Patrick was born in Bristol, England, to an Irish father and a Welsh mother on 30th June 1966. After dropping out of school and spending time as a street busker, he became lead singer of the alternative rock band Strangelove, who were signed to Food, Parlophone/EMI. The band released three critically-acclaimed albums, Time For The Rest of Your Life, Love and Other Demons and Strangelove between 1991 and 1998. After Strangelove ended he briefly formed another band, Moon, who split up after nine months and released one single, Anaesthesia. Between 2000 and 2004 he went on to travel the world as a solo artist with WOMAD Festival, collaborating with a number of artists, most notably the then 81-year-old veteran African master storyteller and musician Madosini, with whom he lived and worked in the township of Langa, in Capetown, South Africa. On returning to the UK, Duff released his first solo album Luxury Problems, produced by Adrian Utley of Portishead and Alex Lee (Goldfrapp/Placebo/Suede/Strangelove). The album was released on EMI’s legendary Harvest label – once home to Duff’s childhood hero Syd Barrett – in June 2005. The following year Patrick was commissioned by Bristol City Council to write a Christmas choral symphony, intended for a one-off exclusive performance at Bristol Cathedral, which he subsequently recorded over six weeks in Salt Lake City, Utah. Unfortunately, back in Bristol, the city elders were completely freaked out by the 90-minute piece, entitled Seven Sermons To The Dead, and it was never staged. In 2007, he began work on his second solo album, The Mad Straight Road, a collection of 12 songs which Duff described as “a synthesis of some of the music that has shaped my life – stuff like Disney soundtracks, the Beatles, the Kinks, Bob Dylan, Nick Cave and Johnny Cash – it all went right into the heart of me and came back sounding like this”. The album features, alongside Patrick, a host of acclaimed musicians, including drummer Damon Reece of Massive Attack, pianist John Baggot (Robert Plant’s Sweet Sensation/Massive Attack/Portishead), Phantom Limb’s bass player Dan Brown (who also provided backing vocals) and pianist Dan Moore, members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Alex Lee, who adds an eerie bowed saw to Dead Man Singing. The Mad Straight Road was produced by Stew Jackson – who also added guitars, banjo, pedal steel, drums, percussion, harmonica, harpsichord and backing vocals – at Robot Club Studios in Bristol. It is due for release in 2009. |
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