Hull, England, is a place where I spent many years of my life — and now former dining stranger Lorraine Bowen has written a song about the city.
Although I’ve lived in Washington, DC, for 11 years now and counting, I spent my (rather plump) childhood and teenage years — complete with awful curtains haircut — growing up in Hull. It’s a cold, rainy port town on the northeast coast of England, in case you’re wondering. After three years living in London at university, I spent another few years back in Hull working for the local newspaper.
That sheer amount of time spent in one city means that even now I keep tabs on developments back there, including what my former colleagues at the Hull Daily Mail are writing, whether Hull City is going up or down the football league, and anything else I can find out from across the Atlantic.
So it put a smile on my face to learn about Lorraine’s new song.
Called “Give My Love To Hull,” it’s a cheery tune that is bound to put a smile on your face. The lyrics are somewhat different from most love songs (including “I had a laugh in the chippy/I had chips and a patty/The people were chatty/They told me about chip spice/They said, ‘Go on and try it’/I did, and it was nice!”) but hilarious.
The song, which is available to buy on iTunes, is typical of Lorraine’s upbeat, offbeat style. She and I met back in January 2013 for a fun dinner in London. We spoke about her early start in the music industry, how she developed her unique style of singing and songwriting, and much more.
Click on this link to read about my meal with Lorraine. And as an added bonus, at the end of the meal she found a random piano and played me a tune — the clip is in the article.