Duke Special

Duke Special, a.k.a. Peter Wilson, is a Belfast artist with an unique sound, often referred to as 'vaudeville'. His songs are shaped by an omnipresent piano, harps, brass, strings and - his trademark on stage - an old gramophone. The result are very romantic and passionate little hymns with the Duke's soft vocals. A quite antique sound, but never old-fashioned.

Music was all he ever wanted to do. He learned piano as a child and sang traditional Irish songs in churches and community centres with his sisters. Soon he began writing his own songs and played in some local rock bands with little success.

Under his pseudonym 'Duke Special' he recorded two limited EPs (Lucky Me, My Villain Heart) and sold them at hundreds of concerts across Ireland, the UK and Germany. He supported Aqualung, Rufus Wainwright, Paddy Casey, Gemma Hayes, cDavid Ford, The Divine Comedy Snow Patrol and many others over the last years. More than 6,000 copies of the EPs were sold, and Duke re-released the two EPs as an album (Adventures in Gramophone). In 2005 the "Your Vandal"-EP was released.

Special credit must be given to his onstage partner Chip Bailey, who greatly amuses with self-made percussions formerly known as kitchenware.

Duke Special's second album (and debut on V2 Records) Songs From The Deep Forest is out now and received very good reviews. A limited vinyl box set with six heavyweight 7" in a lovely wooden box is also available. The first single from the album was "Freewheel".

A special two disc edition of "Songs From the Deep Forest" was released on October 1st 2007. Amongst other bonus live tracks is the latest single "Our Love Goes Deeper Than This" with Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy) and Romeo Stodart (The Magic Numbers).