She’s best known as a former Blue Peter presenter and the star of TV’s Most Haunted, but Yvette Fielding admits that in reality she has always been a frustrated pop star.
In fact she had a fledgling music career when younger which alas never really took off.
‘I was in a band called Idle Hours. We did our first gig in Poynton and I was so frightened I actually hid behind the speaker,’ she says.
And at a time when most women will be quite content to sail along in their already established careers, the Stockport-born presenter has now embarked on a brand new enterprise in pop group management and A&R .
The 44-year-old has teamed up with owner of Castle Rock recording studio in Alderley Edge, Stret, (John Stretford) and the thrill she is getting from this latest new episode in her life is evident. She’s excited about her new role in the music biz and there’s clearly a rapport between the pair who met just over a month ago.
‘I was already managing my son’s band White Eskimo and looking about for a place where they could record some tracks. I was just happening to drive passed the studio in Alderley Edge and thought ‘I’ve not seen that before’, so I stopped the car and went straight in. I spoke to Stret and got on really well so we said “Let’s get together and see if we can find new acts”. And that was it.’
Adds Stret: ‘We knew we’d get on well because on our first business meeting we turned up wearing the same green tweed jackets and brought along cakes for each other.
‘He’s like my long lost brother’, interjects Yvette. ‘Older brother! We got an immediate connection.’
Yvette, who now lives in Sandbach, explains that she began managing her son’s band after realising that many young acts really need looking after. She is all too aware of the pitfalls of fame having been in show business as a youngster and at 19 years old becoming the youngest ever presenter of the legendary BBC children’s programme, Blue Peter. Only recently she was at the centre of immense media attention over her son’s friendship with One Direction star Harry Styles.
White Eskimo are the band Styles left behind when he moved on to global fame with the One Direction boys and Yvette is reported as saying her son Will Sweeny was heartbroken when he was dropped by his best pal. She too was embroiled in a press storm that alleged Styles had sent her dirty texts when he was just 16.
‘I decided to muscle my way in and take over and I have been spending plenty of time in sweaty, sticky floored venues with them. It really opened up a whole new world to me and now these gigs have become a regular thing, Stret has been taking me all over the place and it is really exciting,’ she says.
‘He’ll say ‘Want to come to this festival?” and I’ll go there and be like a child in a toy shop. I’ll be this demented idiot going to see these amazing acts.
‘My strength is that I can see something in these bands and I’ll say “Let’s work with them.” I’m really looking forward to Chester Rocks and the studio has had its own two day festival featuring over 30 bands who have already recorded there on June 29th and 30th.
‘I now feel I have my time all over again but to do this I really think I have to have a real love of music. When I’m doing the housework, there’s nothing better than a bit of AC/DC. Angus (Young) the guitarist - I just adore him. And I love the stories surrounding rock bands like how AC/DC got their name - apparently off the back of a washing machine. I love things like that.
Says Stret: ‘My favourite band are Deep Purple. I saw them in 1974 and ever since I have been following them all over the world.’
It is still early days but with White Eskimo and singer Nilla Muse on their roster, the future looks amazing for the pair.
The only thing they have to worry about now is well, what do you wear to gigs these days?
Yvette has the answer: ‘A White Eskimo T-shirt’ she replies.
For more information about Castle Rock studios call 01625 590877 or visit www.castlerockstudios.co.uk
