5:28am Friday 15th February 2008
By James Maden
HER crippling arthritis threatened to dash her dreams of stardom but instead led to her being signed to a US record label.
Lin Duffy, 59, of Southampton, had retired from a lifetime in the music industry as a regular on the cabaret and club circuit owing to the painful condition.
Instead she began recording at home as a kind of therapy - and that was when things really began to take off.
Lin is now riding on the crest of a wave after being signed by Californian label D and M Records.
She was signed after her friend and co-songwriter Carol Leech entered her for a competition to have her tracks put on a compilation CD the label was producing.
Once she won a place on the record in October last year she then began producing her own album in November after she got a call from California commissioning the deal.
Since then Lin has gone from strength to strength, sitting at number one of all the record label's artists.
Lin had been in a number of rock bands from the 1970s to the 1990s but was forced to retire from performing cabaret and in local pubs and clubs due to her arthritis.
She has already done a series of radio interviews on the way to promoting her album in America.
She is now hoping to crack both the UK and America, and possibly Australia too.
Lin said: "They offered me a ten to 12 track deal, so I took full advantage and did 12 tracks.
"I like to sing a lot of different genres. If I hear a song I'll give it a bash and I always try to put my own stamp on it.
"When they called me from California I was in total shock. I couldn't believe I'd been chosen to go on the compilation CD, and then to get my own album is fantastic."
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