Jack Fabian Peñate (pronounced /pənˈjɑːte/; born 2 September 1984, Blackheath, London) is an English musician and singer-songwriter signed to XL Recordings.Contents [hide] 1 Early life 2 Music 3 Live gigs and tours 4 Discography 5 References 6 External links
[edit] Early life
Jack Peñate attended St. Olave's Preparatory School, New Eltham until he left to attend Alleyn's School until he was 18 years of age. His grandfather was Mervyn Peake, author of the Gormenghast books.[1] [edit] Music
Peñate made his way up the ranks of the club and bar scene of London before he was signed by record label XL Recordings. He released his first promo single in October 2006, "Second Minute or Hour" along with its b-side track, "Got My Favourite". This single was released by the record label Young Turks, as a 1000-only limited 7 inch, each containing a different Polaroid photograph, taken of Peñate. And in April 2007 he released the "Spit At Stars EP". In addition to the title track, this featured "My Yvonne", "Cold Thin Line" and a cover of Darondo Pulliam and Al Turner's "Didn't I". The CD edition of the EP also included the first song he ever wrote, "Jack Of All Trades", which he wrote with his band at school called "Jack's Basement". He has appeared on XFM radio's "Xposure" and his first two singles were both Single of the Week on BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe's show.
On 10 August 2007, he announced that his album would be released on 1 October and be titled Matinée. However, on 7 September, this date was pushed back to 8 October, because more time was needed to "finish off all the bits of artwork for the inside cover and because my neck is playing up again." Peñate also stated that "I've been told it's now in production so hopefully there won't be any more delays." [2]
Despite much pre-album publicity, the album met with mixed reviews including a 5/10 from the NME who had featured Peñate on their cover in a previous month. However, the album did debut at number seven in the UK album charts.[3]
On 3 January 2009, XFM played a new track by Peñate called "Tonight's Today", the song ended up being the first single from his second album Everything Is New.
On 24 August 2009, Peñate released his new single "Pull My Heart Away".[4] This single was also available for free single of the week download on the Australian iTunes. He has also announced an autumn tour that will take him to cities including Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, and Manchester.[5] [edit] Live gigs and tours
At Peñate's concerts, it is customary that audience members enter the stage while the song "Torn On The Platform" is performed. One such stage invasion at the Oxford Zodiac on 22 April 2007 resulted in a fan stealing Peñate's distortion pedal. After he'd realised it was missing he proclaimed, “D’you know what? Whoever's got it... keep it! Just make sure you play a Telecaster through it and not a Gibson!” [6] Peñate was featured on BBC Three's coverage of the Glastonbury Festival on Friday 22 June 2007. He has appeared at the Carling Weekend in Reading and Leeds. Two days after his performances at both festivals, he announced on a message on his MySpace that he would have to cancel two gigs the following week, due to severe damage to his throat which also resulted in him reducing his set length at the previous weekend's Carling Weekend. On 8 December 2007 he performed on the Later... with Jools Holland show sharing a bill with David Gray, Rilo Kiley, The Coral, Cleo Laine and John Dankworth, amongst others. During the summer of 2008, Jack Peñate played several live concerts with guest guitars from old school friend Felix White.[citation needed] This included Peñate's set at Reading of August this year. Peñate has played gigs all over the UK on tour and has previously shared dates with his good friends Adele, and The Maccabees. Peñate played at the 2007 Oxegen festival in Kildare, Ireland. Peñate was one of the contributors to the "Janie Jones" charity cover single. He was featured at music night 'Songs in the Dark' run by Jeremy Warmsley and Simon Mastrantone. Jack Peñate performed a cover of La Roux's "Bulletproof" at the Radio 1 Live Lounge. On 3 July 2009, he played at The Roundhouse in Camden Town, as part of the iTunes live festivals month. [edit] Discography Singles 2006: "Second, Minute or Hour" (original release) 2007: "Spit at Stars" 2007: "Torn on the Platform" UK #7, UK Indie #1 2007: "Second, Minute or Hour" - 24 September 2007 UK #17, UK Indie #1 2007: "Have I Been a Fool" - 10 December 2007 UK #73, UK Indie #3 2009: "Tonight's Today" - 30 March 2009 UK #23 2009: "Be the One" - 15 June 2009 UK#35, UK Indie #3 2009: "Pull My Heart Away" UK #99 Albums 2007: Matinée - 8 October 2007 UK #7, UK Independent Label Albums #1 2009: Everything Is New - 22 June 2009 UK #16
