Ben Watt
Contact
Ben Watt first appeared in London in 1981 as a young nineteen-year-old experimental songwriter-singer-guitarist. 1982's 5-track EP 'Summer into Winter' featured Robert Wyatt. His early work culminated in his sparse atmospheric debut album 'North Marine Drive' (1983, UK Independent Album Chart, No 9).
In 1983 he put solo plans on hold to perform and write full-time with Tracey Thorn in their recently-formed duo Everything But The Girl. The band stayed active until 2000, delivering twelve UK Top 40 singles, two platinum and seven gold UK Top 20 albums and one gold US album. 1995's global hit 'Missing' reached No. 2 on the US Billboard Top 100. The 1994 album 'Amplified Heart' and the 1996 album 'Walking Wounded' - for which Watt was nominated as Best Producer at the Q Awards - each sold over a million copies.
The duo's career was dramatically interrupted for a year in 1992 by Watt's drawn-out hospitalisation and near-death experience with a rare auto-immune disease Churg-Strauss Syndrome (aka EGPA) with which he now still lives - a period documented in his acclaimed 1996 memoir, 'Patient' (New York Times Notable Book of the Year; shortlisted for the Esquire Non-Fiction Award; Sunday Times Book of the Year)
Everything But The Girl quit on a high in 2000. Watt moved out of the mainstream into record production (Beth Orton), remixing (inc Sade, Maxwell, Meshell Ndegeocello), DJing and clubland. He co-launched the influential London day-night Sunday party and compilation series 'Lazy Dog' (1998-2003) and was creative director, resident DJ and part-owner at west London night clubs Cherry Jam and Neighbourhood (2001-2003) before starting his own award-winning electronic record label and club night Buzzin' Fly in 2003. He was nominated for Outstanding Contribution to Dance Music at the DJ Magazine Best of British Awards 2009, and as Best Deep House DJ four years running (2008-2011) at the global DJ Awards. He was a resident DJ on BBC 6Music's flagship electronic music show 6Mix from 2011-2014.
In 2013 he put Buzzin' Fly and his DJ career on hold and returned to his earliest roots in singer-songwriting to record 2014's award-winning solo album, 'Hendra' - his first for thirty-one years - released on his new imprint Unmade Road, through Caroline International. The same year Bloomsbury published his second memoir, 'Romany and Tom' - a searing but tender portrait of his parents' marriage - nominated for the UK's highly prestigious Samuel Johnson Non-Fiction Prize 2014 (now the Baillie Gifford Prize).
His third solo album 'Fever Dream' followed in 2016. Uncut posted a lengthy 9/10 review. The Guardian commented: "In his early fifties, he is making some of the best music of his career."
2019 saw the recording of a new solo album, 'Storm Damage', for release on Unmade Road through Caroline International in January 2020.
He lives in North London with wife, Tracey Thorn. They married in 2008 and have three children - twin girls, Jean and Alfie born 1998; and a son Blake born 2001.
Ben Watt (Photo by Antonio Olmos)
-
16 May, 2014
Ben Watt: To Be Joined Onstage By Pink Floyd's David Gilmour
Ben Watt used Twitter last night to announce that Pink Floyd's David Gilmour will be playing on three songs at his London show next week at Islington Assembly Hall on Monday May 19. The rare appearance follows Gilmour's cameo on Watt's recently-released acclaimed album, 'Hendra'.
Having already assembled the album's original band for the first time for the date, including ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler, the addition of rock titan Gilmour is an unexpected bonus.
"We met by chance last September just before my album," says Watt. "It has all just fallen into place since then. First the album cameo and now this. He came down to rehearsal today to play pedal steel on 'The Levels' - the album track he's on - and now he's joining in on three.
His lead playing is just great. It is an honour to be up there with him and Bernard Butler at the same time."Watt and Gilmour have already recorded and filmed a different acoustic version of 'The Levels' together earlier this year at Gilmour's studio on the south coast that was premiered by Q Magazine.
Remaining tickets for the London show from:
www.tickets.songkick.com/events/19809899
www.seetickets.com/event/ben-watt-and-his-band-ft-bernard-butler/islington-assembly-hall/775199