Peter Sarstedt was born in December 1941 in New Delhi, India. During 1943, Peter's parents, Coral and Albert, an accountant employed in the tea business, moved their family to Kurseong near Darjeeling, in the foothills of Mount Everest. Elder brother Richard Peter's, younger brother Clive and two elder teenage sisters, Pam and June (from Albert's first marriage) spent four years in this picturesque setting, with its jungle covered hillsides contrasting the snow capped mountains in the distance.
When they were old enough, the boys were sent to various boarding schools in the mountain regions. The family moved to Calcutta in 1947; however, due to the precarious political climate resulting from India claiming its independence, their parent's considered it too dangerous for the children to be living in the city permanently. As a result, they still managed to spend 9 months of their year in the hills.
In March 1954 the family moved to England. Albert had come over a few months previously to arrange things, but had tragically died prior to the rest of the family's arrival. Pam and June were by this time married, so Coral was left to take care of the three boys and baby daughter Lorraine, as well as Coral's sister, Ailsa.
Along with Richard, Peter attended Heath Clark School in Croydon where the boys really enjoyed themselves, getting on well with everyone and picking up the London accent / slang very quickly. They were good at the sports they played and not too bad at their school work, though their dreadful stammers didn't help.
Their formative years of 1955, 56 & 57 saw the birth of something the boys could really understand and relate to - Rock and Roll music. The Sarstedts have long been a musical family, some formally trained like Mother and Grandmother in classical music, while others like Albert Sarstedt learned to play a variety of instruments simply by ear. Peter has an abiding memory of his dad playing haunting ballads on the harmonica.
The stage was set for Peter and his brothers to enthusiastically launch themselves at the music scene.
Early inspiration to pick up the acoustic guitar came from the folk scene and such blues artists as Big Bill Broonzy and Josh White. During his late teens, Peter started to hang out with a Bohemian element, getting into jazz and beat poetry and spontaneously taking off to the European Continent: a fledgling troubadour.
At the same time Peter was also concentrating on his group, Pete Lincoln and the Sundowners, which he formed with his younger brother Clive. They played in clubs and dance halls throughout the Surrey area and on occasion, the American air base. At the time, elder brother Richard also had his own group, sort of one rung up the ladder from Peter and Clive. For a while Jeff Beck was their lead guitarist.
Peter also had a day job in the late 1950's, working at the Borough Polytechnic in Elephant and Castle, ostensibly learning accounting but actually playing cricket and snooker and enjoying himself.
Everything was leading up to the 60's for Peter and his brothers. In 1961 Richard, renamed Eden Kane by his managers, made it to the top of the charts with Well I Ask You. In another year Peter joined Eden's band, first as road manager then as bass player. Clive was to to join in 1963 on lead guitar.
Something else was about to happen which would change everything in an important way - the arrival of the Beatles. This immediately created a generation gap between Eden Kane, the likes of Cliff Richard and the Beatles themselves. As a result, Eden decided to take up offers in Australia and the United States, leaving Peter and Clive to do their own thing.
Peter had heard and admired Bob Dylan's 'Freewheelin' album in 1963 and longed to get back to his old ways of just hitching out of town whenever he felt like it, joining up with other folk sings. During his travels, he began to write his own songs while searching for his identity. It wasn't until 1966 during a busking trip to Paris with his friend Robin Best, that he really started to get the hang of songwriting.
Peter had left a tape of his best efforts with producer Gerard Woog in Paris and moved on to Copenhagen hearing that the folk scene was vibrant there. Six months later while living at a student hostel and performing in Copenhagen folk clubs, Peter heard from Woog - he wanted to record an album.
Between 1966 and 1969, Peter moved between Copenhagen, London and Paris, mostly writing songs and playing on the university and folk scene in preparation for his first album. In 1968, Gerard Woog brought in Ray Singer to produce Peter's album. This led to Peter meeting Chris Peers at Island Records in London. Chris subsequently became Peter's manager.
Peter had written a song called Where Do You Go To, My Lovely in Copenhagen in 1966, and this was the song that most appealed to Chris Peers. It was written as a light hearted counterweight to his more serious songs which addressed anti-Vietnam war issues, civil rights, satirical jibes at a complacent establishment and other contemporary subjects.
The album, Where Do You Go To, My Lovely was recorded in London, the first from a four album deal Peter had signed with United Artists. Within 6 weeks of the 'Lovely' single being released, it went to No.1 in 14 countries around the world and Peter became a huge pop star. The song won the Ivor Novello award for 1969, shared with David Bowie's 'Space Oddity'. On the evening of the awards ceremony, the two songwriters agreed to work on some songs together. However, typically, the pressure of promotion work made this impossible.
Peter had other hits during this period including One More Frozen Orange Juice and I Am A Cathedral and continued to live in Copenhagen with his wife Anita. In 1970, their daughter Anna was born.
During 1971, Peter built a studio in the basement of his house and recorded an album with a band of local musicians. The project however, was shelved in favour of Every Word You Say, recorded in London with Vic Smith as producer and Del Newman coordinating the string arrangements. The main element of the album was Peter's rapport with drummer Cozy Powell, who, with Peter on acoustic guitar, laid down the initial tracks. Following the release of the album, Peter supported it by touring throughout Europe still performing in the old folk way, just him and his guitar.
In 1973, the three Sarstedt brothers reunited for their album Worlds Apart Together, under the management of their sister Lorraine who had previously worked for Gem Toby, looking after the Seekers and others. Tony Visconti produced World's Apart Together, which is essentially the story of the three brothers' portrayed in song. The single Kurseong was released to a large amount of critical acclaim and after recording two further singles, Chinese Restaurant and Why Don't We Call It Quits, the Sarstedt Brothers did just that.
Peter returned to Copenhagen and concentrated on building up his library of books on philosophy, religion, history and art. He continued to improve upon his authorship and compositional abilities.
During 1974, Peter made a trip to Woodstock in upstate New York to a do a gig at 'The Joyous Lake', the local Honky Tonk venue, and to check out the Bearsville studio scene. A love affair with America had begun.
In 1975, Peter returned to London to record the album Tall Tree under the managment of Jeff Dexter. The album was released on Warner Bros along with a single of the same name. The impressive line up of musicians on the album tell the tale of Peter's continuing significance within the music industry.
Peter and Anita's marriage ended in 1975 and as a result, radical changes took place in Peter's life. He found himself in Los Angeles at his brother Richard's home, where he met a woman named Joanna. Peter moved to Santa Monica, bought himself a Volkswagen Bus and with Joanna and her daughter Anna, took off on a three month trip around the USA, living out a dream of visiting all of those places in the States which had songs written about them.
Peter commuted between Copenhagen, London and LA for the next couple of years, attending to music and family business, writing new songs and planning a new album project.
By 1978, Peter was in the studio again to record the new PS album, linking up with his long time friend and producer Ray Singer. The single Beirut came out of these sessions and once again tours of Europe to promote the album took up a large portion of his time. Peter found himself playing on major concert bills with the likes of Genesis and Jackson Browne and playing stadiums in Germany. During this period, he also found time to take a trip a trip to Iceland to record tracks with Mezzo Forte.
The early 1980's saw Peter involved in various writing and recording projects for Filmtrax. This included a film of Peter's life which was called called 'Portrait'; it involved trips to a variety of European cities, especially his beloved Paris and Copenhagen. Peter went to Kenya in 1984 working on the country's club scene for eight weeks and writing a great new song called Hemingway. During his time in Africa, Peter made many friends and he continues to visit and works when time allows.
In 1985, he recorded an instrumental album with his younger brother Clive called Asia Minor, a sort of mediative New Age concept. A chance to get into the guitar.
In Germany during 1987, Peter met producer Ralf Thomas, who suggested making an album where the acoustic song writer meets the computer and synthesiser. Peter loved the idea and launched into the project, quickly writing the songs for what became the Never Say Goodbye album. The single Suzanne epitomised the set.
1989 was another crucial year in Peter's life. Joanna and Anna returned to the USA to begin Anna's college education. Peter returned to London and began a series of extended trips back to Copenhagen to work with his son Daniel, a fine keyboard player and songwriter. The late 80's saw Peter working more on stage, partly on package tours around Europe and the UK with artists such as The Searchers. During the summers, he did the folk festival circuit with his son and brother Clive. It was to be a time of compilation albums, picking up on the 60's revival.
During the 90's with the concert and festival workload continuing, Peter wrote and recorded The Green Alphabet, a 20-minute piece which is an A-Z of environmental issues. Peter has also returned to Croydon, where it all began, where he now lives blissfully with Jill.
Around 1995, Peter met up again with Brian Hodgson, who he'd known since the early 60's and the Eden Kane days. Pretty soon a new album project took shape. Peter had scores of new unrecorded songs available, including a sequel to 'Lovely'. The new album, England's Lane was recorded in London and Reading. The new single, England's Lane, was released in early 1998.
The gigs keep coming in all over the world, new songs are continually written. Peter never stops learning about life and music, a man dedicated to his art and his family.
http://www.roundtower.com/ Round Tower Site
Copyright 2002 Mile High Music
All Rights Reserved