Beth Rowley was born in Peru to British parents who moved back to Bristol when Rowley was two years old. She was influenced by her family’s love for many different musical styles, and Latin American music. She attended St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School in Bristol. Incidently, a school at which David spent a year. When aged 16, Rowley formed The Apogee, an original 5 piece funk/soul group. At age 17, she was spotted at an open mic night in the London entertainment club, Ginglik, in Shepherd’s Bush. She studied music and art at Weston-super-Mare College and in 2003, went on to the Brighton Institute of Modern Music with the particular help and encouragement of soulsinger Carleen Anderson. During her time at the school, Rowley toured with Ronan Keating and Enrique Iglesias and providing backing vocals.
In 2000, Rowley teamed up with Jazz saxophonist Ben Castle (son of Roy), well known for his work with Jamie Cullum. She began writing her own material and with Ben’s encouragement and assistance she released three EPs, Beth Rowley (2004), Sweet Hours (2006) and Violets (2007). From the Violets EP she released a single entitled, ‘Nobody’s Fault But Mine’ which was the iTunes ‘Single of the Week’ for December 2007.
Rowley has collaborated with other artists and bands, including Crowded House on their Time on Earth album providing backing vocals for the song “Transit Lounge” and Duke Special. who joined her for a duet on her début album, Little Dreamer which was released in the UK in May 2008, and went straight into the UK album charts at number 6. In February 2008, the lead single, “Oh My Life” from the forthcoming album was featured as ‘BBC Radio 2 Record of the Week’. The second single from the album is called ‘So Sublime’ and was released in May 2008.
In 2006, Rowley recorded a song entitled ‘Too much too late’ written by Bristol based singer/songwriter Steven Reid Williams in a collaboration featured on the album ‘Corners’. In the same year she provided the vocals on Nostalgia77’s track ‘Quiet Dawn’ from their album ‘Everything Under the Sun’. Rowley recorded a song called “Careless Talk” for the soundtrack to the film featuring Keira Knightley called The Edge of Love, which has been features previously on this blog.
In January 2009, a short clip of her song “Sweet Hours” was played on UK soap Hollyoaks on E4. In January 2009, Rowley was nominated for a Brit Award in the category for Best British Female Solo Artist. She featured in the nightclub scene in the 2009 film An Education, directed by Lone Scherfig. Her track, “You Got Me Wrapped Around Your Little Finger”, is featured prominently in the official movie soundtrack and the Sony Classics promotional website. On 8 July 2013, Beth came with new music material, she released EP “Wretched Body”. This first part of planned 3-piece EP series includes 4 songs. Her performance of the song “I Walk Beside You” is used as the theme song for the 2017 BBC series Strike.
