Bognor's Katie Owen gets a boost from dad with debut CD album

Katie's dad, Robert Owen, has set up a stall in the London Road precinct in early January to shift some copies of Kate's debut CD direct to shoppers.

Mr Owen (45) has received street trading consent from Arun District Council for the enterprise between 2pm and 4pm Mondays to Saturdays for six months.

His pitch is outside the Abbey branch close to the sun sculpture at the junction with the High Street.

He and Katie arranged for a thousand copies of her CD, Comin' On Strong, to be made.

Katie (21), of Annandale Avenue, said: "It's really good to see my name and face on the CD cover. It makes what I have done seem more real."

She described its 11 songs, with titles such as Give It A Rest and Not Without You, as being influenced by the likes of Christina Aguilera and Pink.

"It's pop, but not cheesy pop," she explained. "My dad created the music using computer software and I wrote the lyrics around that, apart from one song, which my mother wrote."

The album, which grew from a single track created for fun, was recorded in a studio at Totton in Hampshire.

This is close to Solent University in Southampton where Katie is in her first year on a product design and marketing degree course.

She stated: "Designing products and writing lyrics is all creative. I'd rather be a singer because I most enjoy singing and it's natural to me."

A former Bognor Regis Community College student, Katie has also finished making a second album with her dad.

The final touches will be put to that during the early weeks of 2009.

She has set up a Myspace site on the internet which has attracted 40,000 fans.

A dedicated website is also being set up to enable fans to buy her CD online.

Her musical ambitions are combined with a part-time sales assistant job to mean she will have little spare time in which to join her dad on the stall.

He, however, is sure that the 2,500-3,000 it has cost to get this far is worthwhile.

The former employee of Lloyds TSB Registrars said: "I will be at the stall to see if anybody wants to buy the CD. I'm sure they will."

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