| Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. | |
|---|---|
Sam Duckworth, aka Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Samuel Lloyd Duckworth[1] |
| Born | 30 January 1986 |
| Origin | Southend, Essex, England |
| Genres | Indie rock, electroacoustic |
| Occupations | Singer/songwriter guitarist |
| Instruments | vocals, acoustic guitar, laptop |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Labels | Atlantic Cooking Vinyl[2] |
| Website | getcapewearcapefly.com |
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly is the stage name of English artist Sam Duckworth and his band. He is sometimes referred to as Get Cape, Cape, GCWCF and Slam Dunkworth (the latter title apparently first coined by Emmy The Great).[3] According to Duckworth, his stage name comes from a ZX Spectrum magazine. One of the sections of the solution to the Batman computer game contained the header "Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly".[4]
Contents |
Sam grew up in Southend-on-Sea, Essex. Get Cape was signed to Atlantic Records in March 2006, after playing many gigs, both with punk rock band Silverskin and as Get Cape. Get Cape has collaborated with Billy Bragg, Nitin Sawhney, Shlomo, Killa Kela, Baba Maal, Flea, Kate Nash, and many others with his participation in many events for Africa Express.[5]
Get Cape organised The Demolition Ball - the last night at the London Astoria venue before it was knocked down in January 2009.[6] Get Cape also headlined the Astoria for his 21st birthday party.[7]
Get Cape's debut album, The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager, is best described as an indie/rock fusion. The album made the top 100 albums of 2006 lists of Q and NME.
In October 2006, he performed as part of the BBC Electric Proms.[8] He played at a number of major festivals in 2007, including Oxegen, Glastonbury,[9] Reading and Leeds Festivals and SXSW.
In January 2007, Duckworth was nominated for best solo artist at the annual NME Awards, up against Lily Allen, Jamie T, Jarvis Cocker and Thom Yorke, although he did not win.
Get Cape's second album, Searching for the Hows and Whys was released on 10 March 2008.[10] It features guest vocals from Kate Nash on the track, "Better Things".[11] The album also features Billy Bragg on "Interlude".[12] "Waiting for the Monster to Drown" was released as a free download via Get Cape's official website and MySpace on 7 December 2007. The first single released from the album was "Find The Time" which was released on 3 March 2008, and reached number 33 on the UK Top 40 Chart.
The third and self-titled album was released on Cooking Vinyl on 13 September 2010, with the first single from the album "Collapsing Cities Feat. Shy FX" released on 9 August 2010.[13]
The Mannequin is the first album released under the name Sam Duckworth rather than 'Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.' [14]
On 24 March 2008, he performed on Hollyoaks as part of a gig staged in the village.[15]
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly have also had an episode of American TV show One Tree Hill named after them. Every episode of the show has a title with a musical theme, either a song title or band name. Episode 3 of season 6 of One Tree Hill is titled "Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly."
Duckworth is well known for his debating and love for a variety of different musical styles. He has had run-ins with the British National Party after a racist attack in a nightclub which lead to the song Glasshouses, and he has since become an avid supporter of Love Music Hate Racism.[16] He is also a Fairtrade supporter.[17]
Sam also took part in Oxfam's Blue campaign at Glastonbury which was shot by photographer Rankin.[18]
Rumours circulating the net included that of Duckworth's proposed marriage to “an Asian princess” in an interview with Metro Newspaper. The talk of an Asian princess was just hearsay, but in an interview Sam admitted that there was no truth to the engagement however he is dating fellow musician Nadine Shah, hailed as “the female Nick Cave”.[19]
| Date | Song | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| "Whitewash is Brainwash" | Thom Day | |
| 2006-jun | "Call Me Ishmael" | Ben & Greg (Ben Jones & Greg Fay) |
| 2006-jun | "I-Spy" | |
| 2006-aug | "The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager (Part One)" | |
| 2006-oct | "War of the Worlds" | Sam Brown |
| 2008-jan | "Find the Time" | OneInThree (Bugsy Riverbank Steel & Ross Elliot Cooper) |
| 2008-apr | "Keep Singing Out" | Nick Bentley |
| 2010-aug | "Collapsing Cities" | Luke Snellin |
"I Spy" is somewhat a spoof of a British Saturday morning kids show. Where Duckworth is introduced by a creature that looks like one of the Fimbles and so continues to play on a seat surrounded by kids and various other characters like a stereotypical popstar.
"Call Me Ishmael" depicts an "escape" from everyday work, showing different people from different careers entering an underground tunnel network, along with Duckworth. At the end of the video, Duckworth emerges in a Job Centre, and is promptly asked by an employee to "Take a Number and a seat, please"; an anti-climax to the up-beat feeling of the rest of the song.
"Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager, Part One" (Chronicles for short) depicts Sam Duckworth with other band members playing in a casual environment, inside of a house — into which it is later revealed that a number of red strings lead. The bulk of the video consists of various people from different walks of life following one of these strings into the house. At this point, the crescendo of the song kicks in, and a more gig/party like atmosphere is assumed. The video ends by depicting the "morning after" with many people asleep, and Sam Duckworth still playing into a phone, quietly, next to a huge ball of red string.
"War of the Worlds" shows Duckworth in a warehouse sitting singing the song whilst workers busy themselves setting up poles in which their function are not known until the climax of the song, at which point they explode around Duckworth and spew out various colours of paint.
The GCWCF live band includes: