Live At The Marquee - A Chancer's Guide to Damien Rice

Damien Rice plays Live At The Marquee tonight

Damien Rice was born in Celbridge, Co. Kildare in 1973.

Rice was in the band Juniper along with Paul Noonan and David Geraghty, now of Bell X1 fame, as they were all in school together. 

Damien released his solo material in 2001 with his single "The Blower's Daughter" making it into the Top 40 chart and helped to establish himself as a solo artist. He continued to write songs and collaborate with artists such as Lisa Hannigan and later touring Ireland with these musicians.

2002 saw the release of Rice's first solo album, 'O' in Ireland, the UK and the USA. The album peaked at number 8 in the UK charts and stayed on the chart for an impressive 97 weeks. The album sold 650,000 copies. Cannonball proved to be a huge hit for the musician with girl group, Little Mix, who won the X Factor in 2011 releasing their own version of the song as their winners single. The album O has gone 10 times platinum in Ireland alone.

Damien laid low for a few years before releasing his next solo album 9 in 2006 which he had actually recorded over the two years prior to it's release. 

In 2014, Rice announced via Twitter that he was working on a third album. My Favourite Faded Fantasy was released in October 2014 with the track "I Don't Want To Change You" proving to be a popular single. My Favourite Faded Fantasy stormed the charts and peaked at number one in Ireland. 

Rice's songs have been heard on numerous television shows including American Idol, The L Word,True Blood, Hidden Palms, Bones, The Cleaner, Jericho, ER, The Black Donnellys, The OC, Alias, Lost, Huff, Crossing Jordan, Grey's Anatomy, Criminal Minds, House, Spin 1038, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Inbetweeners, One Tree Hill, British television series, Misfits and the Korean drama, Spring Waltz.

Rice's songs have appeared in films such as Goldfish Memory, Reservation Road, Higher Ground, Closer, I am David, Stay, In Good Company, The Girl in the Café, Shrek the Third and Dear Frankie

His music is referenced in the 2009 novel The Suicide Club by Rhys Thomas, and his songs have been used in professional figure skating competitions.

One of Rice's biggest fans is musician Ed Sheeran who credits Rice in sparking his interest in songwriting and playing the guitar after meeting him at a gig in Whelan's in Dublin when Ed was thirteen years old. This moment influenced Sheeran so much that out of all of the venues he could have chosen in the world, Ed chose to play his VH1 Storytellers gig in Whelan's in Dublin.