Stephen Fretwell (born
10 November 1981 in
Scunthorpe
, Lincolnshire
) is an English
singer-songwriter.
Stephen
attended St. Augustine Webster Primary School in Scunthorpe and St.
Bede's Catholic School in Ashby before furthering his study at
John Leggott
College
- It was here that he started his first band
'Label'.
Fretwell is a keen fan of bands of the Brit-pop era, such as
Oasis,
Blur,
The Bluetones,
Radiohead, and
Suede.
During this period he formed a band; in order to demonstrate his
talent to a wider audience.
After moving to Salford in the autumn of 2000 Stephen started to
gain recognition for his music. He earned notice from magazines
such as
NME,
Q
Magazine. During this period songs such as "Emily" and "What’s
That You Say Little Girl?" were first written.
Fretwell
decided to stay in Manchester
permanently, later releasing 8 Songs which
he put out on Northern Ambition, a label owned by a friend. Fretwell later described it as
'The one I did to prove to myself I could put out one proper
record'.
Fretwell left university after only one year, discovering that
education wasn’t for him at this time, after all he’d only managed
to attend two lectures.
With this he picked up his guitar and started
to perform at local acoustic nights in the Manchester area. The first of these nights being at The
Roadhouse, a venue that lay in the centre of Manchester’s Northern Quarter. That night Fretwell
impressed a restless and hard to please crowd with his
performance.
He later released the
Something's Got to Give EP and
The Lines, both
self-financed.
On back of his growing stature and reputation, Fretwell was invited
to support bands such as
Travis,
Elbow,
Athlete,
Keane
and
KT Tunstall.
While under management by
Colin
Lester's and Ian McAndrew's Wildlife entertainment, his debut
album Magpie, was released in
November 2004. The first single taken from the album was "Run" and
was subsequently followed by "Emily" which was in the Top 10
airplayed songs . His last single was "Four Letter Words EP".
He is known for his curly mop of ginger
hair,
sombre
lyrics and gravelly deep voice. He
names his main influence as
Bob Dylan. His
songs are derivative of Dylan's work, and he learnt to play guitar
by playing Dylan's songs on his grandfather's old, unused
guitar.
He was described by
Q Magazine
as 'Scunthorpe's finest export... ever'. This is something Fretwell
describes as flattering but not something he actively encourages.
The Times magazine said 'Not in your face
but in your heart? Yes'.
He is signed to Fiction Records and recorded
his album at the Abbey Road Studios
.
His version of
Jeff Buckley's
Morning Theft, appears on the 2005 tribute album
Dream Brother:
The Songs of Tim and Jeff Buckley.
He
supported Oasis at Marley Park in
Dublin
on Saturday 16 July 2005.
His song "Bad Bad You, Bad Bad Me" was featured in the episode of
hit
ABC family drama
Brothers
& Sisters called
The Missionary
Imposition.
His most recent single was called "Scar" and was released on 3
September 2007. It features on his latest new album,
Man On The
Roofwhich was released on 10 September 2007, and features
James Iha.
Stephen also played bass on tour with the
Last Shadow Puppets, the side project of
Arctic Monkeys'
Alex Turner.
His song " Run “ is the theme tune to the award winning sitcom
Gavin & Stacey.His
song " Darling Don't " appeared on the third series of the award
winning teen drama
skins
Discography
Albums
- 8 Songs (2002)
- Something's Got to Give (EP)
- The Lines
- Magpie (2004)
- Four Letter Words (EP) (2007)
- Man On the Roof (2007)
Other contributions
References
- Stephen Fretwell
External links
Wikis
Quiz
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