They were once Kent’s most promising band with a huge following, a diary full of gigs and festival dates in the UK and Europe.

But the days of indie acoustic pop act Coco and the Butterfields have ended like so many hopeful groups - on a sour note and disappointment.

Now one of its founding members, Dulcima Showan, is lifting the lid on what went wrong and why they had a parting of the ways.

There has been no official announcement the band has split up and Dulcima says she is still regularly asked when they are playing again.

“I just have to tell people that it’s over, which is sad, but it had to end for me,” says the 31-year-old from Barham, near Canterbury.

It is a far cry from the heyday of the group, then full of energy and enthusiasm, taking them to the Glastonbury stage and the brink of a breakthrough.

But Dulcima is now setting out on a new future as a solo artist and played her first gig at CSP in the Park in Canterbury’s Dane John Gardens on Sunday.

It is the next chapter in her musical career which began on the streets of Canterbury as a teenager where she would busk for a few pounds.

With her signature long, blonde flowing hair, energetic violin playing and distinctive voice, she was an instant hit.

Then a meeting with singer-songwriter Tom Twyman convinced her to give up her place to study silversmithing for music at university in London.

Equally talented Tom had been packed and ready to move to Australia to ply his musical trade but took the 11th-hour decision to stay and together form Coco and the Butterfields.

They were both a musical and romantic partnership and, soon, with other new band members, their live street performances around the county were drawing huge crowds and an army of loyal fans.

That was in 2012 and the next 10 years would see the five-piece group they fronted grow relentlessly in popularity.

Their unique style of indie acoustic pop led to performances at such prestigious festivals as Glastonbury and the Isle of Wight. Dulcima and Tom, as a duo, were even among the runners for the UK’s Eurovision entry.

“Glastonbury in 2015 was a really big deal for us and very exciting,” she says.

“And although, of course, we weren’t on the main stage, it felt like we had come of age and it could really lead to something.

“But our strength was always our live performances, so we had to focus on how we could translate our music to radio where we might gain more listeners and a bigger profile.”

Coco and the Butterfields would regularly sell out thousand-seater venues and were chosen as the support act for bands like Bastille, The Frattellis, Scouting for Girls and Wheatus.

Their music videos amassed hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, especially Warriors, which recorded 235,000 hits.

They also spent months in the recording studio making albums and transforming their energetic live festival style into a more “radio-ready” act in a bid to widen their commercial appeal.

By 2020, everything seemed to be heading to the brink of a potential breakthrough into the big time, with a promoter and publicist on board. But the pandemic and closure of venues stalled their progress.

They got back on track in 2022 but the challenge remained over how they could further commercialise their music.

By then the cracks were starting to appear as Dulcima and Tom’s personal relationship began to unravel.

“We had been keeping ourselves busy out of the festival season in the winter months by playing skiing venues in the Alps but it really wasn’t my thing,” says Dulcima.

“It made me unwell and my voice was suffering in the dry, cold climate so I just had to opt out and they brought in another girl singer.”

Dulcima says that despite the relationship issues, she and Tom tried to keep going musically for the sake of the band.

“But it’s difficult to manage that within a band set-up and it became a bit of a rollercoaster ride so the writing was on the wall,” she says.

“Tom was initially keen to keep the Coco name going but I wasn’t happy with that without me in it and instead they went out doing corporate function-type gigs and on a cruise ship, calling themselves the Voyagers.

“But I don’t want to tarnish Coco or Tom’s passion for the music and performing because when it was working well, there was a great chemistry and it was amazing.

“In the end, we had to choose between this magnificent project we had put together and our personal relationship and when that failed, it was the catalyst for the end.

“It was sad and disappointing after the highs but we just had to move on.”

So now classically-trained Dulcima, who also plays the piano, is starting out on her own and working on an album which she says will reflect the very significant part of her life in Coco and the Butterfields and how she feels about its demise.

Following her live debut at CSP in the Park musical festival in the Dane John Gardens last Sunday, where she had a slot on the main stage, Dulcima says she came away optimistic for the future

“It’s quite a different experience being up there on my own, just under the name Dulcima, but it was great to see some Coco fans there to support me and it seemed to go down pretty well,” she says.

“My idea now is to create a band around me because being solo on the piano is quite static and not very engaging with the audience when I’d prefer to be out front and put on more of a show.

“But all the while I’m a solo performer on the piano, pub gigs won’t really work. Hopefully, I can get into some more intimate like small theatres where people come to appreciate the music.”

As Dulcima continues to build a solo career, she will also focus on her other talent, bespoke dress design and making.

“I still have to earn a living but maybe there will come a time when the music takes over,“ she says.