Alex Lipinski

"Played and sung with such vigour and conviction it just sweeps you up and carries you along" - Tom Robinson (BBC 6 Music)

"Alex Lipinksi channels the best tones of John Lennon and Roy Orbison and makes them his own. His writing is crisp, confessional and superb” – (Rock ‘n’ Reel Magazine).

“Lipinski’s future looks bright. He’s got the voice, the songs, and youth on his side” – Mick Taylor (Guitarist Magazine)

“Lipinski has a masterpiece of an album here” – Lisa Torem (Penny Black Music)

The first thing that hits you is the voice. Alex Lipinski’s caressing sympathy, full-throated resentment, and the raw rockabilly excitement of earliest Elvis have grabbed unwary listeners at clubs from the West Country to Krakow, Philadelphia and New York, since the 24-year-old moved from Weston-Super-Mare to London over three years ago. He has followed in the footsteps of his heroes Lennon and Dylan to London’s Tin Pan Alley and the Chelsea Hotel, soaking up experience evident in his urgent live conviction. The Royle Family’s Ralf Little is a fan, joining him on stage previously. The crafted intimacy of his debut album catches much of the mature musical control and adult yearning that already sets him apart.

Watching Lipinski today, singing his own songs or tearing into Elvis’s atom-splitting “That’s All Right, Mama” with the original’s innocent exhilaration, lessons have been learned since he moved to London in 2007. “I started at the very bottom,” he remembers. “I thought, ‘I’ve just got to play.’ I took the train to venues I’d heard about, playing and playing.” Entering London’s one-time Tin Pan Alley, Denmark Street, for regular gigs at the 12-Bar Club, the rock history he’d absorbed growing up seemed touchable. “Yeah, it was weird,” he considers. “Because I was walking down the street where the Kinks and Stones used to rehearse, bars where Lennon and McCartney used to drink, and Dylan played.

Lipinski’s West Country childhood was soundtracked by pop’s pinnacles. “The Beatles and Elvis Presley were always on. I’m glad it was The Beatles. For a long time, I can’t remember hearing anything else, or wanting to. But I picked up a guitar when I was 10, and started learning way back with Buddy Holly, then going forward, rather than starting with music at the age I was.”

Pausing to soak up Britpop (listen to what he’s learned from Oasis on the album’s “Grey Skies”), teenage years added Americana songwriters’ depth to British pop values: “Dylan, then Ryan Adams, and from him Wilco, Bruce Springsteen - and he changed everything. But at the same time you want to be your own musician. I want to be on that stage.”

Album done, in November 2008 Lipinski won the MBF Songwriting award, a £2000 prize he used to reach still wider horizons. Philadelphia singer-songwriter Jim Boggia, a 12-Bar peer, toured with him around his home state. New York gigs then found him trailing yet more rock ghosts.

With his debut finally ready for the world, Alex only wishes the follow-up could be out a day later. “I could put two albums out. There are lots of songs I’ll be demoing soon, I’m constantly looking for new ways to put them out. I have great trouble in keeping still, or being comfortable. That’s why I keep writing. To be as good as I can be.”

Alex was joined on stage at London’s Charlotte St. Blues by his full band last year for the launch of his debut album ‘Lonesome Train’. Alex’s debut album ‘Lonesome Train’ is the debut release for new label Blue Chameleon. The album is being distributed by Cadiz/Universal.

For the past twelve months Alex has been gigging extensively across the UK, both solo and with his band. He has also performed a number of shows across Europe. BBC6 presenter Tom Robinson recently selected 'Lonesome Train' as one of his songs of the week. The interest in Alex and his music seems to be growing significantly, particularly after his recent successful shows at The Borderline.