Local young musicians playing Back To Battle

Two young musicians, who themselves received help from Rice-Oxley during last year’s mentoring sessions, have been hand-picked to open the event.

They are 1066 Country residents singer-songwriter Rachel Wilson (20) and drummer Elliot Lampitt (20) who will perform with his band Dorey the Wise.

The young hopefuls were selected to receive mentoring sessions with Ivor Novello Award winner Tim at the inaugural Battle Festival in 2014. Since then they have been making the most of this opportunity to help drive their careers, culminating in them performing as support to their mentor on Saturday August 8.

For Elliot, last year’s session with Tim gave him confidence to develop his songwriting: “I can’t thank Battle Festival enough for the opportunity to meet with Tim. I’ve been working on my own material which is quite different from what I play in my band and it was great to get some feedback on this at an early stage and some pointers on how I could improve certain areas. Tim gave me the push to keep experimenting.”

Long considered the holy grail for many fans, the opportunity to see Tim and Tom performing on the grounds of Battle Abbey saw them clamouring for tickets weeks before they went on sale. - both online and for 100 Battle residents queing outside the memorial hall.