Steve "Big Man" Clayton

He has been awarded: Best Piano Player in 1995, 1997 and 1998 presented by the British Blues Connection[1] and, in 2001, the oberschwaebischer Kleinkunstpreis presented by the Zehntscheuer, Ravensburg, Germany.

Also received the "Pinetop Award 2015" for "Best Boogie Woogie Entertainer", presented in Bremen, Germany.

Steve Clayton was born in Birmingham, England. He began to show an interest in music at the age of 10. This prompted his parents to buy an old upright piano and they promptly shipped him off for weekly piano lessons, which he would keep up for the next five years. Towards the end of his music lessons, his music teacher composed a blues for him to learn. The different tones and rhythms were something totally new to somebody learning the classics. This new found music had an enormous effect on him; the record collection mounted, spending his weekly pocket money on records by Cow Cow Davenport, Albert Ammons and Memphis Slim, among others. His time was spent at the piano, trying to reproduce the sounds he was hearing.

It did not take long for Clayton to find his way into his first blues band after leaving school, and he would spend the next few years learning his craft in numerous local bands, being hailed as "The Ivory Maradona" and "The Big Man of Boogie Woogie". The "Big Man" was requested to back visiting U.S. artists including Louisiana Red, Shuggy Otis and Carey Bell, he toured Europe with them, he learnt from them.

Clayton played the piano on the W.C. Handy nominated "He Knows the Blues" (1990), by Otis Grand[2]

Learning to sing was a real turning point, it led him to song writing. The results of which can be heard on his debut album Can't Stop the Boogie, which he recorded in 1991 with his long time band "The 44’s". This prompted the German record label Hot Fox, to send him to Chicago to record his second album I Got A Right, which featured S. P. Leary and Lester Davenport (1993). Nine more recordings would follow.

The "Big Man" was honoured as best piano player by the British Blues Connection in 1995, 1997 and 1998 before leaving for Germany, where he now resides. It did not take long for him to make his mark here, winning a south German prize as best artist for 2001. He was also awarded the "Pinetop" prize for Best Boogie Entertainer 2015. Steve Clayton is currently living in Lüchow, Germany, where he continues to compose and perform.

Clayton has recorded with Jean Vincent, The Mighty Houserockers, Richard Ray Farrell, Otis Grand, Rudy Rotta, Dana Gillespie, and many others.

His own recordings are:

• Can't Stop the Boogie 1991 Hot Fox Records
• I Got A Right 1993 Hot Fox Records, recorded at Delmark Studios, Chicago
• I Got to Sing These Blues 1999 Stormy Monday Records
• You Know What I Mean 2000 Stormy Monday Records
• Dirty Mistreater 2004 Stormy Monday Records
• Goin' back to Birmingham 2007 Stormy Monday Records
• I Like It Like That 2011 Stormy Monday Records
• Barrelhouse Blues & Boogie Woogie Piano 2014 CD Baby
• Homecoming" with "The Wild Bluesmen" 2014 United Sounds Records
• Best Of....... 2015 Stormy Monday Records
• Two Nights 2017 with "The Wild Bluesmen", United Sounds Records