Tracey Thorn

Tracey Thorn is an English pop singer and songwriter from Brookmans Park, Hertfordshire. She grows up in Hatfield, Hertfordshire and studies English at the University of Hull, graduating in 1984 with First Class Honours. She is best known as one half of Everything but the Girl, and she is also associated with Marine Girls.

Early career

Thorn begins her musical career in Marine Girls. The group releases two albums, Beach Party in 1981 and Lazy Ways in 1982, as well as several singles. The band disbands when she decides to focus on Everything but the Girl.

Her first solo release is the mini-album A Distant Shore in 1982. A re-recorded version of “Plain Sailing” appears as a single and is included on the Cherry Red Records compilation Pillows & Prayers.

Everything but the Girl

Thorn meets Ben Watt at university, when they are both signed separately as solo artists to Cherry Red Records. Their first album together is Eden, released in 1984. As Everything but the Girl, they release work across two decades.

The duo’s biggest chart success comes in 1995, when DJ Todd Terry remixes a track from Amplified Heart. “Missing” becomes a major hit internationally and reaches number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. The group enters an extended hiatus from 2002 while Watt concentrates on DJ work and Thorn raises their children and records solo material.

Collaborations and solo work

Thorn collaborates with Massive Attack on several projects, beginning with “Protection” from the album of the same name. She also appears on “Better Things” and contributes to the soundtrack for Batman Forever with “The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game”.

She provides guest and backing vocals for The Style Council, The Go-Betweens, Working Week and Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. After a long period away from singing, her first collaboration is “Damage” by Tiefschwarz.

Her second solo album, Out of the Woods, is released in 2007 on Virgin Records in the UK and Astralwerks in the US. It includes contributions from Cagedbaby, Ewan Pearson, Charles Webster, Sasse and Martin Wheeler. In 2010 she releases Love and Its Opposite on Strange Feeling, her husband Ben Watt’s label, with Swedish singer Jens Lekman appearing on “Come On Home to Me”.

Personal life

Thorn lives with Ben Watt in North London. They have twin daughters born in 1998 and a son born in 2001.