Album now on ITUNES!!! Andy Lucas is a pianist and singer from UK. He has released his first album, 'Weekend Millionaire' full of wit-laden songs, self-depreciating humour and melancholic charm.
His lyrics rummage around through the turmoil of love, loss, despair, elation, falseness, achievement, envy, revenge, regret and what-ifs. The songs are smart, catchy and intriguing, the type of music that makes you listen with a wry smile. Prior to the recording of Weekend Millionaire, Andy studied in Newcastle under the tutelage of Hammond Organist Gerry Richardson, long time collaborator and sideman of Sting. He left college and headed to Glasgow. It was here that like Billy Joel, Andrea Bocelli and Jimmy Durante, Andy started playing in piano bars, eventually capturing this time in the song “The Miserable Musical Prostitute”.
The characters he encountered during this time inspired much of his debut album. The fabulously eccentric Mr Bartlett first inspired him to play the piano at the age of six. Bartlett played the pump organ for silent movie theatres in his youth, and he would tell stories of dodging peanuts hurled by children whilst still playing his songs, and of 'Red Indians' hiding in his garden. Afterwards, whilst living in America, the family would take long journeys across the country in their Oldsmobile, and the tape deck would playing Simon and Garfunkel, Jackson Browne, Tom Waits, Randy Newman and Bob Dylan.
These records first instilled a love of word play and narrative song-writing which feature prominently in his lyrics. Music was always in his family. His grandfather played guitar and ukele in the hallowed working men's clubs of the north of England in the fifties, playing George Fornby songs, and reciting Stanley Holloway. His parents house was always full of music, there would always be a family friend playing the piano and singing at parties, and Andy and his sister would try and stay up late to sneak a listen. He loved hearing his parents recite the story of seeing Stevie Wonder play a small club when they lived in the Bahamas in the seventies.
Andy is a talented performer. He plays with joyous abandon and brings raw piano-driven energy to gigs. He has supported James McCartney, Ocean Colour Scene, played keys for Nate James and Esther O’Connor, and shared stages with Amy Macdonald, Beverly Knight, and 10CC. “Weekend Millionaire” is co-produced by Andy and Jamie Duffin, recorded at his studio in Glasgow. The multi-layered record moves between achingly bare piano and vocals, and grand orchestral arrangements awash with heart wrenching strings.
A record that tells stories, asks questions, hints at answers and will make you want to know more, this has been described as “…one of the top 20 albums of the year” -Misformusic, and “the best debut album I have heard in a long, long time”- The Music Critic .

