About Gavin Chappell-Bates
Biography
Gavin Chappell-Bates is an acoustic folk-rock singer-songwriter from Cambridge, England.
Gavin’s music has featured on Tom Robinson’s show on BBC 6 Music, Janice Long’s show on BBC Radio 2, as well as BBC Introducing, local and regional BBC stations. He co-wrote the vegan Christmas single ‘Peace On Your Plate’ which was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and got to number 5 in the Amazon charts, number 7 in the Google charts and 48 in the official downloads chart.
He has been nominated for Best Male Solo Artist at the NMG Awards on numerous occasions.
Gavin’s crowd-funded second album, ‘The Last One’, was released in 2018. It features the singles ‘Lovely Day’, ‘Bad Faith / Good Faith’ and ‘The Sanctuary of Stars’. It was recorded at Half-ton Studios and features a variety of musicians including Booga from Ezio, Paul Richards of Fred’s House and Neil Bruce from Bouquet of Dead Crows.
Gavin set off on his first ever tour in September 2014 and has gigged relentlessly since. His shows vary for every performance; from live looping, to playing with a band, to stripped down performances with an acoustic guitar, harmonica and stomp box. He has performed at The Rescue Rooms (Nottingham), Hoxton Bar and Sebright Arms (London), The Hunter Club (Bury St. Edmunds), Norwich Arts Centre and The Portland Arms (Cambridge). He has performed at festivals including Cambridge’s Big Weekend, Strawberry Fair, Homegrown, the Wild Wood Rumpus and Subterranean at Cambridge Corn Exchange.
Early years
Gavin’s musical journey started with a junior school project on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which began a lifelong love affair with The Beatles and rock ‘n’ roll. Inspired by two friends, one who could play like Hendrix at the age of 9 and the other who was already writing McCartney-esque-songs, Gavin picked up a guitar and, after a few early lessons with Ezio’s Booga, began teaching himself to play.
Rock ‘n’ roll soon progressed into rock music and an adoration for Aerosmith, especially the guitar playing of Joe Perry. But it was the first time that Gavin played a 7” of Motorcycle Emptiness by Manic Street Preachers that his musical path was forged. Leant the record by his sister having seen this unique and mesmerising band performing on TV the night before, Gavin knew that, as he listened to the song, this would be his favourite band for the rest of his life. After this Gavin began to write songs and learned how to sing. He has been constantly improving and evolving ever since.
Latest gigs
No upcoming shows scheduled
