My name is Nicole Mendes, and I am a South African twenty-something living in England's East Midlands region. Although my background is psychology and autism, I love immersing myself in the rock music world - listening to, writing about, and running gigs.

It’s summer – the season of sun, tanning, and music festivals! This is the time that those who fear crowds, those who hate camping, and those who have serious germ issues put it all aside all in the name of music. Reading, Leeds, Virgin, Ibiza – just to name few legen-dary festivals sampled by individuals the world over. However, it’s not just the big name fests that get our toes tapping and heads bopping. Oh no, there are those little ones on their way to epic stardom......such as the Strawberry Fields Festival.

The Strawberry Fields Festival, or SFF, is a fun-filled feast of musical talent held out in the heart of the stunning National Forest in rural Leicestershire – hence fields. Since its commencement in August 2010 SFF has played host to some of the biggest names in rock, pop, hip hop, and dance music including The Mystery Jets and Labrinth. Yet, disregarding the hot-shot line-up, the managers of SFF have always included the unknowns allowing that undiscovered talent to play along the big-wigs. When reviewing the unsigned talent of 2012 I was lucky enough to come across this bright spark – Yours Truly.

Yours Truly is a London-based ‘retro pop’ trio founded in December 2011 by Patrick Cesar and Nana Klimek. Since then they have experienced great success in the UK music industry playing events such as the Isle of Wight and aforementioned Strawberry Fields Festival. Recently the girls of Yours Truly found themselves on London’s radio 101.4 spreading their sound for all to hear.

Despite bearing a similarity to contemporary indie artist Remi Nicole – Natasha, Kathryn, and Lucienne have developed a Sugababes meets The Marvelletes vibe with a strong 1950s style. Their songs “The Clapping Song” and “Mind’s Made Up” – which can be found on Youtube - illustrate their strength of collaboration and harmony. I would, however, like to see a ballad placed among this limited selection of videos. It is obvious Yours Truly can hold an up-beat tune, but what happens when you slow the pace down? I look forward to your response.

YOURS TRULY - The Clapping Song