Stephen Fretwell

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Stephen Fretwell (born November 10, 1981) is a singer-songwriter from Scunthorpe, England.

Stephen attended St Bedes Catholic School in Ashby before furthering his study at John Leggott College.

Fretwell was a keen music fan and was caught by the mood that was created by the Brit-pop era, notably the bands Oasis, Blur, The Bluetones, Radiohead, and Suede. During this period he formed a band; this was the first time that he was able to express his emotion and talent on a scale that would introduce the world (or at least Scunthorpe) to the dark but beautiful land which Fretwell graze.

After moving to Salford in the autumn of 2000 Stephen started to discover his voice that would propel him to the critical acclaim of the NME, Q Magazine and other such publications. Songs like Emily and What’s That You Say Little Girl? were penned and sung to friends that were stunned and blown away by Stephen's talent.

He fell in love with Manchester and stayed permanently later releasing '8 Songs' which he put out on Northern Ambition, a label owned by a friend. Fretwell later described it as 'The one I did to prove to myself I could put out one proper record

Fretwell left university after only one year discovering that education wasn’t for him at this time, after all he’d only managed to attend two lectures. With this he picked up his guitar and started to parade his material at the local acoustic nights in the Manchester area. The first of these nights been at The Roadhouse, a superb venue that lay in the epicentre of Manchester’s Northern Quarter. Fretwell fell on stage with the reluctant promise that he was given the opportunity to play to a restless crowd. After a stunned and silenced crowd had witnessed the mastery and soul of Fretwell’s craft the compare for the evening got up onto the stage requesting more from this talented troubadour. This wasn’t going to be the last crowd that would be struck down by the magic of not only the soulful voice, but captivating lyrics that spill from Fretwell’s mouth like finely woven tapestry.

He later released the 'Something's Got To Give' EP and 'The Lines', both self-financed. On back of his growing stature and reputation, Fretwell was invited to support bands such as Travis, Elbow, Athlete, Keane and KT Tunstall.

His debut album Magpie, was released in November 2004. The first single taken from the album was 'Run' and was subsequently followed by 'Emily' which was in the Top 10 airplayed songs^{[citation needed]}. His last single was 'New York'.

He is known for his curly mop of ginger hair, sombre lyrics and gravelly deep voice and names his main influence as Bob Dylan. His songs are derivative of Dylan's work, and he learnt to play guitar by playing Dylan's songs on his grandfather's old, unused guitar.

He was described by Q Magazine as 'Scunthorpe's finest export... ever'. The Times magazine said 'Not in your face but in your heart? Yes'. He is signed to Fiction Records and recorded his album at the Abbey Road Studios.

He supported Oasis at Marley Park in Dublin on Saturday 16th July 2005.