Duke Special’s far-from-silent world

POPULAR performer Duke Special returns to Glór with his new show The Silent World of Hector Mann and Songs from Mother Courage at the start of June.

Following on from the recent release of the top 20 album The Stage, A Book and The Silver Screen, Duke Special takes to the Irish stage a with his brand new live show. 
The Silent World of Hector Mann is based on The Book of Illusions by contemporary American author Paul Auster. The Duke first encountered the actor Hector Mann in the book and was intrigued by the fact that he had only ever made 12 silent movies. Deciding to base his new music project on Mann’s movie appearances, he sent a copy of The Book of Illusions and one film title to a number of artist friends, asking each to write a song based on their given film title in a pre rock ‘n’ roll style. The results are featured on The Silent World of Hector Mann, which forms part of Duke Special’s Glór show.
“Duke Special and his band will present an evening of songs especially written for each of these 12 near-forgotten silent screen gems, combining celluloid and vinyl, spoken words and musical yarns, bringing to life the beautiful and sinister world of the legendary Hector Mann,” a spokeswoman for Glór said.
Songs from Mother Courage will feature music from the new production of the Bertolt Brecht anti-war classic Mother Courage and Her Children, which ran at the National Theatre in London and featured Duke Special and his band alongside award winning actress Fiona Shaw.
The third element of the show is songs from Kurt Weill’s unfinished musical Huckleberry Finn which Duke Special has recorded.
“I’m the first to commercially record these songs. They are readily available but for some reason, nobody else has recorded, so I’m lucky to have found them and to have recorded them. I feel honoured to get to bring them to the public in this way and at my shows. So basically, the show I’m currently touring with is made up of components of my three latest albums. It is a break from much of what I’ve done before and audiences will be in for a surprise,” the artist added.
The Glór performance is part of a nationwide tour, which also includes the Black Box Theatre, Galway and Dolan’s Warehouse, Limerick.
Born in Lisburn and a veteran of numerous Belfast bands, Peter Wilson adopted the stage-name Duke Special to sidestep being characterised as just another solo artist who plays the piano.
“Basically, I had a dream one night when I was a kid and a highwayman came up to me and handed me a scroll with the name on it. When I came to choosing my stage name, I knew Duke Special had to be it,” he explained.
Duke Special’s creative talents have seen him creating a night of song and theatre in the Spiegeltent for the Dublin Fringe Festival, performing his songs accompanied by a 60-piece strong RTÉ Symphony Orchestra at a sold-out show in Dublin’s National Concert Hall, and writing the theme tune for Sesame Tree – the Northern Ireland edition of Sesame Street – where he also got to sing with The Muppets in the final episode.
At the end of last year, Wilson had a chance to further develop his theatrical instincts when he was asked to write the music for the London National Theatre’s new production of Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, starring Fiona Shaw. 
Growing up in Downpatrick, he said music was always encouraged in his home. “All my sisters played music, piano mainly. My grandmother, Mary Groves, was a music teacher and she taught piano to my sisters. She died when I was two but there was music in my home because of her and my sisters got me into the piano too. The first time I performed was at a family function with my cousins, when I was about five years old. I can remember my aunt getting me to sing. When I realised I could sing, I used to get a hairbrush and sing into it. It worked really well for Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick,” he remarked.
Married with three sons, after leaving school and a brief stint with a community arts project in Swindon, England, he returned home and played piano for Brian Houston under whom he apprenticed, picking up a hunger for performing and a knack of winning over an audience in the process.
He has been nominated for a number of awards in recent years and was selected as the Best Male at the Meteor Awards in 2008.
“People always ask me about awards and I don’t know why. I don’t do what I do to win awards. I’m not too bothered about awards but they are helpful – if even only so more people buy the album. But otherwise, they do nothing for me,” he added.
He says that he does what he does because he simply doesn’t want to do anything else. “It’s how I feel alive. I feel fulfilled when I’m performing.  It beats working in Tescos. It was a pipe dream that I’d make a career of this and I’m fortunate to be doing what I love. I absolutely adore performing. I’m really enjoying this particular show and I’m very pleased with how it’s going. I am delighted to find this music because it is something different. It’s great to get to explore different options. All of my shows are different and this really will be. It is somewhere between concert and theatre, with a huge emphasis on the songs.”
Recently, he has been asked for front a documentary for RTÉ on the life of legendary Belfast singer, Ruby Murray. “It will be a documentary on her life and music through the eyes of me – another musician from Northern Ireland. I’m very excited about it. It will focus on her music, and I’m hoping to interpret some of her songs. Filming is due to begin in early July. It’s a very new venture for me,” he said.
In the autumn he plans to start writing a cycle of songs based on a photo exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
“I don’t want to say too much about it because the exhibition hasn’t even opened yet but basically there are seriously amazing photos and I’ve been asked to write songs to depict the images. The plan is that I will perform a concert of these songs to the backdrop of the photos, so essentially the photos will be the set for my show. It’s a new approach for me and I’m looking forward to the challenge, he said.