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One of my paltry claims to fame - I met Duke Special a few years back at an event his sister was working on. He was a bit of a cult hero back then, and seemingly even more so today - his MySpace page has almost 12, 000 friends!

Everything about Duke Special is unique, from the eccentric dress sense to the seemingly absurd range of props he uses to create his sound (cheese graters, wardrobe doors, pianos, harps, brass, strings and an old gramophone).

What you end up with as a result is a genre-busting category-defying artist who seems to be immune from trends in pop music. I’m not drooling, honest. After listening to so many canned acts in the charts, it’s refreshing to hear an artist doing something completely different.

Probably the quote that warms me most to Duke Special is “I wanted to find a way to play the piano and sing that didn’t make me sound like Elton John or Billy Joel.”

Saying that, I think Freewheel is probably the most mainstream of his material (that’s available on MySpace). Duke sings in an unashamed Northern Irish accent, something we’re hearing more of these days. As I said in my Snow Patrol review, the NI accent can sound really vulnerable and emotional when done right. And both acts know how to milk that accent to perfection….

I’m hoping to get my hands on some other Duke Special material in the near future. If everything is to the same standard as Freewheel, then this should be pure gold!