Elizabeth Charlotte Gaskell (b1992)

Singer and roller derby doyen Lily Gaskell went to Stepping Stones Nursery, Harrowby Infants, National Junior School and KGGS.

She had a brief stint as the goalkeeper for the Grantham Gingerbreads under 11s girls team but that was her only enjoyment with sports until she found roller derby at 19.

She had some difficult times during her teens that meant she didn’t involved herself in many local activities, mostly boiling down to an anxiety disorder but had been a brownie when she was younger.

Music massively helped Lily overcome her anxiety and is still her coping mechanism to this day.

Her musical parents moved to Grantham in 1987. They both worked at Grantham College for a while. Her mum sang with Grantham Acapella groups Fly the Heart and Wide World Voices, and her Dad fronted rock n roll band, The Zimmers.

Although interested in music, Lily didn’t pick up an instrument until she was 11 when her Dad bought her a Sunburst Les Paul electric guitar and she took a 20 minute lesson at school a week while teaching herself at home.

She says: “As I am mostly self-taught I still struggle with reading music and blagged my way through my GCSE Music course to get an A.”

She played in local bands, my first being The Sproggs from the age of 11, whose first gig was the day after Lily’s 12th birthday.

They played covers and a few originals and actually had some decent support slots, playing at Party on The Planet, supporting Roland a Gift and The Fine Young Cannibals and Midge Ure.

Lily began playing solo when she was 13, writing her own songs and performing covers at events all over Lincolnshire.  She also played with Grantham-based grunge bands, Dead Mess and Violent Kisses while at college played in Punk band Gutshot.

She busked at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, toured the UK, worked as a session vocalist, guitarist and songwriter as well as performing as a solo musician around London.

At college, Lily got a triple distinction and was accepted to study Commercial Music at the University of Westminster, at which she received the highest first class honours in her year, the highest marked thesis, in which she researched the effect of music of individuals with Tourette’s and was awarded best paper at the 2012 music conference.

She was also in a band with Music Producer Sigala, who was recently number one in the UK charts. Another band she formed was a dub step trip hop trio called Charleston and played a few gigs with Years and Years.

Lily went to Goldsmiths to do her Masters in Popular Music Research and undertook an extensive research project on music education in the prison service, even getting herself a job as a music workshop leader at Wormwood Scrubs Prison.

While in London Lily continued to play acoustic cover gigs playing requests and refining her technique and stage presence.

Now in Sheffield she plays requests and a wide range of covers for pre-booked events and also performs as a folk punk singer songwriter and has recently released her first EP ‘Love, Rats and Proletariats’ which has been played on BBC Radio Lincolnshire, Lincs FM, Sheffield Live! and BBC Radio Sheffield.

Lily’s experience of roller skating as a kid went as far as rolling down the steep alleyway next to her parents’ house on Harrowby Road but took to it straight away.  The DIY attitude of skaters and the aesthetic of the sport drew her into roller derby.

She now goes by the alter ego, Uma Thumpin when putting on her skates, first with London Rockin’ Rollers and went on to be the head of recruitment and head coach for their fresh meat (new skaters) and A team skater.

Lily was voted best blocker of the league in 2014.

When she moved to Sheffield in 2015 after an ankle break from playing roller derby she transferred to the Sheffield Steel Rollergirls where after a few months  became captain of the A team, coach and head of training and coaching for their junior league which she co-founded.

She has travelled all over the world playing roller derby including Vegas, LA, Athens (to coach the national Greek team for the World Cup), France and Belgium.