David Cicero

David Cicero
Born 29 May 1970
Origin Greenport, Long Island, United States
Genres Synthpop, dance, electropop, electronica
Occupation(s) Singer, musician, keyboardist
Instruments vocals, keyboards
Years active 1988–present
Labels Spaghetti Records
1988-1996
Clubscene Records
1996-present
Academy Street Records
1996-present
Associated acts Pet Shop Boys
Website MySpace.com

David John Cicero (born 29 May 1970, Greenport, Long Island, United States) is a Scottish-American singer and keyboardist who was signed in 1988 to Spaghetti Records, a record label owned by Pet Shop Boys. Releasing material as Cicero, he went on to have minor success in the early 1990s.

Career

Cicero was born in Long Island, but when his parents divorced, he moved to Livingston, Scotland. He attended a Pet Shop Boys concert in Glasgow in 1988 and gave a demo tape to Peter Andreas, Pet Shop Boys' personal assistant. Andreas contacted Cicero with an offer of artist management and later when Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe heard Cicero's material, they signed him up to their recently formed Spaghetti label, licensed through Polydor.

Cicero released his début single "Heaven Must Have Sent You Back to Me" on 12 August 1991. Despite promotion from the artist and Pet Shop Boys, the single failed to chart. The follow-up, "Love is Everywhere", reached number 19 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1992.[1] The third single release was "That Loving Feeling" which reached number 46 in April 1992.[1] The latter two singles were co-produced by Pet Shop Boys.

His debut album, Future Boy, was released in June 1992. The album was produced by David Jacob with the exceptions of "Love is Everywhere" and "That Loving Feeling" which were produced by Pet Shop Boys, and "Cloud 9" and "Sonic Malfunction", which Cicero produced himself. Pet Shop Boys also remixed "Heaven Must Have Sent You Back To Me" for the album, and also received keyboard and backing vocal credit for the album. The album did not chart, but to promote it, a new version of "Heaven Must Have Sent You Back to Me" was released as the fourth single and charted at number 70.[1] The music video for the single was directed by Chris Lowe.

On 2 November 1992, Cicero released a fifth single "Live for Today" with Sylvia Mason-James providing backing vocals. The single was taken from the Pet Shop Boys produced soundtrack to the film, The Crying Game, but it failed to chart. The following year, after the success of the title track, sung by Boy George, it was planned to re-release the single, but this never happened.

Cicero released nothing further through Spaghetti Records, although he was still signed with them until 1996. The Pet Shop Boys' fan club magazine regularly gave updates about him, saying that he was working on new tracks and he even came close to a duet release that year with a singer called Bianca, who had been spotted on the television show Stars in Their Eyes.

By late 1996, Cicero moved to Clubscene Records, later merged into Academy Street Records in Scotland and his brother Mike took over as manager. He supported Take That on tour.

Cicero featured as one of the mystery guests in the episode of Never Mind The Buzzcocks, broadcast on 9 October 2008 on BBC Two.

Singles

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 107. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.

External links