I want to see the sparkly lady – Sonic Boom Festival

Burton might be best known for the beer (Bass, Worthington’s and Allsopp’s have all been brewed there) or as being the home of the England football training centre at St Georges Park. However, it is also home to the Sonic Boom festival. This is a Free festival put on by the town itself!  One of the many unique things about the festival is the main stage in the middle of town running during the day with the headliners running between 1900-2000. Then there is a massive dispersal to acts on indoor stages. So post headliner you get the chance to see up and coming artists in smaller venues. Last year this was a wristband event but this year the whole event was free. This is the ideal event to find the best new artists that the East Midlands have to offer. 

I saw Terrianne’s performance at the festival and we caught up afterwards.

Would you like introduction yourself for Tune Fountain Readers?

My name is Terry Anne and I’m an independent artist.  Tune Fountain has been amazing to me and has been very supportive over the last few years.  We met recently at Sonic Boom Festival, it’s nice to be here.

You performed at  Sonic Boom Festival. How did that come about?

I had my eye on it for a while.  I was obviously watching from the outside the last couple of years when I had serious FOMO.  I wasn’t able to go but I was watching all the videos and thought this festival looks amazing.  Obviously, I’m from the Midlands, so I’m always trying to build my fan base there.

Then I sold out a headline gig in March in Derby.  I think that got their attention a little bit.  Then, I got a call from one of the team and they were just like, “do you want to play main stage at Sonic Boom?” And I was like, “what?”.  I was in a taxi when he rang me and I was just screaming in the taxi, “yeah!”

So you felt like you had just won the lottery.

Yeah, I have been planning it with the band, what we were going to do, the visuals,  the outfits.  I was just so excited and it really paid off, it was packed.

I think you said on stage that it had taken you a little while to find the right group of musicians to work with. So how did that process evolve?

Well, I moved to London about 10 years ago.  I went to BIMM and so I started playing with a band straight away.  When we were at college, we were all just helping each other out.  Everyone’s in everyone’s projects and it’s amazing.  When you leave,
Uni, it’s like everyone’s working and everyone’s busy.   So, it’s a little bit harder to make it happen.  Also financially, I’m independent. I want to pay everyone who I work with, but that’s really difficult sometimes to get full band together because it’s just me funding everything.
So, I went to a Caity Baser gig a couple of years ago and she had an all-female band and a lot of my music is about being a woman in the music industry.  Seeing that gig, just like something clicked in my head and I was like, this is what I need.  I need to be on stage with all women.  It was just a strong gut feeling.  I was like, I don’t know how I’m going to make it happen, but I am going to make it happen.  It was a message.  It’s a whole message that I want to put across, you know, like I really want to uplift women in the music industry.  So, it was really important to me and as I mentioned, the financial side, I knew it was going to be difficult.  So, I applied for loads of funding and eventually I got a Help Musicians Next Level Award and that enabled me to tap into a new network of musicians who are just incredible.  They played Why Not Festival with me in 2025.  

So the fund and the mentoring that I got with that Help Musicians Award really elevated everything for me because I was able to get a musical director on board,  Alex, who you saw at the gig, the bassist, and she brought in the rest of the team.  From then, we’ve been stuck together, which has been amazing.  So, since Why Not? they’ve stayed with me and I got loads of footage from Why Not? and that just led to more opportunities.  Now, even if one of the girls can’t make it, I do really try to get another woman on stage with me. I think it’s so important, there were so many little girls at Sonic Boom, it’s so important for them to see a female drummer, a female bassist, guitarist, and just to see that and be like, I can do that.

Was, your latest single, Midlands Girl, sort of looking back at when you first went to London?

Yeah, well I moved to London and to be honest I find that I’m like always coming back to the Midlands.  There’s nothing like a home gig and there’s nowhere like the Midlands.  Like you’ve seen at Sonic Boom, everyone is so supportive.  I was just blown away on Saturday and every time I come home for a gig,

I do miss the Midlands, I feel like I’ve kind of got the best of both worlds because obviously I’ve built the band here, and I’ve met so many amazing musicians and people who have come into my team and helped me to grow.  But then, fan-wise, I feel like Midlands fans are just the OGs, they’ve been there from day one and they are always there.  You know it’s so nice is when you see the same people in the crowd and they’ve been there when I’ve been playing to a room of literally like 10 people and now you’re still here when I’m playing to 1000 people.

You posted about the little girls in the crowd and you put the quote from a girl about how she wanted to go and see the sparkly lady.

Well, honestly, that made my whole day.  One of the women working on the Sonic Boom team, she was telling me about all the little girls were pulling the parents, saying they want to go and see the sparkly lady.  I always have been bright colours and festival vibes.  Festivals are my favourite thing to play.  I feel like my music and my energy just really suits festival stages and it’s my favourite kind of audience.  So I’m definitely keeping the colour, keeping the sparkles.

I saw you were performing at the Trent Bridge.  That’s kind of quite a different crowd from a festival, isn’t it?

I’m still not over it.  It was mental.  That’s my biggest gig yet and it was very, it was televised, it was on BBC Sport.  There were cameramen everywhere, on stage, it was a dream.  It’s a massive opportunity for independent artists because, do you know what, they were so amazing.  They sent me all the footage, the next day, all the footage, all the audio.  So, now I’ve got this great show reel that I can send and show that I’ve done this big gig on this massive stage.

So how did that come about?

I really thought like, this is probably a scam, but I’ll send my e-mail anyway and send the e-mail. And then I got through a very legit e-mail with a contract and I was like, oh, this is real.  I replied and I said, can I just ask how you found me?

They used to work with BBC Introducing, so I assumed that it was probably through Dean [Jackson – BBC introducing East Midlands]. But it wasn’t actually this time. She replied and she said, I just found your Instagram and I just thought you’d bring a good energy for it.  I thought, wow, that never happens but it reassured me a lot.
There’s a lot of people now saying, you need to be posting three times a day and you never feel like you’re present enough on socials.  That just reassured me because she’s looked at my Instagram and from looking at that, she already thinks that I’m going to be a good fit for that gig.

What plans have you got coming up?

So, I’m actually going to be going back to Burton to go into the college, they were running a college tour on the day of Sonic Boom.  I was talking with Dan, who is on the Sonic Boom team, and I’d love to come back and just do something with the college.  So, in a couple of weeks, I’m going to come back.  I think just to meet and chat with the students, they’re like 15 to 18, so if they’ve got any questions about the industry.   I’m just going to go and meet them all and hang out with them and get some pizza,

Then I’m doing Hockley Hustle, in Nottingham on 25^th October.

I kind of want to do something like really exclusive in the Midlands, like just for true Terrianne fans and maybe do like 15, 20 tickets and just keep it really small and intimate but we’ll see.  It’s just me running it, so I’ll see what I can put together.  In 2024 I performed with Dorothy Ella, she’s a Burton artist as well, and that was amazing.  So, I’m just thinking like, I’d love to do something like that again.

We played in like little music shops, little cafes, just outside on the street and loads of other artists came and got involved and it was really rewarding. So yeah, maybe something like that towards the end of the year.

The Headliners were Pale Waves, now playing as a 3 piece but as accomplished as ever. The delivered a great set as the downpours of rain abated.Brilliant support from the likes of the Lilacs ahead of their debut album launch in October.  In between the main stage slots there were two stages running simultaneously, the Brewers Stage and the Busk Stop.  There were some great artists of all different genres, the highlights included Leah Wilcox (I missed her at last years festival) her mum was giving out beer mats as free merch.  Romy and Ellie Grice (Lead Singer from Eighty Eight Miles) also performed great acoustic sets on a street corner location of the Busk stop.

Following the headline sets everyone scatters to the smaller venues.  I was lead by a trusted friend to the BBC introducing stage in the College to see Zebedee who are a brilliant local 4 piece.  With both guitarists taking turns singing and a thumping rhythm section.  I will definitely be looking out for more of their gigs in future.  Next up were Willow Bay, a female fronted 5 piece Indie-folk band from Nottingham.  They have a wonderful sound, acoustic lead, almost country with the occasional banjo, and lovely harmonies.  Another band playing at Rough Trade stage on Hockley Hustle.  Our night was rounded out by see Joel Foster belt out a largely covers set but it was a great feel good way to end the evening before a long drive home.

Terrianne is playing Hockley Hustle in Nottingham on the 25^th October you can find tickets here

You can find Terrianne here – Instagram

Willow bay are also playing Hockley Hustle and you can find them here – Instagram

You can find Zebedee here – Instagram

You can find Sonic Boom festival here – Instagram