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James Blunt 1997.
The son of an officer in the 13th/18th
Hussars, James Hillier Blount was born
in Tidworth on 22nd February 1974.
After a nomadic childhood due to his
father’s postings, he was educated at Harrow School. With aviation a major part of his life, his father having served with the Army Air Corps, young James qualified for a pilot’s licence at 16. Later, he completed a BSc in aerospace manufacturing engineering at the University of Bristol. Already a talented singer-songwriter, he had been sponsored through university on an army bursary, so trained at Sandhurst on Intake 963, being commissioned into the Life Guards. Trained in the armoured reconnaissance role, he volunteered to serve with The Blues and Royals and deployed for the initial invasion of Kosovo in 1999. During the advance towards Pristina, he strapped his guitar to the outside of his tiny Scimitar light tank, ready to perform impromptu gigs in lulls in the operation.
Later serving with the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, including the lying- in-state and funeral of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in 2002, he left the army to concentrate on his music career. He had already sent a demo tape to Elton John’s manager, Todd Interland, who suggested he had a bright future in the business. Using the stage name James Blunt, he initially struggled to gain a contract, with representatives of some labels branding his public school accent ‘not egalitarian enough’. Nevertheless, he persisted and, in 2003, finally secured a deal with Custard Records.
Blunt recorded the album Back to Bedlam, which was released in 2004 and, initially, this debut album from an unknown artist made little impact. However, he continued touring as a supporting act for, amongst others, Elton John and Katie Melua, gathering increasingly favourable reviews on the way. Nevertheless, some in the music business were still surprised when his third single, You’re Beautiful, reached the top of the UK hit charts. The single swept over Europe and across the Atlantic, where Blunt became the first UK singer in a decade to top the charts. This success bump-started interest in Back to Bedlam, which has, at the time of writing, sold over 12 million copies.
Blunt’s second album, All the Lost Souls, received mixed reviews but, nevertheless, sold some five million copies. His subsequent albums were not as commercially successful
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