DUBLIN

2011 -

OVERVIEW One could be forgiven for asking Ben who? While the Dublin-born musician has an impressive CV, he has been relatively unknown as a solo artist. After school, Ben went on study jazz music at Newpark Music Centre. He he was honoured with a diploma in Advanced Jazz Studies. In about 2001, Carrigan moved to Cork where he studied classical percussion at The Cork School Of Music. While he had been playing with a number of jazz outfits, it was around this time that Ben joined a fledgling band called The Thrills. He would go on to play with the band until 2008. This proved to be a hugely successful period for Carrigan and the band. The band released three albums - 'So Much For The City' [2003], 'Let's Bottle Bohemia' [2004] and 'Teenager' [2007]. The band's first two long players went to number 1 in Ireland and Top 10 in the UK. The albums also spawned a number of memorable singles including 'Santa Cruz (You're Not That Far)', 'One Horse Town', 'Whatever Happened To Corey Haim?' and 'The Midnight Choir'. However, the 'Teenager' album performed poorly from a sales perspective and the band was dropped by its record label. Around this time, the group decided to take a break in order to pursue individual interests. This break gave Carrigan the opportunity to re-explore his musical interests. While he continued to play as a session musician, working with the likes of Cathy Davey, Hal and Fionn Regan, he also started to work on his own material. In August 2011, he released his debut solo single. The track 'You Knew It All Along' was made available as free download from Ben's official website. This served as a taster from his debut album 'The Greatest Narrators' which followed in September of the same year. 2011 - Release of 'You Knew It All Along' single [19 August] - Release of 'Hey Carrie Anne' single - Release of 'The Greatest Narrators' album [23 September] 2012 - Release of 'After Hours In Cairo' single [08 June] - Release of 'We'll Talk About It All Tonight' single [08 June]