At the age of twelve, Hayley won a star search contest in her home town of Peterborough and with the £1000 prize money bought herself a PA system and started gigging – she’s been singing ever since. By nineteen she was in a girl band and got to work with Narada Michael Warden and Nile Rogers but the band never quite happened, so it was back home where she joined Think Floyd, a Pink Floyd tribute band.
Though she won theatre scholarships to Mountview and Guildford, acceptance would have meant ramping up debts for accommodation and living expenses, something she was not prepared to do. Instead, she hit the phone for more work and got a two week stint at Ronnie Scotts … which turned into a two year residency! Session work followed and while working with Marti Pellow, she got the call to sing on a jingle for Talk Talk. The song was “Something In The Air” and the campaign so successful that a single was released with the proceeds going to Treehouse, a charity for children with autism – until now the only commercial release in her own name. Shortly after this, in 2007, she was offered the chance to work on one of the very few TV shows that has a live band, Strictly Come Dancing.