Patty Vetta was born in
Pangbourne, Berkshire, into a musical family. Being at a tiny C of E
school she sang the Magnificat at 5 years old, solo, at Sulham
Church. Moving to London aged 17 she started working in a recording
studio. Before long, she was being asked to do some voice-overs and to sing on some jingles. Later she met and joined The Settlers, the folk-pop group who’d had a hit
in 1962 and were still doing cabaret in the 1970s, so she travelled
all around the world singing 'Grow, Grow, The Lightning Tree'. It was
great fun she says, and after the group split, Patty toured with
Settlers singer/guitarist Steve Somers, performing on TV shows and
albums, backing Don Everly, Johnny Tillotson, Roy Clark, Joe Brown,
Tom O'Connor, Ronnie Prophet, Bert Weedon, Terry McMillan, and Freddy
Weller. She has also been the longest serving member of the Wes
McGhee Band, and has recorded with Pete Sayers, Paul Millns, Tony
Maude and Joe Giltrap, and toured with Johnny Cash and Billie Jo
Spears.
Alan Franks is an award-winning author, musician and journalist with many plays, records and poems to his name. His poems have won several prizes, including the inaugural Wigtown Competition, Scotland’s largest, and the Petra Kenney Award, judged by poet laureate Andrew Motion. He also performs his poems regularly at jazz clubs, and is collaborating as a lyricist with the tenor saxophonist and composer, Tim Whitehead. His most recent plays are A World Elsewhere at Battersea's Theatre503, Previous Convictions, at Richmond’s Orange Tree Theatre, and The Edge of the Land, which made a three-month tour of eastern England. His others include The Mother Tongue at Greenwich Theatre, starring Prunella Scales, and Our Boys, with Beatty Edney. His play Augusta featuring Brazilian film star Antonia Frering, went on in London in October, 2008. His prose fiction includes the novel "Boychester’s Bugle", and the novella “Going Over,” which won a competition run by the “New Writer” magazine. Alan recently won the First War centenary poetry competition run by the Wilfred Owen Society. His most recent novel is "The Notes of Dr. Newgate", which was a Guardian Book of the Year in 2013. He also sings with the London Gallery Quire.
As a journalist, he has written for The Times for nearly thirty years. His work has taken him all over the world, climbing a 23,000-feet peak in the Andes, learning how to duet with Tony Bennet at the Frank Sinatra Music School and writing for The Times Saturday Magazine on a wide variety of subjects. He has interviewed a large number of top practitioners in public life and the arts, particularly music, literature, cinema and the theatre. Alan has his own website here: http://www.alanfranks.com/ where you can find out more, and listen to sample tracks from the albums.
Alan Franks is an award-winning author, musician and journalist with many plays, records and poems to his name. His poems have won several prizes, including the inaugural Wigtown Competition, Scotland’s largest, and the Petra Kenney Award, judged by poet laureate Andrew Motion. He also performs his poems regularly at jazz clubs, and is collaborating as a lyricist with the tenor saxophonist and composer, Tim Whitehead. His most recent plays are A World Elsewhere at Battersea's Theatre503, Previous Convictions, at Richmond’s Orange Tree Theatre, and The Edge of the Land, which made a three-month tour of eastern England. His others include The Mother Tongue at Greenwich Theatre, starring Prunella Scales, and Our Boys, with Beatty Edney. His play Augusta featuring Brazilian film star Antonia Frering, went on in London in October, 2008. His prose fiction includes the novel "Boychester’s Bugle", and the novella “Going Over,” which won a competition run by the “New Writer” magazine. Alan recently won the First War centenary poetry competition run by the Wilfred Owen Society. His most recent novel is "The Notes of Dr. Newgate", which was a Guardian Book of the Year in 2013. He also sings with the London Gallery Quire.
As a journalist, he has written for The Times for nearly thirty years. His work has taken him all over the world, climbing a 23,000-feet peak in the Andes, learning how to duet with Tony Bennet at the Frank Sinatra Music School and writing for The Times Saturday Magazine on a wide variety of subjects. He has interviewed a large number of top practitioners in public life and the arts, particularly music, literature, cinema and the theatre. Alan has his own website here: http://www.alanfranks.com/ where you can find out more, and listen to sample tracks from the albums.