R&B girl-group Guilt Trippin' ask you to Catch Me as they prepare for gig at The Gaiety Bar, Southsea

If you want a vocal group who can get the party started then Guilt Trippin’ are more than up to the job.
Portsmouth R&B group, Guilt Trippin', from left: Jodie Vinall, Lyndsey-Marie Vincent, Michelle PricePortsmouth R&B group, Guilt Trippin', from left: Jodie Vinall, Lyndsey-Marie Vincent, Michelle Price
Portsmouth R&B group, Guilt Trippin', from left: Jodie Vinall, Lyndsey-Marie Vincent, Michelle Price

Over the past few years they’ve built a solid reputation in this part of the world as an excellent R&B covers act.

But what you might not expect from the trio (Jodie Vinall, Lyndsey-Marie Vincent and Michelle Price) is chart-bothering original material.

That, however, has changed.

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Last Friday they released their debut single, Catch Me (When I Fall) and were left stunned to see it creeping up the iTunes chart over the bank holiday weekend.

‘It was just absolutely mental,’ says Lyndsey-Marie with a laugh that suggest she still can’t quite believe it. ‘This is our debut track – we're just a little R&B covers band.’

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It was only late last year that the trio considered trying their hand at writing their own material.

‘We thought it would be like a sideline project, and then we toyed with maybe putting it out under a different name and not using Guilt Trippin’, like a completely separate project.

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‘But we've got a nice little following, it seemed silly to start a totally new project that maybe people wouldn't straight away tie with Guilt Trippin’. We already had that following and fanbase.’

Michelle had been working with Leigh Park rapper Martin ‘Parv’ Parvin and he suggested they try an old song he’d been working on, but didn’t feel right for what he was doing.

‘He was like, I think this really sounds like you girls. It's got this real old-school beat, but it's so modern and relevant, we can reenergise it and you can put your own spin on it and change some bits around, let's just see how it works.

‘And that's exactly what we did.’

They finished the song in late March and thought they had something good on their hands.

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‘When it was released on Friday, we thought our friends and family will be all over it but we didn't expect anything more than that.’

But they soon discovered that they were in iTunes’s singles chart.

‘We didn't break the mainstream chart, but we sat quite comfortably for a good 36 hours in the iTunes top 40, which is not bad.

‘More than that, putting an original out there when you're a covers band, you wait for the trolls, or the negativity, you wait for someone to say: “You're a bit embarrassing, you're in your 30s, pipe down love.”

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‘But actually the feedback we've got, we were just riding the weekend – it was the best bank holiday!’

They also found they were getting support from other local acts, like Joe Burger who also had a track out, Want It, which was on the chart as well.

‘What a day to be releasing music – two local artists breaking into the iTunes chart. Obviously it's ever-changing with that chart, but people were on it and messaging it and going: “Oh my god, you've climbed five places!”’

The song peaked at 32 in the main chart and number 12 in the pop chart.

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‘We've been so far removed from all our followers and fellow muso friends for the past year, but on Friday it was like we'd never been apart and the support from everybody was so overwhelming.

‘Just to see us sitting there between Justin Bieber and Little Mix – what on Earth is going on? We couldn't have done that without everyone getting behind it.’

With four more songs already recorded, they’re planning to release a full album by the end of the year.

‘By the end of the year, fingers crossed, I'm hoping we'll be able to release an album, not just an EP.

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‘We want to go all out and do a proper R&B album full of skits, with an intro and an outro and everything – we want to pay homage to the music we grew up with and the music that we love. I want to throw a couple of covers in too, but it will be mostly originals.’

Before then though, they have a much delayed date due at The Gaiety Bar on June 27.

The last time they performed live was last summer at The Queen’s Hotel garden party in Southsea.

‘It was so odd,’ recalls Lyndsey-Marie. ‘We heavily rely on people dancing, and there's bits where we sing and get the audience to sing back, etc, it's all about the relationship you build with the crowd.

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‘But this was bums-in-seats, no-one was allowed to stand up. The only dance move you could do was waving your hands from side to side.

‘We were even briefed before we went on stage that we couldn't do any of our usual choreography – no vigorous dance moves that would cause us to breathe excessively, so we had to dull the performance down.

‘It was great to be out, and it was great to be together, but it was such an odd experience.’

Keeping everything crossed, this new date will be after we are allowed to abandon social distancing.

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‘We're waiting every Monday for that update from BoJo to check that everything's going the right way.

‘The set's changed like five times, and now we've got the wonderful (body-positive dance company) Neptune Girls back with us – we love performing with them, it's a collab made in heaven.

‘We love everything they stand for and the fire and the energy that we create on stage together, that's when we feel at our best.

‘We're just living our teenage dream! Who didn't want to be in the Spice Girls in those big platforms and singing into a hairbrush? Now we get to do that as middle-aged mums – it's hilarious!’

The Gaiety Bar, South Parade Pier

Sunday, June 27, 2021, 7pm

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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