hollie cook was born and bred in west london in a household dominated by music - with sex pistol paul cook as her dad, music was always around - and she gravitated to the sounds of marc bolan, david bowie and the cure. entering professional acting, singing and modelling at a young age, hollie soon rejected her performance arts schooling for a musical path truer to her influences. family friend and slits singer ari up persuaded hollie to sing backing vocals for a new ep >revenge of the killer slits<, which she followed by ditching school to join the band on a six week us tour. hollie was now an official slit - ari referred to hollie as the >second singer< - so when it came to record a new slits album in la, hollies vocals, keyboards and even her song >cry< all featured. more collaborations followed: a duet with jamie t on his >chaka demus< ep, with ian brown on >the world is yours<, and most significantly as featured vocalist on prince fattys underground reggae hit >milk and honey<. the single received airplay across bbc radio 1, 6 music, xfm, kiss and even ended up on greys anatomy. hollie is currently lending her skills to the rotten hill gang, a fluid crew set up by gary stonadge from big audio dynamite ii, on tour with a reformed big audio dynamite in april.