Duke Special biography

He has supported acts such as Crowded House, Van Morrison and Snow Patrol, and in 2006 toured Ireland with the Beautiful South and Europe with the Divine Comedy. In 2007 he headlined a concert with the Ulster Orchestra at Belfast's Waterfront Hall, "Orchestral Manoevres". The concert was supported by Julie Feeney and Foy Vance, who sang on one of Duke Special's songs, "This Could Be My Last Day". 2007 also saw him perform at Greenbelt festival, Glastonbury, Guilfest, Summer Sundae, Haldern Festival and the Electric Picnic among others and support Bell X1 on 2 dates; in Malahide Castle, Dublin and also as part of the Live at the Marquee series of concerts in Cork. In 2007 he performed as part of the BBC Electric Proms, supporting former Kinks lead singer Ray Davies. In 2008 he won the Meteor Music Award for Best Irish Male.

In August 2008, Duke Special appeared in the Northern Ireland children's television show Sesame Tree with his band, having also written the theme music for the show. He also played on the O2 stage at Oxegen in 2009. Between September and December 2009 Duke Special and his band appeared on stage at the Royal National Theatre in London as part of a new production of Bertolt Brecht's play Mother Courage and Her Children, for which he wrote music for a number of songs. The production was directed by Deborah Warner and starred Fiona Shaw in the title role.

In January 2010 Wilson launched a campaign on Pledge Music (see Fan-funded music) whereby fans pledged for items to help fund the promotion and touring of his triple CD, The Stage, A Book & The Silver Screen (comprising Mother Courage and Her Children, The Silent World of Hector Mann and Huckleberry Finn).

On 11 September 2010 Duke Special played at the Last Night of the Proms for the BBC at Hillsborough Castle.

Duke Special presented a documentary on the life and songs of Belfast's Ruby Murray and released Duke Special Sings The Songs of Ruby Murray in January 2011.

In March 2011 Duke Special performed songs based on the photographs of Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen and Paul Strand at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. These songs were subsequently released in November 2011 as the album Under The Dark Cloth performed alongside The RTE Concert Orchestra, conducted by David Brophy, with leader Joanne Quigley and arranged for orchestra by Michael Keeney.

In July 2012 Duke Special will be appearing at Camp Bestival performing live sets in both the Big Top and in the Black Dahlia / Spiegel Tent - where he will also be debuting as a 78rpm record DJ as a guest of the Shellac Collective.

Discography

Early work

Time Is Right EP as Booley House (1996)
Lemonade as Booley House (Contraflow, 1997)
Bathroom Floor as Booley (Medieval Haircut/ICC, 1999)
Garçon Pamplemousse as Benzine Headset (Medieval Haircut, 2001)

Albums

Adventures in Gramophone (Hag, 2005) (collects the EPs Lucky Me and My Villain Heart)
Songs from the Deep Forest (Izumi - Vinyl / V2 - CD, 2006 / V2 Special Edition CD, 2007)
Orchestral Manoeuvres In Belfast (V2, 2008)
I Never Thought This Day Would Come (Universal, 2008)
Little Revolutions (Reel to Reel Recordings, 2009)
Mother Courage and Her Children (Reel to Reel Recordings, 2010)
The Silent World of Hector Mann (Reel to Reel Recordings, 2010)
Little Revolutions Two (Reel to Reel Recordings, 2011)
Under The Dark Cloth (2011)
Oh Pioneer (2012)

Extended plays

Lucky Me (Medieval Haircut Records, 2002)
My Villain Heart (Medieval Haircut Records, 2004)
Your Vandal (Hag Records, 2005)
Huckleberry Finn (Reel to Reel Recordings, 2009)
Duke Special Sings The Songs of Ruby Murray (Charity 3-Track EP, 2011)

Singles

"Freewheel" (Hag / Izumi Records, 2005)
"Portrait" (V2, 2006)
"Last Night I Nearly Died (But I Woke Up Just in Time)" (V2, 2006)
"Wake Up Scarlett" (V2, 2006) (iTunes download only)
"Freewheel" (V2, 2007) IRE #15
"Last Night I Nearly Died (But I Woke Up Just in Time)" (V2, 2007)
"Our Love Goes Deeper Than This" (V2, 2007) (featuring Neil Hannon and Romeo Stodart, download only)
"No Cover Up" (V2, 2007)
"Sweet Sweet Kisses" (Universal Music, 2008)

Other contributions

One (Myrrh, 2000) - "Peace Has Broken Out" - duet with Moya Brennan
New Irish Hymns (Kingsway, 2001) / In Christ Alone (USA title - Worship Together, 2002) - backing vocals under real name Peter Wilson - Margaret Becker, Máire Brennan, Joanne Hogg
Acoustic 07 (V2, 2007) - "This Could Be My Last Day"
Ceol '09 - "Tochailt Uaighe go Róluath" (a version of "Digging an Early Grave" in the Irish language)
Theatre production of Mother Courage and her Children 2009 at the National Theatre

References

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