Sam Fender welcomes best mate and collaborator Brooke Bentham to his band
20 August 2024, 12:30 | Updated: 20 August 2024, 12:38
The Geordie singer-songwriter announced the news on social media that his friend and fellow musician appears on much of his new album.
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Sam Fender has announced a new band member, who he revealed is "all over" his new album.
Taking to Instagram, the Seventeen Going Under singer shared a series of throwback snaps with fellow Geordie musician Brooke Bentham and credited her with teaching him how to sing.
The North Shields singer began: "The legend that is @brookebentham has joined the band!"
"First time I met Brooke I learnt how to sing. Our mutual friend @paulstephenwalton ran just about every buskers night in and around Newcastle at the time, but it was in gosforth where I met Brooke Benthsteen. I walked in to the bar to the sound of the best cover of ‘dancing in the dark’ I’d ever heard, and from that moment we were best mates (and I ripped off the way she sings and played that cover to death in almost every gig I’ve ever done) but hey! It f***ing worked!!!"
The Will We Talk singer added: "Anyway, 13-14 years later, she’s joined the band! ❤️
"Her voice is all over the next album, it’s been an absolute pleasure singing with her again and I can’t wait for you to hear what we’ve made."
He added: "Here’s some photos of me and Brooke when we were teenagers X
"Drop her a follow and listen to her solo stuff!!!"
The series of photos in his post sees the pair in their younger years, and is led by a snap of them behind the bar at the Low Lights Tavern - the pub Sam famously worked, where he was first discovered and returned with his Brit Award years later.
Bentham shared her own post on Instagram confirming the news, which read: "Making it official 🥹 I’m joining the Sam Fender band. I met Sam when I was 16 and we were on the busking circuits in Newcastle."
She added: "He’s been a best friend and one of my biggest supporters (as you probs know) ever since. I can’t really describe how special it feels to be joining the band. Everyone has been so welcoming and encouraging, I’ve felt nothing but love. After leaving Shields ten years ago, to now being surrounded by geordies again. It’s a very lovely, lovely thing. Feels like home. Whenever Sam plays me new songs, I’m always just in awe of him. Every single one of the boys (men) in the band is a diamond. Singing together feels like magic. I’m so incredibly excited for what is to come. Sam I love ya brother woohoooooo Xx".
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Folk singer Brooke Bentham released her debut album, Everyday Nothing in 2020.
Her Caring EP was released in March last year, and includes the singles Let Go and Caring. Find out more about the singer at brookebentham.co.uk and visit her on Instagram @brookebentham.
Watch her most recent video for her Over and Over single here:
Over and over
Sam Fender previously said he wasn't prepared to rush out his third studio album.
The Play God singer released his debut Hypersonic Missiles in 2019, followed by Seventeen Going Under in 2021 - with both peaking at the top of the UK Albums Chart.
However, speaking in an upcoming interview on Sky Arts' Johnson and Knopfler's Music Legends (via BANG Showbiz), he explained: "We have been recording and recording and making loads of stuff but it got to the point where I thought, ‘We don’t need to get this out yet. We need to get it right’."
The 2019 BRITs Critics Choice winner added: “For the second one we rushed to get that out and the third one we started rushing and I thought, ‘No, we have got to take the time’.
“I want to do the best I possibly can. I’d rather it be late and great than early and s****.
“What we have got so far I am absolutely over the moon with but I want to give it that bit more time and more thought.”
Sam Fender - Will We Talk LIVE for Radio X
READ MORE:
- Sam Fender on his Seventeen Going Under album
- Kasabian praise Sam Fender and hint at future collaboration
