Darren Wharton

Darren Wharton
Wharton performing at Fire Fest 2010, Nottingham, UK Wharton performing at Fire Fest 2010, Nottingham, UK
Background information
Birth name	Darren Leigh Wharton
Born	24 December 1962 (1962-12-24) (age 48) Failsworth, Lancashire England, United Kingdom
Genres	Rock, hard rock, heavy metal
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, keyboards
Years active	1979 – present
Labels	Legend Records
Associated acts	Thin Lizzy, Dare

Darren Wharton (born Darren Leigh Wharton, 24 December 1962, Failsworth, Lancashire) is a British keyboardist, singer and songwriter. He has fronted his own band, Dare since 1989, but first came to attention as a member of Thin Lizzy.

Biography

Thin Lizzy had not had a keyboard player since their early gigs in Ireland, and Wharton was contacted by Phil Lynott while performing with a cover band. He was only 17 when he contributed keyboards to their 1980 album Chinatown. By the following year on the album Renegade he had become an official member of the band, co writing the opening track with Lynott 'Angel Of Death'.

Wharton continued with the band on the follow-up Thunder And Lightning in 1983, having an greater share in the writing credits, most notably on "The Sun Goes Down", but that year Lynott announced the break-up of Thin Lizzy.

Wharton also worked with Lynott on the latter's 1982 solo recording The Philip Lynott Album, where he played on most of the record's eleven tracks. In 1999 Darren reunited with Thin Lizzy touring Europe and the US documented on the 2000 live album One Night Only. He resurfaced with his own band Dare in 1989. Following his move to North Wales in 1992, their music has come to reflect a more Celtic influence. After forming his own label 'Legend Records' the 2001 Dare album 'Belief' was featured on Terry Wogan's BBC Radio 2 breakfast show when the single 'White Horses' was played every week for 3 months. In 2004 , now signed to Warners ADA Music, Dare released their Beneath The Shing Water album. The first single "Sea of Roses" was again playlisted by Terry Wogan on BBC Radio Two. 2009 saw the release of Dare's sixth studio album 'Arc Of The Dawn' After John Sykes' departure from Thin Lizzy 2009, Scott Gorham set to work on creating the greatest line-up of Thin Lizzy since Lynott's death. Rejoining him are old bandmates Brian Downey, and Marco Mendoza. New to the line up are Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell and former The Almighty vocalist Ricky Warwick. After months of pre-production and rehearsals, the world at large was told about this new line-up in May 2010. This version of Thin Lizzy started an extensive world tour in January 2010 and is scheduled to continue for the foreseeable future. Wharton will be releasing his seventh Dare studio album 'SEVEN' later in 2011.

He also has a son called Paris who takes on lead guitar duties on the track 'Circles' from the album Arc of The Dawn.

Discography

with Thin Lizzy

• Chinatown (1980)
• Renegade (1981)
• Thunder and Lightning (1983)
• Life (1983)
• One Night Only (2000)

with Philip Lynott

• The Philip Lynott Album (1982)

with Dare

• Out of The Silence (1988)
• Blood from Stone (1991)
• Calm Before the Storm (1998)
• Belief (2001)
• Beneath the Shining Water (2004)
• The Power of Nature (2005)
• Arc of the Dawn (2009)

References

• Dare's official website
• Darren's Showpage

External links

Persondata
Name	Wharton, Darren
Alternative names	Wharton, Darren Dean
Short description	Musician, songwriter, radio DJ
Date of birth	24 December 1962
Place of birth	Failsworth, Lancashire, England
Date of death
Place of death