Andrew John Connell (born 26 July 1961) is an English keyboardist and composer. Along with

Corinne Drewery Corinne Drewery (born 21 September 1959) is an English singer-songwriter and fashion designer, best known for being the lead vocalist of the band Swing Out Sister. Early life Drewery was born in Nottingham. She later moved to the Lincolnshire ...

, he is part of the duo that makes up Swing Out Sister.

Biography

Born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, Connell played in the Manchester

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

band The Immediates, before joining new wave

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

pioneers,

A Certain Ratio A Certain Ratio (abbreviated as ACR) are an English post-punk band formed in Greater Manchester in 1977 by Peter Terrell (guitar), Simon Topping (vocals, trumpet), Jez Kerr (bass guitar, vocals), Martin Moscrop (trumpet, guitar) and Donald Johns ...

. He was also a member of the Manchester-based jazz/pop band Kalima who were signed to

Factory Records Factory Records was a Manchester-based British independent record label founded in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus. The label featured several important acts on its roster, including Joy Division, New Order (band), New Order, A Certain Ra ...

, whilst he was also a member of A Certain Ratio. A few years later he teamed up with former

Magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

drummer

Martin Jackson Martin Jackson (born 30 August 1955 in Manchester, England) is a British drummer who has played with several bands from Manchester, although his most successful roles were with Magazine in 1978 with the release of the influential ''Real Life'' ...

and Greg Wilson, and they released an inventive electronic album called ''UK Electro'' in 1984. Swing Out Sister began in earnest in 1985, when Connell and Jackson teamed up with

. Since the band's establishment, he has been the main composer and arranger for Swing Out Sister's music, including the UK and US top ten hit, " Breakout". Apart from his work with Swing Out Sister, Connell has produced and arranged music for other artists, and recently he wrote the musical score for a short film called ''The Knickerman'', directed by Sonja Phillips. He also contributed to

Quando Quango Quando Quango were a British electronic music group, formed by The Haçienda DJ and Factory Records A&R man Mike Pickering, Hillegonda Rietveld and Reinier Rietveld. Their unique sound influenced the underground dance music scenes in New York ...

's album, ''Pigs & Battleships''. Most recently, Connell and Drewery have been promoting their latest album, '' Almost Persuaded''. An avid Manchester City fan, Connell is an occasional contributor to ''The Man City Show Podcast'' alongside Nigel Rothband and Rob Behrens.

References

External links

Andy Connell's Internet radio station on LIVE365.com
*
Official Swing Out Sister website
1961 births Living people Swing Out Sister members English keyboardists English composers Musicians from Manchester Sophisti-pop musicians 21st-century English pianists {{UK-pianist-stub