Career
Penny Broadhurst first started performing her own material as a spoken word performer when she was a student in Norwich in 1998. A self-confessed pop music fan and karaoke queen, her performances of acerbic and witty vocal narratives and Steps songs, delivered in a broad Yorkshire accent and often accompanied by pop and rock music, were frequently compared to that of a pop star rather than a poet. Her first album of spoken word with music, Blue Bank got radio play on BBC 6 Music, and the NME declared "...You can't mosh to poetry, but if you could, then you'd mosh to this."
Forsaking the poetry circuit for gigs supporting bands and comedians, she gradually moved away from using just the spoken word, and began to write and sing her own pop songs and dance routines, working with producers Ed Heaton, Pete Warterman and Si McGrath of Hightone Productions. Clint Boon of Radio Xfm Manchester said of her songs : "She's unsigned, but she sounds like an established act to me. I can see why she calls herself the Queen of Pop."
She has appeared at Ladyfest around the UK and literary festivals including Off The Shelf and Ilkley Literature Festival. She is a member of the Yorkshire young writers' initiative The Writing Squad, funded by the Arts Council. In Summer 2005 she played at Glastonbury and in 2005 and 2006 at the Truck festival. She has also recently appeared at other festivals including Latitude Festival (2006 and 2007), Wireless Festival (2007), Solfest (2007) and Indietracks (2008) and made a television appearance on BBC Look North and The One Show.
As well as having radio play on BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, and Radio Magnetic in the UK (on their playlist), Penny Broadhurst's work has been broadcast on FM4 in Austria, Slovakia and other local and international stations. Her songs have also been featured on Xfm and Dandelion Radio.
Penny Broadhurst was based in Leeds, but regularly performed at venues throughout the UK.
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