Like a good tradeswoman, Mancunian Cate Brooks (a.k.a. The Advisory Circle) got her alter ego, the King of Woolworths, out to the people by peddling it herself.

Whether it was simply name checking her music on message boards, making it available to download on music sites or sending CDRs out to her wish list of celebrity fans, she took to the spirit of her stage name like Del Boy sniffing out hooky car stereos down the Nags Head.

That was just a year ago. Now she has a record deal and three albums under her belt, not to mention a list of fans as long as Man City's transfer list. Her big break came when Mary Ann Hobbs picked up on her stuff off the internet, championed Cate on her Breezeblock show on Radio 1 and catapulted her in to mini-stardom. Mary even gave Cate her own DJ mix slot on her show, an honour usually only bestowed on dance music's elite.

A cinematic feel runs throughout her music with the King trying to recapture her childhood in audio form (for example, tracks like 'The Watchmakers Hands' and 'Theydon' hark back to the days when she watched TV programmes like the old Friday Film Specials). Other inspirations do creep in like French films of the 1960s, London ('Kentish Town', 'Bakerloo' and 'Kite Hill') and Hammer Horror with 'Stalker Song' appearing in its full technicolor glory. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.