Isabella Richardson: All Out

I can remember the first time it happened, in 1986. Australian actress. Seeps into public consciousness. Outgrows hometown. Thinks she can sing. Becomes Kylie Minogue. You've seen this movie before. But this edition will make a great sequel, just read on.

I have been listening to Isabella Richardson's EP First Aid Kit for a week or so and loved every minute of it. The lyrics are deeply personal and give a deep insight into some painful memories, so there's nothing for it but to write a proper review of those four songs in a few weeks' time. Watch this space.

This clears the way for me to deal with the most important question I had prepared when we spoke recently. How is Marmite different to Vegemite? It's a question I have been saving since 1986 and never found occasion to ask, until now. Only Australians and Neighbours fans know what Vegemite is, and there are precious few of either in England any more.

It turns out that it's not an easy question. Issy loves Vegemite but has no clear idea what it is. Could it be something to do with the dregs of a beer barrel? Is one of them a little sweeter, but which one is which? In the end we each agreed to try out the product we were less familiar with and report back. I wish I had asked it sooner, to be honest. I'm not sure it was worth waiting forty years.

We talked about our common influences. Kate Miller-Heidke is a name that pops up in any conversation with an Australian. Relatively unknown here, unless you are a fan of Eurovision, but a pretty major celebrity back home, and a judge on the Voice, Kate spent a decade or so in London. When I was listening to First Aid Kit I recognised some textures in common with early KMH music.

Isabella left Melbourne in search of an entertainment career, and went to Los Angeles first. You can guess what came next. Yes, disillusionment. Things had been going well but then the pandemic stopped her in her tracks and caused her to move back home for a while. Only home had vanished. Her parents had left Melbourne for Tasmania, and Isabella knew absolutely nobody in that remote part of the world. I got the sense of a reset, a reckoning, a reassessment of priorities. We did not quite get to the bottom of how she chose the English countryside as her next home, but presumably it's a bit like Launceston, Tasmania, only without the weather.

One of the things I love most about this job is feeling like I've found a major new talent before anyone else.

The best news I have for you is that Isabella's recent EP will lead to a tour beginning in a few days' time and that she is really focusing on her music this year. She won't be turning down any lead roles in major motion pictures, but having listened to all her songs on repeat this week I feel like music is the perfect way for her to express her own feelings rather than reading words written by someone else while pretending to be someone she isn't.

The endearing thing about Isabella is that she has all the makings of a major global pop star: she has the life experience to write about, and she has the bubbly personality to convince you of this in about five seconds. And yet she wants to do nothing more than snuggle up with cocoa in a cottage in the woods, in England, in December, with the curtains drawn. Australia's loss is our gain, as it was for me when Clive James came here in... around 1986.

I've been working up to telling you that Isabella has a memorable role in the new Peaky Blinders movie. The name of the part, I think you will agree, does not even begin to do justice to her performance. She auditioned for the part of Prostitute in Pub sometime in 2024 and shot her scene later that year, so it has been a wait. There's nobody better than Isabella to tell you about that role so I leave it as homework to find the reel where she talks about it on socials. Several years earlier she also wrote and performed a highly streamed song for a Disney movie called Clouds. Her song was Galaxies and is still available to stream today.

One of the things I love most about this job is feeling like I've found a major new talent before anyone else. Before you, anyway. You can catch Isabella on tour in the south of England this May and June, and even those of you near my northern hometown, in York, will be able to see her at FortyFive Vinyl. What could be more convenient? Grab a ticket while you can!

Isabella Richardson is on Instagram and TikTok as well as on your favourite streaming service.