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Linda Hoyle

Linda Hoyle
Linda Hoyle 2006-07-01.jpg
Linda Hoyle at first Affinity reunion in 2006
Background information
Birth name Linda Hoile
Born (1946-04-13) 13 April 1946 (age 71)
London, England, United Kingdom
Genres Jazz rock
Occupation(s) Singer, songwriter, art therapist
Instruments Vocals
Years active 1968–1972
1984–present
Labels Vertigo, Repertoire, Angel Air
Associated acts Affinity, Mo Foster, Oliver Whitehead
Website lindahoyle.net

Linda Nicholas (born Linda Hoile, 13 April 1946), known by her stage name Linda Hoyle, is a singer, songwriter and art therapist. She is best known for her work with the band Affinity (1968–1971), as well as for her collaboration with Karl Jenkins on her album Pieces of Me, produced in 1971. Hoyle's latest album, The Fetch, produced by Mo Foster, was released by Angel Air on 7 August 2015.

Linda was born and grew up in Hammersmith, London. Her mother, Marjorie ("Madge", née Penfold), was a shorthand typist, working with the Kensington and Chelsea Police Force and CID. Her father, Gordon ("Dick") was an accountant with Sun Life Insurance.

For the first decade of Linda's life, the family lived in a small ground-floor flat with few amenities. Nevertheless, on a Saturday, Dick would buy a new 78 rpm jazz record which was played for the family to dance to. This music consisted mostly of Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Mezz Mezzrow and others, with an historic backlog of Bessie Smith, Bix Beiderbeck, Mugsy Spanier and Fletcher Henderson. Oddities from 1920s and 30s jazz were the backbone of Linda's musical experience, stirred into Madge's attempts to introduce classical music – Vaughan Williams, Tchaikovsky, Elgar.

Her early education was at St Peter's, a Church school, then Chiswick County School for Girls. She was told in no uncertain terms by her music teacher, Miss Cooper, that she showed no ability. However, she happily sang Everly Brothers songs, in harmony with friends, in the echoing school toilets.

Wendy Hoile, Linda's younger sister, was able to sing in harmony from a very young age. She played guitar and sang in a band, Blanch Carter and the Lounge Lizards, in the late 1960s and early 70s. Both Linda and her sister learnt first to play the ukulele and then the guitar. They performed together often at family gatherings and parties, sometimes using the family convector heater, a Valor, as a primitive piece of echo and reverb equipment, singing into it even when it was lit.


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