Sam Fender is 30 this week.

Sam was born in North Shields and had a tough upbringing because his biological mother abandoned him when he was around eight years old and went to live with his father and step mother. Before long things went wrong and his step mother refused to let Sam live with them and so he had to find his mother who had moved to Scotland, and went back to live with her.

He showed an interest in Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix and his father bought him a guitar at the age of eight. Within two years he had become proficient and met up with a friend, Dean Thompson and the pair began performing covers of Kings of Leon songs.

In 2012, he was playing in a pub called the Low Lights Tavern when he was spotted by Ben Howard’s manager who took him on as a client. Sam’s first UK hit, Hypersonic Missiles, stalled at number 65, the follow up, Will We Talk did better reaching number 43. His big breakthrough came in 2021 when Seventeen Going Under, a long about helping his mother financially when he was 17, peaked at number three.

Let’s enjoy that song.