said: “Sally and Poppy are really good singers and performers.
“I wrote about an album’s worth of material 10 years ago and at the time my co-writer said some of it would be good as Northern Soul.
“Sally contacted me and said she was looking to put a band together, I gave her some links, then I asked her to listen to the album and said if she liked any of the songs, she could have them.
“Two months ago we got in the studio and recorded these tracks, Let You Go and March On. We’ve had 250 records pressed, we are going back to vinyl.”
Todd Slaughter presents the Elvis Hour on Radio Caroline and has run the Elvis Presley Fan Club since 1962. He knows Poppy and Sally from when they helped out at the fan club office in Cheadle.
Todd said: “They have done dance demonstrations and have taught people how to dance in a Northern Soul style to Elvis songs.
“They have both got really good voices.
“Northern Soul music has that advantage of attracting physical sales of vinyl, because most music now is streamed.” ■ Passion & The Veins will perform live on Radio Caroline between noon and 2pm tomorrow.