Peter-John Vettese

Peter-John Vettese, also known as Peter Vettese, is a Scottish-Italian keyboardist, songwriter, arranger and producer. He is the son of Giuseppe “Joe” Vettese, the big band leader and saxophonist, and May Vettese (née Collie). In the post-War years, the seven Vettese brothers had great local renown as a musical family, and were one of the first big bands to perform Swing and popular Jazz in Scotland.

Vettese’s entire life has revolved around music. He began his musical career with piano lessons at the age of 4, and by 9 years old he was playing in public with his father's band. Most of his teens were spent performing with various rock and fusion bands, including the winners of the Melody Maker Folk Rock competition, “Elegy”. At 17 he joined one of the UK's biggest dance hall Big Bands, but was fired for rehearsing in company time with his own group.

In his late-teens Vettese formed the jazz fusion group “Solaris” with drummer Mike Travis and guitarist Jim Condie, and the band performed throughout Scotland for several years. Vettese was concurrently a member of another jazz band, “Head”, in which he played alongside Scottish jazz luminary Gordon Cruikshank and toured the United States. In the late-70s Vettese was also a member of the Edinburgh pop group “Bilbo Baggins”.

Jethro Tull years 1981–1986 In 1981 Vettese joined the progressive rock band Jethro Tull, recording the album Broadsword and the Beast, and touring with the band extensively for the next few years. Vettese made significant contributions to Tull's heavily electronic album Under Wraps, (1984) and returned to record with them as a guest musician on Rock Island (1989). Vettese also collaborated with Tull’s frontman Ian Anderson on his 1983 solo album, Walk Into Light. Vettese co-wrote half the songs on the album, which is notable today for his innovative contributions on electronic keyboards.

Session Years 1986–1989 Vettese left Tull to join the Jeff Beck Band in 1986. This period was followed by his career as one of the most sought-after keyboardists of the time, making albums with Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Pet Shop Boys, Bee Gees, Foreigner, Survivor, Carly Simon, Seal and Simple Minds. In 1987, he fulfilled a boyhood dream to play with Paul McCartney as a session musician. Later in the same year he joined the band “Go West”, recording and touring with them around the world for the next two years. In 1989 Vettese worked with the Bee Gees on the hit song “One”, their biggest single of the 80s.

Songwriter, Arranger, Producer, 1990–to present Whilst working with Annie Lennox on the “Diva” album Vettese rediscovered his love of songwriting (co-writing with Lennox, Legend in My Living Room and the Grammy winning Walking on Broken Glass, and contributing arrangements for the rest of the album including Why, Little Bird, and Keep Young & Beautiful). From this point on Vettese took on the dual role of songwriter and producer, working with Peter Cox, Tina Arena, Gary Barlow, Beverley Knight, Melanie C, Zucchero, Mark Owen, Alex Parks, Julian Lennon, Peter Heppner, Dido, Heather Small, The Overtones and the Bee Gees.

Vettese produced and co-wrote with Heather Small the song “Proud” which has gone on to have a life of its own as an Olympic and sporting anthem in many different countries, and was the official song of the London 2012 Olympic bid. In 2009 he received an ASCAP for the song as one of the most played television themes in the United States. Today the song’s inspiring message ensures that is used in numerous settings from schools to advertisements to motivation seminars. The song has had repeated outings to benefit leading charities, including, amongst many others, the Tsunami Relief Aid and Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network – helping victims of Hurricane Katrina.

In the last few years Vettese has divided his time between jazz projects, the forthcoming “The Majesty of Light” (spring 2013), and working with young pop artists, including Leddra Chapman, Sofi de la Torre, Schmidt and Lilygreen & Maguire. He also continues to work closely with Melanie C in both her pop and musical career, most recently producing and arranging her “Stages” album, and in 2011 they performed together at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival. Vettese is a celebrated Hammond organ player and it is in this guise that he worked with Zucchero in Havana on his number one “Cuban Sessions” album in 2012. Vettese collaborated with Robin Gibb up until his death, co-writing the song ‘Don’t Cry Alone’ for Gibb’s Titanic Requiem. He is also a highly sought after string-arranger most recently writing and preparing the arrangements for Mick Hucknall’s “American Soul” album.

Vettese is currently signed to Kobalt Music and has his own recording studio in Battersea where, along with the above, he is also known to write and produce music for film soundtracks, television, advertisements and gardens. He can also boast one of the most misspelt names in the music industry!