About

Stephen Large is the long-term keyboard player of the UK band Squeeze, for whom he has toured, recorded, arranged, and Karate-chopped for since 2005. He is also the regular keyboard player and arranger for Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott, who have in recent years enjoyed two number 1 albums (NK Pop and Manchester Calling) and the gold-selling What Have We Become. 

Other notable albums include writing arrangements for the ‘Lady Sings The Blues’ jazz album with Rebecca Ferguson where Stephen performed with orchestra and members of the Count Basie Big band at Capitol Records Studios, Hollywood. 

Other Keyboard Duties

Babyshambles, Paloma Faith, Rumer, Imelda May, Quantic Soul Orchestra with Spanky Wilson, Terry Reid, Pete Doherty,  The Noisettes, Alan Carr, Petula Clark, Johnny Depp, music hall with Colin Firth, as well as being a founder member of jazz outfits The Rag ‘n’ Bone Club and Ronnie Scott’s Rejects.

Other MD Experience

Caro Emerald, Rebecca Ferguson, Duffy, Legendary US soul group Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and his own highly acclaimed 60s-influenced combo, Lord Large. Also Songs in the Key of London with James Brown‘s sax legend Pee Wee Ellis, Clare Teal, Gary Kemp, Pee Wee Ellis, Ali Campbell, Nerina Pallot, Wreckless Eric and others.

String / Brass / Orchestral Arrangements

Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott with BBC concert orchestra for radio 2 piano room, Caro Emerald (e.g. BBC Radio 2 at Hyde Park with BBC concert orchestra), Squeeze (various albums plus live at Royal Albert Hall with orchestra), Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott (including Real Hope with Grimethorpe Colliery Brass Band), Rebecca Ferguson (orchestral tracks on Lady Sings The Blues), Noisettes (hit album Wild Young Hearts), plus CocknBullKid, Marina & the Diamonds, and Clare Teal.

---

Equipment List

---

History

Stephen left Christ Church College, Canterbury with a first-class degree in Art and Music, and had an early breakthrough with the band Koot, who were signed to Warner Records, releasing the album Skyjacked through Some Bizarre in 2001. Koot also contributed the song Sunshine At Last to the soundtrack of the film Saving Grace. After a spell as a keyboard player for the Mercury Award-nominated and Q Award-winning band The Electric Soft Parade, Large began to forge into his session career by contributing keyboards to albums by The Ordinary Boys and Graham Coxon. During this period a long association with Glenn Tilbrook began that has produced several Squeeze and non-Squeeze albums including Pandemonium Ensues by the marvelously monikered band ‘The Fluffers’, for whom he was a co-writer with Tilbrook.

Lord Large and the 2006 album Lord’s First 11 are the results of a close collaboration with drummer, writer, and producer Andrew J Jones, with whom Large has worked since their days in Koot. The group’s debut album The Lord’s First XI, released on the Acid Jazz label, has been championed by the likes of Paul Weller, Mark Lamarr, Robert Elms and Gary Crowley, and saw Large working with a range of legendary soul singers, including Clem Curtis of The Foundations, Dean Parrish, Linda Lewis, and The Peddlers‘ Roy Phillips, as well as the more contemporary talents of Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook, Andrea Britton and Freakpower /Kitten and the Hip singer/trombonist Ashley Slater.

Large received some web notoriety in 2010 after an appearance with Squeeze on the US Jimmy Fallon Show, during which he played a keyboard solo on the recently launched Apple iPad for the song Pulling Mussels (From The Shell). This appears to be the first use on live TV of the iPad as a musical instrument. Further TV appearances include The Jay Leno Show with Duffy, X Factor and Dancing on Ice with Rebecca Ferguson, The Ellen DeGeneres Show with Squeeze, Parkinson with Rod Stewart, dueting with Glenn Tilbrook on Later With Jools Holland, and playing Grandma on the piano in CBBC’s Big Babies.