An up and coming singer-songwriter entertained shoppers in Hull city centre with a free, one-off show to promote her latest recording.
Lucy Marshall, who comes from Hull but now lives in Worlaby, North Lincolnshire, has impressed audiences around the region with her own compositions and proficient guitar playing.
She is already booked for some major music festivals this summer but her most recent show– one of her biggest yet – was in the unusual surroundings of Princes Quay Shopping Centre.
Lucy, who is just 17, performed a series of live sets between midday and 5pm on Saturday 11 May. Chatting to the audience in between shows, she also signed copies of Midnight Motorway, her five-track EP which was also released that day on CD and on iTunes.
Before the gig, Lucy said: “We were thinking of different places to play to promote the CD and to just entertain people and Princes Quay came to mind as being ideal,” said Lucy.
“With its Central Atrium it has all the facilities and space I need to entertain everyone. They host other live shows there but my style is a little bit different so hopefully people will come along and enjoy it.
“I dislike negativity, I always aim to make people smile, and I hope that my music is a way of doing this. The whole point of being a musician is for people to be able to relate to my songs, understand the lyrics and just simply enjoy the music.”
Lucy started playing after doing a deal with her dad. She wanted an electric guitar but he would only buy her one if she agreed to learn acoustic first.
She said: “I was already playing piano then I taught myself acoustic, but I’m still waiting for my electric guitar!”
Lucy has now played more than 350 gigs and will be appearing later this year at both Beverley Folk Festival and Cleethorpes Blues Festival on Saturday 22 June, Durham Blues Festival (Sunday 23 June), Burton Agnes Jazz and Blues Festival (Saturday 6 July) and Cornucopia Festival (Saturday 28 September).
Tony Wilkes, General Manager of Princes Quay Shopping Centre, said: “We are always looking for new ideas and are pleased to allow up and coming talent to utilise the space that we have, to entertain our customers and retailers and to attract more people into Princes Quay so we were interested when Lucy contacted us.
“When we heard her material we were very impressed and we were happy to let her come in, perform for the crowds on a busy Saturday and hopefully get her new EP off to a great start. Lucy is a great talent with a bright future.”
Kathryn Shillito, HullBID City Centre Manager, said: “We know from our own experience of organising events that live entertainment will help to attract people into in Hull City Centre.
“Princes Quay has an area which offers ideal performance space and has been used for various events in the past. There is no doubt that retailers there and elsewhere in the city will have a chance to benefit from the increased footfall which will be generated by Lucy’s show.”
Picture: Lucy Marshall performing at Princes Quay
