Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2014 | Page 54

ENTERTAINMENT

David releases new albu m
D

avid Thornton, chief executive
officer of Visit Isle of Wight, has
been busy promoting all that’s
good about the Island, but has still found
time to display his musical talents.
David has recently released his first
album, but openly admits it has taken
him more than 30 years to compose ‘Ship
of Ghosts’.
He explained: “One of the oldest
songs on the album is Marie Celeste, a
whimsical sea shanty that I started to
write when I was still at drama school in
1982.” David added the middle two verses
in 2010 when he needed to fill out his
Saturday night set in a local pub.

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After sitting on his musical shelf for 30
years it took approximately 20 minutes to
add the final verses and bring the famous
ship finally into a safe harbour.
Originally from Sheffield, David is a folk
singer and songwriter, and his first full
length musical, ‘The Star in Perspective’
was broadcast on BBC radio on Christmas
Day 1980 when he was just 16 years
old. He went on to train as an actor
and musician at the National School of
Performing Arts in the mid-1980s, writing
three stage musicals, before touring with
theatre companies and bands in the UK.
More recently he has performed at the
International Rhythmtree Festival,
Bakewell Folk Music Festival,
Cromford Mills World Heritage Site
in Derbyshire, Cowes Week, The
Wolverton Folk and Blues Festival,
The Needles Park, The Electric Woods
at Robin Hill and the National Forest
Wood Fair in Leicester as well as local
inns and hotels.
Island session musician Allan Todd
also plays bass on some of the album
tracks and the final member of the
current team is David’s own son Ben
Thornton, who took on the task of
mastering the finished songs and

preparing them for digital release. David
added: “Ben trained as a sound engineer
and I found his ideas and professional
advice invaluable. He really opened my
eyes to some of the amazing things you
can achieve digitally, and this has already
started to influence the way I write new
music”.
David already performs around 50 solo
gigs a year, but has plans to put together
a full band in the future and bring out a
second album of totally new music now
that his ‘Ship of Ghosts’ has finally been
launched.