Education
She attended Brays Grove School in Harlow, Essex. She returned to the school for a final reunion in June 2008 as guest of honour.
She attended Brays Grove School in Harlow, Essex. She returned to the school for a final reunion in June 2008 as guest of honour.
Soloist singer
De Sykes had a hit in 1974 with the Simon May penned "Born With a Smile on My Face" which reached Number 2 in the United Kingdom Singles Chart. She also recorded the theme tune to the television programme The Golden Shot with the group "Rain" that same year. The theme song, "Golden Day" was written for them by Lynsey De Paul and Barry Blue.
Around this time, the television company, ATV Midlands started each day"s broadcasting with a short film accompanied by another song performed by Rain with de Sykes singing vocals, "Odyssey" (often incorrectly referred to as "Life is a Beautiful Book").
De Sykes returned to the United Kingdom Top 20 a year later as a solo artist with the song "We"ll Find Our Day" from Crossroads, which was featured at Meg Mortimer"s wedding in the United Kingdom television soap opera in 1975. De Sykes appeared in the show as singer "Holly Brown".
She also had a starring role in the comedy Side by Side. Groups and backing singer
De Sykes was one of the "Birds of Paris", a combination of backing singers used throughout the 1970s to add vocals to a number of disco groups and artists.
She also sang with the group "Sphinx" and with "Voyage".
De-Sykes / Slater
De-Sykes and Stuart Slater wrote two United Kingdom Eurovision Song Contest entries, Company-Company"s "The Bad Old Days" and Prima Donna"s "Love Enough for Two" in 1978 and 1980 respectively. The song "We"re Doing A Send Up" by "Brown Ale" did not make the United Kingdom Singles Chart. De-Sykes and Slater had one other song in the United Kingdom final, "All Around The World" in 1983, which was performed by Slater, ostensibly as a soloist, but with five musicians, including De-Sykes on keyboards and vocals.
The song placed fifth of the eight submissions.
Later career
De-Sykes provided background vocals for Meat Loaf"s 1984 album Bad Attitude, which included the Jim Steinman penned single, "Nowhere Fast".
The other members of the Birds of Paris included Madeline Bell, Joanne Stone, Kay Garner, Sunny Leslie, Sue Glover, Vicki Brown and Katie Kissoon. She was once a member of Love & Kisses, a group started by Demis Roussos" producer Alec R Costandinos.
