Todd Sharpville
Encyclopedia
Todd Sharpville is the younger son of the 3rd Viscount St Davids
and younger brother of 4th Viscount St Davids. Sharpville is a British
musician
, singer-songwriter
and lead guitar
ist, mainly in the blues
field. It is claimed that he is "the world’s first blue-blooded bluesman, being a titled member of
one of the UK’s oldest aristocratic families, descending from royal lineage". In 2010, the Conservative Party
asked him to stand for election as a Prospective parliamentary candidate
, but he declined the offer.
release Touch Of Your Love (Red Lightnin' Records - RLCD0095). The album achieved critical acclaim winning "Best Album" in 1994 in the British Blues Connection awards (Britain
's equivalent to the W.C. Handy Awards). At this time, Sharpville was putting together European backing bands for visiting American
blues artists (such as Hubert Sumlin
, Ike Turner
, Chuck Berry
and Byther Smith
). He won the British Blues Connection "Best UK Guitarist" award in 1995 (beating fellow nominees Eric Clapton
and Gary Moore
according to the April 1995 edition of British Blues Connection's Blueprint magazine) and became a mainstay on the European blues circuit as a solo
artist.
His second blues album The Meaning Of Life (CRCD0057) was released in 2001 on Cathouse Records and featured guests Leo Sayer
, Eugene "Hideaway" Bridges, Snowy White
, Paul Lamb
, Keith Dunn
, and ex-Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor
. In support of this release, Sayer and Taylor toured extensively, as part of the Todd Sharpville Band. Sharpville can also be found on more than thirty five compilation album
s, and at least five Dana Gillespie
releases. He additionally appeared on The Mick Ronson
Memorial Concert (Citadel Records - recorded at the Hammersmith Apollo
in 1994), Albert Hammond
's 2006 release Revolution Of The Heart (Sharpville was Hammond's guitarist and musical director) and Leo Sayer's Voice In My Head (2005). Live performances include appearances with Robbie Williams
, Van Morrison
, Peter Green
, George Michael
, Taj Mahal
, Albert Collins
, Georgie Fame
, Kim Wilson
, Joe Louis Walker
, Tommy Castro
, Brian May
, and the reformed version of The Yardbirds
.
Between 2005 and 2007, Sharpville was the European opening act for Pink
, Joe Cocker
, and B.B. King. He is still due to release his singer/songwriter album Diary Of A Drowning Man . This is a "confessional" album, inspired by his divorce
. It features a duet
with British vocalist Sam Brown ("Sweet Redemption"), and was co-produced by ex-Stone Roses
record producer
Dave Hyatt and Robbie Williams
producer Steve Power
. His new blues double album "Porchlight" was released on 29 October 2010 by the MiG Music record label. This was produced in Rhode Island
by Duke Robillard
and features guests: Duke Robillard
, Joe Louis Walker
, & Kim Wilson
(of The Fabulous Thunderbirds
).
to his brother, Rhodri Philipps, 4th Viscount St Davids, and currently the only person eligible to succeed to the Viscountcy of St Davids. In addition to the Viscountcy, Sharpville is also the sole heir to another 4 family titles held by the current Viscount: Baron Strange
Of Knockin (1299), Baron Hungerford
(1426), Baron de Moleyns (1445), and the Baronetcy Of Picton Castle (1621).
Colwyn Philipps, 3rd Viscount St Davids
Colwyn Jestyn John Philipps, 3rd Viscount St Davids was the son of Jestyn Philipps, 2nd Viscount St Davids and Doreen Guinness Jowett and was a British peer...
and younger brother of 4th Viscount St Davids. Sharpville is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
and lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
ist, mainly in the blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
field. It is claimed that he is "the world’s first blue-blooded bluesman, being a titled member of
one of the UK’s oldest aristocratic families, descending from royal lineage". In 2010, the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
asked him to stand for election as a Prospective parliamentary candidate
Prospective parliamentary candidate
Prospective parliamentary candidate is a term used in British politics to refer to candidates selected by political parties to fight individual constituencies in advance of a general election. This terminology was motivated by the strict limits on the amount of expenses incurred by an actual...
, but he declined the offer.
Career
Sharpville first came to public prominence with his 1994 debut blues albumAlbum
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
release Touch Of Your Love (Red Lightnin' Records - RLCD0095). The album achieved critical acclaim winning "Best Album" in 1994 in the British Blues Connection awards (Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's equivalent to the W.C. Handy Awards). At this time, Sharpville was putting together European backing bands for visiting American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
blues artists (such as Hubert Sumlin
Hubert Sumlin
Hubert Sumlin is an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist and singer, best known for his celebrated work, from 1955, as guitarist in Howlin' Wolf's band. His singular playing is characterized by "wrenched, shattering bursts of notes, sudden cliff-hanger silences and daring rhythmic...
, Ike Turner
Ike Turner
Isaac Wister Turner was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, arranger, talent scout, and record producer. In a career that lasted more than half a century, his repertoire included blues, soul, rock, and funk...
, Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
and Byther Smith
Byther Smith
Byther Smith is an American blues musician, noted for his gritty style and uncompromising delivery.-Career:...
). He won the British Blues Connection "Best UK Guitarist" award in 1995 (beating fellow nominees Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
and Gary Moore
Gary Moore
Robert William Gary Moore , better known simply as Gary Moore, was a Northern Irish musician from Belfast, best recognised as a blues rock guitarist and singer....
according to the April 1995 edition of British Blues Connection's Blueprint magazine) and became a mainstay on the European blues circuit as a solo
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
artist.
His second blues album The Meaning Of Life (CRCD0057) was released in 2001 on Cathouse Records and featured guests Leo Sayer
Leo Sayer
Leo Sayer is a British singer-songwriter, musician, and entertainer whose singing career has spanned four decades. Sayer became a naturalised Australian citizen in 2009. Sayer was a top singles and album act on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1970s...
, Eugene "Hideaway" Bridges, Snowy White
Snowy White
Snowy White is an English guitarist, known for having played with Thin Lizzy and with Pink Floyd and, more recently, for Roger Waters'...
, Paul Lamb
Paul Lamb (musician)
Paul Lamb is a British blues harmonica player and bandleader. He has had a four decade long career as a blues harmonicist and bandleader, with fans around the world.-Biography:...
, Keith Dunn
Keith Dunn
Keith Dunn is a harmonica player, singer, producer and songwriter. He was born in Boston and has been playing blues music for over 30 years. He is the founder of record label DeeTone Records.-Biography:...
, and ex-Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor
Mick Taylor
Michael Kevin "Mick" Taylor is an English musician, best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and The Rolling Stones...
. In support of this release, Sayer and Taylor toured extensively, as part of the Todd Sharpville Band. Sharpville can also be found on more than thirty five compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
s, and at least five Dana Gillespie
Dana Gillespie
Dana Gillespie is an English actress and singer.-Career:Gillespie was born to the Baron De Winterstein Gillespie, an Austrian radiologist, and his wife. She grew up in England and her family's villa in Maccagno, a village on Lake Maggiore, Italy...
releases. He additionally appeared on The Mick Ronson
Mick Ronson
Michael "Mick" Ronson was an English guitarist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer. He is best known for his work with David Bowie, as one of The Spiders from Mars...
Memorial Concert (Citadel Records - recorded at the Hammersmith Apollo
Hammersmith Apollo
Hammersmith Apollo is a major entertainment venue located in Hammersmith, London. Designed by Robert Cromie in Art Deco style, it opened in 1932 as the Gaumont Palace cinema, being re-named the Hammersmith Odeon in 1962...
in 1994), Albert Hammond
Albert Hammond
Albert Hammond OBE is a British singer, songwriter and record producer from Gibraltar.-Birth and early success:Hammond was born in London, England, where his family had been evacuated to from Gibraltar during World War II. His family returned to Gibraltar shortly after his birth, and there he grew...
's 2006 release Revolution Of The Heart (Sharpville was Hammond's guitarist and musical director) and Leo Sayer's Voice In My Head (2005). Live performances include appearances with Robbie Williams
Robbie Williams
Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams is an English singer-songwriter, vocal coach and occasional actor. He is a member of the pop group Take That. Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early- to mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and certain group members, Williams...
, Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
, Peter Green
Peter Green (musician)
Peter Green is a British blues-rock guitarist and the founder of the band Fleetwood Mac...
, George Michael
George Michael
George Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...
, Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal (musician)
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...
, Albert Collins
Albert Collins
Albert Collins was an American electric blues guitarist and singer whose recording career began in the 1960s in Houston and whose fame eventually took him to stages across the US, Europe, Japan and Australia...
, Georgie Fame
Georgie Fame
Georgie Fame is a British rhythm and blues and jazz singer and keyboard player. The one-time rock and roll tour musician, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still a popular performer, often working with contemporaries such as Van Morrison and Bill Wyman.-Early life:Fame took piano lessons from the...
, Kim Wilson
Kim Wilson
Kim Wilson is an American blues singer and harmonica player. He is best known as the lead vocalist and frontman for The Fabulous Thunderbirds on two hit songs of the 1980s; "Tuff Enuff", and "Wrap It Up."-Career:...
, Joe Louis Walker
Joe Louis Walker
Joe Louis Walker, also known as JLW is an American musician, best known as a electric blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer. A feature of his work is his recourse to older material or playing styles, which revealed his knowledge of blues history.-Career:Joe Louis Walker was born in San...
, Tommy Castro
Tommy Castro
Tommy Castro is an American blues, R&B and rock guitarist and singer. He has been recording since the mid 1990s. His music has taken him from local stages to national and international touring. His popularity was marked by his winning the 2008 Blues Music Award for Entertainer Of The Year...
, Brian May
Brian May
Brian Harold May, CBE is an English musician and astrophysicist most widely known as the guitarist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen...
, and the reformed version of The Yardbirds
The Yardbirds
- Current :* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jim McCarty - drums, backing vocals * Ben King - lead guitar * David Smale - bass, backing vocals...
.
Between 2005 and 2007, Sharpville was the European opening act for Pink
Pink (singer)
Alecia Beth Moore , better known by her stage name Pink , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actress....
, Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
, and B.B. King. He is still due to release his singer/songwriter album Diary Of A Drowning Man . This is a "confessional" album, inspired by his divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
. It features a duet
Duet (music)
A duet is a musical composition for two performers. In classical music, the term is most often used for a composition for two singers or pianists; with other instruments, the word duo is also often used. A piece performed by two pianists performing together on the same piano is referred to as...
with British vocalist Sam Brown ("Sweet Redemption"), and was co-produced by ex-Stone Roses
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses are an English alternative rock band formed in Manchester in 1983. They were one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement that was active during the late 1980s and early 1990s...
record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Dave Hyatt and Robbie Williams
Robbie Williams
Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams is an English singer-songwriter, vocal coach and occasional actor. He is a member of the pop group Take That. Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early- to mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and certain group members, Williams...
producer Steve Power
Steve Power
Steve Power is an English record producer best known for his work with Robbie Williams. He has produced and mixed a wide variety of artists over the years, including Blur, Busted, Andrea Bocelli, Feeder, Joe Cocker, Diana Ross, Babybird, Babylon Zoo, Stephen Duffy, Black, The Bangels, Billy Ocean,...
. His new blues double album "Porchlight" was released on 29 October 2010 by the MiG Music record label. This was produced in Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
by Duke Robillard
Duke Robillard
Michael John "Duke" Robillard is an American blues musician.After playing in various bands and working for the Guild Guitar Company, he co-founded the band Roomful of Blues with pianist Al Copley in 1967. He has also been a member of The Fabulous Thunderbirds which included Kim Wilson, replacing...
and features guests: Duke Robillard
Duke Robillard
Michael John "Duke" Robillard is an American blues musician.After playing in various bands and working for the Guild Guitar Company, he co-founded the band Roomful of Blues with pianist Al Copley in 1967. He has also been a member of The Fabulous Thunderbirds which included Kim Wilson, replacing...
, Joe Louis Walker
Joe Louis Walker
Joe Louis Walker, also known as JLW is an American musician, best known as a electric blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer. A feature of his work is his recourse to older material or playing styles, which revealed his knowledge of blues history.-Career:Joe Louis Walker was born in San...
, & Kim Wilson
Kim Wilson
Kim Wilson is an American blues singer and harmonica player. He is best known as the lead vocalist and frontman for The Fabulous Thunderbirds on two hit songs of the 1980s; "Tuff Enuff", and "Wrap It Up."-Career:...
(of The Fabulous Thunderbirds
The Fabulous Thunderbirds
The Fabulous Thunderbirds are an American, Grammy-nominated Blues rock band, formed in 1974.-Career:After performing for several years in the Austin, Texas blues scene, the band won a recording contract with Takoma/Chrysalis Records, and later on signed with Epic Records.Their first two albums,...
).
Viscountcy of St Davids
Sharpville is the heir presumptiveHeir Presumptive
An heir presumptive or heiress presumptive is the person provisionally scheduled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir or heiress apparent or of a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question...
to his brother, Rhodri Philipps, 4th Viscount St Davids, and currently the only person eligible to succeed to the Viscountcy of St Davids. In addition to the Viscountcy, Sharpville is also the sole heir to another 4 family titles held by the current Viscount: Baron Strange
Baron Strange
Baron Strange is a title that has been created several times in the Peerage of England. Two creations, one in 1295 and another in 1325, had only one holder each, upon the death of whom they became extinct. Two of the creations are still extant, however...
Of Knockin (1299), Baron Hungerford
Baron Hungerford
The Barony of Hungerford was created in the Peerage of England on 7 January 1426 for Walter Hungerford, who was summoned to parliament, had been Member of Parliament, Speaker of the House and invested as Knight of the Order of the Garter before and was made Lord High Treasurer one year before he...
(1426), Baron de Moleyns (1445), and the Baronetcy Of Picton Castle (1621).