Exciting times ahead for Mansfield songstress Georgie

Fresh from supporting Nottingham superstar Jake Bugg on his UK acoustic tour, the 22-year-old singer-songwriter has her sights set on releasing a debut album in 2018.

“I hope so,” she admits coyly, in an exclusive interview with your Chad backstage before with Jake in Stoke-on-Trent.

“We’ll be releasing more music and there’s a lot more tours next year.

“There’s a process of building a fanbase. I want to get out there and win over people.

“The crowd on this tour have been amazing, the reaction has been amazing and Jake has been great.

“His music is from the soul, I like to think my songs are like that too.

“Hopefully that’s what puts it apart from pop. My lyrics are very honest,

“When I am not touring, I am writing – I love doing both. There’s so many songs to be released – an album is written, I would love it to be next year.

“I would love it to reach as many people as possible, not to make loads of money, but to inspire people.”

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Top awards for Mansfield hairdresserCrackdown on drink-driversMansfield solicitor leads murderer’s conviction battleGeorgie herself admits to being inspired by the likes of Carole King and compares her own sound with that of Fleetwood Mac, although her taste is eclectic to say the least.

“All different types of music inspires me, Jason Derulo, Led Zeppelin and I love Chance the Rapper’s album,” says the talented footballer, niece of former Chesterfield and Port Vale star Bob Newton – she was offered trials at Derby County after scoring more than 100 goals in a season for a junior side in Buxton, before music took over.

“I came to music in about Year 8, and 100 per cent that’s what I wanted to do,” she says of the discovery of a guitar and her uncle’s record collection. “I’d be listening to The Libertines and Elvis, but my classmates would be into Taylor Swift, Tinchy Stryder and Twilight.”

Her latest single Hard Times is out now, described as “beautifully stripped back, with the sparse piano arrangement laying her rich, powerful vocals and deft songwriting bare”.

It’s a long way from failing her history GCSE at The Joseph Whitaker School in Rainworth after mastering the art of blagging her way into pubs to perform.

The story goes that the night before the exam one pub crowd demanded a fourth set from her in a single evening and she failed it due to exhaustion.

It was not the last time music got in the way of her education.

“I got kicked out of college,” she admits, referring to her music course at New College Nottingham.

“I spent more time doing music outside college than inside, so my attendance was about 6 per cent.

“I finally plucked up the courage to go in and see my tutor, who told me. I was like ‘60 per cent, that’s not bad’, but he put me right.

And she admits, like a naughty schoolgirl, to keeping it a secret at home and hiding letters from the college under her pillow.

But, when she told her mum, Georgie says she was incredibly supportive.

“She knew I was following my dream.”

It is a dream that is paying off as Georgie – real name Georgette Howe, “it’s French” – works as a full-time musician based at the home she shares with her mum, 56-year-old baking fan Gina Newton, in Harlow Wood.

“I love going back to Mansfield, seeing my mum and my friends,” she says, admitting that the town and its people inspire her song-writing.

Georgie is the third of four children – 35 minutes older than twin brother Sam, a photographer currently working in France.

Dad Steve Newton, a pharmaceuticals director, and older sisters Lana, aged 40, and 26-year-old Jade all live in Mansfield.

“I think it’s just real,” she says. “There’s so many lives in there. Their stories are just as important as people from richer backgrounds.

“There’s a lot of things to write about, as well as family stuff, what family members have been though, lots of personal things,”

It is stuff we are sure to be hearing more of in the coming months.

For more, see georgieofficial.co.uk