Katie Grace: From Front Street to the festival stage
Fellow pupils voted Katie Grace ‘most likely to play Mouth Of The Tyne Festival’ at her Year 11 prom. Four years down the line and the North Tyneside singer songwriter is about to prove them right
Earlier this summer Katie Grace made the latest in a series of whistle stop trips to Tyneside as she sought to persuade trustees of the Sunday For Sammy charity that she was worthy of the support necessary to take the next step in her chosen career.
The singer songwriter from North Tyneside chatted to the panel about her aspirations, performed some of her favourite songs and then jumped straight back on a train to London — hoping she’d said and done enough to secure the grant that would help fund her next EP.
A few days later the call came through: the fast-rising singer songwriter’s audition had been successful.
“Sunday for Sammy is an absolute pillar of the North East arts scene,” explains Katie, who splits her time between studies in Greenwich and gigs back home.
“I’m so honoured they’ve awarded me a grant this year. It’s funding my next recording project — and the train tickets for my London-based band to come up to Newcastle and play on it!”
Katie and her band are first up on Sunday’s Mouth Of The Tyne Festival main stage bill. Headlined by Kenny Thomas and with Sonique and Marvin Humes in support, it’s an eclectic, family friendly line-up perfectly befitting what’s always a laid-back final day of the Tynemouth Priory-based event.
For the band it’s a first trip to the North East and a chance to explore the ‘home of Sam Fender’. For Katie, who grew up a stone’s throw from the Priory and cut her teeth busking on Tynemouth’s Front Street, it’s the realisation of a dream a decade in the making.
“I can’t believe it’s happening,” admits the former Kings Priory School pupil. “I still don’t think it’s really sunk in. I grew up in Tynemouth, running around the Priory and pretending to be a rock star or a pirate.
“Bands at Mouth Of The Tyne used to soundcheck while I was playing school rounders at Prior’s Park and, when I was really little, I used to have to tell my mum to shut my bedroom window at night because Rick Astley wouldn’t turn his microphone down!
“Getting to play that stage is literally a dream come true. I’m not sure how many times that happens in a person’s life. Plus, it’s at a very polite 12.30pm. Rick Astley and your late night AC/DC drum solo – take note!”
It's not lost on Katie that, in 2025, she’s incredibly fortunate to be part of a collaborative and supportive North East music scene, spearheaded by Fender and home to a slew of upcoming artists with common aspirations and a shared determination to showcase the region.
“When I was younger, I didn’t really feel like I had many local role models to look up to,” she adds. “The only person I could think of, who was a Geordie singer songwriter, was Sting — not very relatable to an 11-year-old girl busking in Tynemouth!
“That all changed when I heard about Sam Fender, a kid who lived five minutes away from me and who won a real-life BRIT award.
“I started going to a local youth music group called Standing Upright. I was tutored by — and eventually worked with — people who were part of an incredible local songwriting scene.
“It’s only since moving to London that I’ve realised how rare and important the North East music scene is. There’s so much support — from the Alan Hull Award for songwriting, which I was awarded in 2023, to Generator, who run a whole host of schemes to nurture up and coming local talent and help more established artists.”
It’s impossible to ignore the Fender effect as young hopefuls from across the region pick up a guitar for the first time and seek to follow in his celebrated footsteps. For Katie, a chance meeting with the North Shields native was the lightbulb moment that persuaded her a career in music could be more than a pipe dream.
“When did I know I wanted to be a songwriter and a musician,” she muses. “Probably when Sam walked into the Low Lights Tavern while I was playing at the weekly buskers’ night. He sat down in the only free chair — right in front of me.
“I’d played there every Monday for about a year, after dragging my parents in because I’d heard about Sam’s BRIT award on the bar. My friends Izaac (Wilson) and Ben (Harwood) are all about the same age and made up the younger contingent of the regular buskers.
“That night the three of us ended up spending the whole night talking and singing with Sam, who eventually got up and sang himself. Just meeting someone local who had actually ‘Done The Thing’ was so powerful.
“I’d found the past year being 17 pretty difficult (there’s a song about that!) but that night really pulled me out of it and reminded me why I wrote music in the first place.”
If Katie will always call Tynemouth home then she’s committed to flying the flag for the North East wherever her guitar takes her. A regular on London’s Camden scene, she’s played The Dublin Castle, Dingwalls and Water Rats during the last 12 months and never misses an opportunity to remind the locals that a trip up north is long overdue. It’s a journey she knows like the back of her hand.
“I’m pretty sure I’m qualified to drive the train from Newcastle to London at this point,” she adds. “I spend a lot of time going back and forth!
“But people were really receptive to me staying in touch about gig opportunities back home and being part of Generator’s First Notes cohort this year meant I could record at Blank Studios in my half term.
“London is brilliant by the way — I do feel at home down there and I love the busy pace of life and the huge amount of arts and culture that’s happening all the time. But I’m always talking about the music scene at home when I’m in classes at university.
“Now some of my friends from London have run into artists from the North East that they recognised from my social media. It’s amazing to think that somehow I’ve helped to build those cross-country connections.”
Katie Grace and Band open up Sunday’s Mouth Of The Tyne Festival (July 13). Purchase remaining tickets via mouthofthetynefestival.com
Katie will perform a solo set in support of Shannon Pearl at Tynemouth’s Alfie & Fin’s on August 8.