HAYLEY Hutchinson, the precociously gifted York singer and songwriter, is about to notch up another landmark in her burgeoning career. Her new demo CD, Halo, is to be played on BBC Radio 2 tomorrow night. "It may be between 10pm and 1am at night but it's still airplay on national radio," she says. "Whether I get any feedback from it is another matter but I'm still very excited!"

Persistence has paid off for Hayley, the 19-year-old daughter of guitarist John Hutchinson, who played in david Bowie's band on and off between 1966 and 1973, most famously on the final Ziggy Stardust world tour.

"I just e-mailed Bob Harris at Radio 2 one night and luckily he returned my e-mail giving me his home address," says Hayley, recalling how Halo came to the attention of the legendary Whispering Bob. "I even called his show and got the guy on the phone's home address too. He said the more people who work for the show heard it, the more chance I had of getting airplay. Well, it worked!"

Hayley, from South Bank in York, has lined up three home-city gigs at Fibbers over the next two months: she will be performing at the acoustic night on September 2, then supporting Helen Watson on october 8 and Kathryn Williams on October 29.

She first made the Evening Press music pages in 1995 on joining her first band, Freeb, at the age of 14. Within six months Freeb won York's first Inter-Schools Battle of the Bands at the Barbican and came third in the Fibbers/Evening Press Battle of the Bands, playing Hayley's original songs.

In 1998 she made her solo debut, opening for the Irish band Picture House at Fibbers, and over the past two years, she has taught herself guitar and written songs aplenty while completing a media studies course at York College. In 2000, she continues to play regular solo gigs in the York and Leeds area, not least the Dolls House series of female showcases at Fibbers.

This year too, Hayley has recorded the four-track demo, Halo, at the Old Dairy Studios with assistance from members of the Leeds group Motive and her brother, Jesse, the former Pepperland guitarist.

The stand-out track, the soaring and melodious Upshot, provokes thoughts of Harriet Wheeler of The Sundays, while Never Needed has all the wrought drama of Maria McKee and both supremely assured arrangements confirm that York has a star in waiting.

Hayley is now busy forming and rehearsing her own band and writing and arranging new material in preparation for gigging farther afield. She also is in pursuit of "capable management and a suitable record label", and one listen to Halo and those ambitions should surely be realised sooner rather than later.

Charles Hutchinson (no relation)