George Norris

George Norris [photograph: Jennie Hay]

I started singing in church choirs where I developed in interest in harmony singing. I got together with friends and formed a couple of groups, one of which was called the Leftovers - so called because we were asked to take part in a musical event at our church: as we were the last people to be asked we thought that the name was appropriate. We also performed at a local tennis club where we met someone called Mike Lousada who eventually introduced me to Chris.

I gained experience at local folk clubs and along the way met Saffron Summerfield who I sang with for a while, eventually appearing on some of her records.

I got to know Ian A. Anderson (not of Jethro Tull fame!) and Maggie Holland who performed as a duo called Hot Vultures and when Maggie made a solo album called Still Pause she asked me to sing on it: (I seem to remember that it became a bit of a cult record in Japan!!)

I carried on singing both as a solo performer and with a woman called Henny Preston and still kept in touch with Chris who one day asked me if I’d like him to try and get me a record deal to which I, of course, said yes. I happened to meet Al Fenn, who used to be in Decameron, and asked if he’d like to be involved in the project to which he agreed and eventually he and I joined Magna Carta, performing on the Midnight Blue album (which, If my memory is correct, we started recording on 5th. August 1980). Eventually I left the group but still kept in touch.

Since then I’ve performed both as a solo artist, during which time a made a cassette called Rhythms and Reflections on Brewhouse Records as well as performing with and recording two albums with Hilary Spencer (Other Roads, Other Lives & Afterimage). I also took part in two projects for Brewhouse, the first being a selection of songs collected by Frank Kidson and called Frank Kidson’s Traditional Tunes and the second a project undertaken for the British Council called Songs Of The British Islands.

As you can see folk music has played quite a large part in my life but I also perform songs by people like Cole Porter, Beth Neilsen Chapman, The Beatles - anything which I find interesting.

I’ve also performed on radio & tv including an instance where I appeared on Anglia Televison singing the Gnome Song whilst wearing the appropriate hat! I now sing with my partner, Jennie Hay in a duo called Joint Venture. We performed on the X Factor in 2010 ending up in front of Louis Walsh, Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowell. You’ll be aware of what happened to Cheryl as a result of being dismissive about us.

And so here we are again treading the boards and looking forward to it.

George Norris, August 2011