Born in London, to a family rich in media, it’s easy to see how Tommy Ludgate became involved in music at such an early age.

From the age of five, when she was given a piano by her grandmother, Tommy’s passions for music began and went onto develop. At the age of eight she was to perform her first solo on stage, which led to her forming D2M (Devotion 2 Music), a girl pop band, with her friends who worked alongside Steve Mac.

D2M toured across Europe playing to audiences of 10000 as well as appearing on TV and Radio shows. As with most young bands it naturally came to an end but Tommy had no intentions of that being the end of her music career.

In November 2007, her debut album, Wall of Words, was funded by the support of her loyal fan base, after she won the competition on slicethepie.com. This album went straight into the iTunes Top 10 Blues chart.

‘So Cruel’ is Tommy’s new single taken from Wall of Words, which features the talents of London based choir The Heard. This is a bluesy, souly track where Tommy shows off her vocals with such emotion. I particularly like the "du be du be..." of the chorus. It’s so simple yet so strong, it certainly tugs on the heartstrings.

'Sweet Release' is the second track on this single; it’s cool, calm and collected. This is more of a Jazzy, soul track and I liked it a lot. As with 'So Cruel', this track is simple, but Tommy makes simple so much more.

If this single is anything to go by, I’m sure we will be hearing a lot more from this girl. She has passion, love, emotion but most of all she has soul.

9

Helena Rea