thumb at the Guildhall in Southampton, 16 May 2002Justin Currie
(born 11 December 1964 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK) is a Scottish singer and songwriter, best known as the founder member of the band Del Amitri and, along with Iain Harvie, is one of only two members of the group to be present throughout its entire existence.
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JUSTIN CURRIE TICKETS
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Professional career
Del Amitri
Justin Currie established the band while still at school in the early 1980s, after putting up a sign in a music shop asking for other people who could play instruments to get in contact with him. As well as being the lead singer and chief songwriter of the band, Currie also plays
bass with them.
As a songwriter, he co-wrote many of the Del Amitri tracks with Harvie, but some of their most successful songs have been tracks penned solely by Currie. These include "Nothing Ever Happens", "Always the Last to Know" and "Roll to Me".
Although there have been no official reports of Del Amitri splitting up, the band were dropped by record company
Mercury in 2002 after a perceived lack of success for their album of that year,
Can You Do Me Good?
. Since then Currie has been working on several other critically acclaimed projects.
Other projects
In 2003 he fronted the
soul and
jazz covers band Button Up for a short tour of Scotland together with
The Proclaimers guitarist Stuart Nisbet and drummer Ross McFarlane - who also played with chart-toppers
Stiltskin - bassist Gary John Kane and keyboard player Andy May.
From 2004 - 2006 Currie has regularly joined singer songwriters
Eddi Reader and Colin McIntyre (aka
Mull Historical Society) and Scottish folk band
Blazin' Fiddles to perform in Scotland as part of the project "With Strings Attached".
In 2004 Currie also teamed up with Kevin and Jim McDermott (of
Kevin McDermott Orchestra) to record
A Terrible Beauty
, a semi-comedy 60's pastiche rock album which they released anonymously under the name
The Uncle Devil Show.
Currie has also recorded a full group format album along with
Iain Harvie that he has been trying to obtain a release deal for.
Solo career
Currie also continues to perform live as a solo artist in the UK. In 2006 he was a special guest on
Tom McRae's
Hotel Cafe Tour. In 2005 he wrote and recorded a new album
Rebound
. Currie is known for his dry humour and self-deprecation and his
MySpace page suggests: "Justin's solo record is called "Rebound" and features eleven thunderously dreary dirges many of which he is currently airing live to pained looking crowds of people in dingy Glasgow basements."
[1] Several tracks from
Rebound
were previewed on both the Del Amitri Official Website and MySpace page. "Rebound" was subsequently re-titled "What Is Love For" and was released on Rykodisc on
8 October2007. A single/EP from the album, "No, Surrender", was released on 24 March 2008.
Trivia
He is nicknamed 'Ruby', after '
Ruby Murray', the
cockney rhyming slang for 'a
curry'.
His cousin is
Nick Currie, also known as "Momus".
Currie can often be found galavanting Glasgow's fashionable west end in such pubs as "The Big Slope", as well as being a regular at the city's "Optimo(Espacio)" club night at the Sub Club, Jamaica Street.
Personal life
He is currently engaged to his long-term girlfriend Emma. The couple have not yet set a date for the wedding.
[2]
References
- Justin Currie
- Showbuzz