Post by drew on Aug 16, 2008 15:40:31 GMT
Fame sits easily with local teen star
16 August 2008
By Linda Summerhayes
SHE may have just celebrated her 19th birthday but singing sensation Daisy Chute is already used to the star treatment.
When she was at school, the Musselburgh lass grew accustomed to her record company sending chauffeur-driven limousines to pick her up.
And in between studying for exams, she was rubbing shoulders with songwriting legends Sting and Paul McCartney at the Royal Albert Hall.
However, while there's rarely been a dull moment, the former Bunty cover girl admits there's no place like home.
"I'm really enjoying being back here and am looking forward to taking in some of the Fringe," says Daisy, looking every bit the diva in the red dress made for her by her friend, the Edinburgh-based designer Chris Clyne. "It's great being here and getting my meals cooked for me."
Daisy, who splits her time between East Lothian and London, is at home to prepare for a performance with her new band Camerata Ritmata at Musselburgh's Brunton Theatre a week today.
The homecoming concert – the former Loretto School pupil made her stage debut at the Brunton when she was still at primary school – will stretch Daisy musically, featuring not just the jazz and classical music she is known for but also world and contemporary songs.
She hopes that the collaboration, which involves Haddington-based guitarist Simon Thacker, will be the first of many, although Daisy admits her record deal with modern classical girl band All Angels must take priority.
The foursome, who are signed to Universal Music, have just completed an extensive UK-wide tour and are about to go back into the studio to record a third album.
Daisy, a former St Mary's Cathedral chorister, is also about to make a more permanent nest in London when she takes up a place at King's College, where she will study music.
"I'm really looking forward to it all," she says. "And it's a pleasure to work with All Angels.
"When we started two years ago – when we were all chosen from different auditions – because we all came from different backgrounds, it was a risk whether we would get on or not.
"But we get on really well which helps so much when we're on the road or doing a concert – it's nice to be able to have a rapport with them that isn't put on."
One of the highlights in Daisy's glittering career has been performing with All Angels at the Royal Albert Hall at the Classical Brit Awards last year.
At the time, Daisy was studying for her A-levels – she spent her sixth form at a specialist music school in England – studying compositions by Sting in a music technology class.
No wonder then that she was overwhelmed when she bumped into both Sting and Paul McCartney, who were both nominated for the album of the year prize.
"When I met Sting, I remember wondering what my teacher would say about it when I had to hand in my work," she laughs. "I imagined saying 'I'm sorry I didn't do as good a job as I could have because I was partying with the composer Sting all night', but I never had the courage."
As well as looking ahead to the new album, Daisy also hopes to devote more time to composing music – a talent that has won her awards, most recently from the Scottish Music Centre.
Daisy's prize is to see the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama choir perform a composition that she started to write when she was just 12 years old.
"It's a mixture of Western and African traditions and is really rhythmic," explains Daisy. "It will be lovely to hear it done properly by the RSAMD."
The former Morag Alexander Dance School pupil's career stretches back to
gracing the front cover of nine Bunty magazines from the age of just nine.
She also appeared on Young Stars in Their Eyes as Judy Garland.
"In a way, I do have more pressures than other 19-year-olds would be facing," she says. "But I'm sure I'm ready to face them because I've been working in music since I was nine, so I don't feel it's too big and scary."
Edinburgh Evening News