Woman - Leddra Chapman
Our LCM featured artist today is an excellent London based singer-songwriter. Leddra Chapman is releasing her new EP 'The Third Love' shortly with a London date at The Forge, Camden on 3rd November. Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is a beautifully written personal song and one of our favourites from Leddra, a wonderful live version of 'Woman' (The Crowds and Cocktails EP).
Leddra picked up a guitar and wrote her first song before she became a teenager; what followed has been the growth, development and evolution of a young singer-songwriter building to a point in December 2009 where she released her first album ‘Telling Tales’. After working alongside some of the best music collaborators the UK music scene has to offer, the collection of tracks was acclaimed as ‘pitch-perfect acoustic pop’ (The Independent). Debut single ‘Story’, a track championed by Sir Terry Wogan throughout his final months presenting the Radio 2 Breakfast Show, was playlisted by BBC Radio 2. This period of time culminated in a televised live performance of the single on ITV’s This Morning. Follow up singles Summer Song and Edie achieved similar radio success, also playlisted by BBC Radio 2. Refusing to rest on her laurels, Leddra and her live band followed that media activity by heading out around the UK for two extremely successful nationwide tours as well as selling out renowned venues across the capital.
Summer 2011 saw Leddra personally invited to perform as main support to Tom Jones at three sold out concerts in London, Essex & Manchester. Playing to 35,000 people over the three nights, Leddra performed to a rapturous reception. In between these dates Leddra also, for the second year running, played at Signal FM’s live event in Stoke-on-Trent – performing‘Summer Song’ and also new EP track ‘Where You Want Me’ (written with and produced by Jake Gosling (Ed Sheeran)) to an audience of 15,000 people. Outside of the UK, Leddra embarked on a series of dates in Holland and Belgium, performing to a sold out Paradiso crowd in Amsterdam before appearing on live TV in Belgium (TV OOST).
Leddra followed this success with a headline EP launch show at the London Bull & Gate in November 2012. The sold out show sparked plans for another full headline tour of the UK in March 2012 – Leddra played 8 sold out dates across the country including a packed out show at the London Borderline. Following a one week tour in Los Angeles, performing at some highly regarded and trendy venues, Leddra again hits the UK festival circuit this Summer.
The beginning of 2013 marked the release of two new Leddra releases. First was a unique collaboration with The Body Shop and the Teenage Cancer Trust: ‘Beauty With Heart’. A single penned by Leddra upon invitation, the release was a charity single that garnered much acclaim. Hot on the heels of this release was a new EP entitled ‘The Crowds and Cocktails’. Lead-track ‘All About You’ was to became a live favourite and a staple on BBC Radio 2 who B-listed the song. Leddra performed to a string of audiences in sold-out venues in 2013 as she continued to road-test new material for her upcoming second album. Leddra then embarked on a Spring tour of Germany in support of Sarah Blasko to help promote her successful album release through record label Dramatico in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. To bring all this activity to a close Leddra launched her own London headline show at the prestigious Dingwalls venue. The date sold out and proved to be a great evening for fans both old and new as more new material was showcased to eager ears. Following this with a couple of hand-selected festival appearances, Leddra then decamped to the studio to record ‘My Mother’s Mind’.
Whilst recording the album, Leddra teamed up exclusively with Pledge Music to raise funds for the album’s production whilst also offering keen fans exclusive opportunities and access. Completing the goal needed for the album’s production in no time, Leddra soon completed the album with Peter-John Vettese again taking on Executive Production duties.
In between album sessions, Leddra found the time to duet with Alistair Griffin on the BBC Radio 2 B-listed ‘The One’. The track was the fifth single in a row with Leddra’s name on it to be playlisted by Radio 2 and continued to showcase her development as an artist. The track is set to close out ‘My Mother’s Mind’, with previous single ‘All About You’ starting the album off – somewhat appropriate bookends to an exciting and vital upcoming release.