Patrick Duff Music Review
by Holistic Lifestyles Radio on Jul.06, 2010, under Home
I taught myself guitar and started playing and singing on the street for money when I was 17. I didn’t know how to play anyone else’s songs so I made up my own. Sky songs. I never wrote any of them down and I can’t remember anything about them.
“Get in the back of the car you’re gonna be a pop star” that’s what some man shouted out at me one day as I walked down Stokes Croft in Bristol. That man was David Francolini. I got in his car and he introduced me to Alex Lee. Me and Alex got drunk and dropped acid and stayed up all night playing guitars and that was Strangelove. Me, Alex, Julian, Joe and Dave and then John and then Nick. We got signed after 5 gigs to Food/Parlophone/EMI. We toured around UK and Europe a few times with firstly Radiohead and then Suede. Played with the Manic Street Preachers, had a string of top 40 hits, played on the main stage at Glastonbury and Reading, recorded in Studio 2 at Abbey Road where the Beatles did all their albums. I saw my band on the countdown of Top Of The Pops. We did 3 albums and split up in 1998 after 7 years together.
After that I walked around in Leigh Woods, which is a forest outside Bristol, for about 2 years. When I came out of that I had handed my life over to songwriting completely. Then I went to South Africa to write songs with an 83 year old black woman shepherdess called Madosini. I had seen her play at Womad festival and her edgy ancient blues music blew my mind. Madosini had lived in a village in Trans-sky. She had sat playing music on the side of a hill for 70 years before being discovered by Womad. Then me and Madosini toured around doing our thing.
After returning I started writing new songs. Which went on to make up my album called Luxury Problems. The first part of the album was recorded in the middle of nowhere in a cottage in Dartmoor which belongs to Nigel Shaw and Caroline Hillier. This part of the album was produced by Adrian Utley (Portishead). Back in Bristol and Bath I completed the album with Alex Lee producing and recording at Moles studio with Paul Corkett. The album features some of the most amazing musicians, Damon Reece (ex-Spiritualized), Mike Mooney (ex-Spiritualized) and Jim Barr (Portishead). It was released on EMI’s Harvest label on 21st June 2005.
I’ve now written a new album of songs which I will record and hopefully release this year. I run a songwriting workshop which is open to anyone in the world who can make it and it is amazing!
I am happy to be part of the website http://www.patrickduff.com/ and look forward to meeting you.
Love Patrick
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