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Kate Jackson

Kate Jackson, (born 3rd October 1979), is the lead-singer with British band The Long Blondes. She has been described in the NME as having the 'arrogant strut of Chrissie Hynde and the acidic tongue of a Dickens heroine.' ^[1]

She has also made the NME 'Cool List' though she responded to this accolade with: 'They probably thought they didn't have enough girls. It was so overrun with boring boys, they needed someone to bring a touch of glamour.' ^[2]

As a teenager attending Culford School (a public school in Bury St. Edmunds) she was such a big fan of Jarvis Cocker that she dreamed of moving to the Pulp singer's hometown of Sheffield. At 19 she enrolled in the city's university to study English and History, but dropped out after only one year. Before The Long Blondes was a full-time concern, Jackson worked at Freshman's Boutique in Sheffield, where the band was formed and is based. This allowed her to express her interest in vintage clothing, something which is an integral part of her on-stage look and the image of the band, who were described in the NME as Marlene Dietrich meets rockabilly chic."

Jackson remains a passionate spokeswoman for Sheffield, recently talking to The Observer about a project initiated by the magazine 'Go' ^[3] called 'Cooling the Towers' which proposed lighting up the former cooling towers to symbolise what Sheffield stands for, rather than demolishing them. "One suggestion was that the towers would light up as cars passed on the M1, one a tower of red lights and one a tower of white. Go Sheffo petitioned the city council with these suggested uses but met with mute response. So the secret potential of the towers may tragically never be realised. ^[4]