Born in North London to a Spanish mother and an East Indian father (who was born in Trinidad and is himself a keen amateur singer), Amanda Ghost was encouraged at an early age by her favourite uncle, a flamenco guitarist, to pick up a guitar and use the gift she had been blessed with. Exposed to a wide variety of classic popular music, from Billie Holiday to Stevie Nicks via Elvis, Nina Simone and Prince and oblivious to the then-current musical trends, she emerged in her late teens as a more-or-less fully formed artist with a style of her own. Her obvious, raw talent landed her a major record deal with Warners in Los Angeles, but this proved to be a depressingly familiar tale of a typical much-hyped signing; a move to LA; changes of personnel within the label; mystifying lack of A+R support and promotion and the eventual need for Amanda to resort to attorneys to extricate herself. It was however by no means a wholly unfortunate experience, and the album she recorded for Warners, “Ghost Stories”, gained her many loyal admirers and during this period she formed key friendships with two of her mentors, Joni Mitchell and Stevie Nicks.
The experience convinced her that she wanted to be in a band and that she wanted the band to control its own destiny. For the past couple of years she has worked and performed with her long-term collaborator and partner in ‘Amanda Ghost’, Ian Dench, himself a songwriter with an international reputation as writer of the punk standard ‘Unbelievable’, a worldwide hit for EMF, of which Ian was the guitarist and founder member. Amanda has enjoyed huge success in 2005/6 as co-writer of James Blunt’s worldwide hit “You’re Beautiful” and tracks on his “Back To Bedlam” album and this has raised her profile ahead of the band’s release of its first album, scheduled for Autumn 2006 on their own label, Plan A Records.
“It’s no surprise that she is the machination of popular genius behind James Blunt; Amanda is a commanding singer and a very talented song writer” - Antony (and The Johnsons), March 2006
The album release will be preceded by 2 EPs, the first of which is a limited edition 4 tracker entitled ‘Blood On The Line’, produced by Dave McCracken (Depeche Mode/Ian Brown) and featuring live performance band members Richie Stevens (drums/percussion) and Hide (bass). Amanda-Ghost.com |
