Tracey Thorn

Best-known for her longstanding partnership with husband Ben Watt in Everything But The Girl, Tracey Thorn is well regarded for her unusually intimate vocal style and left field approach to music. After studying English at the University of Hull, Thorn played guitar and sang backing vocals with the punk-pop group Stern Bops, before joining the all-female Marine Girls in 1980. They made a bit of a splash with two well-received albums Beach Party (1981) and Lazy Ways (1982) before leaving to team up with Watt, who she met at Hull University. They were both signed to Cherry Red as solo artists but pooled their talents to make the album Eden in 1984 and Everything But The Girl was up and running. They continued to work happily together for the next 15 years, achieving their biggest success in 1995 with the international hit single Missing, a Todd Terry remix of a track from their album Amplified Heart. During that time Thorn involved herself in a number of solo projects, including the mini-album A Distant Shore (1982) and singing guest vocals on various hit singles, including Style Council's Plain Sailing and Paris Match, Working Week's Venceremos, Lloyd Cole's Big Snake and Adam F's The Tree Knows Everything. She also collaborated with Massive Attack on several things, notably the soundtrack for the movie Batman Forever, singing The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game. In 2007 Thorn released her second solo album Out Of The Woods and added a third in 2010 with Love And Its Opposite, followed by the Christmas collection Tinsel And Lights, covering songs by the likes of White Stripes, Ron Sexsmith, Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell, Low, Scritti Politti and Sufjan Stevens.