Elizabeth Caroline Orton, well-known for her music combining folk and electronica components, is an English singer-songwriter who was born on December 14th, 1970, is. During the 1990s, she first came to limelight for her collaborations with various artists William Orbit, Red Snapper, Andrew Weatherall, Chemical Brothers and others. Her debut solo album by the name Trailer Park released in 1996, was well-received.
Felicity, How to Deal, Vanilla Sky, Grey’s Anatomy, Charmed, Dawson’s Creek and Roswell have all used Orton’s music, giving her exposure to a wider range of American viewers.
What is known of Beth Orton’s Early Life?
Beth Orton was born in East Dereham, Norfolk, but at the age of 14, she relocated to Dalston, East London. When Beth was 11 years old, her journalistic and public relations consultant father abandoned her mother, leaving Beth to live with her mother and two brothers. Her father later passed away. At City College Norwich, Orton pursued his A-level studies. When Beth was 19 years old, her mother passed away from cancer. As a result, Beth travelled to Thailand for a brief time and lived with Buddhist nuns. Orton worked as a waiter at Pizza Hut after moving back to London, and she even temporarily ran her own catering business.
Prior to starting her career as a musician, Orton studied acting at the Anna Scher Theatre School. She performed as Rimbaud’s lover on tour with a theatre company in the UK, Russia, and Ukraine in an experimental stage adaptation of Une Saison en Enfer.
What is her personal life like?
Nancy, Orton’s daughter, was born in the middle of December 2006. Because of her pregnancy, she postponed her September 2006 UK tour. She is currently wed to musician Sam Amidon; their son Arthur was born in 2011.
Orton performed at the Emily Eavis-organized One Big No concert at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London in March 2003. He has also taken part in events organized by producer Hal Willner, including the concert film Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man from 2006 and a duet with Nick Cave at the Allen Ginsberg tribute concert at the Ace Theater in Los Angeles in the spring of 2015.
A leading role in the British independent film Light Years (2015), which Esther May Campbell directed, marked Orton’s return to acting after playing the lead female in the independent film Southlander in 2001.
What is her journey in her musical career?
From 1999’s Central Reservation until about 2006, Ted Barnes on guitar, Sean Read on keyboards, Will Blanchard, a former Sandals drummer, and Ali Friend, a former Red Snapper member, made up Orton’s regular band. By 2008, though, Ted and Ali had split off to establish their own band, Clayhill, and Ted had moved on to work on his own endeavors. Orton had even appeared as a guest on Ted’s solo first album, Short Scenes. After that Orton’s band consisted of drummer Steven Nistor, Amidon and Steinberg. Her current lineup includes of Grey McMurray on guitar both bass and electronics and Alex Thomas on sticks, vocals, and electronics.
Orton and William Orbit started working on the Burn Blind album. The album’s opening track, “Don’t Wanna Know ‘Bout Evil,” was the first to be solely published under Orton’s name. Superpinkymandy was given her moniker after a rag doll she purchased at a jumble sale when she was six years old. Only a very small number of copies of this rare album were distributed outside of Japan. Although all of the songs were co-written by Orton and Orbit, and some tracks were later reproduced, in very different forms, the sound is very much Orbit’s.
In 1994, Orton contributed the one-word vocal “Snapper” to the first Red Snapper EP. Later, he co-wrote and performed the song “In Deep” on the Swank EP (also 1994). Later, Red Snapper’s Ali Friend joined Orton’s group.
She released “She Cries Your Name” soon after the release of her debut LP, Trailer Park, which was released on Heavenly Records on October 19, 1996. Her first solo single, a cover of The Ronettes’ “I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine,” was released, once again in incredibly small numbers, in mid-1996. Critics praised this album, which garnered her nominations for two BRIT Awards and the Mercury Music Prize in 1997. It also did quite well on the charts, selling 300,000 copies and reaching No. 68 in the UK.
Orton continued to expand on the success of her debut with the help of Central Reservation, her second album. Although it kept the electronic edge of the previous album, this one revealed a noticeably more acoustic side, with a few songs featuring only Orton’s vocals and a lone acoustic guitar. The album’s themes also became more introspective, such as in the song “Pass in Time,” which is about the death of Orton’s mother.Orton received a second nomination for the Mercury Music Prize for the album, and she also won the Best Female Artist prize at the 2000 BRIT Awards.The All-Time Top 1000 Albums list places Central Reservation at position 982.
The album Daybreaker, which Orton published in July 2002, once more incorporated the early electronica sound with upbeat pop songs and acoustic ballads. It included musical guests including Emmylou Harris and the Chemical Brothers. It achieved the top 8 on the UK Albums Chart, making it a huge commercial success.
Comfort of Strangers, Orton’s fourth studio album, was released in February 2006. She released an album of more traditional, stripped-down alt-folk rather than the electronica she is typically known for.
The follow-up album to Comfort of Strangers, Sugaring Season, was announced on Beth Orton’s official website on July 11th, 2012.Kidsticks, Orton’s sixth studio album, was released on May 27, 2016, and it marked a notable shift away from acoustic guitar in favour of a wholly electronic sound. Orton herself produced the album.
The obstacles Orton overcame to create her darkest album to date, Weather Alive, which was released in 2022, include motherhood, waning fame, the strangeness of a new neighbourhood, grief, multiple chronic illnesses, label rejection, and financial instability. Together, these obstacles spun apart but also concentrated Orton’s sense of self.