Waterloo Road star Heather Peace is set to bring her musical talents to the fore by releasing her debut album Fairytales on 21st May through PledgeMusic (click here to pledge and thereby pre-order your copy), before embarking on a twelve-date UK tour the very next day.
To celebrate her latest venture, which in fact shall be kicked off with the release of her debut single “Better Than You” on 30th April, Football Burp caught up with Heather for a brief natter about football and her beloved Bradford City. First, though, check out the video for “Better Than You”…(we’re better than YouTube!)…
How closely do you follow the Bantams?
I did massively when I was a kid but I don’t know what’s happened to me over the last few years – I don’t know if it’s just boredom with footballers behaving like idiots, I’ve just got over football. I am Bradford City through and through but I wouldn’t know what they were up to at the moment.
I played women’s football for years, only retired about three years ago, and I think I’ve got a bee in my bonnet about girls’ football not being recognised. The England team got to the semi-finals of the World Cup but nobody’s heard of it!
The winners, Japan, are apparently more well-known over there than the men’s team now.
Same in America [the runners-up]. I just thought people here would be a bit more behind it. You never know though, if they do well in the Olympics then that might make people take notice.
What position did you play?
I was a right-winger, but our right-winger was really good so they’d stick me on the left! (Laughs)
An all too familiar story with the England men’s team!
For the last two seasons I played up front – I was the leading scorer in the last season, but I have to say that the ball came off everywhere but my foot. I just tended to be in the right place and it would come off my backside or my shoulder (laughs). I used to tell my team that it was still a skill to be in the right place!
You may not follow it closely any more but by any chance did you see the recent brawl between Bradford and Crawley?
I saw something on the news about that! That’s awful.
Did you used to go the game much?
When I was a kid, yeah. I went with another acting from London’s Burning called Edward Peel who’s a Bradford fan as well. I went on the pitch and drew the raffle one time, which was very exciting. But I haven’t been for years now.
Do you remember the first game you went to?
I can’t remember, but I must have been about 10 or 11 years old.
Did you go to any during the two Premier League seasons?
No, because you couldn’t get tickets, and I was living down south, but I did go to Bradford for the final game of the season when we managed to stay up by beating Liverpool 1-0. You couldn’t get tickets but I watched it in a pub in Bradford, which must be the first city to have an open-top bus civic reception just because they managed to stay up! (Laughs) I remember them scoring really early, then it was backs to the wall for the rest of the game.
I remember it well. The scorer was David Weatherall, wasn’t it?
Yes it was! (Laughs)
Heather Peace, thank you.
Heather Peace will release her much-anticipated debut solo album Fairytales on 21st May following the release of her debut single “Better Than You” on 30th April. You can pre-order a copy of the album here.
For more information, including a list of live dates, please visit www.heatherpeace.com or the Heather Peace Facebook page.