STEF STOKES / TRIPHAZARD - FAN SITE

Once there was a beat group on every corner, then a poet or a comedian.  The playwrights arrived and, in more recent years, the artists.  Merseyside has always been a breeding ground for the arts and entertainment industry.  It is impossible to predict with total accuracy who will succeed and who will fall by the wayside but Philip Key has selected an eclectic list of 20 of those who deserve to succeed.  Stef was in that top twenty along with authors, actors, playwrights and producers. 

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"At just 16, Stef Stokes is already making waves as a singer. She has topped polls on internet sites, live performances, appeared on television,  form a successful band and been named 'The Next Big Thing' on a local radio station. A singer with a big voice, the big break is surely only a matter of time."

STEF Stokes, the amazing teenage singer from Maghull, has done it again. Her latest recording has topped the charts of an international website. At the end of last year, her song Still Here, written for her by Liverpool musician David Edge, went straight to the top on aiiradio.net This is a site on which web users across the world vote for their favourite songs. For Stef, now 16, it was the start of an amazing few weeks in which she got her own band together, appeared on Granada TV and got the attention of record producers. One day, a producer called at night and auditioned her on the telephone. "It was funny," she says. "I was in my pyjamas and in the middle of my maths homework." The result was that she recorded a new number, Wots Wrong With Dreamin', and sent that to aiiradio.net. It went straight in at number two and this week it hit the top spot again. She is delighted with it. "It is an all-Liverpool production, born and bred," she says.. A powerful number with a good melodic line and interesting hook, it has already been played on Billy Butler's Radio Merseyside show. Above all, however, is Stef's voice, one that suggests a maturity much beyond her years, a strong, powerful, almost bluesy voice. As yet the recording is unavailable commercially, but for Stef Stokes, it can be only a matter of time before we hear more.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newtalent/showcase/week4.shtml

Teen talent rocks her way to the top Nov 3 2004 By Philip Key, Daily Post "IT'S all happened so fast," declares Stef Stokes, a schoolgirl singer who suddenly finds herself very much in demand. At just 15, she has already made numerous public appearances, made a record and been asked by an American rock group to sing on their new album. She is also top of the pops on an international internet chart site. For Stef, the unexpected career has blossomed in just 12 months. "It all began when I entered a talent contest at my school, Deyes High in Maghull," she explains. "I won with a prize of cinema tickets." More importantly, others noticed the young Stef was a great singing talent. "I was encouraged to make a demonstration tape with a friend from school who played acoustic guitar to my singing and I sent it out." Among those who heard it was Lyn Staunton of Power Promotions who has since become an adviser to Stef. One thing she did suggest was for Stef to record an original song. Happily an introduction to Liverpool musician David Edge proved beneficial and he wrote a song for her titled Still Here, a raw-edged rock number. Stef recorded it and the recording ended up on the international website aiiradio.net, a site where visitors vote for their favourite recordings. Still Here has been number one for the last three weeks. The American band Koalition from Ohio were so impressed that they have asked Stef to sing on three tracks of their next album. Meanwhile, she has been in demand for live appearances at everywhere from Birkenhead's Iron Door to the Search For a Star final at Southport where - too young to compete - she was nevertheless asked to sing for the opening section. Mother Chris Stokes, a teacher who has been acting as her daughter's chaperone, is as amazed as everyone else at her sudden success (the radio station Juice FM named her The Next Big Thing). "I know nothing about showbusiness but I have been keeping an eye on her," she says.. A bewildered Stef is uncertain what the future will bring and whether she will go on to further education or straight into a singing career after school. "You never know what will happen but I do want to make singing my career," she says. So determined is she that she is now looking for a band to accompany her. Musicians can contact her on stefstokes_1@hotmail.com. And for mother Chris Stokes there is another burgeoning talent in the family. Daughter Jenni, 21, is training as a dancer.