'I'm gigging with my former job advisor'

A singer will be performing at Latitude festival with her former job centre advisor, seven years after he told her not to give up on her music.

Peonie Gage signed up for a meeting at Colchester Job Centre, aged 18, after she could not earn enough of a living through performing.

She met advisor Wallace Rice, who happened to be a part-time musician with his band Monster Florence, and he told her to keep at it.

Gage said: "[Other] people were trying to help me find corporate jobs and things in retail... who knows what path I would have gone down [if she had not met Rice]."

The pair will perform together at Latitude festival in Suffolk this summer.

Gage, who went to school in Ipswich, is no stranger to big crowds, and she previously sang both the UK and US national anthems in front of millions at the O2 Arena when Floyd Mayweather fought Geordie Shore's Aaron Chalmers.

Now 25 years old, she admitted her future might have looked different if she had been advised by somebody else.

"He ended up giving me so much advice about music, and what to do and where to turn to and how to keep going," she said.

Normally used to seeing Rice's name on job centre appointment slips, Gage experienced déjà vu when she saw that familiar name written on a different form.

Years later, they were put down to play at the same BBC Introducing stage at Henham Park, - a festival which usually draws a crowd of approximately 40,000.

"I was so excited," Gage said when she saw his name.

"Also, it's so nice that we're both from Colchester and that we're both trying to put Colchester on the map."

The pair will reunite and perform together at Latitude in July.

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