Former Norwich Evening News reporter Lisa Horton is enjoying success fronting quirky indie band Bearsuit - with the band's new single gaining airplay on Radio 1 and London's XFM.

The single More Soul Than Wigan Casino, has also been named Single of the Week in The Guardian, and the band are about to begin a UK tour which will include a hometown gig in Norwich on August 25 at Norwich Arts Centre.

Lisa, who plays keyboards, accordion, electrical oddity the theremin - as well as singing - said: "We were absolutely made up to be The Guardian's Pick of the Week. They said it was 'entirely brilliant'!

"The vinyl version is a picture disc – it's very pretty with neon pink bears all over it. We love doing really limited edition releases and this has a run of just 500 copies.

"It's also available on download from places like i-tunes so if enough people download it in the first week we might even get in the charts."

Six-piece band Bearsuit were first championed by legendary DJ John Peel, and have since gone on to receive rave reviews in magazines including the NME, Rocksound, the Fly and the Independent.

Their quirky sound includes everything form violin, cornet, flute, and glockenspiel, to theremin, kettle drums, beat-boxing, bell ringing, choirs and samples.

The new single will be in the shops and available to download from Monday, and comes ahead of their third album Oh:io which will be released on September 10.

It is released by Fantastic Plastic – the label behind bands including The Guillemots, Ash, The Futureheads, and Ikara Colt.

The band filmed a pop video for the single last month and are now hoping it will make it on to music channels.

Lisa, who also previously worked for Archant Anglia's Advertiser series, currently works part-time as a communications officer for Archant.