Si Cranstoun

After two decades of street performing, Si Cranstoun received an immediate contract offer from a Warner executive who encountered him mid-set in public. Raised in Caterham, Surrey, as the child of a music promoter, he absorbed reggae and ska alongside his brother Tyber during childhood, when the pair began composing and staging original material for their family. Following his studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, the siblings launched the ska outfit the Dualers in 1999.

The group began as a pair before growing into a complete ensemble, sustaining itself through years of pavement gigs and extensive touring that cultivated a sufficient audience for the 2004 debut single “Kiss on the Lips” to reach number 21 on the U.K. chart. Its 2005 follow-up, “Truly Madly Deeply,” climbed to number 23 and later appeared on the soundtrack of the Matthew McConaughey–Kate Hudson adventure Fool’s Gold. The Dualers went on to issue more than ten self-released albums and supported the Blockheads on U.K. dates.

Cranstoun maintained a parallel solo presence, once receiving 30p from Prime Minister Tony Blair and meeting his future wife during a Croydon busking session. He departed the Dualers in 2010 to pursue independent work steeped in rockabilly, doo wop, and the American R&B of the 1950s and 1960s. Several self-released solo projects earned him a dedicated following within the vintage-music community until a Warner executive discovered him in 2013 and extended a million-pound deal. Branded “the new Jackie Wilson,” he secured a Las Vegas billing alongside Little Richard; his first major-label album, Modern Life, arrived in October 2014 and reached number 30 on the U.K. album chart.