Elio Pace

Elio was born in Woking, Surrey, in 1968 of Italian parents. He showed early signs of natural musical talent when he started to sing and play the piano at the age of four. Throughout his childhood he developed his ear for music as well as his love of rock & roll. He had his first 'proper' piano lesson at the age of eleven achieving the highest qualification of Grade 8 by the time he was seventeen. Elio went on to train at the Leeds College of Music, and in 1988, singing and playing his own songs, he reached the final of Bob Says Opportunity Knocks on BBC TV, which led to numerous radio and television appearances including, Wogan, Michael Barrymore's Saturday Night Out and The Les Dawson Show with Shirley Bassey and Randy Crawford. In 1989, he starred in his own 30-minute documentary about his life and music, as part of ITV's The Music Makers. Elio has toured the UK in the original casts of Tutti Frutti, Great Balls Of Fire and Dancing In The Street. As well as appearing in, he has also been Musical Director on many shows including Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (as the Pharaoh), West Side Story (as Tony); five DGM productions, Rave On, Summer In The City, Itchycoo Park, Hold Tight It's 60's Night and Hold Tight It's 70's Night, and for Bill Kenwright, Thank You For The Music in which Elio appeared as Elton John and Billy Joel. In 2000, Elio was asked to put together and direct a 15-piece band for an outdoor concert, not only to perform himself but to support and back other artists including Art Garfunkel, David Soul and Katrina (and The Waves) Leskanich. Great Balls Of Fire recorded live at this concert features on the album Come And Get It. The same year also saw Elio travel to the USA on two occasions; firstly in June to Nashville to play piano and sing background vocals on a re-recording of his own song, Got The Bug Back, by a newly-signed RCA recording artist; secondly in August, to musically direct and co-star in a three-month run of the musical comedy Song Of Singapore, playing the blind, jazz-pianist Freddy S. Lyme, at The New Theatre, Kansas City starring Loretta Swit from M*A*S*H. Elio originally appeared in Song Of Singapore at The Minerva Theatre, Chichester in 1998 in its highly acclaimed British Premiere. In July 2001, he was asked to appear as Freddy once again when Song Of Singapore opened at The May Fair Theatre in London's West End. As well as his theatre commitments, The Elio Pace Band (which he set up in 1993) has headlined at many venues performing his own material and, for BBC Radio 2, the band were twice featured on Gloria Hunniford's Upstaged, sharing the bill with Neil Sedaka. Elio's band has become a corporate event favourite and has provided musical entertainment for many prestigious companies including Warner Bros., Disney, Vodafone, Sotheby's, Manchester United Football Club, U.N.I.C.E.F and, Hello and OK magazines. Elio was also invited to play for leading Hollywood actress, Sandra Bullock's 30th birthday party. February 2002 saw the release of The Elio Pace Band’s Come And Get It, a brand new album featuring covers of classic songs by some of his favourite artists as well as including three of his own. The album has a special guest appearance by Elvis Presley’s legendary guitarist James Burton. Elio cites this as one of the highlights of his career so far. As a further accolade, Elio’s version of Two More Bottles Of Wine, taken from the album, was featured by Terry Wogan on his BBC Radio 2 breakfast show Wake Up To Wogan. Tracks off the album were also featured on Desmond Carrington’s All Time Greats, also on Radio 2. In April 2004, Elio completed an eight-week UK tour musically directing Dancing In The Streets, a Motown musical review starring Martha Reeves. In February 2004, Elio was asked to join the Shakin’ Stevens band as piano-player and backing vocalist. As well as a one-off performance at Frankfurt’s Opera House that month, he travelled with Shaky to Denmark in July 2004 to play at the Langelands Festival to a crowd of 25,000 people. Also, in June 2004 he was invited by Suzi Quatro to become a regular member of her band. In February 2005, Elio completed a three-week, fifteen date tour of Australia with Suzi Quatro. In June 2005, Elio played piano on a new album by Katrina Leskanich and accompanied her on a string of live appearances around the UK. In September 2005, Elio appeared as Ronnie Corbett’s special guest in his only live stand-up performance of the year as part of the Dublin Bulmers Comedy Festival. Also in September 2005, The Elio Pace Band was invited to perform at Bill Kenwright’s 60th Birthday party in Mayfair, London. One of the highlights of the evening was Elio duetting with Kiki Dee on her and Elton John’s classic Don’t Go Breaking My Heart. As part of the Shakin’ Stevens band, 2005 saw Elio perform twice at London’s prestigious Shepherds Bush Empire, win the final of ITV’s Hit Me Baby One More Time, reach No.20 in the Uk Singles chart and appear on BBC1’s Top Of The Pops, travel to Denmark and the Faroe Islands and in December 2005, complete a four week UK tour. In early 2006, Elio completed recording sessions on ‘Now Listen', Shaky's first studio album for thirteen-years. In August 2006, Elio appeared on the soundtrack of the movie ‘Severance' singing a song written by Christian Henson and Caroline Lost called Summertimin' which features over the closing credits of the film. In May 2007, the soundtrack was nominated for an Ivor Novello award. December 2006 saw the release of Elio's wonderfully uplifting Christmas single, What A Day. Featured once again on BBC Radio 2's Wake Up To Wogan, What A Day looks set to become a Yuletide classic. Since September 2006, Elio has been touring with Grammy award winning, Albert Lee and his band, Hogan's Heroes, producing their critically acclaimed studio album ‘Like This' which features Elio's own composition 'Can Your Grandpa Rock And Roll Like This' written with Matt Daniel-Baker especially for Albert. May 11th, 2009 brings the eagerly awaited release of Elio's new album 'A Seat At My Table' featuring 12 of his own songs. The album features special guest appearances by Albert Lee and Elvis Presley's bass player, Jerry Scheff.