NAME: keith alexander semple
AGE: 28
BIRTHPLACE: larne, northern ireland
SCHOOLS: moyle primary school + larne grammar school
NICK NAME: sempleton
INSTRUMENT: vocals/guitar/drums/keyboard/bass
WHAT IS YOUR ZODIAC SIGN? dont care-venus will not effect my day lol
BEST TRAIT: kindness
WORST TRAIT: impatience
FAVORITE TV SHOW(S): family guy
FAVORITE MOVIE(S): highlander
FAVORITE CARTOON(S): family guy / simpsons
FAVORITE LOVE SONG(S): its a hard life - queen
FAVORITE ROCK SONG(S): low life in high places - thunder
FAVORITE SOUNDTRACK/MUSIC: bill+teds adventure+bogus journey
FAVORITE BAND(S): extreme / thunder /sting / keith urban
FAVORITE ALBUM(S): extreme pornograffitti + sting - mercury falling
BEST CONCERT(S) YOU'VE SEEN: eagles in dublin 1996
FAVORITE COLOUR: tourqouise
FAVORITE BOARD OR VIDEO GAME: golden eye4nintendo 64+blockade
FAVORITE MAGAZINE: dont read them
FAVOURITE BOOK: david eddings - the belgariad
FAVORITE PET: dogs
FAVORITE PLACE(S) TO PLAY: royal albert hall,london-jakes night club,indiana
LUCKY NUMBER: dont have one
FAVORITE CAR: mercedes sl55 sport
FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH: tennis / snooker
FAVORITE FOODS: corn beef hash (when my gran makes it)
FAVORITE DRINK: pure fruit smoothies
FAVORITE QUOTE: if ur really us.wot num are we thinkin of.69DUDES!
BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD: couldnt possibly say ;-)
FIRST SONG YOU LEARNED: slide away by oasis
SHE'S HOT: wynona ryder ...and u would lol
YOUR INFLUENCES: try to have none but mostly bryan adams and keith urban
HOBBIES: 5a side footy(real footy i mean lol),tennis+reading
SOMETHIN MOST PEOPLE DON'T KNOW: can run a mile in under5mins(just1tho lol)
KEITH SEMPLE
– professional musician, live performer, song-writer and all round irish mad rocker :-)
WHO AM I? - My name is Keith, I am 28 and I am from Northern Ireland and now currently reside in chicago, illinois, USA.
I am an accomplished session vocalist and also play Drums, Guitar, keyboards and Bass Guitar to a high standard.
Musical influences include sting, john mayer and keith urban along with a strong passion for classic rock bands such as Thunder and Extreme.
I now head the impressive line up of the touring rock group “7th heaven”, performing timeless rock classics from the 60’s to present day with a song to suit all your rockin’ needs!
WINNING BRITISH IDOL (POPSTARS: THE RIVALS)
- I entered the hit ITV show “Pop Stars: The rivals” in early 2002. I was on TV to over 8 million people every week from august until december. By December I had won the entire show with over 6 million of the British public voting for me to become the first member of the band, One True Voice. (the final winning performance is on the links page to youtube)
We went on to have the Xmas no. 2 hit and one other top ten hit in the British charts.
So i have a gold disc with over 700,000 copies sold of the first single.
Unfortunately, we were not allowed to write, arrange or choose the material we released, which the band members found to be unacceptable. Mostly due to this the band disbanded.
It has been a great catalyst into the music industry for me and has helped to make 2003-2008 a prosperous time in my career.
PERFORMING HISTORY
- I began performing at 14 with my band AARK. We played hundreds of gigs around the country over the next 2 years.
Although I only left school at 18, I have been a professional musician since the age of 16, playing pubs and clubs throughout N. Ireland, Scotland and England. I teamed up with Liam Wiley at 18 to do the same curcuit and we had much greater success as a 2-piece. In 1999 we decided to expand our adventure with a full band set up. We enlisted a drummer and bass guitarist and formed the touring band KLASS. We toured for almost three years becoming one of the top club acts in Britain performing at everything from nightclubs to corporate business functions.
In December 2003 I toured all the major arenas of Britain with other young musicians on the “Young Voices” tour. As a guest star on the tour in 2003 I was asked to return as the headline act in 2004 writing and performing the title track of the event “You gotta have fun.”
Furthermore i was asked to return one more time in 2005 which was a great honour as i was the only performer in young voices history who had ever been allowed to perform 3 years in a row.
In 2005 i had the pleasure of performing with Joss Stone in a guiness world record breaking attempt at the biggest sing along of all time. 250,000 children linked by radio sang along with Joss Stone, Lemar and I to earn a place in the book. Was a once in lifetime event.
The gig list is as follows for 2004:
29th November – Manchester MEN,
1st December – Birmingham NIA,
2nd December – Sheffield Hallam arena,
10th December – Royal Albert Hall in London,
14th December – Odessey arena in Belfast and
19th of December in the Point Theatre in Dublin.
(I couldnt believe my ears when i was called at the beginning of 2008 and asked by Young Voices to come and perform an amazing 4th time on the tour. The show had grown to such acclaim that they added another sold-out NIA arena show and another Manchester MEN arena show. All 12 shows on the tour where sold out.)
I continued to play out live with the rock band "alibi" for all of 2005 and most of 2006. We quickly became one of the most demanded of and sought after rock cover acts in the country playing classic venues such as "the empire" in belfast and "the kingshead."
Currently i am lead singer and guitarist for the band "7th heaven" in chicago. We played over 200 dates in 2007, over 250 shows in 2008, similar numbers in 2009 and are halfway through the same number now in 2010!!!
We have played to over 1,000,000 people in each year. We have played with many famous national acts including BON JOVI, LEANNE RIMES, RICK SPRINGFIELD, MR. BIG, QUIET RIOT, SURVIVOR, JOURNEY, FOGHAT, GEORGE THERAGOOD, THE BUCKINGHAMS, NIGHT RANGER, DEF LEPPARD, GIM BLOSSOMS and many more.
SESSION MUSICIAN
– Since 2000 I have been playing Drums, Guitar or Keyboards for other bands. This includes live performances and recordings. Bands include: The Untouchables ( the most successful British club band for which I have played Guitar, Drums and Keyboards), Murage ( a blues band which tours N. Ireland for which I have played lead guitar and drums), Klass ( my old band for which I play drums when required) and various other young rock bands on guitar or Drums. I recently recorded session vocals for a dance project by the Pete Waterman music company on a remix of the classic Foreigner track “Ill be waiting for a girl like you.” I performed guitar and vocals for Paul Kennedy from Irelands "Cool fm" for the "Pianoman" dance project.
I also recorded vocals on a Rick Springfield tribute album singing his hit song "affair of the heart."
SONG WRITING AND RECORDING - I have written over 400 hundred songs since I began in 1995. These range from the lightest pop and country music to thrash and heavy metal. Most of these have been written within the last two years as I have had more time to work on songs as I please.
i have had great success on radio with some of my songs including "i cant help myself" which i wrote with the world famous "Rick Astley." The song had major air play and was on the "A" list of two major radio stations being Cool fm and citybeat radio, Belfast.
I have performed two of my songs at the biggest level possible live at 6 of the major arenas in the UK. With a total of over 80,000 people each tour.
"Stay another day" written in 2005 and "You gotta have fun" in 2004 written especially for the title track of the tour.
I recently was asked to have my song "hand on my heart" feature on a compilation cd distributed by Illumina records as a part of the Ground control anti-drink driving campaign. This was an honour as only 20 bands where chosen from chicago to be on the album.
ALBUM HISTORY - To date I have recorded 8 albums, 7 of which where recorded and mixed by myself with minimal equipment in my bedroom. The first was in 1995 with my first band AARK called “Survival of the fittest.” Each new album has explored a slightly different genre of music.
Here is the timeline of the albums that followed:
1997 - Keith Semple
1999 – Two Way Secret
2000 – Way of the World
2000 – Best of (included three new tracks)
2001 – Mindzeye - Parallels (a progressive and old school rock album)
2003 – Gimme A Sign
2004 – Lithify - A human condition (a purely progressive metal album)
I sold approximately 2000 - 5000 copies of each album simply through performing the songs at gigs, selling them on my website etc
In late 2008 we released 7th Heavens new album USA:UK which i wrote ten of the eighteen songs. We currently play this album at all our shows around the United states.
So basically i have done a lot of stuff!! I am a seasoned performer, great with a crowd and have the material to back up my ability to perform live.
