Tilston playing Rose Theatre benefit

8:10pm Monday 18th August 2008

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When I ask Martha Tilston whether her popularity has taken her by surprise, she seems genuinely taken aback that she is considered famous.

“I’ll always write songs because I always have, but if people start getting bored of them I’ll just keep them to myself,” she says.

Throughout our interview Tilston’s modesty shines through and she recalls her amazement that more than 5,000 people downloaded a free album she put on her website.

She says: “I’ve come from the grassroots and I still am I think, so it is nice to know people who show up at gigs want to be there for the music.”

The singer-songwriter was brought up around Kingston and has been heralded for bringing folk to a new generation.

Now she’s returning to her roots to play a benefit gig at Kingston’s Rose Theatre on August 31 in aid of the Green Fair, which collapsed this summer after two years of dire weather and poor turnouts.

The 32-year-old is speaking to me from her “lovely new cottage” that she shares with husband Robin in the Gloucestershire countryside.

After 21 years in Kingston’s Canbury Gardens, the team behind the green fair are planning a carbon neutral picnic, Leave No Trace, next year and will continue to support Kingston’s two-week Paint the Town Green celebrations.

They seem to have found an ally in Tilston, who says she is “passionate” about helping get the fair back on its feet.

“I have been involved in the green fair since I was tiny,” Tilston says. “I used to go with my school friends and everyone got their hippy skirts and beads out and it was such a free and liberal day.

“It was the one green event on the Kingston calendar when I was young and it was the one day a year where Kingston seemed to think about something other than shopping.”

Going to the fair inspired Tilston when she first started out in music and reminded her of her social responsibility as an artist.

She says: “I played at the Green Futures Field at Glastonbury which was run by Sam Hermitage and my environmental awareness grew. Being socially responsible in the music industry is not easy, as it seems the easiest way to make it is to get yourself on a car advert.

“There has always been an amazing underbelly in Kingston and it is a really important and creative place where there are so many talented artists and musicians trying to make a difference.

“It’s really sad to think the green fair has come to an end. In fact I don’t want to think about it but I think things sometimes do have to move forward and the gang are so positive I know they will continue to spread their message on a wider scale.”

Despite describing herself as still a “grassroots” performer, Tilston certainly does have musical pedigree in the blood and describes growing up in a world where she thought it was normal for everyone to make music.

She says: “I remember walking to St Andrew’s and St Mark’s School in Surbiton and asking my friend what type of songs her dad wrote. I couldn’t get my head around the fact it wasn’t the norm for everyone.”

Tilston is the daughter of Steve Tilston, another critically acclaimed singer-songwriter, and her step-mother is the London-born Irish folk singer Maggie Boyle, who will be her supporting act at the Rose.

She describes this collaboration as a “dream come true”.

“I used to listen to her when I was a child and wanted to be like her. She is beautiful and such an influence. Her voice is like treacle,” she says. “It feels really inappropriate her supporting me but it will be amazing to play together.”

Despite these early folk influences, Tilston spent most of her childhood in Surbiton with her mother Naomi, an artist, and step-father Frank Whately, a theatre director, head of the school of performance at Kingston University and one of the pivotal figures in seeing the Rose Theatre come to fruition.

She says: “My mother was the one playing me Joni Mitchell, Simon and Garfunkel and Cat Stevens and both her and Frank had a huge influence on me.

“We weren’t allowed to watch television much and my mother would set up a still life for us every weekend. She never pushed me to be anything other than what I wanted to be.”

Tilston is not just a musical talent. She is a successful businesswoman who self-financed her first album Bimbling through selling her artwork in a Soho bar and released it on her own record label, Squiggly.

She says: “I gave the label a silly name so I wouldn’t be in danger of taking it too seriously. I haven’t taken on any other artists because even though there are so many people I would like to support it doesn’t seem right capitalising on their talent.”

Instead, Tilston hopes to set up a DIY page for aspiring artists on her website.

Fans of Tilston visiting the Rose can expect a mix of classic and new material and the gig will feature her band the Woods, with instruments including mandolin, banjo, fiddle, flute and bouzouki, as well as her oboe playing husband.

After the performance Tilston will be recording her new album before she gives birth.

“I am six months pregnant with our first child so we only have a window of a few weeks to record the album,” she says. “Moving to Gloucestershire has given me so much energy. It is a new chapter and my voice feels better than it has done for years.”

• Martha Tilston will be at the Rose Theatre, High Street, Kingston on Sunday, August 31 at 7.30pm.

Tickets are priced from £7 to £14 and are available by calling the box office on 0871 2301552 or click here. To visit Tilston’s website click here.