| Intro | British singer |
| Is |
Singer Songwriter |
| From | United Kingdom |
| Type | Music |
| Gender | male |
| Birth | 11 December 1964, Glasgow |
| Age: | 55 years |
Justin Robert Currie (born 11 December 1964) is a Scottish singer and songwriter, best known as a founding 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.
Professional career
Del Amitri
Justin Currie was born in Yorkshire, and established the band Del Amitri 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.
Currie has stated on his own website during 2012 that he is still a member of Del Amitri. On 3 September 2013 it was announced that Del Amitri would undertake a UK tour in early 2014.
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 MacIntyre (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.
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 an album with the working title ‘Rebound’. It was subsequently re-titled What Is Love For and released on Rykodisc on 8 October 2007. A single/EP from the album, “No, Surrender”, was released on 24 March 2008.
Currie’s second album The Great War was released on 3 May 2010, a single titled “A Man with Nothing to Do” was released 26 April 2010.
A third solo album, titled Lower Reaches, recorded in Texas, and was released on 19 August 2013. It is preceded by a free download of the track “Little Stars”, plus a track released to radio in July 2013, “Bend To My Will”. The album reached number 46 in the UK Albums Chart.
Solo discography
- 2007 What is Love For UK #106
- 2010 The Great War UK #90
- 2013 Lower Reaches UK #46
- 2017 This Is My Kingdom Now
- “Justin Currie”. Rykopress. Retrieved 2014-07-28.
- Hutchinson, Andrew (2013-02-14). “Music interview: Justin Currie”. Yorkshire Evening Post. Retrieved 2014-07-28.
Family
Currie is the son of John Currie, who was chorusmaster for the Scottish National Orchestra Chorus from 1965 to 1984 and music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1986 to 1991. His cousin is Nick Currie, also known as “Momus”.
Personal life
He is currently engaged to his longtime girlfriend Emma. The couple have not yet set a date for the wedding.
He is nicknamed ‘Ruby’, after ‘Ruby Murray’, the cockney rhyming slang for ‘a curry’.