Peak Advertiser: Decmber 2004

Hope Valley Singer BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award Finalist!

Having played some of the folk scene's greatest stages with super-group 'The Pack', and York's 'Ola', it's no wonder that 20 year old singer and fiddle player Bella Hardy has finally taken to the stage alone, and already captured the imagination of the Folk world.

Bella was only 13 when 'The Pack' first performed, and they are still going strong having played festivals throughout the UK, including Cambridge Folk Festival main-stage in 2003. Their debut album '12 Little Devils' received fantastic reviews in 2001, with FRoots writing "...love to see them live, bet they're a gas! 12 Little Devils is a genuine feel good album, get yours now!"

Bella then joined 'Ola' as their lead singer when she moved to York to study English Literature in 2002, and they released the album 'Be Prepared for Weather' earlier [that] year.

Raised in the remote village of Edale in north Derbyshire's rural Peak District, Bella's love of her home is an obvious influence on her music; "It's truly wild, and an amazingly inspirational place." Learning a wealth of songs from their Hull born dad, Bella and her two sisters would sing whenever and wherever possible, and had many opportunities to do so due to a local enthusiasm for song; "We'd use any excuse for a get together...one of my earliest memories is being sat on a hay bale in a sheep barn belting out harvest songs."

Bella is also a skilled fiddle player, and it was this which first drew her to the stage as a member of 'The Pack'.