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| Birth Name(s) : Elizabeth Caroline Orton |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
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| Profession:
Singer-songwriter |
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Full Beth Orton Biography
American movies and TV shows such as Felicity, How to Deal, and Vanilla Sky have featured her music and provided her with exposure to an American mainstream audience.
Orton was born in East Dereham, Norfolk, but raised on a pig farm in Norwich for her formative years, before moving to East London at age fourteen. Her father, an architectural draftsman, left her mother when Beth was eleven, and she lived with her mother, an artist and political activist, and her two brothers, her father dying shortly afterwards. Her mother died from cancer in 1989, when Beth was aged 19,, which led to her travelling to Thailand for a short period, residing with Buddhist nuns. Orton found success as a musician relatively late, having first worked at menial jobs such as waitressing at Pizza Hut and even owning her own catering company. She was also more interested in acting during her early career, having enrolled at the Anna Scher Theatre School, and she spent some time touring Une Saison en Enfer with a fringe theatre company throughout the UK, Russia and Ukraine, playing Rimbaud's lover.
Her first contribution in music came when she met William Orbit at a London nightclub, when he tried to borrow a cigarette from her. They began a relationship shortly after, and before long he invited her to do some spoken word for his current Strange Cargo project, but she drunkenly decided to sing also. Possibly the best-known work from that time is "Water from a Vine Leaf", which she co-wrote and which was released as a limited-edition single. It was also at this time that Orbit and Orton covered John Martyn's "Don't Wanna Know 'Bout Evil", which was not only the first song that they recorded together, but also the first release as a duet called Spill in Japan, which was also re-released in 1997 in the UK.
It was roughly at this time that she met Ed and Tom of the Chemical Brothers in a pub, and began the first in a series of collaborations, supplying vocals to the track "Alive Alone" on 1995's Exit Planet Dust.
In July 2002 she released the album Daybreaker, which again blended the early electronica style, with up tempo pop songs and acoustic ballads. It featured guest appearances from musicians such as The Chemical Brothers, Emmylou Harris, whom she met at Lilith Fair, Ryan Adams and Four Tet. It was a great commercial success, reaching the top 8 of the UK album chart, but received largely positive from the press, ranging from "Her best work yet" from Mojo magazine, the NME (8/10) , Rolling Stone and The Guardian, but receiving a more lukewarm reception from Q (Despite this she was nominated for the Q award for best album). This was followed in 2003 by an U.S. only release on American label Astralwerks, The Other Side of Daybreak, an album consisting mainly of b-sides and remixes of songs from Daybreaker, created by artists such as Roots Manuva. She also contributed a song to the War Child charity, for their Hope compilation album that year.
A "best of" double album, entitled Pass In Time, was released in 2003. It represented Orton's extensive and diverse musical career through previously unreleased songs, b-sides, and rarities (such as "Where Do You Go" from Superpinkymandy), as well as collaborations with William Orbit and the Chemical Brothers. The highlight of her career arguably came on 31 March 2003, when she played to a packed Royal Albert Hall in London on the last date of her worldwide Daybreaker tour. In addition, she played a tribute concert to Elliott Smith in November.
Orton's fourth studio album Comfort of Strangers was released in February 2006. The North American release through Astralwerks, the UK release coming through EMI-UK. The release sees her move away from the electronica element that she is usually associated with, to a more stripped down traditional alt-folk album. This followed an extended absence since her previous release, partially a result of several failed production attempts, and the parting of ways between her and Heavenly. The final album was produced by the respected musician Jim O'Rourke.
Orton has been romantically linked with a number of high profile musicians, including William Orbit and Ryan Adams. Adams' song "English Girls Approximately" was written about her.
Orton gave birth to a daughter in mid-December 2006.. She cancelled her September 2006 UK tour because of her pregnancy.
In the Telegraph interview she revealed that in the past she had shunned several opportunities to raise her public profile, on ethical grounds. Such opportunities included becoming the face of Calvin Klein, representing the Gap (which, according to some sources, use sweatshops to manufacture their clothes), and promoting the sales of her records at Starbucks coffee outlets. While she is a supporter of Fairtrade, she has subsequently relented on this last stance.
She has also been offered the opportunity to return to her first love, acting. Having played the lead female in the independent film Southlander, she was offered to audition for the role of John Cusack's girlfriend in the film High Fidelity, but didn't accept the invitation (the part went to Iben Hjejle). Beth also wrote music for the Erin Brockovich soundtrack. She does state that she would act, if an appropriate part came up for her. |
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