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Little Boots

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This article is about the musician. For the Roman emperor with this nickname, see Caligula.
Little Boots

Victoria Hesketh (born 4 May 1984)[1], known professionally as Little Boots, is a British electropop musician.[3] She sings, plays keyboards, Japanese electronic instrument the Tenori-on,[4] piano and the stylophone.[2]

Biography

Hesketh was born in a hospital on the Fylde coast in Lancashire , and was raised in the village of Thornton [5], near to the town of Fleetwood. She now lives in London.[6][7] Her father is a businessman and her mother is an author of children's books. She has three younger brothers.[1] She attended fee paying Rossall School in Fleetwood, [8] and later the state funded Blackpool Sixth Form College[9] which serves the entire Fylde Coast. Hesketh later studied at the University of Leeds, where she gained a first-class honours degree in cultural studies, with a dissertation on the concept of originality in jazz.

Hesketh started playing piano at age 5 and began writing at the age of 13. [10] At the age of 16, Hesketh took part in the ITV television talent show Pop Idol, being eliminated after three rounds, but didn't make it to the round of judges, instead being eliminated by producers of the programme.[11] She went on to form a Jazz trio, toured Europe with a big band, and later formed the dance-pop band Dead Disco.[12]. Other members of the band wanting a more alternative sound felt her writing was too "pop". In 2005 producer Greg Kurstin encouraged Hesketh to continue to write pop music.[10] In 2009 Hesketh would say " I don’t care about being cool or edgy. I wanna reach people and I wanna make music that people have fun to and have a good time."[13]

Her solo stage name comes from a nickname given to her by a friend after watching the film Caligula (the Latin name Caligula translates as "little boot").[14][15]

In January 2009 she came top of the BBC's Sound of 2009[16] and second in the BRITs Critics' Choice Award behind Florence and the Machine.[17] In an interview in January 2009, Hesketh explained that she originally wrote "Stuck on Repeat" with the intention that Kylie Minogue would sing it.[18]

In March 2009 Little Boots played the SXSW event in Austin, Texas. She is scheduled to many of major festivals in the UK during the summer of 2009.[19]

Hesketh has confirmed that she will collaborate with American rapper Kid Cudi on a new version of his single "Day 'n' Nite" to be used to promote his debut album.[20]

Hesketh says that she retains creative control over her music by choosing her own producers and putting tracks on MySpace where she blogs regularly. Joe Goddard of Hot Chip collaberated with her on Stuck on Repeat. She co wrote Remedy with American producer RedOne. She has co-written songs with Greg Kursten and Biff Stannar. Jas Shaw from Simian Mobile Disco has produced two songs for her while Phil Oakey of The Human League duetted with her on a song entitled Symmetry'.[21]'

Little Boots début single New in Town written about being away from home in Los Angeles has been released. Her début album Hands is scheduled for 8 June release.[21] The album is one of the first releases for the revamped Elektra Records.[22]

She was linked by The Observer to a wave of female pop musicians in their 20s, including Lady Gaga, Lissy Trullie, Ladyhawke, and Elly Jackson from the synth duo La Roux, who have "distinctive fashion sense, saturated by 80s references and insouciant androgyny".[23]

Little Boots is on tour that will see her play a scheduled 33 festivals in 2009. Hesketh in a column for The Times wrote that she is playing "some extended rave edits of some of the songs, with some ridiculous, epic breakdowns". She is basing her live set on David Bowie's Glass Spider Tour and Kate Bush's The Tour of Life.[24]

In the Media

As of May 2009, Little Boots is the only act to appear on 'Later... with Jools Holland' twice prior to releasing an album.[10]

On 4 March 2009 Little Boots was the subject of the entire late night talk show program Last Call with Carson Daly in the US. Hesketh was interviewed by Daly and several clips from a Los Angeles nightclub performance were shown.[25]

She appeared on BBC One's Breakfast TV show on the morning of 11th May 2009, and played and sung a version of "Stuck on Repeat" using the Tenorion. She stressed that she'd played the piano since being a child and wrote all of her songs, and wasn't just another voice in a production line of pop songs. She admitted that being the winner of the BBC's Sound of 2009 was a double-edged sword because it had led to great opportunities but had also put pressure on her to succeed.

An advert for Victoria's Secret contains a clip from "Meddle".[26][21]

Little Boots' music will be used in the soundtrack for the upcoming American horror film Jennifer’s Body.[21]

On 27th May 2009 she appeared on BBC Radio 4's programme Woman's Hour.

Little Boots was on Esquire Magazine's list of 60 "Brilliant Brits 2009."[27]

On 5th June 2009, she appeared on Bebo music show Beat, performing New In Town live in the studio.[28]

Discography

Albums

EPs

Singles

Charts

Albums

Year Album details Chart peak positions
UK
2009 Hands TBR

Singles

Year Song Chart peak positions Album
UK
 IRE
2009 "New In Town" 13 17 Hands

References

  1. ^ a b c Smith, Aidan (2009-02-15). "Little boots in a big bad world". Scotland on Sunday. Retrieved 2009-02-26. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ a b "Little Boots". MTV. Retrieved 2009-04-13.
  3. ^ "BBC Sound of 2009: Little Boots". BBC News. 2008-12-05. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  4. ^ "Little Boots: the Tenori-On, the video and the interview". The Guardian. 2009-01-11. Retrieved 2009-04-13. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/blackpoolnews/Fylde-singing-star-tipped-as.4853890.jp
  6. ^ Wolfson, Sam (2008-10-12). "Flash forward: Little Boots". The Observer. Retrieved 2008-12-09. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  7. ^ "Later With Jools Holland - Little Boots". BBC Online. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  8. ^ http://www.isc.co.uk/school_RossallSchool_Fleetwood.htm
  9. ^ Duke, Robin (2008-11-06). "Little Boots' Big Break". Blackpool Gazette. Retrieved 2008-12-30. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  10. ^ a b c 'Pop Idol snub made me tough' The Sun 28 May, 2009
  11. ^ Alexis, Petridis (2009-01-10). "'I've done so much embarrassing stuff it's untrue'". The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-01-10. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ Monger, James Christopher. "Little Boots - Biography". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  13. ^ Rising Star: Little Boots Access Hollywood 25 March, 2009
  14. ^ Heawood, Sophie (2009-01-10). "Little Boots is the big sound for 2009". The Times. Retrieved 2009-01-12. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ Clarke, Paul (2008-09-17). "Little Boots: queen of geek chic". Metro. Retrieved 2008-12-12. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  16. ^ "Little Boots tops music tips list". BBC News. 2009-01-09. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
  17. ^ "Critics' Choice". The Brits. Retrieved 2009-01-08.
  18. ^ Heller, Josh (2009-01-18). "Little Boots Interview". The Comment Tree. Retrieved 2009-03-07.
  19. ^ "Little Boots: 'I'm doing nearly all the UK festivals this summer!'". NME. 2009-03-20. Retrieved 2009-04-13. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  20. ^ Gregory, Jason (2009-04-06). "Little Boots And Kid Cudi To Re-Work 'Day N' Nite' - Exclusive". Festivalwise. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
  21. ^ a b c d Little Boots was made for stardom The Times 30 May, 2009
  22. ^ Elektra Records Returns With Justice, Little Boots, Cee-Lo Rolling Stone 1 June, 2009
  23. ^ Day, Elizabeth (2009-04-19). "Pop's new wave: quirky, stylish girls fashioned from the 80s". The Observer. Retrieved 2009-04-20. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  24. ^ Little Boots on her 'tour' of 33 festivals The Times 17 May, 2009
  25. ^ "Last Call with Carson Daly - Little Boots Interview". NBC. 2009-03-24. Retrieved 2009-03-07.
  26. ^ Little Boots Sells Bras for Victoria's Secret prefixmag 13 May, 2009
  27. ^ Lily Allen crowned brilliant Brit Western Daily Press 4 June, 2009
  28. ^ [http://www.bebo.com/watch/9404511534 Little Boots - New In Town LIVE! 05 June, 2009]
  29. ^ Ganz, Caryn (2009-03-25). "Breaking: Little Boots". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2009-04-13. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  30. ^ "Madonna Plans Another Greatest Hits Plus Beastie Boys, Little Boots and Florence and the Machine". albumvote.co.uk. 2009-03-26. Retrieved 2009-04-13.
  31. ^ Hesketh, Victoria (2009-03-09). "Hi from the sky". Little Boots (Mailing list). Retrieved 2009-03-11. {{cite mailing list}}: Unknown parameter |mailinglist= ignored (|mailing-list= suggested) (help)

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Little Boots.

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