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Sandy Kilpatrick is a Scottish singer, songwriter, guitarist, poet and sporadic theatre producer. He was born in East Kilbride, Scotland in 1968. From 1995-2000 he was based in Manchester as frontman of the cult underground band Sleepwalker. Sleepwalker cut their teeth in Manchester’s historical venue The Roadhouse, and played shows there with Muse and Trail of The Dead, amongst others.

They shared a record label at that time, Ugly Man Records, with the Sleepwalking, was released to a full house in a legendary show in Withington Cine-City cinema in Manchester, in April 2000. The single, released by Ugly Man Records, was described by both Flux magazine and manchestermusic.co.uk as one of the best singles of the year. Since 2001 Kilpatrick has been living in the north of Portugal, steadily releasing his solo material, firstly under the moniker of The Neon Road, and then with his own name, mostly under the guidance of his UK based label, Ugly Man Records.

His last album, Redemption Road was released on April 25, 2012, and received critical praise in his adopted homeland of Portugal, as well as in the USA and in the UK, from the likes of Elbow’s Guy Garvey and the BBC’s Mark Radcliffe.

Biography
Alexander Drennan Kilpatrick was born in Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride, Scotland on the 22nd November 1968. Following a miserable education at Duncanrig Secondary School, he drifted in odd jobs for a few years, moving between the South of England and Scotland, working in bars, painting houses, and working as a carpenter.

His life changed in 1990 for two reasons - he started playing acoustic guitar (at a relatively late age) and started to study humanities in Fircroft College of Adult Education, in Birmingham. He left there with 10 friends the following year to study English and American literature at Lancaster University, and graduated with a 2:1, receiving a first for his final dissertation on the great Irish poet W. B. Yeats. Kilpatrick left Lancaster with guitarist Tom Wilcox and bassist James Corazzo to follow their rock and roll dreams in Manchester. They quickly formed a short-lived band called The Hum of Good Machines with drummer Mark Noah, which gained a great live reputation before abruptly imploding. Kilpatrick and Wilcox had learnt a lot of stage craft with The Hum of Good Machines but decided to focus on songwriting, and less on live histrionics, with the new band Sleepwalker. Even though he was a sleepwalker himself as a child, Kilpatrick maintains that he got the name of the band from a book by Arthur Koestler, The Sleepwalkers.

Sleepwalker were formed by Kilpatrick, Wilcox and bass player Paul Corlett following a chance meeting in the lobby of their since demolished apartment block in Didsbury, Manchester. After the first two rehearsals the band were joined by Corlett’s long term friend Tim Smith on drums. Sleepwalker developed a strong following in Manchester, playing support slots with Muse and Trail of The Dead amongst others, and made close friendships with a lot of bands and musicians in Manchester at that time, including Ugly Man Records label mates Elbow and I am Kloot. 2000 was a turbulent year for Kilpatrick, and in December he moved to the north of Portugal to be with his wife and their daughter Inês. Son Cassius was born in December 2001.

Kilpatrick spent a few years licking his wounds and settling into a new life in Portugal, making a few releases under the radar, and eventually finding a place in Theatro Circo in Braga, in 2006, where he was responsible for International Relations, liasing between bands, technicians, management and the production department. Kilpatrick was involved in the organization of shows by Antony and The Johnsons, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, Chirgilchin, Andrew Bird, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Faun Fables, Akron/Family and Barbez, amongst many others. It was while researching a burlesque festival for the theatre in New York in 2007 that Kilpatrick had the inspiration that lead to his last album release, Redemption Road. Inspired by a Gospel Choir in the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, Kilpatrick resolved to try to create an album touched by a similar kind of joy. [[Redemption Road was released in April 2012.

Kilpatrick lives and works in the small town of Famalicão in the north of Portugal.