Ben Watt

Best known as one half of Everything But The Girl, Ben Watt has also firmly forged his own path as a solo singer songwriter, DJ and producer. The son of Glaswegian jazz musician Tommy Watt and writer Romany Bain, he was born and raised in London and first made his mark in 1981 when he was signed by Cherry Red Records and released his gentle, jazz-influenced debut album North Marine Drive. He then teamed up with Marine Girls singer Tracey Thorn - who he met at Hull University and married in 2009 - in a long-running songwriting/performing partnership as Everything But The Girl; a slightly quirky act playing left field songs, who built a devoted cult audience and released nine albums in 18 years. In that time he also evolved parallel careers as a DJ and re-mixer, hosting his own club and forming his own indie techno label Buzzin' Fly encouraging the careers of younger artists and releasing his own club productions, like Lone Cat and Pop A'Cap (with Estelle). In 1996 he wrote his autobiography Patient describing his battle with the rare, life-threatening disease Churg-Strauss Syndrome which attacked his auto-immune system. He followed this in 2014 with a new book, Romany & Tom, documenting his own family background and also began hosting his own BBC Radio 6 show. He also made his long-awaited return to the recording studio in 2014, releasing the solo album Hendra, on which he collaborated with Bernard Butler - with whom he played a series of live shows - with a guest appearance by Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour.

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