It remains something of a perplexing mystery as to why an artist as talented as Linda Lewis is not a household name in her own country, though recent collaborations with the likes of Basement Jaxx, Common, Turin Brakes and Jamiroquai, shows how highly regarded she is by our hottest chart acts.

Linda was way ahead of her time, fusing seemingly disparate musical elements together - folk, soul, pop, rock and reggae - into a totally unique signature sound. With the recent emergence of black female artists cast in a similar stylistic mould to Linda Lewis, the kind of cultural and musical cross-pollination that Linda Lewis pioneered some 30 years ago is now an accepted part of the popular music landscape. There couldn't be a better time for a re-evaluation of the remarkable contribution Linda Lewis has made to the UK music scene.

The oldest of six children, Linda Ann Lewis was born in West Ham, East London, into a close knit community of mostly mixed-race families. From an early age, Linda displayed a precocious vocal talent and would often sing in public. She was only three-years-old when her mother decided to send Linda to a local stage school. Over the next few years, Linda was regularly cast in non-speaking TV and film roles, in 1961 appearing in the film, "A Taste Of Honey," and in 1964, she played the role of a screaming fan in the first Beatles' movie, "A Hard Day's Night".

At the beginning of the 1970s, she moved into a house in Hampstead that was run on the lines of a hippy commune. "It was an amazing place," she remembers, "and there was a big creative thing going on there." The house was almost always full of artistic people and amongst its permanent residents were producer, Ian "Sammy" Samwell (who had also become an A&R representative at Warner Brothers' Records), Soft Machine drummer and vocalist, Robert Wyatt and DJ turned concert promoter, Jeff Dexter (he also managed the American soft-rock trio, America). Musicians like Cat Stevens, Marc Bolan and Elton John were frequent visitors.

It was whilst living in Hampstead that Linda took up the guitar and began composing songs in earnest. She used to perform openly in front of the other residents and one day, an influential Warner Brothers' executive overheard her. "There was a guy called Ian Ralfini," she recalls. "He was head of Warner's in the UK. I remember he came to the house once for dinner because Sammy (Ian Samwell) worked for him. I was just playing guitar and singing that night in the living room and the next day, he wanted to sign me up."

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