Heather Small Tour, London
Heather Small is an English soul singer, famous for her role in the band M People. In addition to this she enjoyed a successful solo career, notably with the 2000 album ‘Proud’ as well as appearing on the BBC Saturday night prime time TV show, Strictly Come Dancing.
From humble beginnings growing up on a West London council estate, Heather Small’s early life was influenced by a deep religion, as she regularly attended Sunday school and the ‘Good News Club’ while growing up in Britain in the 1970s.
Despite being a shy child early in life, she overcome this enough to form part of the band Hot!House, involved in their two albums on the late 1980s. Initially battling with on-stage nerves, Heather Small’s talent for performing eventually came to the fore, with the group, and she went on to feature as the studio voice in the well-known Black Box single ‘Ride On Time’.
After meeting the DJ Mike Pickering by chance, Small became part of his group M People, ultimately selling over 10 million albums worldwide. Thus Small became one of the defining voices of the 90s, with the group’s singles, ‘Moving On Up’, ‘One Night In Heaven’ and ‘Search for the Hero’ becoming well-known records worldwide. The group’s albums Elegant Slumming, Bizarre Fruit and Fresco, helped to cement the group’s status as an essential 90s act, winning the Best British Dance Act Award at the Brits in 1994 and 1995 and a Mercury Music Prize for the album Elegant Slumming.
After her time with the group, Heather Small has enjoyed a fruitful solo career, releasing two albums, Proud and Close to a Miracle. The title track from her debut album Proud was used for a variety of high profile events, such as London’s 2012 Olympic bid, the 60th anniversary of VE day in Trafalgar Square, the launch of the Queen Mary 2, the Tsunami Relief concert, England’s rugby world cup victory and the official handover ceremony from Beijing to London for the Olympic Games.
On top of all this, and right in the middle of an M People tour, Heather Small found time to answer a request from Oprah Winfrey to perform on her show, hopping over to the USA to sing for the infamous American TV personality.
In the same year, the M People Greatest Hits compilation was released, featuring Heather Small two most popular singles as well as all the classic M People hits. After the re-release from this album, Small’s solo single ‘Proud’ hit number 33 on the UK Singles Chart.
In 2006 Heather Small released the track ‘Radio On’ from the album Close to a Miracle, which she released later that year, along with an eponymous single. The following short UK solo tour was well received, and Small went on to collaborate with Icelandic tenor Garðar Thór Cortes on a track called ‘Luna.’
Heather Small appeared on British TV screens in 2008 in the popular series, Strictly Come Dancing, as well as charming audiences on shows such as Paul O’Grady, Alan Titchmarsh, GMTV, BBC Breakfast, The Wright Stuff, Newsnight, The Weakest Link and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.
2009 found her on the road again through her Heather Small booking agent, performing two UK tours at over 30 different venues in the country, playing popular full band shows in each, as well as appearing regularly on a variety of TV shows to promote the tours, including BBC Three’s wheelchair dancing documentary competition, Dancing on Wheels.
Teaming up with the singers Anastacia and Lulu in 2010, Heather Small formed part of an arena tour named ‘Here Come the Girls’ which enjoyed much success in the UK and Ireland in November and December of that year.
On top of her impressive musical career and popular TV appearances, Heather is an ambassador for the children’s charity Barnardo’s with which she stays constantly involving helping however she can on projects up and down the country. In addition to this, she has supported Beat Bullying, the Aiden Cox Foundation, Mencap, St Luke’s Walk and Asthma UK.
Heather Small is soon to be embarking on a UK tour, and can be booked through MN2S Agency in London.