Helen Boulding
Helen Boulding (born 1 December 1978) is an English, London-based singer-songwriter, originally from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Her first album, "New Red Dress", was released in February 2008. Biography. Boulding grew up in Sheffield as part of a large of a large family of Irish descent and was introduced to music by her parents. Her uncle ran a local Irish pub, Fagans, which ran regular music sessions. Boulding chose music over sport, coming from a high achieving sports family. Her brother Michael was an ATP-ranking tennis player before switching to football, playing in the Premier  League for Aston Villa in 2002. Michael and brother Rory also played in the same team at Mansfield Town and Bradford City. Her sister Sally was a world-ranked tennis player and her other sister, Laura, played rounders for England, her youngest sister Mary worked as an assistant director on films. She co-wrote the 911 song "The Day We Find Love" which was a top 5 hit in the UK Singles Chart in 1997. In 2002 she provided backing vocals on two tracks, "Help Me Help You" and "Naughty Girl", on Holly Valance's album "Footprints". Bolding has written  songs with Simon Tong (The Good, the Bad & the Queen, The Verve), Squeeze's Chris Difford and Pink Floyd's Rick Wright. She has also collaborated with songwriter Billy Steinberg. Bolding co-wrote "Maybe That's What It Takes", the debut single of Alex Parks, a top five hit in the UK in 2003. In 2007, she toured Europe with Bryan Ferry. She guests on the title track from The Orb's album "The Dream", which she also co-wrote. She also performed on BBC One's evening primetime magazine show "The One Show" as a last-minute replacement for  Rolan Bolan, who was due to perform on the show on the anniversary of his father's death. Bolan was held up in the United States, and at the suggestion of presenter Adrian Chiles, who had heard some of Boulding's songs, she was invited to step in, performing Marc Bolan's "Life's A Gas" in front of Bolan's ex Gloria Jones. Her debut album "New Red Dress" was released on her own Maid in Sheffield label on 11 February 2008. She co-wrote all songs on the album with, amongst others, Phil Thornalley (of The Cure) and  Martin Glover. The album was also produced by Glover (Youth). The album cover photo was taken by Bryan Adams. It was BBC Radio 2's Album of the Week prior to its release. Two singles were taken from the album, "Breathe" and "Copenhagen".