THERE’S just no stopping north Lancashire songwriting prodigy Molly Warburton.

The beginning of this month saw the 18-year-old release her self-titled debut album, with a special launch event in her home town of Lancaster.

And she will be rounding it off this weekend with her and her band’s biggest gig to date.

‘Molly Warburton’, released officially on February 1, features 12 new self-penned tracks, and is Molly’s first full album, although she has released several EPs over the past few years.

“It’s been a year since we released the last EP,” said Molly, “so it’s taken me a while to get all the material together – I’d say it was about six months writing.”

On whether she has a favourite track on the album, Molly picks ‘Nowhere’, explaining, “I think it’s quite a slow song and has more meaning than the rest of them.

“Also, when we recorded the album it was the last song we recorded, so it was quite a nice way to finish.”

Molly and the three other band members recorded the album at East Coast studios, in London, over a one-week period, which she describes as ‘pretty tiring’.

Molly currently plays several times a month in London as well as her regular gigs in south Cumbria and north Lancashire.

But this Saturday will mark an important milestone, as she and the band have been picked to support Bombay Bicycle Club at Scala, in London, after the indie band discovered her music online.

“This is easily our biggest gig so far so it’s very exciting,” Molly said.

The first single from the album, ‘On the Run’, is out now, and the album is available to download from iTunes and Amazon.

Molly first started having an interest in music at the age of 13 years old, listening to acts such as The Pogues, The Corrs and other folk/pop artists.

After taking music as a subject at school and after writing her first song at the age of 14, her taste diversified with artists including Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin and Fleetwood Mac.