The Early Years

Growing up in Montreal, Canada, Stacey was always the consummate performer and organiser. At the tender age of 11 she gathered up the neighbourhood kids to stage a variety show in her garden to raise money for Jerry Lewis’ Kids For Muscular Dystrophy, pulling in an overwhelming audience and a significant donation for the charity. When the local MD office heard about Stacey’s achievement they invited her to perform live on the local TV affiliate. She knew right then and there that her dream was to get up on stage and keep helping people.

One of Stacey’s biggest influences growing up was her father, Mike Levy - a graphic designer well-known for designing major corporate ad campaigns as well as producing record covers for artists including Celine Dion (her early, French-speaking years) and Les Baronets, a French-Canadian group famous in the 60’s and starring Rene Angelil, now husband of Dion. After Stacey was born, Levy created a range of greeting cards featuring his daughter and taking her name - Stacey Liane.

“He created these cute little characters of little girls, with these big eyes - and each girl, whether they had long blonde hair, or green hair, or curly hair, if they were black, if they were white...they all had the same eyes, those signature eyes. I’ve always had these big eyes! And so the inspiration was taken from me, who I think that at the time was two...coincidentally my daughter is now two...”

Stacey’s fondest memories are of the times when she and her Dad were driving in his cool sports car, singing along to the Supremes on his eight-track cassette player. She knew every word to every song before she was three and these fun car rides marked the beginning of Stacey’s love for 60’s and 70’s Motown, a passion that was to become a major thread in her life.

Ever eclectic, at 15 Stacey joined hard rock band ColdFront, playing at several venues around the city including the renowned Montreal Spectrum. Co-writing and producing dozens of original songs for the band, she continued performing with them alongside a stint as the most talked about aerobics instructor in the city - she was only 17, yet her “Superfit” class had punters queuing up to take part - while getting consistently high grades at school.

The juggling paid off, with Stacey winning a place at Concordia, one of Canada’s most distinguished universities for Communications. Here she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications with an Honours in Television and Minor in Theatre and Music.

The Career Girl

With a shrewd eye on the future, Stacey moved to New York to begin her career at CBS News, moving on to Lifetime Television as a Senior Publicist and Awards Coordinator. As part of her job she was responsible for judging some prestigious awards for US television including the Daytime Emmy’s and flitting between LA and NYC. Clients she represented over the years included Tim Robbins, Quentin Tarantino, Rowan Atkinson, Debbie Reynolds and John Lurie as well as a variety of American game show and talk show hosts. She also launched BBC America, the Independent Film Channel and the renowned chat show “Inside The Actor’s Studio” in the US. Stacey ultimately became a partner at Goodman Media in New York City.

In typical dramatic fashion, Stacey was caught in one of the biggest Californian earthquakes during a trip to LA. Standing outside the hotel at 4.17am surrounded by celebrities, TV producers and directors all in their bathrobes made for an interesting tale of survival.

Throughout her 11-year career in the television industry Stacey was also building up her reputation as a singer - performing in hip venues all over New York City with her band, Fuzzy Dice - a Motown covers band. In 1997 she organised a gig at Le Bar Bat on 57th Street to raise money for the world-renowned Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Hospital, raising thousands of dollars for cancer research.

The Soccermom

In 1999 Stacey and her husband left New York to work in London and to raise their four children, currently aged 14, 11, seven and two. Three months after the move her musical director and bass player from Fuzzy Dice, Bill Bennet, died in a car crash on the FDR Drive in New York, while returning home from a late night gig. Stacey was devastated, vowing to continue to focus on Motown music and working hard to establish herself in a new city despite missing her band enormously.

Moving to London after 10 years in New York was quite a change for Stacey. For one thing she had to cook more meals at home! Stacey had got used to living in the “city that never sleeps” - in NY your take out food was at the door by the time you hung up the phone! – However she soon threw herself in to the English way complete with bangers and mash, shepherd’s pie and football-football-football! Now she can’t imagine her life anywhere else in the world.

As for managing her young family, with four kids in tow (at three different schools and one still at home) Stacey “General” Jackson runs a chaotic mission control out of her kitchen, juggling the football, rugby and cricket runs, piano, drum and guitar lessons, science clubs, exam revision, art classes and gymboree and thriving on the challenges that motherhood brings, backed up by her super supportive husband. She couldn’t imagine her life any less hectic!

The Rockermom!

Much as she adores her role as soccermom there’s no way Stacey could deny her musical roots, and she made sure she kept involved by serving on the advisory board for musical charity Music For Youth (MFY). In 2006 things came to a head when she miscarried an ectopic pregnancy, her mother had a quadruple bypass and her father sadly passed away - all within six weeks. She knew that now was the time to make an album.

“That was it - I had this epiphany that I’ve got to get my album out, this has to happen now. You know, life is too short. I have these gorgeous kids and I had my time - now it’s time to finally live my dream...”

When Stacey took the call from her gynecologist announcing she was pregnant with baby Caylie (the first girl after three boys!) on the very day her father’s headstone was uncovered she realised more than ever that her Dad was watching over her proudly.

The Album

Of course knowing Stacey, it would be no ordinary debut album, but a tribute to all her favourite tracks growing up turned upside down and brought to fresh new life with a rock edge and her inimitable personality. She, her husband and her kids particularly enjoy listening to rock music together and Stacey made sure to introduce them to all the Motown classics she loved so much growing up. Her contemporary taste and influences in music come from rock - starting with Kiss, Motley Crue and Guns ‘n’ Roses in the 80’s, Seattle grunge in the 90’s and the likes of Linkin Park in the 00’s. By fusing Motown classics with contemporary hard rock Stacey hopes to span the generations of listeners from people over 40 who will recognise the tracks to young teens who will love the driving rock edge of the new arrangements.

When she decided to record her album, Stacey knew that she wanted the profits to benefit a charity that gives kids and teens the opportunity to develop their musical talent, and so she chose Music for Youth.

Just as important as the choice of songs was the opportunity to include as many talented kids as possible on the recordings, giving some of the performers she’d come across in her work with MFY a truly unique experience as well as raising money and awareness for the charity. Aspiring young rock guitarists and bassists, an all-girl choir and a full orchestra appear on the album, all of whom contributed their exceptional musical talents to the project and in return received the opportunity to record for the first time in some of the finest professional studios in London, work with top producers, engineers and musicians (including legendary rock drummer Geoff Dugmore) and learn a little something about what makes a great new sound.

“There are a zillion variations of black dresses...it’s what you do with it. Do you wear it with high heels, do you wear it with a bag, do you wear it with jewellery, do you wear it with your hair up, with your hair down...how do you recreate that black dress so that it doesn’t look the same every time you wear it? It’s the same thing with my music - you can take the classic Motown sound and rock it out, edge it up, recreate it, reproduce it, rearrange it...”

With the album out now on iTunes Stacey is planning a whole host of promotional activities including continuing her web TV show Upside Down and planning a national radio tour. In February 2010 she will be celebrating with a spectacular night of music featuring many of the children who recorded on the album, with Stacey at the heart of it all - right where she belongs!

The Future

This initial collaborative project is just the beginning, with plans afoot for well known British artists to get involved with future MFY albums, mentoring, running songwriting competitions and much more. With Stacey Jackson as Executive Producer, the force of MFY and some of the UK’s finest young musical talent, you’d better watch out!