Grammy award winning singer-songwriter set to play Lancaster gig

Husband and wife music promoters Martin and Nikki Woodhead are organising a new year concert at the Ellel Village Hall in north Lancashire and they’ve managed to land Amy Wadge, who co-wrote Matt Terry’s chart high-flyer ‘When Christmas Comes Around’ with Ed Sheeran.

The Welsh singer-songwriter won a Grammy earlier this year for co-writing Sheeran’s worldwide smash ‘Thinking Out Loud’.

And Amy and Ed hit the national headlines again last week when their song was chosen by Simon Cowell as The X Factor winner’s single.

For the Woodheads this news was a stroke of luck because they’d booked Amy months ago – well before her song hit the charts.

The X Factor winner’s single has gone on to reach number one at Christmas seven times since the ITV show began in 2004 and Terry’s ballad is bookies’ favourite to top the charts this year – although Martin admits he hasn’t heard the song yet because he doesn’t watch the TV talent show.

Martin and Nikki, from Scale Hall, are instead big proponents of live acoustic music and their company Imageacoustic books all of Amy’s gigs.

“Amy is a bundle of energy and she’s a really nice genuine person,” said Martin.

“She’s fantastic to be around and a great songwriter.”

The London Evening Standard described Amy as “the new Joni Mitchell” and other reviewers have praised her voice and the emotional impact of her performances.

While her friend Sheeran has gone multi-platinum and toured the world performing to sold-out arenas, Amy is relatively unknown to mainstream audiences.

“But as Amy often says, at least she can still walk into a supermarket but Ed can’t,” Martin said.