Neil Fairclough

Neil Fairclough (bassist / vocalist) has performed, written and recorded with an extremely diverse group of musicians from around the world. Prominent gigs and sessions include Hamish Stuart (Average White Band), drummer Steve Ferrone (AWB and session giant), drumming legend Billy Cobham and saxophone ace Snake Davis (M People / Eurythmics / Take That) and Cuban artists Pichi Valdez and Omar Puente.

For the last 20 years, Neil has led his own Manchester-based project, Pocket Central, who will soon finish their latest recording. Neil toured extensively with Pink Floyd tribute band The Spirit Of Pink Floyd Show, visiting Japan, Europe and Russia amongst other countries.

Having toured and recorded with singer-songwriter Elio Pace for the last 17 years, Neil was part of the Weekend Wogan house band, The Elio Pace Band, which was Terry Wogan's weekly live broadcast from Radio 2. While performing on Weekend Wogan, Neil and the band backed a wide variety of artists including Beverley Knight, Mica Paris, Mika, Paul Carrack, Tony Hadley, Rick Astley, Gabriella Cilmi, Westlife, Tony Christie, Leon Russell, Neil Sedaka and Brian May with Kerry Ellis. Neil also performed with Brian and Kerry at Proms In The Park 2010 in front of 45,000 people.

In 2011, Neil toured with May and Ellis on the Anthems tour, which kicked-off with a double show at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic, and continued throughout the summer at Hampton Court Palace, Goodwood Festival of Speed, RAF Cranwell and the Freddie Mercury birthday concert at the Savoy with May, Roger Taylor, Jeff Beck, Mike Rutherford and Keane vocalist Tom Chaplin.

Neil performed with Queen and Adam Lambert at the MTV Music Awards when the group were receiving the Global Icon Award, which later led to the Queen and Adam Lambert shows in Europe and London. In Kiev, the group played to over 250,000 people, which was televised globally and in 2013, they played at the iHeart Radio Rusic Festival in Las Vegas. They toured extensively throughout 2014 and beyond. Now in 2017, Neil is looking forward to another summer tour of North America with Queen and Adam Lambert.

Neil's additional recording projects include works with Elio Pace (Neil is currently touring with Elio on The Billy Joel Songbook tour), singer-songwriters Chris While and Julie Matthews, jazz saxophonist Andy Schofield, African / Folk ensemble E2K, Jenny Sawdon and Pocket Central amongst others. Neil also works as regular in-house bass player for Astar Studios and MJM Studios in Manchester and has worked in the legendary Olympic Studios with studio engineer / producer Chris Kimsey, who has captured recordings by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Queen to name a few. Neil is also 1/3 of writing team Lonejo.