Page 14 - BiTS_11_NOVEMBER_2024

‘Bang, Bang ‘ by Alice Armstong

BiTS: What happened when you were at school then? Did you start doing gigs or

something? How old were you when that happened?

AA: Well, I was mostly obsessed with art at school and science, and I did singing lessons
in my spare time up until I went to college, which is high school, basically. In my first

year at college, I focused on sciences. I was studying geography, chemistry, I think
biology, psychology [chuckles], but in my spare time I was playing with friends,
jamming with friends at home. I would run open mic nights and go to live music
evenings. I was obsessed in my spare time with music. Then my second year of college,

I don't know why my parents let me, but I dropped everything because I finally realised
that what I wanted to be was a performer. So I dropped everything after I did my AS
levels, I dropped everything and picked up drama and lots of other things, art and
things and basically changed direction completely into being a creative and embracing

my creative side. In that second year I started a band [laughs], and at that point, I
actually was invited by my college principal to join the staff band because they couldn't
find anybody on the staff that could sing.

BiTS: That's fabulous.

AA: So I was at one point doing events at the school as part of the staff band with my

college principal on bass [laughing].

BiTS: Oh, how wonderful. How wonderful. The very first record that you did, I think,
was ‘Speed Dial’ with Matt Long. Tell me how you met Matt Long.

AA: That's correct. Oh gosh, so quite a few years ago now, I was going to the wonderful
Basingstoke Blues Jam because my father lived in Basingstoke. He didn't get the
opportunity to hear me play much, so just so that my father could hear me sing, I would

go over to Basingstoke and take part in the Blues Jam so my father could hear me sing.