Peter Grant is to big band music what the opposable thumb was to early homosapiens. At 21, the young doe-eyed, feather-haired Brit is a breath of fresh air in a genre which fell out of favour 40 years before he was even born.
‘I started singing because my dad was a singer; he was never into jazz and big band music, but I used to get on stage with him and we’d do some really cheesy duets. It would be embarrassing because he’d make us wear the same outfits. We’d be identical, and he’s a really flamboyant character who’d wear really flamboyant clothes.’
Peter would play the theatres and clubs with his father until he was 10; but it was this environment which gave him his love of big bands, rubbing shoulders with the other club singers, who’d be belting out renditions of Tony Bennett and Rat Pack standards on a nightly basis. ‘I got hooked on it and started spending all my money on vinyls I’d buy at the weekends from charity shops,’ he confesses, ‘I kind of learnt the big band songs that way.’
It was no ordinary childhood. Peter has been performing by himself since he was 12 years old, mostly on the working men’s club circuit (never the most salubrious of environments), but also on cruise ships, at weddings and funerals, ‘you name it, I had a go at it’. ‘It was kind of cool because I was loving what I was doing. I earned a bit of a living and it got me out of school a lot,’ he says. In fact, it seems he’s never entertained the idea of doing anything else. Asked what he’d be if he weren’t a singer, the response is a prolonged pause before admitting that he might have ended up running a beach shack somewhere hot, renting out jet skis to tourists, probably humming Glen Miller tunes while doing so.
His big break came just four years ago, when his first album went gold. ‘I went from driving 250 miles to do a gig for people who weren’t really interested, then driving back because I couldn’t afford a hotel, to all of a sudden having an album in the UK top 10 charts and being able to tour.’
Since then, he hasn’t stopped. His current tour takes in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar before possibly moving on to America, the home of the big band. So, does he dream of cracking the US?
‘I’ll never forget where I come from,’ he confesses in a detectable Yorkshire drawl. ‘But a lot of the original artists who I look up to have come from America.’ So, yes, but it’s not just another case of fame seeking; he genuinely has a reverence for the history of the genre, and talks in humble tones about being asked to perform for old-hand songwriters like Don Black and Tony Hatch.
With a new album on the horizon, he already has his share of fans, including a lady who knits woollen effigies of him. ‘She once knitted this doll based on the first album cover,’ he says. ‘But I’d since grown my highlights out and she was all annoyed that she’d made this doll and it didn’t look anything like me anymore. She was either going to have to do a new one, or I’d have to change my hair.’
He gives the dolls away to his mother, he says, though he’s grateful to his knit-crazy uber fan. In truth, it’s difficult not to like Peter, he has an easy manner that you sense doesn’t change no matter who he’s talking to. The family aspect is also clearly important, too.
‘We’re hoping that my dad will come out and sing in the UAE. I haven’t done a duet with him since I was around 10, and we’ve never sung together since. On this tour he’s going to come with us and do a couple of numbers for the show, so my mum’s going to come along as well.’
Peter Grant: big band, big family, big talent.
Peter Grant plays The Club on March 12. Tickets are available from the venue, or call 02 673 1111
