Charlie Winston is performing on the 24th of April as one of the concerts of the Prague International Bluenight series. Tickets are available at Ticketpro, Eventim, Goout and livemusic.cz. First 100 tickets are available for 390,- CKZ.
Charlie Winston grew up, with his folk-musician parents and his musical siblings, in a Suffolk hotel through which passed an endless procession of itinerant artists, orchestras, actors and thespians. Such an environment had a great impact on Charlie giving him a deep love for the performing arts and entertainment whilst nurturing his musical talents.
Singing or playing with many different bands on either bass, piano or percussion, Charlie wrote and arranged music for brass and strings including the London Symphonietta and the BBC Concert Orchestra and came to the fore of the stage as lead singer in an eight piece reggae band “it brought out my strength as a front man”. In his early twenties he picked up the guitar for the first time “it helped me focus on the beauty and simplicity of songwriting and storytelling once again – the precise things that had drawn me into writing in the first place when I was in my teens.”
In 2003, when Charlie was recording bass for his brother Tom’s album at Real World Studios, he was introduced to Peter Gabriel and became friends with Peter’s daughter Mel. A year later, when he was babysitting for Peter’s son, Charlie finally gave him his EP – in return Peter gave him a recording contract, produced his first album ‘Make Way’ and invited Charlie to open for him on his European tour.
A Volkswagen television advert, in which Charlie was the voice of a dog who unleashed a mightily impressive rendition of the classic Spencer Davis Group song ‘I’m a Man’, became a global smash and is also now a YouTube classic.
Charlie’s story then moved to France where he had come to the attention of record label Atmosphériques who introduced him to Mark Plati (David Bowie, The Cure, Louise Attaque) with whom Charlie recorded his second album ‘Hobo’. The “Hobo” sessions took place primarily in Paris, at the Pigalle Studios, with brass and strings added in London and the finishing touches added at Plati’s New York studio.
The resulting album is a collection of songs with soul inspired by the great ‘soul men’ – Ray Charles, Randy Newman, Richie Havens, Tom Waits. Thoughtful and captivating and musically witty the stories are at times serious, at others ironic but always profoundly human.
‘Hobo’ was released in France in January 2009. The single ‘Like A Hobo’ shot to number one in the iTunes chart within forty eight hours; the album followed suit within a week. ‘Like A Hobo’ was number one on all download charts for four weeks, a feat only ever achieved by four other artists. Certified platinum, the album CD has now been in the top ten of the physical charts since its launch in January and the single topped the French CD charts on its release.
Featured in all the main French press, Charlie has performed on the influential TV show Taratata an unprecedented three times and on Le Grand Journal in both Paris and at the show’s Cannes Film Festival opener. He is currently on an extensive sold out headline tour of France and has been invited to play at all the major summer festivals in France, Belgium and Switzerland. On stage Charlie the “song-singer” becomes Charlie the entertainer, one steeped in music, dance and theatre who puts on quite a show – “Because I am a songwriter with an album called ‘Hobo’ it can easily be misconstrued that I’ll just be on stage with a guitar or a harmonica. But I’m a performer and an entertainer and my experience with theatre and dance means that it’s more about being an artist than just a songwriter.”
In 2011 he released another studio album “Running Still”, which was also very successful. The song “She Went Quitely” was used in the US series Grey’s Anatomy.
Last year he released the album Curio City, which is slightly different in the sound, but as same great as the previous albums.
