Rupert
L H Sheen

Rupert Sheen's first musical ambition to be a church organist was put on hold once he'd had his first piano lesson at the age of 6.

Desperate to attend Ashton-on-Mersey School (because it had a great school band) he was taught trumpet, clarinet and piano by professional musician Ernie Waites. The school band went on to play for Queen Elizabeth when she visited Longford Park, Manchester during her Silver Jubilee in 1977 and won a BBC TV competition called 'Settle the Score'.

A year later he was a finalist in an annual carol competition run by the popular 70's/80's BBC TV magazine programme 'Nationwide' with his self-penned song 'Welcome to the World'.

After leaving school and having had two jobs within the space of a year he took up music professionally when he joined 'Orlando', a jazz-rock group (based in Sale, Cheshire) who wrote their own material. The group started writing pop songs and were finalists on BBC 'Rising Stars' in 1980. They also performed as support for, amongst others, Bucks Fizz, Modern Romance, Imagination, The Supremes and Matt Monroe.

Out of this group came 'National Pastime' who secured a recording contract in London, supported 'Kajagoogoo' on a UK tour and went to Japan to promote their one and only album 'Built to Break'.

In 1986 the band split up and Rupert went solo as a pianist singer spending the next ten+ years playing at venues throughout the North West including The Midland Hotel (Manchester) and London, which culminated in a residency in the beautiful dining room of The Ritz Hotel (London), where guests included Queen Elizabeth, former Prince Charles, Princes William and Harry, composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber and former prime minister John Major.

Based on jazz and swing, his music encompasses everything from classical to rock'n'roll and he specializes in finding out what people like and then giving them their own personalized rendition.