FRANCESCA LONGRIGG

Francesca Longrigg began her musical career by releasing an EP called Shine On Me from the indie label Bright Spark Records. The EP included the song of the same name, written by Ed Baden Powell from D Influence, and went straight to radio 'A' lists.

Having signed to Chrysalis Music, Francesca first released an ambient dance record produced by Adrian Sherwood and Keith LeBlanc of On-U Sound. She earned the accolade of "singer of the month" in the industry's mag, Tipsheet. She contributed two songs for Keith LeBlanc's huge selling album Audium Capsule 1 and Tim Simenon of Bomb the Bass produced a dub version of a track sung by Francesca for The Big Issue. Having also trained in drama and being a successful TV and film actress alongside her song writing career, Francesca appeared in many films and TV series. These include Star Wars: The Force Awakens, opposite Kenneth Branagh as Mrs Dormandy in The Boat That Rocked, Bruce Robinson's epic How to Get Ahead in Advertising, Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun, and in Strapless starring Bruno Ganz.

Francesca lived in New York for three years and alongside regular solo gigs under the wing of Reprise records, she explored many diverse collaborations including working with the reggae artist Floyd Lloyd, and was the lead singer with The Prescients, the New York-based band with Bryan Martin (collaborator with David Byrne) at the helm.

She wrote and recorded Myth, the song which appeared on the massive US Delerium record Poem, and her version of Shine On Me appeared on the compilation Keep It Cool. She appeared with Matt Kelly in his band Kingfish on a festival tour and wrote songs with Beat Paul for Bumptchak Music in Paris.

During this period Francesca also voiced the characters of Fiona and Tun Luiec in The Longest Journey, an award-winning and widely acclaimed computer game.

Back in London, Francesca sang two songs for Ben Chapman on his album Bazukadrop. She also wrote and performed the music for the fashion designer Ally Cappellino for three of her catwalk shows held at London's Natural History Museum, and her album Dark was released on One Fifteen Records.

By this time she had had a child and wanted to write something out of the ordinary for children, so the seeds of the children's album The Land of Sometimes were sown. With New Yorker Charles Chicky Reeves (known for working with Prince and Grace Jones) co-producing, the album grew to become a large collaborative project involving multiple singers and musicians of all genres and was released to critical acclaim. It was voted as one of the ten best audio books of all time by The Independent and had 5-star reviews across the board.

Francesca then released an atmospheric new album entitled True Noise, a collaboration with Ivor Guest (musical director to Grace Jones) and the multi-instrumentalist James Watson. She also released the bouncy and melodic three-song EP PODD with DJ Ben Chapman.

The Land of Sometimes is now poised to become an animated feature film with a stellar cast including Helena Bonham Carter and Ewan McGregor. It is also the last film voiced by the iconic Terry Jones.

Finally, the album Francesca began during the pandemic entitled Still Life has now been completed and is due out in the autumn of 2023. Whilst the style of the album is the same as Francesca's other works, with atmospheric guitars and dreamy landscapes enveloping the intensity of Francesca's vocals, Still Life is a more personal work than any that have come before it. Francesca herself describes it as a "selection of thoughts and feelings that could have been lifted straight out of my diaries".

“One of the ten best audio books ever.”
The Independent

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