IT IS HARD not to be engaged by the powerful on-stage persona of Chantel McGregor. At only 26, she displays the combined energy of a blues singer and rock goddess presented in the style of a seasoned performer.

Although that’s not surprising when you learn she has been playing guitar for most of her life.

Chantel, who hails from Bradford, recalls her dad’s guitars always being around the home when she was a toddler.

“As soon as I could walk I’d go over to the couch and detune them for him,” she laughs, “so as soon as I was three he said ‘right she needs a guitar nowof her own’.”

At the age of seven, Chantel began taking private guitar lessons and at eight she became the youngest person in the country to pass a rock school exam.

She puts her professionalism down to the fact that she was already jamming with seasoned musicians by that point.

“I was actually the only young person playing anything.

People at school didn’t really know about what I was doing. I was sort of jamming with people in their 50s when I was 12.”

It soon became clear Chantel displayed great potential as a serious musician, however one record label wasn’t keen to share that view.

“When I was 12, a head of a major label came up. I played him some songs, some electric and acoustic stuff. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘it’s great, but men won’t buy it. It’s too intimidating for them’ and I was like ‘what?’ He said: ‘Go away, listen to Nick Drake’ and I said: ‘No, I’m 12!’ I just stuck tomyguns and said ‘You know what, I’m going to do mything and see where it takes me’.”

Doing her own thing entailed Chantel enrolling at the Leeds College of Music and becoming the first student in the college’s history, to achieve a 100 per cent pass mark. She left with a First Class Honours degree in Popular Music and a coveted prize, for outstanding musicianship.

Chantel has since gone fromstrength to strength developing a style of singing that has brought comparisons to Stevie Nicks and a flare on guitar not unlike Jimi Hendrix.

She released her debut albumLike No Other in 2011.

“It was one of those things for me, getting together songs and being happy with what I’m putting out. My music isn’t really one style it’s not just rock or pop, the album’s got so many different genres on it. I just look at it as Chantel music now.”

Chantel who was voted Young Artist of the Year, in the British BluesAwards two year’s running in 2011 and 2012 as well as winning Female Vocalist of the Year in 2012 visits Pontypool’s Borough Blues Club on March 2.

“There will be a bit of everything,” says Chantel of the forthcoming concert.

“Quite a lot of rock, acoustic stuff, originals and quite a lot of wriggly guitar! I’ve started going quirky onmy covers. I’ve got a Lady Gaga song and a Bruno Mars song; you’ve got to keep it interesting. Everyone goes: ‘I didn’t realise Lady Gaga could write songs’. it’s really good, I’ve switched quite a lot of 50-year-old men onto Lady Gaga!”

● Chantel McGregor will play the Borough Blues Club, Pontypool on Saturday, March 2. Advance tickets are £12 and £10 for members, and for information on booking, please call 07803 853 506 or go visit boroughblues.com

  • To see, hear and find out more about Chantel McGregor visit her official website chantelmcgregor.com