Christopher Bailey's musical youths

Music has played an important part in my life from a very young age, affecting the way I think and the way I express myself. The first gig I ever went to was Bob Dylan supported by Tom Petty, but my passion is for British musicians: the Sex Pistols, the Rolling Stones, The Beautiful South, The Kooks and The Courteeners are all favourites.

Fashion and music have always been connected. Whatever you're trying to create, there's a sound, or a lyric, that just communicates it perfectly. Music, just as much as fashion, is an intensely powerful way to express yourself.

Working with musicians makes our brand about more than just clothes: it's about stories, attitude, energy, emotion and the people who inspire us. Burberry has a long history with musicians: we have had Bryan Ferry, Coco Sumner and Kasabian in our campaigns in the past. And some play at our events: George Craig (opposite) hosted the global livestream build-up before our spring/summer show this week. I love that the things we do overlap and talk to all these different worlds.

I am lucky to be in an environment where I discover new musicians, or end up talking about music. Often, when I first meet a lot of young musicians, it has nothing to do with our campaigns. It's more like, Let's work on something together — who knows what it's going to be.' Then things just develop organically. For example, I heard Life In Film online and then met Sam Fry (opposite) and we connected immediately. He is in our campaign now and also recorded the first Burberry Acoustic track for us.

It is amazing for us to find these guys, nurture their talent, support them and watch them grow – we are a part of their world and they are a part of ours. It's great to have a reputation for finding and promoting British talent. This company is known all over the globe, but ultimately we are showcasing British creativity which is something for us all to be proud of.

GEORGE CRAIG
PLAYS Guitar and sings with One Night Only, a five-piece band he joined, aged 13, after discovering a talent for performance at Ryedale School in North Yorkshire while playing the role of Doody, a junior T-Bird, in a school production of Grease. Off-stage, Craig, 20, strums his latest toy, a vintage 1966 guitar. 'It's beautiful. I haven't given it a name because I'm not that weird but I did once sleep with my first guitar.'
MUSIC Anthemic pop with indie undertones reminiscent of The Kooks. The band were signed to Mercury's Vertigo label in 2007, joining The Killers and Metallica. Big successes to date include playing at Glastonbury 2008 and their second single 'Just For Tonight' debuting at number nine in January 2008. Celebrity fans include Mario Testino, Orlando Bloom and Uma Thurman, who they played for on the rooftop of The New York Palace hotel last May.
LIVES Mostly in hotels when he's on the road but he enjoys returning to the comforts of his mother's cooking in Helmsley, North Yorkshire, 'a really picturesque place'.
BACKGROUND His mother owns a fashion boutique and his father is a property developer, and he's a Northern boy at heart, 'like Christopher Bailey, which is why we get on so well'. George started his A levels at school in Yorkshire but abandoned academia two months later when the band took off. He was seeing fellow Burberry model the actress Emma Watson on and off for a couple of months after meeting her on a shoot and he blushes at the memory of being pressed between Emma and Lily Donaldson while photographing with Mario Testino, who was constantly asking for 'more romance'. 'We're not together at the moment because it's just not practical. I'm no-strings-attached but I'm not, you know, a slut.' What does he share with the Harry Potter star? 'We're into the same music and she's got a great, down-to-earth personality. She's also very beautiful.'
SOUNDTRACK From The Zombies' 'This Will Be Our Year' to indie pop from The xx and a classical fix of Tchaikovsky.
ICONS Bob Dylan and David Bowie 'because they
set the bar as cool, real individuals in the music and fashion worlds'.
FAVOURITE LYRIC 'I got a lion in my pocket and baby he's ready to roar' from 1999 by Prince.

STEPHANIE WARD
PLAYS Piano and sings for five-piece Bath-based band Kill It Kid. 'We're all really into old blues so our name comes from a Blind Willie McTell song. It's also what they used to shout to him when he went on stage.'
Her first instrument was the flute, which she started playing at the age of eight. She got to Grade 8 but doesn't like to admit it in case the band start making her play. Her latest toy is a vintage Wurlitzer organ.
MUSIC Grungy blues with a bit of folk thrown in. There have been comparisons with The White Stripes and Arcade Fire. The band were signed by indie record label One Little Indian a month after forming, thanks to a friend sending in one of their demos. Rehearsals, fuelled by sweets from the on-site tuck shop, take place on an industrial estate in Bath: 'It's all very glamorous.' The band, whose self-titled debut album was nominated for Xfm's New Music Award 2010, were spotted by Burberry Acoustic while playing at South by Southwest in Texas in March.
LIVES In Bath with her friend Erica Ricci, a feisty Italian opera singer. 'We have a piano at home so there's a lot of singing and complaints from the neighbours.'
BACKGROUND Stephanie, 22, comes from Crawley: her mother is a language teacher and her father is a businessman. Until the age of 17, she wanted to be
a PE teacher.
SOUNDTRACK She likes to fall asleep to Bon Iver.
ICONS Jazz singers Diana Krall and Etta James. 'But on another note I'm really into the rock band The Kills and Jack White of The White Stripes.'
FAVOURITE LYRIC 'I would rather go blind, boy, than to see you walk away from me' from jazz diva Etta James.

NINA CAMPBELL
MODELS Nina, 16, is the new face of the Burberry Beauty make-up range, alongside Lily Donaldson and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. 'It is a great experience. Rosie was very friendly and told me that I looked good in front of the camera, even though I didn't feel it.'
MUSIC She prefers listening to playing: 'I used to play the clarinet but I wasn't so good so I'll leave it to the Burberry Acoustic guys.' Top of her playlist are rock classics by Led Zeppelin, David Bowie and The Velvet Underground.
LIVES In Kentish Town with her family: her father Neil is the architect responsible for the controversial Princess Diana Memorial Fountain (with his professional partner Kathryn Gustafson), her mother is an interior designer, and her older sister has just completed a foundation course at Camberwell College of Arts. Nina can normally be found in Camden going to 'gatherings' at friends' houses – 'I'm still only 16' – and gigs at venues such as The Flowerpot.
BACKGROUND A straight-A student, she has just started A levels in art, photography, history and textiles at Camden High School. She was spotted during a school trip to the Clothes Show in Birmingham aged 14: 'I'd already been spotted at 13 so it wasn't a big shock, but it was still flattering.' Now signed to Select, she fits modelling into her holidays and weekends, in between escaping to The Big Chill and Reading music festivals and visiting fashion exhibitions at the V&A, her favourite museum.
SOUNDTRACK The Velvet Underground: 'It's not too loud and quite relaxed. I sing along to it in my head but not out loud because I haven't got a voice at all.'
ICONS Audrey Hepburn for her style but 'I would never base my own look on one person'.

SAMUEL FRY
PLAYS Guitar and sings in the four-piece Islington band Life In Film. The name stuck after a dream Sam, 27, had about being a character in The Truman Show. The band formed three years ago when they were students at Bournemouth University where Sam studied popular music. Prior to that he'd spent his teens 'messing around' on the guitar with bandmate and school friend Ed Ibbotson.
MUSIC Pop with a dark side, reminiscent of Radiohead. They played their first gig at The Dublin Castle in Camden and were scouted by Dave Tree, the producer behind the live music website Watch Listen Tell and Burberry Acoustic. They rehearse in a room below a snooker club on Kingsland Road but prefer the open-air festival scene: they played at LodeStar Festival in Cambridgeshire this year and Glastonbury last year.
LIVES In Hackney with the band's drummer Micky Osment, his girlfriend Lauren, a charity worker, and a stray cat called Morrison, after Jim Morrison of The Doors, which has a role in the video for the band's single 'Alleyway'.
BACKGROUND Sam originally comes from Muswell Hill, where his mother still lives and works as a professional declutterer. Aged 14 he started playing the drums by default while at Fortismere School 'because it was the only part left to play' in the band.
SOUNDTRACK Anything by Phil Collins while driving their Ford Mondeo estate to festivals. No joke.
ICONS David Bowie for his epic theatricality. 'Life on Mars' and 'Rock 'N' Roll Suicide' are favourite tracks.
FAVOURITE LYRIC 'You're not a victim, but neither am I, nostalgic for garbage, desperate for time' from Vampire Weekend's 'Taxi Cab'.

SEBASTIAN BRICE
PLAYS Guitar and sings for Avius, a three-piece rock band from Bath. They met two years ago and are just back from a mini-tour around Bath, Cambridge and Suffolk. As a boy, Sebastian, now 20, shied away from singing and just wanted to play the guitar. His breakthrough performance was at his graduation party in front of 300 people, playing a mix of folk and blues.
MUSIC 'A cross between Jeff Buckley and the Foo Fighters is the best way to describe it.' The name Avius was chosen because they thought it suited the music's lighter dynamic and fitted in nicely with the aviation theme of their video for the Burberry Acoustic track 'Said and Done', which was filmed on top of the BSkyB offices in North London.
LIVES With his girlfriend Natalie in Bath, with whom he also sings in a folk duo called The Moonbears – 'It's a pet name I have for her.'
BACKGROUND He grew up in Northern Jutland with his British father Trevor, who settled in Denmark after touring with his 1960s rock'n'roll band Vanity Fare and falling for Sebastian's mother, one of his Danish fans. Sebastian moved to England four years ago. He's about to start his final year studying music at Bath Spa University. His modelling career took off last November when he was scouted while on holiday in Amsterdam; he has mainly worked for Burberry, but has also featured in Topman and Uniqlo campaigns.
SOUNDTRACK He grew up listening to 1960s rock band Chicago with his dad.
ICONS Folk heroes James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake. His music is mainly inspired by Led Zeppelin, 'who did what we're trying to do, create rock music with variations'.
FAVOURITE LYRIC The opening line of Tom Waits' 'Shiver Me Timbers': 'I'm leaving my family, I'm leaving all my friends, my body's at home but my heart's in the wind.'