Helen Boulding is a London-based singer-songwriter originally from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK. Her first album, New Red Dress, was released in February 2008.
Growing up, she was introduced to music by her Uncle Tom who ran Fagan's in Sheffield, a pub well known to local bands and artists for the music sessions that take place regularly. A regular haunt for the likes of Richard Hawley, a picture hanging in Fagan's features on the back sleeve of his current album, Lady's Bridge.
Helen chose music over sport, coming from a high achieving sports family. Her brother Michael was an ATP-ranking tennis player before switching to football, playing in the Premier League for Aston Villa in 2002. Michael and brother Rory also played in the same team at Mansfield Town and Bradford City. Her sister Sally was a world-ranked tennis player and her other sister, Laura, played rounders for England.
She co-wrote the 911 song "The Day We Find Love" which was UK top 5 hit in 1997.
In 2002 she provided backing vocals on two tracks, "Help Me Help You" and "Naughty Girl", on Holly Valance's album Footprints.
In the past Helen has written with some of the biggest names in music. Simon Tong (The Good, the Bad and the Queen, The Verve) has written recently with Helen and some of these songs appear as bonus tracks on the forthcoming singles. She has also written with Squeeze's Chris Difford and managed to persuade Pink Floyd's Rick Wright out of retirement to write some songs with her.[1] She has also collaborated with the renowned songwriter, Billy Steinberg (Eternal Flame, True Colors, Like a Virgin). She also co-wrote Maybe That's What It Takes, the debut single of Alex Parks, a top five hit in the UK in 2003.
In 2007 she toured Europe with Bryan Ferry before returning to London to do dates in the run up to Christmas. She guests on the title track from The Orb's new album The Dream, which she also co-wrote. She also performed on BBC One's evening primetime magazine show The One Show as a last-minute replacement for Rolan Bolan, who was due to perform on the show on the anniversary of his father's death. Bolan was held up in the United States, and at the suggestion of presenter Adrian Chiles, who had heard some of Helen's songs, she was invited to step in, performing Marc Bolan's "Life’s A Gas" in front of Bolan's mum Gloria Jones.
Her debut album New Red Dress was released on her own Maid in Sheffield label on 11 February 2008. She co-wrote all songs on the album with, amongst others, Phil Thornalley (of The Cure) and Martin Glover. The album was also produced by Glover (Youth). The album cover photo was taken by Bryan Adams. It was BBC Radio 2's Album of the Week prior to its release.[2] Two singles have been taken from the album, "Breathe" and "Copenhagen".
Helen continues to write songs for some of the biggest names in the music business and her ability to achieve chart success has been spotted by many in the industry resulting in her recent publishing deal.