Ben Watt

Benjamin Brian Thomas Watt (born 6 December 1962) is a British musician, singer, songwriter, author, DJ, and radio presenter, best known as a member of the duo Everything but the Girl.

Watt was born in Marylebone, London, and grew up in Barnes, the son of Scottish jazz bandleader and arranger Tommy Watt and showbusiness writer Romany Bain.

He has a total four older half-brothers and half-sisters.

Watt began recording in 1981 on the indie label Cherry Red.

His first single 'Cant' was produced by folk-maverick Kevin Coyne and featured Richard Allen on viola and tambourine.

His second release, 1982's 5-track EP Summer into Winter featured Robert Wyatt on backing vocals and piano.

His debut album North Marine Drive was released in 1983 and reached UK Independent Album Charts Top 10.

He then put his solo career on hold and joined forces with vocalist Tracey Thorn, with whom he wrote and recorded for 17 years—together they created nine studio albums as Everything but the Girl (EBTG) after signing to Blanco Y Negro through Warners in 1984, and then Virgin in 1995.

EBTG have received eight gold, and one platinum album BPI Certifications in the UK, and one gold album RIAA Certification in the US.

The song Missing reached number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1996.

Watt's first memoir, Patient – The True Story of a Rare Illness (Penguin, 1996), describes his life-changing ordeal with Churg–Strauss syndrome (Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis), a rare life-threatening auto-immune disease with which he was diagnosed and hospitalized in 1992, on the eve of a North American tour with Everything But The Girl.

"An astonishingly assured anatomy of his ordeal, by turns terrifying, mordantly funny and intensely moving. Many people suffer the pain and indignities of intensive medical treatment; but few have written about it with quite such alarming vividness or clarity", wrote Mick Bown in The Daily Telegraph.

The book was listed as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a Sunday Times Book of the Year chosen by William Boyd and a Village Voice Literary Supplement Favorite Book of the Year, and was also a finalist for the Esquire-Waterstones Best Non-Fiction Award in the UK.

In 1998 Watt established the London deep house Sunday club night and compilation series Lazy Dog with Jay Hannan.

The club night – where both Watt and Hannan DJ'd in a tag-team style – was hosted twice-monthly at the Notting Hill Arts Club in west London, and later every two months at The End in central London.

Success led to appearances at the Miami Winter Music Conference and several tours of the United States.

Watt produced a string of dance remixes for Sade, Sunshine Anderson, Zero 7, Maxwell, Meshell Ndegeocello and Sandy Rivera.

Following EBTG's self-imposed hiatus in 2000, Watt immersed himself in the world of underground electronic music both as a DJ and recording artist/producer.

His recorded output during this period includes club tracks such as Lone Cat (Holding On), A Stronger Man featuring Sananda Maitreya (formerly known as Terence Trent D'Arby), the Outspoken EP Part 1 including Pop A Cap in Yo' Ass featuring Estelle, Just a Blip and Guinea Pig.

Two mix compilations – Lazy Dog Vol. 1 and Lazy Dog Vol. 2 were released by Virgin Records in 2000 and 2001 respectively.

For three years between 2002 and 2005, Watt was a co-owner/founder of the West London nightclubs Neighbourhood and Cherry Jam.

Lazy Dog ended on 16 May 2003 with a farewell closing party at The End in central London.

In 2014 Watt returned to his folk-jazz roots and released Hendra, his first solo album since 1983, the content of which was recorded with a new band including Bernard Butler, formerly of the band Suede—Watt explained that he knew that Butler would be the "perfect counterpoint to bring some darkness to the light."

Watt also worked with Berlin-based producer Ewan Pearson, and David Gilmour of Pink Floyd.

The album was released on a new record label, Unmade Road, founded by Watt in 2014.

Watt completed over sixty live shows in support of Hendra including tours of UK, North America, Japan and Australia.

The album won the 'Best 'Difficult' Second Album' category at the AIM Independent Music Awards 2014.

It was included at No 27 in Uncut's Top 75 Albums of 2014.

Rolling Stone (Germany) made it number two in its list of the best albums of 2014.

Japan's Music Magazine made it their No 3 best album of 2014.

His second memoir, Romany and Tom—a portrait of his parents' lives and marriage—was published by Bloomsbury in February 2014.

"Neither sentimental nor savage, yet often wise, moving and entertaining within the same paragraph, Romany and Tom is a major achievement to rival any of Watt's recordings", said The Guardian.

"Watt captures what real life feels like, and he captures it with breathtaking clarity, beauty, and precision", said the Los Angeles Review of Books.

In September 2014 it was long-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2014.

April 2016 saw the release of his third solo album Fever Dream.

Self-produced at RAK Studios in London, it continued his relationship with Bernard Butler, and added guest cameos from MC Taylor of North Carolina folk-rock band, Hiss Golden Messenger, and Boston singer-songwriter Marissa Nadler.

It received a 9/10 review in Uncut magazine.

In a four-star review, The Guardian said: "In his early 50s, he is making some of the best music of his career."

In late 2022, Watt and Thorn announced a new Everything But The Girl album.

Fuse, released in April 2023, was the first EBTG album released in 24 years.