Ben Volpierre

Introducing Ben

Ben Volpierre-Pierrot was the lead singer of Curiosity Killed The Cat, a band that had a number of Top 40 Singles in the UK together with a No. 1 Album, KEEP YOUR DISTANCE.

The band played soulful, jazzy and funky pop music and was initially signed to Phonogram Records’ Mercury imprint.

They first came to the notice of the UK Music Press when they worked with Andy Warhol for the video of their 1985 single “Misfit”. This featured the band in New York and at one point featured Ben dancing down a side street whilst Andy Warhol referenced Bob Dylan’s 1965 long-form promotional file for “Subterranean Homesick Blues” by dropping pieces of which card in time to the music (The Dylan film clip and its concepts have since been popularly imitated by a number of other artists, including INXS in their video for “Mediate” in 1988.)

The band’s 2nd Album, GETAHEAD, this album was released in 1989, led by the single “Name and Number” (UK No. 14) and it’s “Hey How You Doin” refrain would find itself in the Top Ten two years later as part of the De La Soul song “Ring Ring Ring (Ha ha Hey)”. The album peaked at No. 29 in the UK Charts.

In 1992, the band returned to the UK Top 3 with a cover of Jonny Bristol’s “Hang on in There Baby”. However, the album “BACK TO FRONT” was only released in Japan and selected overseas markets.

Split

After 1992, the band split up and only reformed for an appearance on the National Lottery midweek show on BBC1 in 2001.

Ben was best known for wearing a beret in most pictures of the band. He later revealed it was in fact a peaked fisherman’s hat, turned round with the peak to the rear so that it resembled a beret.

Ben VP (as he was billed on a number of solo singles in the mid 1990s) was frequently referred to as Ben Vol-au-Vent-Parrot in Smash Hits Magazine. He also appeared as a model on the front cover of Mike Read’s Pop Quiz board game.