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‘Local’ performer to open for Whitney

Fri 05 Feb 2010

There won’t be a local performer at Whitney Houston’s exclusive concert at the TSB Bowl of Brooklands – but we’ll have the next best thing!

Singer songwriter Shaun Preston – a regular hit at the TSB Bank Festival of Lights and writer of ‘My Kind of City’, the super-catchy song about New Plymouth – will open for the international diva at her Bowl show on 6 March.

Shaun says: “I’m a regular visitor to Taranaki and it’s always a thrill to perform in Pukekura Park at the festival of lights. To now move to the legendary TSB Bowl of Brooklands and open for someone like Whitney Houston is simply unbelievable. I just can’t wait!”

• Whitney Houston concert information

Shaun Preston bio (taken from www.shaunpreston.com)
Singer/Songwriter and Pianist Shaun Preston is described by the thousands who have seen him as one of the most outstanding entertainers to come on to the music scene for many years.

Shaun was brought up listening to his father’s record collection and soon developed a huge passion for music of all genres. He was first introduced to playing music at the age of 10, learning to play the drums.

After seven years of playing drums in school productions, Shaun felt the need to write his own songs. During this time nobody knew Shaun was able to sing, until one night at a party held at his friend’s house. A game was played where if you lost you had to drink the contents of your glass, (a typical teenage drinking game !) or you got up and sang a song. Inevitably Shaun was faced with this decision.

“I decided to have a go at singing a song”, says Shaun. “I think I always knew I could hold a tune but thought nothing of it. At the time I just thought everybody could sing if they wanted to. I certainly never thought about it as a career or something I could make a living from.”

Around this time Shaun met with talented and popular Wellington singer Mark Southon who helped him record some songs he had written. Shaun would give Mark a tape of him singing his songs along to a drum pattern, as that’s all Shaun could play.

“I don’t know how he did it,” says Shaun. “They sounded awful because apart from my voice there was nothing melodic enough for him to create a song around, but somehow he did it and I thought they were great, exactly what I had in my head….he’s a genius at recording and performing. He would invite me to sing with him at local bars, giving me little spots here and there. He helped out a lot.”

It wasn't long before it was time to move on to another instrument. “Basically we were fed up of lugging the drums around,” his father said, who convinced Shaun that if he wanted to be more in music than a drummer in the background he should take up the piano. “How many drummers can you think of that were also the lead singer? Only one comes into my mind, Phil Collins (Genesis). Dave Clark was the drummer and front man for the Dave Clark Five, but he wasn't the lead singer,” added his father.

Now knowing that people thought he had a good voice, Shaun took his dad’s advice and had piano lessons from a lady down the road. However, after only two lessons Shaun felt he didn’t like the way in which he was being taught. He stopped attending the lessons, bought books on piano playing and taught himself.

“Personally I think it’s the best way to learn an instrument,” Shaun says. “Often if you get taught by someone else, no matter who it is, you tend to end up playing exactly like they do and never create your own style.

“Having your own style is obviously an important factor when it comes to writing your own songs or even just playing live.”
 
Only four months after starting piano lessons, Shaun entered a talent quest singing and playing piano along with 125 other contestants. He took away the title of Kapiti Entertainer of the Year 1999.

As well as performing at festivals and galas that year, Shaun was still at college. He studied music along with the normal subjects and came first in both music and music industry skills, gaining 100 per cent in original composition.

Knowing that Shaun had only been playing piano for six months, his music teacher at college, Murray Biggs, was unsure if Shaun would be able to pass bursary music in the coming year so he just put him down for studying another level in music industry skills,

However his music studies at college were proving to be too easy, so he asked his teacher if he could have a crack at bursary music. Having confidence in Shaun, Biggs swapped Shaun’s studies to bursary, which meant he had to learn a year’s worth of bursary papers in 8 months. That didn’t seem to threaten Shaun as he came first in bursary music and was told that exam moderators used his original compositions as examples for other students to achieve. 

As the year 2000 arrived, Shaun’s career as a professional entertainer took off and he started taking bookings from all over the country, as he still is today.

Since turning professional, Shaun's career has taken him on an amazing journey, performing all over New Zealand, Australia and the UK, averaging a solid 125 shows each year, selling endless amounts of CDs and writing great songs for compilation albums as well as his own.  

From crowds of 100 at the Hotel Inter-Continental's piano bar to 34,000 at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium, Shaun handles every performance like a seasoned veteran, always delivering a great show and leaving audiences amazed.

 

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