I arrived via my mum on April 2nd 1979. I grew up in Stevenage, in a typically crazy family...people who say they have a normal family are not usually normal people in my experience.

I spent a lot of my young life singing in the bathroom, dreaming i was in some big rock band, I guess this is where my voice inproved, as did my...Hygeine!!! It was during one of my concerts in the bathroom that my mum heard me singing, she convinced me to sing in "The White Hart", which was the pub my parents managed at the time. I was 13yrs old, it was the first time I had sang in public, there was a pub full of people and I dont mind telling you...I was crapping myself. I sang one song which was a cover of "Unchained melody", got through the song, got a round of applause and got off stage, looked at my mum then cried and said "Im never doing that again", but it was to late, I'd been bitten by the bug and I became the uncrowned princess of Karaoke, from then on I decided I wanted to be a singer.

It was soon after this that I realised being a singer could be quite lucritive, for example, I was forced or "encouraged" as my mum would put it, to enter a Caravan Holiday Talent competition, to win, yes another...Caravan Holiday, which I did and did again and again, well basically untill my parents could afford there own Holidays...Ahh, those damp weekends in Devon, where have they gone.

It gets worse, In my bid to be a serious Artiste, I've attended numerous Auditions in the last ten years, such as......

BARRYMORE'S MY KIND OF PEOPLE.

STARS IN THEIR EYES (Personally, I think i would of made a brilliant Barry White, but there you go).

And yes, even...POP IDOL . Show me a barrell and I've scraped it!!!

P.s, UP YOURS, Barrymore, Kelly and Waterman, you wouldn't know talent if it ripped off your knackers and shoved them down your throats... Especially you Waterman, two words, RICK ASTLEY!!!

Any way, in between the naff Auditions, I did listen to a lot of good music which inspired me to want to play an instrument, I'd also been writing poems for years, one of which was published in The International Library Of Poetry Anthology "Awaken To A Dream", in 1996. So it all clicked in to place at the age of 14, when I bought my first Acoustic guitar for £10 off a mate, taught myself 3 chords and started writing my own songs, You'll be pleased to know, I now know 5 chords (only joking)... I know 7. I also taught myself to play piano, as of yet, I've not found a way of playing both instruments at the same time!!!

I've done the College thing and got a B-Tec National Diploma in Performing Arts, I then went on to do a Higher National Diploma in Performing Arts, both of which I acheived with Distinction, I've got the goofy photos of me in a mortar board and gown, hanging in both my grandparents houses and my mums dining room to prove it. I've also got a whacking great student loan hanging over my head, but I dont earn enough cash to pay it back...Me thinks there is a flaw in your plan, Mr Politician.

It was during my time as a hard up student, living on cans of watered down soup and copius amounts of alchohol, that I tried to set up numerous bands. I spent most of that time, chasing my band mates to turn up to rehearsals, so we never got passed the jamming stage, bloody musicians, you cant live with them and you cant...kill them!!!

So in 1998, I decided to bite the bullet and go it alone. With a lot of help and hard work, I set up as a solo singer, gigging in pubs and clubs (mainly cover songs) which I've been doing for the past 5 years.

In 2001, I cut a Demo of my own songs at, Monroe Studios, Holloway Road, London. Then in 2002 my Demo got air play on a local radio station "Lyon Radio", I then went on to play one of my songs "live" on the same Radio Station. From there I was offered regular Acoustic sets at "Club 85", in Hitchin, which made me even more determined to carry on with my music, but I never let go of that dream, that one day I would be a part of an amazing band and part of that whole "Live Vibe".

Anyway, On Saturday 15th Feb 2003, I had one of my regular gigs at "The King Pin", in Stevenage. So I'm up on the stage doing my thing and when I finish, this guy comes up to me and says his name is Dan (Dan Andrews), and could he have a word with me, now, I dont usually talk to strangers (complete lie!!!), but he seemed like a charming young fellow and was very well turned out, so we sat and had a chat, he said he was the drummer in a band and that they were looking for a female backing vocalist and would I be interested in trying out, so I get a bit excited, then he says that they're a Ska/Reggae band, so I get a bit more excited, So I ask what the bands called, and he says...20 Dead Camels, after I picked my jaw up off the floor I said I would be there with bells on, if it was o.k with the rest of the band. So I kept my fingers crossed and sure enough the following Wednesday I got a call to say it was all on to try out at the next rehearsal. By the end of Sunday 23rd Feb 2003, I became a...Camel.

In the famous words of Captain Sensible : "If you dont have a dream, you've got to have a dream, else, how you gonna make your dreams come true"

INFLUENCES: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Levellers, The Pouges, Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, The Cranberies, The Pretenders, The Clash, The Jam (Paul Weller), The Specials, Madness, Bob Marley, Eek-A-Mouse, Zion Train, and......ELVIS!!!

Cara-Jane Murphy - 20 Dead Camels