Having started to play the piano and read music at a very young age, Michelle discovered an accordion in the loft and was soon hooked on playing it.

Her first professional booking was with The Dover Symphony Orchestra when she played the accordion part for ‘Fiddler On The Roof’ for a season at the age of fifteen. At sixteen, Ashford Council was looking for different acts for the annual carnival and Michelle was invited to join the Ashford Accordion Band. Only formed to do the one performance, the band proved to be so popular and had such a huge following, that they spent the next five years entertaining all over Kent and further afield.

In the mid eighties, when The Accordion Band finished, Michelle and three other members formed a country music band called ‘Irish Country Sounds’. They won many awards, made several recordings and appeared on local radio.