Virginia Astley was born on 26 September 1959 and is an English singer-songwriter most active during the 1980s and 1990s.
19 Facts About Virginia Astley
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Virginia Astley was born in Garston, Hertfordshire, England, alongside her twin, Alison in 1959, the second daughter of composer Edwin Astley, noted for TV themes such as The Saint, and his wife Hazel Balbirnie, who married in 1945.
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Virginia Astley's family was from the Warrington area and lived in Grappenhall, where her elder sister Karen was born in 1947.
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Virginia Astley, playing keyboards, worked with them for a short while playing in clubs and pubs around London.
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Virginia Astley contributed as part of The Dream Makers for a cover version of "La Chanson d'Helene", showcasing an early example of her distinctive vocal style.
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Virginia Astley then received an offer from another Why-Fi artist, Troy Tate, for a supporting band position with The Teardrop Explodes.
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Virginia Astley recruited Nicky Holland and another university friend, Kate St John to form the band the Ravishing Beauties.
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Virginia Astley wrote most of the band's songs, some of which appeared on her first solo project with Why-Fi.
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One of the first musicians Virginia Astley recorded with was Richard Jobson.
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Virginia Astley worked on other people's projects, including work for Les Disques Du Crepuscule label, playing piano and arranging music for Richard Jobson and Anna Domino.
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Virginia Astley had a track on From Brussels with Love in 1982.
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Virginia Astley recorded a solo album, She Stood Up And Cried for Crepuscule but this was withdrawn, eventually being released three years later as Promise Nothing.
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Virginia Astley signed with Why-Fi in mid-1981 and recorded an EP called A Bao A Qu, the title taken from a Malayan legend featured in Jorge Luis Borges's 1967 Book of Imaginary Beings.
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In 1982, Virginia Astley played piano on her brother-in-law Pete Townshend's album, All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes.
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In 1983, Virginia Astley established a more permanent line-up with string players Audrey Riley, Jocelyn Pook and Anne Stephenson, with guests such as drummer Brian Nevill and composer Jeremy Peyton Jones.
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In 1984, Virginia Astley played keyboards on tour with Prefab Sprout around the time of their first album, and she did sessions for their Kitchenware Records labelmates, Martin Stephenson and the Daintees, Vic Godard and Zeke Manyika.
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In 1989, Virginia Astley collaborated with Eurythmics member Dave Stewart on a track called "Second Chance", included on the Lily Was Here soundtrack.
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The success of her 1986 album Hope in a Darkened Heart in Japan meant that Virginia Astley was asked to sign to Nippon Columbia with whom she recorded a further two albums, All Shall Be Well in 1992 and Had I The Heavens in 1996.
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Since then, Virginia Astley has guested on CDs by both Hideaki Matsuoka and the Silent Poets.