It’s hard to imagine Lucy Spraggan under a sink replacing a washer. But the A Flop singer (acoustic folk hop, as she calls it) trained as a plumber’s apprentice. Luckily for the northern singer, her new home in Brighton needs no work.

Its owner, former Ordinary Boys frontman Sam Preston, runs a tight ship.

“He’s a tidy bloke,” she says, before confirming she’s not yet being required to replace the boiler or plunge the bath.

The house swap has seen Preston take her London pad for a few months while Spraggan – a runner-up in 2011’s Live And Unsigned competition and X Factor contestant in 2012 – looks for somewhere permanent on the South Coast.

“We’ve known each other about six months because he has co-produced my album and he’s really cool,” she croaks through a heavy sore throat, which has put an end to other interviews scheduled before she plays Brighton Pride tomorrow.

Spraggan says she chose Brighton as home because she wants to be near to the industry in London but at a safe enough distance to avoid the capital’s icy atmosphere. Three months in London after quitting Sheffield earlier in the year was quite enough.

“I fully love Sheffield. But I need to be somewhere near London. Brighton is more like a northern town I’ve never been to, with friendly people and a good atmosphere.”

She says she’s tidier than Preston, though whether the black and white Boston terrier she’s sharing the place with is as good a house guest as his owner is anyone’s guess.

Still, the puppy, named Stone Cold Steve Austin Spraggan, has helped the boss make a few friends on walkies. He might, however, be a lonely puppy come September. Spraggan’s first release on Colombia Records is due and if the interest for her home-made debut, Top Room At The Zoo, is anything to go by, she can expect to be in demand.

Flying high

“My last record, once I went on The X Factor, got to number 22 in the album charts. It’s a good sign, especially because that was made on a £30 microphone in a mate’s living room and this was done in a professional studio.”

Fitting the old northern stereotype, Spraggan is down-to-earth. She’s worked as a tour guide in a cave and as a magician. She did her first gig when she was 12 and has been gigging three to five times a week for the past three years.

Her music is heart on the sleeve stuff, too. The new record (as yet untitled) charts the ups and downs of a past relationship which developed on the road when she was 18.

“I went away to America to play a gig. I’d saved up not a lot of money at all. I didn’t have a plan but my visa lasted for three months, so I thought I’d just stay there and take my guitar. I ended up travelling round 23 states and falling in love, which was a good basis for the album.”

Musical maturity

She grew up listening to her mum’s records – Kirsty MacColl, Dolly Parton, Don Mclean. She matured on to rap music: Tupac and Blackalicious are favourites because “they say it like it is”. Spraggan’s not afraid to do the same.

“I did one competition and they told me to change my image and my surname because it was hard to pronounce. Other people, not from the production team, said it might not be cool if you say you are a lesbian on The X Factor.

“I said no. People can listen to my music for what it is. And if they are homophobic or racist I don’t want them to listen anyway.”

As for her current love life, there is no one on the scene at the moment. “No one apart from Steve,” she jokes.

Lucy Spraggan plays as part of Brighton Pride in Preston Park on Saturday, tickets £17.50 for the park event

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