Sam Duckworth (born 30 January 1986) is an English musician who performs as Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. He is also sometimes referred to as ''Get Cape'', ''Cape'', ''GCWCF'' and ''Slam Dunkworth'' (the latter title apparently first coined by Emmy the Great). According to Duckworth, his original stage name came from ''

Retro Gamer ''Retro Gamer'' is a British magazine, published worldwide, covering Retrogaming, retro video games. It was the first commercial magazine to be devoted entirely to the subject. Launched in January 2004 as a quarterly publication, ''Retro Gamer'' ...

'' magazine, from an article about superhero games such as ''

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

'' containing the heading "Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly", although a '' Calvin & Hobbes'' cartoon by Bill Watterson has also been cited. In addition to the Get Cape name, and his given name, Duckworth has released music under the moniker Recreations.

Music career

Duckworth grew up in

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south-eastern Essex, England. It lies on the nor ...

, Essex. Get Cape was signed to

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

in March 2006, after playing many gigs, both with punk rock band Silverskin and as Get Cape. As Get Cape, Duckworth has collaborated with

Billy Bragg Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, author and political activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic th ...

, Nitin Sawhney, Shlomo, Killa Kela, Baba Maal,

Flea Flea, the common name for the order (biology), order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by hematophagy, ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult f ...

, Kate Nash and many others with his participation in many events for Africa Express. Duckworth co-organised The Demolition Ball – the last night at the London Astoria venue before it was knocked down in January 2009. He had previously headlined at the Astoria for his 21st birthday party. After 10 years, Duckworth decided to end Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly and to continue making under his own name. The "last ever" show under the Get Cape moniker was held at The Forum, Kentish Town on 12 September 2014. In May 2017, Duckworth announced that he was resurrecting the Get Cape name, with the release of the single ''Optimist'', and subsequently announced a new full-length album, ''Young Adult'', due for release in January 2018.

''The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager''

Get Cape's debut album, '' The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager'', is best described as an indie/folk/electronic fusion. The album made the top 100 albums of 2006 lists of '' Q'' and ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

''. It reached number 26 on the UK Albums Chart and spawned three top 40 singles. In October 2006, he performed as part of the BBC Electric Proms. He played at a number of major festivals in 2007, including

Oxegen Oxegen was a List of music festivals#Ireland, music festival in Ireland, first held from 2004–2011 as a rock and pop festival and again in 2013 with dance and chart acts only. The event was regularly cited as Ireland's biggest music festiva ...

Glastonbury Glastonbury ( , ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than across the River ...

Reading and Leeds Festivals The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Fest ...

and

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

, and appeared in the

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

live lounge. In January 2007, Duckworth was nominated for best solo artist at the annual ''NME'' Awards, up against Lily Allen, Jamie T,

Jarvis Cocker Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp (band), Pulp, he became a reluctant figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Cocker h ...

and

Thom Yorke Thomas Edward Yorke (born 7 October 1968) is an English musician who is the vocalist and main songwriter of the rock band Radiohead. He plays guitar, bass, keyboards and other instruments, and is noted for his falsetto. ''Rolling Stone'' desc ...

, although he did not win. The Album is gold certified in the UK.

''Searching for the Hows and Whys''

Get Cape's second album, '' Searching for the Hows and Whys'' was released on 3 March 2008. It features guest vocals from Kate Nash on the track, "Better Things". The album also features

on "Interlude". "Waiting for the Monster to Drown" was released as a free download via Get Cape's official website and

MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

on 7 December 2007. The first single released from the album was "

Find The Time "Find the Time" is a song by the British pop music group Five Star. The song was written by Nick Trevisick and Paul Gurvitz, who had written the single "R.S.V.P. (Five Star song), R.S.V.P." for the band the previous year. It was the second sin ...

" which was released on 3 March 2008, and reached number 33 on the UK Singles Chart. The album was co produced with Nitin Sawhney In support of this album, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly performed on The Pyramid Stage at the 2008

Glastonbury Festival The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (commonly referred to as simply Glastonbury Festival, known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most su ...

''Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.'' elf-titled/h2>
The third and self-titled album was released on Cooking Vinyl on 13 September 2010, with the first single from the album "Collapsing Cities Feat. Shy FX" released on 9 August 2010. The album cover artwork was created by artist Jon Kipps and photographer Joe Lang.

''The Mannequin''

Sam Duckworth- Live at Nottingham Splendour

The Mannequin is the first album released under the name Sam Duckworth rather than 'Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.'

''Maps''

The fourth Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly album was released on 7 May 2012.

''London Royal''

The fifth Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly album was released on 15 September 2014 on Alcopop! Records. This accompanied a farewell UK tour between 28 August and 12 September.

''Young Adult''

The sixth Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly album was due to be released in January 2018 through Xtra Mile Recordings. Singles from the release include "Adults/Always", "Just A Phase", "DNA" and "VHS Forever". In March and April 2019, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly opened for

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

's Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets on their 27 Date North American Tour.

Production

Duckworth co wrote the song "Apples" on the 4th album from Lily Allen titled No Shame (Lily Allen album) The song was performed at the 2018

Mercury Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual Music award, music prize awarded for the best album released by a musical act from the Music of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom or Music of Ireland, Ireland. It was cre ...

ceremony. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly produced the fourth album from

Benjamin Francis Leftwich Benjamin Francis Leftwich (born 4 September 1989) is an English singer-songwriter from Heworth, York, Heworth, York. His father was Adrian Leftwich. He attended Hempland Primary School and Bootham School in York. Leftwich released his first ...

titled "To Carry A Whale" released June 18, 2021. Sam Duckworth produced the single "Chasing Daylight" from the sophomore EP from Noahfinnce released on May 11, 2022 on Hopeless Records. In 2023 Sam Duckworth co wrote and produced/mixed an ep with

Afrobeat Afrobeat (also known as Afrofunk) is a West African music genre, fusing influences from Nigerian (such as Yoruba) and Ghanaian (such as highlife) music, with American funk, jazz, and soul influences. With a focus on chanted vocals, complex i ...

legend Dele Sosimi for a new project entitled Dele Sosimi and the Estuary 21. The ensemble recorded a session at

Maida Vale Studios Maida Vale Studios is a complex of seven BBC sound studios, of which five are in regular use, in Delaware Road, Maida Vale, west London. It has been used to record thousands of classical music, popular music and drama sessions for BBC Radio 1, ...

for the Jazz show with

Jamie Cullum Jamie Paul Joseph Cullum (born 20 August 1979) is an English jazz-pop singer, pianist, songwriter and radio presenter. Although primarily a vocalist and pianist, he also accompanies himself on other instruments, including guitar and drums. He h ...

on BBC Radio 2 in May 2023 to celebrate its release on Wah Wah 45s. The first single - Mo Se Bo La Tan (Feat: Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly) / Ride Out The Storm was playlisted by BBC 6 Music (B List) and Jazz FM (UK) (A List). In 2021, Duckworth worked with Southend singer-songwriter Frances Murray and her BLAB recording project. BLAB is signed to Asylums' Cool Thing Records and has put out a number of tracks produced by Duckworth including "Eton Mess", "Gemini" and "Insurance".

Television

On 24 March 2008, he performed on ''

Hollyoaks ''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which originally began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera ''Brookside (TV series), Brookside''. From 2005 to 2023, episodes h ...

'' as part of a gig staged in the village. He also had an episode of American TV show '' One Tree Hill'' named after him. Every episode of the show has a title with a musical theme, either a song title or band name. Episode 3 of season 6 of ''One Tree Hill'' is titled "Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly."

Personal life

Duckworth grew up in

and attended Southend High School for Boys between 1997 and 2004, studying up to A-level. He is well known for his debating and love for a variety of different musical styles. He has had run-ins with the

British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a Far-right politics, far-right, British fascism, fascist list of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and is led by Adam ...

after a racist attack in a nightclub which led to the song "Glasshouses", and he has since become an avid supporter of

Love Music Hate Racism Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR) is a music-oriented antiracism campaign based in United Kingdom, Britain. The campaign aims to bring people together and promote unity through the power of music. LMHR was born in the tradition of the Rock Against R ...

. He is a Fairtrade supporter. Duckworth also took part in Oxfam's Blue campaign at Glastonbury which was shot by photographer Rankin. In 2019 Duckworth co-produced a gala at Kings Place in London with Lily Allen called "Last Registration" in the run up to the General Election. These were released as a podcast series called "Arty Political Broadcast" and featured: Reni Eddo Lodge, Jordan Stephens, Guilaine Kinouani, George Lamb, Gizzi Erskine, Tansy Hoskins and a host of prominent activists and speakers.

Discography

Albums

EPs

Singles

Other contributors

Other members of the Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly live band have included: * Mikey Glenister – Cornet * Andy Theakstone – Drums * Gavin Fitzjohn – Trumpet, Sax * Jamie Allen – Bass Guitar * Tom Pinder – Trombone * Tim Oliver – Keyboards * Chris Bradshaw – Guitar

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly 1986 births Living people People from Southend-on-Sea English male singer-songwriters English singer-songwriters English rock guitarists English male guitarists 21st-century English singers Music in Southend-on-Sea English people of Burmese descent Atlantic Records artists 21st-century British guitarists 21st-century British male singers Alcopop! Records artists