Meet the Belles
Claire Furley
Claire has been a professional musician for the past 18 years, starting out singing lead and backing vocals in The Alvin Jones Band, a busy function band lead by the talented jazz trumpeter, Graham Hunter. It was whilst performing with the Alvins that she took up the saxophone, adding to her instrumental talents of violin, piano, oboe, recorders, guitar and flute.
When Claire was 20, she won a place in the final of Essex Young Performer Of The Year, where she met and subsequently started working with Dave Cooke, musician, arranger and composer extraordinaire! This lead to the successful musical partnership, which is still going strong today!
Back in 1995, Claire met Phil Aldridge who ran a successful show called 'The Carpenters Story' and for the past 13 years, she has provided the voice of Karen Carpenter and starring in a national theatre tour, starring alongside Phil and The Carpenter's Story Orchestra. (For which she had to learn the drums!!) Venues include St David's Hall Cardiff, The Fairfield Halls Croydon, plus many more prestigious theatres throughout England, Scotland and Wales. One of the highlights of these tours for Claire, apart from performing in front of a 'home crowd' at The Cliffs Pavilion, was singing at The Chelmsford Spectacular, to an audience of 15,000.
During this time, Claire has been busy writing and performing her own material, plus recording radio and TV adverts, including the Maxwell House Coffee and Eurobell campaigns. Claire has extensive studio experience providing lead and backing vocals for various artist albums such as Phil Burdett and Closing Time and David Buckingham. Also she has recorded the lead and harmony lines for Thompson Cruises' Heatwave and Temptation shows.
As a classically trained singer, she loves to sing opera and perform songs from musical theatre; subsequently making her west end debut in 2002. As her reputation grew, Claire has been given the opportunity to perform with top musicians from around the world and has loved every minute!
Although Claire is able to perform songs from most musical genres, her two favourite projects remain singing with Stud 100, a stunning 11 piece Northern Soul/Soul band and with her own The Claire Furley Band, where she has been fortunate to perform with extremely talented musicians, such as: Tim Huskisson, Terry Lewis, Trevor Newnham, Marc Ceil, Pete Riley, Brent Keefe and the late, sorely missed Pete Jacobsen.
Claire is not only sought after for performances but also as a music teacher, whether classes or individual lessons. With 18 years teaching experience in singing, violin and piano, she regularly leads singing workshops and at Theatre Schools. Some past students have gone on to take roles in Hairspray, Les Miserables Chicago, Joseph, The Producers and many more. This has also lead to Claire becoming Musical Director for Merlin Productions. Claire is currently Director Of Music at Alleyn Court Preparatory School.
Debbie Bines
In addition to being a Swinging Belle, Debbie demonstrates her versatility by singing lead in a 9 piece soul band Diaz They perform at many large venues and functions across the country. Debbie is also currently singing backing with an exciting new band, Reilly Peacock who describe themselves as a quintessentially English band with a wide set of influences ranging from quirky Ziggy Stardust, to Tilbrooke / Difford and Albern to the ethereal Brian Wilson.
Debbie has worked with Dave Cooke previously in a piano and vocal duo, mixing powerful up tempo numbers with beautiful ballads and duets at weddings, parties and restaurants and casinos.
Over the years, being a jobbing vocalist Debbie has sung in theatre as well as backing on various albums and has also recorded voice overs and can be heard anonymously via tanoys up and down the country. Listing her influences as ranging from the 1960? up to the noughties, Debbie is enjoying the freshness of the era from which the Swinging Belles draws its repertoire.
Heather Simmons
As well as being the founder of the Swinging Belles, Heather has a successful solo career. She has her own band which have recently released their album 'I'm Old Fashioned' It has already had rave reviews on Radio 2, BBC Essex Radio and Smooth FM. As Humphrey Lyttelton put it "It was with a frisson of pleasure that I dipped into a cd by Heather Simmons and heard a voice with a refreshing and original tang."
You will find Heather performing in jazz clubs, restaurants, hotels, festivals and casinos. Most recently she has been asked to guest with the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, Harry Strutters Band, John Sutton's London Hot Rhythm Boys and with Humphrey Lyttelton's band. Heather has sung in Preservation Hall in New Orleans and some of the famous jazz clubs of New York. All of which were a tremendous honour that she hopes to repeat in the near future.
BBC Essex Radio's presenter Liz Mullen interviewed Heather as her guest on 'Everything Stops For Tea'. Liz played a couple of tracks from the new album including My Clock Is Tickin' which was written by Heather and arranged by Dave Cooke for the Swinging Belles.
If you would like to read more about Heather's career please visit my personal website at: Heather's full biog.
Dave Cooke
Most of my strengths lie in an ability to help people achieve more than they thought they could achieve, obviously in music. I am an encourager and facilitator. I am a jack-of-all trades musical (definitely a master of nothing......) with many years of experience in diverse genres and musical styles. I like giving people challenges I know they can meet, even if they think they cannot.
Graduate of the Northern School of Music, Manchester, just prior to the invention of the wheel, or more accurately 1971; Diploma in Education, Leeds University, 1972.
Have been a professional musician since 1976. Began as a keyboard player working in the West End at a variety of shows including 'Cats', Starlight Express etc. Conducted also during this period eg Juke Box (Astoria Tottenham Court Road 1983). Toured and recorded with many pop outfits including Three Degrees, Bucks Fizz, Bay City Rollers (Help....), and many many more. Had record in the charts with accompanying TV exposure (exposure being a particulary apt description). Recorded with many well known artists including Van Morrison, Billy Conolly, James Galway, Sinead O'Connor, yawn yawn... Spent several great years writing for a West End production company - TV themes adverts etc., both domestically and internationally (BBC World cup rugby theme, Channel 4 documentaries ....) 3 years as MD to Helen Shapiro, including writing, recording and touring.
Worked extensively in Ireland, America, and France. Played venues such as Carnegie Hall; Boston Symphony Hall, one particularly memorable gig with James Galway - Capitol Hill, (Washington D.C,) last year of Clinton reign (July 4th 1999 if memory serves me correctly) in front of the Senate, a live audience of approximately 250,000 and a t.v. audience of estimated 80 million. (A piece of cake really.... he said nonchalantly).
Have continued working in those areas particularly Ireland where I was assistant producer and arranger on a Grammy nominated album for Phil Coulter in 2000. Recently played and arranged many more albums and involved with a very interesting t.v. series recorded in Killarney for air in Eire (Very witty .....) and USA. Have built up a strong working relationship with several local up and coming singers, writing, arranging, producing and recording new material and am keen to keep those contacts going. Have also been asked to be musical director at my local church, which I am also considering, depending on commitments elsewhere.
I very much enjoy walking and cycling (no, really, I do). Staying alive, occasionally solvent, keeping most of my hair and managing to make a living out of being a musician (most of the time), bearing in mind I have the temperament and acumen of a normal musician. In other words, a fairly hopeless case.
