Sandford's soul singing sensation

Russets' administrator, Emma Hann, donned her sparkliest jewels and bouffed up her hair to perform with 70s soul legends, The Three Degrees, on their recent UK tour.

In need of support

Emma - who works at St Monica Trust's award-winning dementia care home, The Russets - has been singing since she was eight years old and is no stranger to the big-time.

She was part of a successful Abba tribute act for a number of years and performed with the likes of Jason Donovan and Liberty X in front of a crowd of 10,000 people at Bowood House.

More recently Emma has been performing with her singing partner, Peter Phillips, in clubs and hotels around Weston. As Emma explains, it was Peter’s contacts that got them the gig with The Three Degrees.

“Peter is friends with The Three Degrees’ tour promoter. They phoned him in August and said they’d put this tour together at short notice and would he come and be the support act?"

"He said he’d love to, but wouldn’t do it on his own. So he phoned me up and it took me about two seconds to think about it and say ‘yes’.”

Three Degrees of separation

The gigs took place between the 6 and 8 October at the Reading Concert Hall, the Pier in Weston, and Exmouth Pavilion.

“Reading was the first day that we met everybody. There’s this protocol of what you do when you meet the headline act. You're supposed to wait and then their manager has to ask them their permission for you to go in and see them.”

But if this all sounds a bit diva-ish to you and me, Emma says the reality couldn’t have been more different. “They were absolutely lovely. I always get star-struck when I meet someone famous, but they were so nice."

"Valerie Holiday, who was in the original Three Degrees, was like, ‘nice to meet you’. Then we met Freddie Poole who was one of The Supremes."

"Freddie told us about how she worked with Elvis and how he was always so nervous before he performed and had a lot of stage fright."

"And then we met Helen Scott, who was just so sweet. She could see we were a bit worried and she just said, ‘Don’t be nervous, just have fun’.”

Warming up the crowd

As the support act, Emma and Peter performed a 45 minute set of Motown classics before ‘the ladies’ took centre-stage. So how did their performance go down with the audience?

“It seemed very well-received. We went out front into the auditorium to watch The Three Degrees on their last night and we were thrilled with the comments we got from people."

"They made a point of coming to the back of the theatre and saying that they thought we were really, really good. We were asked for autographs and pictures and all sorts.”

Won't give up the day job

But residents at The Russets can rest easy, as Emma has no plans to pursue a full-time career in the business they call show. “People think that your life as a singer is going to be like Take That or Madonna, but it’s not. It’s hard graft and you don’t know where your next gig is coming from."

"I really enjoy my day job and I’m quite happy to be doing my singing as a part-time thing. Singing for me is like an extra benefit and if I get gigs like that with The Three Degrees now and then, that would be fab.”