Ewen Vernal (born 27 February 1964) is a Scottish musician.
Born in Glasgow to a musical family, Vernal began taking piano lessons at 8 years old — inspired by a
Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
-singing mother, who was the organist of Springburn Baptist Church, and a choir-leading,
saxophone-playing father. Singing competitions and local
talent contests followed, but it was not until his
teenage years that the bass guitar became the focus of his musical aspirations. Discovering an old guitar in the family loft with only a single low E-string left, he started to pick out bass-lines from favourite
records, finally graduating to the real thing at 16 years old.
From the early 1980s, Vernal began playing in a variety of Glasgow-based bands and some jazz residencies throughout Scotland until, after some persuasion from their drummer, joined newly signed
Deacon Blue in the autumn of 1986
—until 1994, the band enjoyed worldwide success. In 1997 Vernal joined
Capercaillie, of which he is still a member.
He has appeared with the Scottish
progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...
singer
Fish
A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...
, English folk star
Kate Rusby,
Hue and Cry,
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...
,
Michael Brecker,
Chris Rea, and many more.
He lives in the Netherlands with his Dutch girlfriend and has three children.
References
External links
*
1964 births
Living people
Scottish pop musicians
Scottish bass guitarists
Musicians from Glasgow
Scottish expatriates in the Netherlands
Capercaillie (band) members
Deacon Blue members
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