news update
April 2006
Hello,
Welcome to all of you who are new to my site, I hope you enjoy
looking and ‘listening’ around. And welcome back to
all of you who visit here frequently for my latest news updates.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be adding to the site some
more new pictures, a new ‘links’ page, an updated
‘contact’ page, a testimonials page and some video
of us playing.
Here are some of the highlights since the last update and from
what turned out to be quite an eventful 2005:
October 19th 2004
Recorded a lead vocal to a beautiful original song written by
Matthew Strachan & J Fred Knobloch called ‘Love Is Enough’.
The song has not yet been officially released but to listen to
an excerpt you can visit Matthew’s site by clicking on the
following link: www.strawnygawn.com/matthew/songs.htm
 October
23rd 2004
Traveled, for the first time, to Vienna with Suzi Quatro as part
of a 10-date European tour that became known as The Saturday Club!
We went to some great places on that tour but Vienna was somewhere
that I had always looked forward to visiting. (On the drive from
the airport to the hotel, I must have listened to Billy Joel’s
‘Vienna’ on my iPod twenty times).
www.suziquatro.com
 November
8th 2004
Started a short 5-date tour of Denmark with Shakin’ Stevens.
Fantastic country. Fantastic people.
Click here for photos
February 2nd to 27th 2005
Flew to Australia to begin a 15-date tour with Suzi Quatro. This
was my first time in Australia and I absolutely fell in love with
the place. We went from Perth to Adelaide to Tasmania to The Gold
Coast all in the first four days. From there we went to Sydney
where we stayed for ten days and we ended the tour via Melbourne
and Canberra. The tour was a huge and happy success with Suzi
filling every venue we played in and the crowds were, as you’d
expect…wild! As well as duetting with Suzi on ‘Stumblin’
In’, she also asked me to sing a piece of ‘Mack The
Knife’ whilst she played the bongos…yes, MACK THE
KNIFE! Yes, BONGOS! You’ll have to come and see the show!
During one of our nights off in Sydney, I was lucky enough to
get a last minute ticket to see kd lang in concert at the Sydney
Opera House  accompanied
by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. What an unforgettable night
of music that was. She has always been one of my favourite singers
and this concert rates among my top five of the best performances
I’ve ever heard. All in all, this was the happiest tour
I’ve done so far. Click here for
photos
March 5th 2005
Met Geraint Watkins, one of my piano-playing heroes. I was in
Cologne with Suzi Quatro and Geraint was there with Dave Edmonds
playing in the same show as us, so I took the opportunity to introduce
myself to him. Geraint was the piano-player on all of Shakin’
Stevens’ early hits including ‘This Ole House’,
‘Green Door’, ‘You Drive Me Crazy’ and
‘It’s Raining’. The latter has a piano solo
by Geraint that, as a 15 year-old, changed my piano-playing forever.
I told him how I had been given the day off school with a cold
and had made use of the day by learning his solo. I had always
loved it and had wanted to discover exactly what those amazing
‘crunchy’ bluesy sounds were that didn’t exist
in my own piano-playing vocabulary at the time. By the end of
the day I had cracked it! That day off school turned out to be
a turning point for me and learning Geraint’s solo, one
of the best lessons I ever had.
 March
6th 2005
Played at the wedding of Neil & Davina Fairclough. I’m
very proud to say that Neil has not only been my bass player for
eleven years and is a ‘monster’ musician but is also
one of my very best friends. It was an honour to entertain his
guests on his and Davina’s big day. Needless to say, Neil
had the night off from playing in the band and in his place was
the awesome Ian King. Click
here for photos
March 8th 2005
Managed to squeeze in a holiday!!!
My girlfriend Helen and I took ourselves off to New York for some
shopping and show seeing.
We stayed with our great buddies Van and Vikki. Van is currently
touring the USA playing Hank Williams in ‘Lost Highway’
and Vikki can currently be seen hosting her own programme on Channel
4 in the hugely successful series ‘It’s Me Or The
Dog’. Vikki’s website is www.victoriastilwell.com
April 5th 2005
Appeared on GMTV with Shakin’ Stevens miming to ‘Oh
Julie’. His first major TV interview for many years.
April 6th 2005
Played my first gig at the Shepherds Bush Empire in London with
Shakin’ Stevens. This show was filmed and I assume will
be released sometime in the future.
April 9th 2005
Appeared ‘live’ with Shakin’ Stevens on ITV’s
‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’, a sort of X-Factor for
celebrities. The band mimed to our pre-recorded backing tracks
of ‘This Ole House’ and ‘Trouble’ whilst
Shaky sang live. He won the heat, which put him into the final
on May 21st. I knew straight away that I wouldn’t be able
to be there on that date as I already had confirmed a gig with
Suzi Quatro. Shaky went on to win the final, which led to…
June 24th 2005
…My first appearance on ‘Top Of The Pops’ again
miming to Shaky’s new single ‘Trouble’.
June 29th 2005
Recorded a piano session on a new song by Katrina Leskanich (formerly
of Katrina And The Waves) called ‘Broken Arrow’ due
for release on her debut solo album later in the year. Darren
Loveday, guitarist in my band for eight years, produced the track.
www.katrinasweb.com
 August
6th 2005
Performed a one-off open-air gig with Shakin’ Stevens in
the Faroe Islands. During our three-day visit to these gorgeous
isolated islands, our hosts treated us to the most wonderful eight
hours of sailing in the North Sea on a fishing vessel. Whilst
at sea, we were served up the most delicious fresh fish, crab
and mussels you could imagine. We were also treated to a beautiful
solo violin recital by Heidrun Petersen, whilst bobbing about
on a life boat deep inside a dark cave renowned in the Faroe Islands
for it’s incredible natural acoustics. Heidrun is a classical
music star of the future… You heard it here first! Click
here for photos
August 22nd 2005
I was extremely flattered to have been one of a number of people
asked by Kevin Campbell to perform a set at a special charity
fundraising event for the percussionist, Martin David. I had gigged
with Martin a few times in Kevin Healy’s band and was totally
shocked to hear that Martin had cancer. It was a real show of
love and support and respect that so many amazing musicians turned
out for him that night.
I’m sorry and saddened to say that Martin passed away
on December 1st 2005, aged 53.
September 1st 2005
After being asked to be part of her new solo career I played my
second gig with Katrina Leskanich. (The first being back in August
2000 when, as a fifteen- piece, The Elio Pace Band backed Katrina
at an outdoor concert in Chichester). With just Darren Loveday
on guitar/vocals and myself on piano/vocals, Katrina blew everyone
away with her fantastic voice, charm and charisma.
September 4th 2005
The Elio Pace Band performed at Bill Kenwright’s 60th Birthday
Bash in Mayfair, London. It was great to get Bill up to sing ‘Things’
by Bobby Darin, but I have to say that the highlight of the evening
for me was inviting Kiki Dee onto the stage to sing with me, her
and Elton John’s classic, ‘Don’t Go Breaking
My Heart’. A real buzz!
September 15th 2005
Flew to Dublin to appear as Ronnie Corbett’s special guest
in his live stand-up show at the Olympia Theatre as part of the
Bulmer International Comedy Festival. The place was packed and
the noise of the audience when he walked on, to the Two Ronnies
theme tune, was truly breathtaking. They loved him…who wouldn’t?
Ronnie had asked me to do a 30-minute set in the first half and
to join him at the end of the show to do a song with him. We organised
for the guys in my band, namely Paul Murphy on drums, Neil Fairclough
on bass/vocals and Darren Loveday on guitar/vocals, to not only
play for my set but to also back Ronnie in the second half with
Ronnie’s musical director Don Hunt on piano. To choose the
right songs and make them work with a 4-piece band for an audience
who have come to see Ronnie Corbett was a challenge…but
one I’d like to think we met. It was a fabulous night and
probably the highlight of my year.
October 8th 2005
 Played
with Suzi Quatro at the Elvis Presley Fan Club of Great Britain’s
annual convention. Suzi had been asked to play there because of
‘Singing With Angels’, an Elvis tribute song that
she had written and recorded in Nashville in May featuring James
Burton and The Jordanaires. On this night not only was Suzi on
the bill but also the TCB Band (Elvis’ rhythm section from
1969 to 1977)…well, at least three of them. It was great
to meet two more of my heroes in Jerry Scheff and Glenn D. Hardin
and to meet James Burton again. I hadn’t seen him since
2001 just before he recorded his guitar part for my recording
of ‘The
Wonder Of You’. Suzi, of course, performed her Elvis
tribute and James joined us on stage for it. What was special
to me that night was not only the gig itself but  running
through the song before the show with James, Suzi, Tim Smith,
Darren Loveday, Dick Hanson and myself in a little circle, all
singing and playing at each other. I couldn’t take my eyes
off James. His guitar playing, even through a crummy old practice
amp, was exquisite. As a huge Elvis fan, I loved this moment.
I kept thinking to myself, how many times must James Burton have
run through a song with Elvis like this just before a show? And
that’s who Elvis would have been looking at. Walk a mile
in my shoes!
Click here for photos
November 22nd to December 18th 2005
Embarked on a 20-date UK tour with Shakin’ Stevens starting
in Eastbourne and finishing in London at the Shepherds Bush Empire.
I think the 7-piece band did a marvellous job of delivering the
‘rock ‘n’ roll’ goods night after night.
Including myself, five out of the seven band members are in my
band: Peter Effamy on tenor sax who has been my best mate since
we were eleven; Paul Newton on trumpet who’s little girl,
Zosia, is my God daughter; Martyn Hope on lead guitar whom I met
in 1987 at music college in Leeds, and; Darren Loveday on lead
and rhythm guitar who co-produced ‘Come
And Get It’ with me. The other two members of the band
are legends of the British rock ‘n’ roll music scene,
Howard Tibble on drums and Stuart Colman on bass. Both of these
gentlemen were around right at the beginning of Shaky’s
rise to fame and played key roles in securing his success throughout
the 80’s. The two highlights of the tour for me were having
my fellow Suzi Quatro band members Dick Hanson (trumpet) in Oxford
and Ray Beavis (sax) in Plymouth come and see the show as MY guests.
I would never have imagined that back in the mid 80’s as
I watched Shakin’ Stevens in concert that twenty years later
two of the guys up there in that amazing band would come and see
ME play virtually the same songs, as MY guests…and friends!
Strange old world! I’d like to say a big hello to all the
wonderful Shaky fans that I met along the tour. You’re a
passionate, loyal and attractive bunch and any artist would give
their right arm for fans like you, especially at this stage of
their career. Thank you for your support. It was a pleasure to
play for you.
And so we move into 2006:
January 3rd – 7th 2006
Went to Jacobs Farm Studios to start recording Shakin’ Stevens’
new album for Sony/BMG, his first since 1991. A mixture of covers
and originals, the album is due to be released later this year.
January 6th 2006
Finally got to gig alongside another of my best friends, Matthew
Ryder, who is without doubt one of the best close-up magicians
I’ve ever seen. Matthew has ‘worked his magic’
all over the world at major events and has performed for the likes
of President Bill Clinton, Halle Berry, Pierce Brosnan and the
Beckhams. Matthew’s website is www.mattryder.co.uk
(Yes, that was a blatant plug! I owe him one for giving a copy
of my album ‘Come
And Get It’ to Priscilla Presley. Thanks mate!)
January 24th 2006
Recorded my lead vocals for a funky new duet called ‘Summertimin’
to be used on the soundtrack of a new feature film called ’Severance’.
The song was written by Christian Henson and my duet partner for
the session, Caroline Lost. Christian used to play keyboards in
my band back in 1996 and his brother Joe was the original bass
player in my band when I set it up in 1993. Christian not only
co-wrote the song but also wrote the orchestral score for the
movie. He is an extremely talented composer and producer and I
hope to do more recording with him in the future. You can find
Christian and Joe’s website at www.hensonmusic.com
Caroline’s is www.carolinelost.com
Feb 8th 2006
Paul Newton playing trumpet, flugel and guitar joined Darren and
I for a packed gig playing for the brilliant Katrina Leskanich
at the Borderline in London. Showcasing songs from her new album,
she once again gave a great performance and as always, it was
a joy working with her. I look forward to more in the future.
Feb 16th 2006
I was delighted to appear once again as Ronnie Corbett’s
special guest at the Leicester Haymarket Theatre. Ronnie comes
out at the top of the show and greets his audience with a 10-minute
introduction. He then introduces me on and I do the rest of the
first half with my band playing a whole bunch of songs that I
don’t normally get the opportunity to do at my regular gigs.
The whole of the second half is filled with Ronnie’s legendary
masterful storytelling and a few lovely little songs that he sings
so well. I join him right at the end of his act for a short duet
and I still have to pinch myself that there I am on stage singing
with the great Mr Corbett.
Feb 23rd 2006
Played at the Hard Rock Café in London with Suzi Quatro
to mark the launch of her new album ‘Back To The Drive’,
her first for fifteen years. The gig was filmed by Capital Gold
and you can watch it on their website www.capitalgold.com/Article.asp?id=186143
So what’s coming up?
I’m looking forward to the rest of this year for lots of
reasons including with Suzi Quatro, travelling to Moscow and touring
Denmark in April, touring the UK in September and playing at the
NEC in Birmingham supporting Jasper Carrott in December, playing
for both Suzi Quatro and Shakin’ Stevens on the same night
at a festival in Ølstykke, Denmark in August, recording
new material with Katrina and playing more live dates with her
(details to follow), but mostly to the gigs I have lined-up with
my own band, especially the ones I’m planning in London
which will be open to the public. I’ll post the dates here
as soon as they are confirmed. I’m also hoping to release
a new album sometime this year!
Thank you for your continued support. I hope to see you all soon.
Bye for now!
Elio. x
Read the latest news update
Read the February 2007 news update
Read the December 2006 news update
Read the September 2006 news update
Read the April 2006 news update
Read the October 2004 news update
Read the March 2004 news update
|
