I'll be launching the new EP, 'Free Falling', here at this special one off acoustic night I'm organising in conjunction with The Phoenix Cultural Centre at the beautiful St. Peter's Church in Old Woking on the 16th April.

Alongside myself, local duo Jonas and Jane, who have recently been on Radio 2's Chris Evans breakfast show, the illustrious singer/songwriter Nick Tann and Swedish duo Fifth Floor will be performing. I'm really excited about this show, the church is 900 years and is absolutely stunning. We're so lucky to be able to play here!

The proceeds from the night will go towards maintaining the church and the homeless charity, 'Crisis'. All the artists performing, and the people helping, are giving up their time for free to help support our chosen charity, so please do come along and see these phenomenal acts. It'll be a once in a lifetime gig. 

Tickets can be bought in advance here: https://www.musicglue.com/anna-neale/events/16-apr-16-candlelit-acoustic-night--st-peters-church-st-peters-church/ and on the door. 

As some of you may know one of the many collaborations and co-writes I did last year was a Drum and Bass track with a UK based producer (I'm nothing if not versitile!!) which is now online and can be previewed here! 

https://soundcloud.com/francisnikolas/preview-francis-nikolas-shackles-feat-anna-neale

It's had nearly 4000 plays in 4 days in Sound Cloud which is not bad!

Release date has been set for February and I've been told there will be a few re-mixes floating around aswell. Slowly breaking down barriers in other forms of music! Hope you enjoy!

Anna X

With Andy Parsons.....who I failed to recognise despite watching 'Mock of the Week'......sigh..... 

On Tuesday I was invited by the Musician's Union to attend the Performers Alliance APPG Christmas party at the House of Commons.

It was a joint event hosted by Kerry McCarthy MP, The Musician's Union, Equity and The Writers Guild to support the arts and generally catch up on how things are in our separate industries.

Our job there was threefold: 1) to help raise awareness of grass roots music venues, which have suffered horrendously this year from various closures across the country, 2) to raise awareness of the need for music education and how access to all is vitally important for our children, and 3) to protect the BBC which is under going a charter review. 

The event went well, and I had a chance to chat to various MP's and members of the House of Lords about some of these issues and other aspects of my career. I hope they took some of our 'hands on' experience on board......you never know with these things!

On a lighter note it was also a chance to meet some very interesting people from other aspects of the arts.  

Including some very well known faces such as Stephen Tomkinson (in the photo below, so tall, so handsome....yes yes, one of my teenage crushes......I confess.....), Andy Parsons (in the photo above, I didn't recognise him and went in with the cool line 'have I worked with you'? *face palm*) and Lindsey Coulson (aka Carol Jackson from Eastenders) who I managed to not embarrass myself in front of and have a fairly rational conversation about Sappho with. 

All in all a good night, some interesting conversations and great wine.......

Anna

With Stephen Tomkinson.....and a spring roll.....I know, classy...... 

On Saturday I had the pleasure of performing a special show for one of my most staunch supporters, the Radford family. Mark and his family kindly donated towards my Kickstarter campaign for the new EP, and part of their pledge included a live show just for them. I have to say it was really lovely meeting them, and also exploring our family connections as Mark discovered me through the genealogy website 'Ansestry' (it turns out we're fourth cousins!). Not only did they enjoy the music (thankfully! Always nerve racking when planning to fans who know all your songs, and lyrics!) but we also had a chance to talk about our family connection with none other than the Boleyn family!! Yes, it turns out we are directly descended from Anne Boleyns aunt Margaret Boleyn and the Sackville family! There you go, officially descended from royalty......!!

Anna

http://soundcheque.com

I'm very pleased to announce that I'm a featured artist of the week on Souncheque! Have a little look at their home page and you'll see me there! http://soundcheque.com 

#newmusicfridays

A huge thumbs up and thank you to all the team at BASCA for a wonderful party and networking event on Tuesday. So good to catch up with some familiar faces, and meet some new! Here's to making more connections! I'll leave this below for you to 'spot the songwriters'!

Dan Moore (BASCA), Jona Lewie, Keith Aimes (MU), Gary Osbourne & Gavin Miller (Kazbar Systems).

Hi folks, 

I'm doing my one and only show in London tomorrow for Glasswerk at Surya in Kings Cross. Tickets are £4 in advance. Details below!

The Late Show with Dan Chisholm

Today I'm heading off to Swindon to perform at the Roaring Donkey (on stage at 10pm), and to debut one, possibly two, of the tracks from the forthcoming EP 'Free Falling'! There's nothing more exciting than hearing your own new material being broadcast on the radio so I'm really looking forward to this! 

Tune in to The Late Show with Dan Chisholm across the whole of the West Country on BBC Somerset, BBC Wiltshire, BBC Radio Gloucester, BBC Radio Bristol, or online here from 10pm tonight: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p034rf89

If you miss the program you'll also be able to catch up via iPlayer.

See you on the other side!!

Anna 

Embracing the electric, and a bit of soul..... #recording #studio #telecaster #funk #pop #freefalling with @skylinestudiosuk

Day one at Skyline Studios for the new EP 'Free Falling'. We raised £445 through Kickstarter, thank you all sooooooo much! Here I am adding a bit of funk to the title track!  

X

Today I'll be playing at Artree's Festival of Folk at South Hill Park Arts Centre at 3.30pm. I'm on the same bill as Cara Dillon and Blair Dunlop so I'm pretty excited!! Come along for a great afternoon and evening of live music!  

http://festivaloffolk.artree.org.uk/phone/index.html