Age, Biography and Wiki

Virginia Astley is a British singer-songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. She is best known for her work in the 1980s with the band Everything But the Girl. She has released several solo albums, including From Gardens Where We Feel Secure (1983), Hope in a Darkened Heart (1987), and A Summer Long Since Passed (2006). Astley was born in Watford, England, and grew up in a musical family. Her father was a jazz musician, and her mother was a classical pianist. She began playing the piano at the age of four, and by the age of seven she was writing her own songs. Astley attended the Royal College of Music in London, where she studied composition and piano. After graduating, she joined the band Everything But the Girl, with whom she released several albums and toured extensively. In 1983, Astley released her first solo album, From Gardens Where We Feel Secure. The album was a critical success, and spawned the hit single "A Summer Long Since Passed". Astley has continued to release solo albums, including Hope in a Darkened Heart (1987), and A Summer Long Since Passed (2006). She has also composed music for film and television, and has collaborated with other artists, including Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Sylvian. Astley is currently 64 years old. She has an estimated net worth of $2 million.

Popular As N/A
Occupation Singer · songwriter · musician
Age 64 years old
Zodiac Sign Libra
Born 26 September, 1959
Birthday 26 September
Birthplace Garston, Hertfordshire, England
Nationality United Kingdom

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 26 September. She is a member of famous with the age 64 years old group.

Virginia Astley Height, Weight & Measurements

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Dating & Relationship status

She is currently single. She is not dating anyone. We don't have much information about She's past relationship and any previous engaged. According to our Database, She has no children.

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Virginia Astley Net Worth

Her net worth has been growing significantly in 2022-2023. So, how much is Virginia Astley worth at the age of 64 years old? Virginia Astley’s income source is mostly from being a successful . She is from United Kingdom. We have estimated Virginia Astley's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2023 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2023 Under Review
Net Worth in 2022 Pending
Salary in 2022 Under Review
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Timeline

2003

Since then, Astley has guested on CDs by both Hideaki Matsuoka and the Silent Poets. From Gardens Where We Feel Secure was re-issued with a new cover in 2003, and in 2006 she released her first album of new material in ten years, entitled The Words Between Our Words. This mini album features Astley reciting her own poetry to a backing of harp music. In 2007, she premiered a long poem "Ecliptic", with flute, harp and birdsong.

1990

Kate St. John and Nicky Holland went on to maintain solo careers in the 1990s at the time of Virginia's reemergence in Japan. The Ravishing Beauties did not record as a band, but appeared on radio shows, including a John Peel Session on BBC Radio 1 in April 1982.

1984

In 1984, Astley played keyboards on tour with Prefab Sprout around the time of their first album, and she also did sessions for their Kitchenware Records labelmates Martin Stephenson and the Daintees, Vic Godard and Zeke Manyika.

In 1984 Virginia signed to Arista but left to join Elektra Records UK. "Darkness Has Reached its End" and "Tender" were both recorded at this time. When Elektra UK folded she went to WEA where she subsequently recorded the album Hope in a Darkened Heart with Ryuichi Sakamoto producing in 1986. The success of this album in Japan meant that Virginia was asked to sign to Nippon Columbia with whom she recorded a further two albums, All Shall Be Well in 1992 and Had I The Heavens in 1996. The following year, the first track from the album, "Some Small Hope" was released, a collaboration with David Sylvian.

1983

The album From Gardens Where We Feel Secure was released in August 1983 and was recorded on Astley's own label Happy Valley and distributed by Rough Trade, which has since reissued it. The album achieved a place in the top 5 of the indie chart (#4), but neither single nor album was listed in the mainstream charts.

In 1983, Astley established a more permanent lineup with string players Audrey Riley, Jocelyn Pook and Anne Stephenson, with guests such as drummer Brian Nevill and composer Jeremy Peyton Jones.

1981

It was during this early period that Virginia started to give serious consideration to releasing her own material; however, nothing immediately came of these plans. Then in 1981, she signed to the small UK label Why-Fi and recorded a series of songs. A school friend, Jo Wells (Kissing the Pink) and a university friend Nicky Holland both contributed as did Tony Butler, Mark Brzezicki and Peter Hope-Evans. Virginia then received an offer from another Why-Fi artist, Troy Tate, for a supporting band position with The Teardrop Explodes. In the nineties, finding that her musical style was popular in Japan, she went on to collaborate with Asian artists.

Virginia recruited Nicky Holland and another university friend, Kate St. John to form the band the Ravishing Beauties. The trio joined The Teardrops in Liverpool during the winter of 1981 for a series of dates at a small clubs and a UK tour in early 1982. They also recorded with Echo & the Bunnymen, Skids, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

One of the first musicians Astley recorded with was Richard Jobson. Together with John McGeoch and Josephine Wells, they created a musical backdrop for Jobson's poetry. This work was released as The Ballad of Etiquette in late 1981. Later, Astley went with Jobson to perform in Japan. She also worked on other people's projects, including work for Les Disques Du Crépuscule label, playing piano and arranging music for Richard Jobson and Anna Domino. She also had a track on From Brussels with Love in 1982. Sessions followed with Richard Jobson and Russell Webb for the final Skids album Joy, which featured Astley on flute and as a backing singer.

Astley recorded a solo album, She Stood Up And Cried for Crépuscule but this was withdrawn, eventually being released three years later as Promise Nothing. She signed with Why-Fi in mid-1981 and recorded an EP called A Bao A Qu, the title taken from a Malayan legend featured in Jorge Luis Borges's 1967 Book of Imaginary Beings. This was produced by Jon Astley and Phil Chapman. Using a demo studio in Wapping called Elephant Studios, Astley recorded the song that was to place her in the indie top 10 (#8) in 1983: "Love's a Lonely Place to Be", a song of despair and anxiety in spite of its Christmas carol sound. The song would later form part of the 1986 LP Hope in a Darkened Heart. In 1982 Virginia also played piano on her brother-in-law Pete Townshend's album All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes.

1980

Virginia began learning piano at the age of six and flute at 14. After leaving school, she studied at the Guildhall School Of Music. Her first professional appearance in public was as a busker outside South Kensington tube station. In 1980 she auditioned for a new band from Clapham, the Victims of Pleasure. Virginia, playing keyboards, worked with them for a short while playing in clubs and pubs around London. The band released three singles between 1980 and 1982 before splitting up.

1968

In 1968 her sister Karen married Pete Townshend of The Who. In the 1970s Virginia's elder brother, Jon Astley, became a tape operator for Eric Clapton and worked his way up to his current activities as a remasterer and producer.

1959

Virginia Astley (born 26 September 1959) is an English singer-songwriter most active during the 1980s and 1990s. Her songwriting career started in 1980. Her classical training influenced her as did a desire to be experimental with her music. Although more popular in the Far East, most notably Japan, she remains a cult artist in her native England.

Virginia Astley was born in Garston, Hertfordshire, England, alongside her twin, Alison in 1959, the second daughter of composer Edwin Astley, noted for TV themes such as The Saint, and his wife Hazel Balbirnie, who married in 1945. Virginia Astley's family was from the Warrington area and lived in Grappenhall, where her elder sister Karen was born in 1947. The family relocated to Stanmore in Middlesex because of Edwin's work as a film and TV writer. In the early 1960s he was musical director at ITC Entertainment in Borehamwood, the company responsible for TV series such as The Saint and Danger Man.