Pete Murray (singer-songwriter)
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Pete Murray is an Australian singer-songwriter whose second album Feeler released on 21 July, 2003 went to number one on the Australian charts on 29 March, 2004 and has so far achieved triple platinum status. The third single "So Beautiful" has made the Australian top ten in the singles charts in 2004 while his 2004 national tour has proved to be so successful that he has had to add extra dates. Pete Murray was also nominated for two ARIA awards in 2003.
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Early career
Pete Murray was born in Queensland and attended Nudgee College. At Nudgee College, he showed a great deal of talent in sport especially rugby, athletics and swimming. When he was 18, his father died while he was contesting the Australian championships of the 400 metres. In rugby, he made the Queensland seven-a-side team in 1993 but eventually had to give the game away due to a succession of major injuries.
While on the sidelines, Murray started to learn the guitar and his ability soon improved with plenty of practice. Eventually, he worked up the courage to take his guitar to a barbecue singing songs by Neil Young and Crowded House. However, his main interest was in pursuing a career in sports medicine and travelling.
Eventually, enough people told him that he had the talent to be successful in music and he started a musical career. In 2002, he released an independent album The Game in Brisbane and moved to Melbourne to pursue a musical career. Sony Music Australia signed a contract with Pete Murray in early 2003.
Feeler - Mainstream Success
In early 2003, Pete Murray and his band entered the studio with producer Paul McErcher and his band to make the Feeler album. On his website, Pete Murray outlines the type of record he was hoping to make. "The records I love by people like Nick Drake, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, they are built to last. I wanted this to be an album like that, something you can pull out in 30 years and still hear the feeling in it, rather than something that’s dated by the musical fashions of the day."
Feeler was released on July 21, 2003 with the title track as the first single. Triple J radio started playing the track with the Nova FM and Triple M networks picking up the track. With this support, Feeler entered the Aria top 50 album charts in 2003. His reputation was building fast and he started selling out shows in smaller venues.
The momentum of the album continued to build with the release of the second single "Lines" and two ARIA award nominations reaching platinum record status . Radio programmers had been asking for the track "So Beautiful" to be released as a single and the track was widely played on Australian radio, reaching the top ten in 2004. This spurred sales of the album driving it to number one on the Australian album charts in late March 2004 and triple platinum status.
Pete Murray commenced an Australian tour of larger venues. Due to the level of demand, he had to announce nine extra dates. As well, he made one of his sellout performances at the Sydney Metro theatre on March 27 2004 available for download at BigPond Music.
Discography
Links
- Pete Murray web site (http://www.petemurray.com/artists/petemurray/featuredInfo/home.do/)
- Daily Telegraph news story (http://entertainment.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4459,9070206%255E7484%255E%255Enbv,00.html/)
- Howl Space Pete Murray page (http://www.howlspace.com.au/en5/murraypete/murraypete.htm/)