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| Paddy Milner to support John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers Paddy Milner and his Big Sounds band have been chosen by Blues legends John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers to support them on the German leg of their 2006 Tour. The tour takes in Augsburg March 2nd, Heidenheim March 3rd, Karlsruhe March 4th, Stuttgart March 5th, Bonn March 6th and Mainz March 7th. “I’m so excited, it’s such a great honour to play with these guys and to play such huge venues is going to be amazing.” says Paddy Milner. His debut album “Walking With Eggshells” went to No.1 on the FNAC jazz/blues chart, he’s recorded a new arrangement of the James Bond theme with screen music legend Monty Norman. Born in Edinburgh in 1980, and brought up in Dorset, Paddy was heavily exposed to music from an early age. His father played a variety of instruments around the house, and ran a Ceilidh band with which Paddy later made appearances. The predominantly British-based record collection at home consisted mainly of folk, rock and blues, including many artists with whom Paddy would later work with! After taking straight piano lessons, Paddy became inspired by blues piano recordings in his Dad’s collection. Recordings by piano players such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Otis Spann, Pete Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis were the impetus for him to dedicate much of his time to learning blues, boogie-woogie and jazz piano. By the age of thirteen, Paddy was gigging regularly with local R&B bands and at the age of fifteen performed on a ‘Legends of Rock’ theatre tour as (a young!) Jerry Lee Lewis. While at school, Paddy’s love of music broadened to include the western classical tradition, and he developed a love for composition that he would continue through his music degree. Paddy graduated with a first class music degree from Kings College London in 2003, with the intention of developing his career as a solo artist. In the year following his graduation, Paddy was introduced to British music guru Gerry Bron, signed a deal with Bronze Records and recorded the highly original album Walking On Eggshells. The album was recorded mainly at Gallery Studios with encouragement from the studio’s owner and Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera. Taken from the album, the first single to be released was Unsquare Dance, a riotous and truly original arrangement of Dave Brubeck’s classic. Receiving accolades all around, Brubeck himself said ‘I love it…wouldn’t change a note’. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |