Charlie Winston made his musical debut playing bass on his brother Tom Baxter’s album “Feather and Stone”, and later composing music for a number of contemporary theatre productions. Having signed to Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records, Winston recorded his debut album “Make Way” in 2007, which he supported as the opening act on Peter Gabriel’s European tour. The album never got a release however a number of its tracks found their way on to Winston’s official debut album “Hobo”, released in 2009.
The album earned mainstream popularity in France where it entered the charts at No. 3, later rising the No.1 after 25 weeks in the chart. The album saw the singer win a European Border Breakers Award for Best UK artist in Europe and was led by the chart topping single “Like a Hobo”. Winston followed the album up with the well-received “Running Still” in 2011 which spawned the singles “Secret Girl” and “Hello Alone”.
Having contributed the track “This Wheel’s on Fire” to the Amnesty International compilation “Chimes of Freedom - The Songs of Bob Dylan”, Winston headlined the global telecast for the international day of peace ‘Peace Day One’. Ahead of his third full-length album “Curio City”, the singer-songwriter released the single “Lately”. “Curio City” arrived in January 2015.
Although there seems to be a singer/songwriter on every corner nowadays, Charlie Winston is one of the few success stories to emerge from Cornwall. Although he’s now relocated to France and the majority of his success is based there, seeing him in concert has made me hope that he’ll start to tour further afield. I wasn’t very familiar with his music before I saw him in concert, but when you see an artist perform live and the next day own a lot of his music you know they’ve done something right.
He opened with Wild Ones which grabbed me from the first chord. Although I only knew one or two of his songs, it was good to hear the audience singing along to some of his popular tracks, and with the catchy hooks and choruses, I found it easy to pick up the gist of the music and join in. He was wonderful at interacting with the audience, saying phrases in French and joking around in English with the audience. He jumped down off the stage with his guitar and played part of his song acoustically immersed in the crowd. It was great to see how trusting he is of his fans, and everyone was extremely respectful. Another thing that drew me in, was the dancing from Charlie and his band whilst they were performing full out. The talent from every single performer on that stage was electric and their energy was contagious. After seeing him live, and buying his music, I can’t wait to go back for more.
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