Ben Watt

Benjamin Brian Watt (born 6 December 1962) is an English musician, DJ, record producer and radio presenter, best known as one half of the duo Everything but the Girl.
 
EARLY YEARS
Born on December 6 1962 in London to Glaswegian jazz musician and bandleader, Tommy Watt, and journalist and feature writer, Romany Bain,  it was in 1981 that Ben first appeared on London indie, Cherry Red, as a young nineteen-year-old experimental folk artist. His first single was produced by the maverick Kevin Coyne. With his second - 1982's 'Summer into Winter' EP - he coaxed alt-folk icon Robert Wyatt into collaborating on two tracks, and soon his work was drawing comparisons in the press to Tim Buckley and John Martyn. His guitar-playing also set him apart, taking non-rock inspiration from Martyn, Joao Gilberto, Nick Drake and Vinni Reilly resulting in rich folk-jazz voicings. His early work culminated in his debut album - 1983's 'North Marine Drive' (UK Indie Album Chart Top 10).
 
EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL
In 1983 he parked his solo plans and formed alt-pop duo Everything But The Girl with singer-writer-partner Tracey Thorn, after meeting each other at Hull University in late 1981. Over the next twenty years, they went on to record nine studio albums, scooping - among several international awards - one platinum and six gold discs in the UK. Commercial highpoints included the debut album 'Eden' (1984), 'Idlewild' (1988, including the UK Top 40 No. 3 hit 'I Don't Want To Talk About It'), 'The Language of Life' (1990, including US VH1 hit 'Driving'), 'Amplified Heart' (1994, including 1995's US Billboard Hot 100 No. 2 and UK Top 40 No. 3 'Missing') as well as the duo's best-selling interpretations of electronica in the mid-nineties - 'Walking Wounded' (1996), 'Temperamental' (1999), and the songs 'Protection' and 'Better Things' with Massive Attack. Everything But The Girl made their last appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2000.
 
During his time with Everything But The Girl he branched out from guitar-playing into arranging and orchestration (most notably on 1986's 'Baby, The Stars Shine Bright') before moving into sampling and electronic production techniques. His work on 'Walking Wounded' earned him a nomination as Producer of the Year at the 1996 Q Awards.
 
(A more in-depth Everything But The Girl history is carried at www.ebtg.com).
 
LAZY DOG
Encouraged by DJ-producer Howie B to start DJing, Watt was thirty-two when he first started mixing freestyle sets of jazz, drum 'n' bass and deep house in London in 1995. Guest sets followed at London nights such as James Lavelle's Dusted, Fabio's Swerve and Howie B's own west London Sunday parties at The Paradise. In 1998, focussing on deep house, he established the seminal London Sunday day-night club and compilation series Lazy Dog with Blackmarket's Jay Hannan at the tiny 200-capacity Notting Hill Arts Club in west London. A bi-monthly Friday night step-up to the central London club The End was added, and sell-out US tours and memorable performances at Miami's Winter Music Conference cemented the duo's reputation. Moving away from Everything But The Girl's mainstream eclecticism and into club-oriented dance music production, Watt also turned out an accompanying string of successful dance floor remixes for Sade, Sunshine Anderson, Zero 7, Maxwell and Meshell Ndegeocello. Lazy Dog folded at the top in 2003 after five years of sell-out parties around the world and compilation sales of 100,000.
 
CLUBLAND
Expanding his new-found role as DJ and promoter, in 2002 he became part-owner-founder of new west London nightclubs Neighbourhood and Cherry Jam orchestrating the music policy and image of both venues, and helping establish their three-year reputation at the forefront of London's club scene. Under his creative direction Cherry Jam's intimate 200-capacity surroundings hosted international DJs as well as rock icons (The Libertines played their first official debut show there) and the space introduced art exhibitions and the long-running spoken word literary night, Book Slam (first created by Watt and still central on the London book scene under different administration). At the larger Neighbourhood, he brought in big guns like Groove Armada, the Rough Trade Records 25th Anniversary, the inaugural House Music Awards and a string of top DJs to guest at his own in-house nights, before leaving both venues and ending his stakeholding in 2005.
 
BUZZIN' FLY AND STRANGE FEELING
In April 2003 he launched his own independent record label, Buzzin' Fly (now distributed by PIAS) focussing on underground house and techno. As well as being a home for his own club-oriented productions - incl 'Lone Cat', 'Pop A Cap In Yo' Ass' with Estelle, 'Guinea Pig' - the label fostered new talent, unearthing Justin Martin, Rodamaal and Flowers and Sea Creatures. The label won Best Breakthrough Label at the House Music Awards 2004 and was runner-up as Best Label at the DJ Magazine Best Of British Awards in both 2007 and 2008. Watt was nominated in the Oustanding Contribution to Dance Music category at the 2009 DJ Mag Awards.
 
His reputation as a solo international DJ was enhanced in 2005 when he was booked widely on the festival circuit (Good Vibrations, Homelands, Coachella, Ibiza, Lovebox Weekender, Electric Picnic). In 2008 he went on to open Sonar, headlined at Exit, and was made resident DJ at We Love at Space in Ibiza. Back home he led Buzzin' Fly's intimate label parties at iconic east London basement venue, Plastic People, while regularly filling the 1,000-capacity The End in central London with special label events before the venue announced its closure in January 2009.
 
Expanding the musical output, 2006 saw the launch of Buzzin' Fly's sister imprint, Strange Feeling, focussing on alternative pop and rock. Early successes included Danish band, Figurines, and Hungary's The Unbending Trees. In 2010 the imprint signed Watt's partner Tracey Thorn as she returned to the indie scene to release the solo albums 'Love And Its Opposite' (2010) and 'Tinsel and Lights' (2012).
 
In March 2013, on the anniversary of its tenth birthday, Watt announced he was closing Buzzin' Fly to new signings and freezing the release schedule, to find time to complete two long-planned creative solo projects - a book about his parents and his first solo album since 1983's 'North Marine Drive'.
 
UNMADE ROAD
In 2014 he announced the launch of his new imprint and production company, Unmade Road, under exclusive license to Caroline International, as a vehicle for his own new work.
 
RADIO
In tandem with his work at Buzzin' Fly, he began a weekly internet radio show in 2006 focussing on house and electronic music. It broadcast over 150 editions over three years with transfers onto the Galaxy Network and Kiss 100 plus several global syndications. He finally closed the show in 2008 and in 2010 accepted an ongoing role as a resident DJ on BBC 6Music's flagship electronic music programme, the 6Mix.
 
BOOKS
Apart from a life in music, in 1996 his autobiographical memoir, 'Patient - the True Story of a Rare Illness' was published to wide acclaim by Viking/Penguin in the UK (a Sunday Times Book of the Year, Esquire Non-Fiction Award finalist) and Grove Atlantic Press US (a New York Times Notable Book of The Year.) The book detailed his extraordinary life and death battle with a rare auto-immune disease Churg-Strauss Syndrome (aka Eosinophilic Polyangiitis) four years earlier, during which he was hospitalised for nine weeks, endured several life-saving operations, and lost 80% of his small intestine. "An astonishingly assured anatomy of his ordeal, by turns terrifying, mordantly funny and intensely moving." (The Daily Telegraph). The book has since been translated into Spanish and Swedish.
 
In Feb 2014 Bloomsbury published his second book, 'Romany and Tom'. Both a personal journey and a portrait of his parents, it is a vivid story of the post-war years, ambition and stardom, and family roots and secrets. Bloomsbury US publish it in June 2014.
 
RETURN TO SOLO
In March 2013 he announced he was returning to the solo career he parked in 1983. With a raft of new songs he performed two low-key solo shows at tiny folk n' blues basement, The Slaughtered Lamb, in London's Clerkenwell. Accompanied by ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler on lead guitar, he showcased a dozen new songs to sell-out crowds on August 20 and 21. A mini-UK tour followed in November in the midst of recording sessions for a new album.
 
Now complete, his new album 'Hendra' will be released on his new imprint Unmade Road through Caroline in April 2014.