June’s emerging artists showcase features Manchester singer-songwriter Ollie West and his band The Wildflowers.

The music of Manchester based pianist and singer-songwriter Ollie West has shifted dramatically since his formative years playing at open mic nights aged fourteen. Ten years of writing and performing has seen him work with multiple incarnations of his band that have included everything from solo gigs, a four piece rock and roll band right up to twenty four musicians on stage at one time.

Initially inspired by the music of Billy Joel, Elbow and Joni Mitchell, Ollie’s writing has explored jazz, folk, world music, pop, rock, prog and classical music to create a unique sound like nothing you’ve ever heard before. Now, along with long time band members Ashley Garrod, Pete Leaver and James Cooke, the band welcome tenor horn player Nat Martin, violinist Aninka Nesporova and percussionist, backing vocalist and everything in-between-ist Raye Harvey to the fold to form Ollie West and The Wildflowers.

This band isn’t your standard outfit; their diversity shows in their career to date. Their debut album Time Stood Still from 2019 took the band around the UK on a sixteen date tour that included sell out shows in Manchester, London and The Wirral, and the success of single Home from that record saw them become Young Artist Of The Week on classical music station Scala Radio, with multiple plays on the station from Simon Mayo, Angellica Bell and Sam Hughes. The release of the folk-pop ballad Shelf Life during the pandemic achieved recognition from local BBC stations and widespread critical acclaim; this was followed swiftly by gospel influenced The Promise, featuring spoken word artist Sunflower Bill and a fifty two piece choir. Count To Four was released in November to positive reviews, and now the bands latest single Bird is a heartfelt folk ballad performed by Ollie on the Appalachian dulcimer; the very same instrument made famous by Joni Mitchell on A Case Of You.

The future is bright for this young ensemble. Ten years of preparation have led to this day, and now they are ready to take the UK music scene by storm; are you ready to welcome them?”

Support comes from WiLL EDGAR, a fourteen year-old multi-instrument playing singer-songwriter from Bolton.

He plays the violin, drums and guitar and to date WiLL has released three original singles, Flashback, 24/7 and I want to take your time which incorporate these instruments and is due to release his album later in the summer.

His music is inspired by a range of genres and artists from through the decades. He has performed at various locations throughout Bolton and can regularly be found busking in local town centres including Manchester and has a number of fantastic upcoming festivals and events this year.