Piano is street star’s forte
GIFTED MUSICIAN WHO PLAYED OUTSIDE CITY CENTRE STORE DOESN’T EVEN OWN A PIANO
THE piano-playing star of a remarkable street performance video which went viral has never had a formal music lesson – and he doesn’t own a piano!
Christopher Scamp, 30, has a repertoire of hundreds of songs and played a non-stop, two-hour medley outside Forsyth Music Shop, in Manchester city centre, on Friday.
He mixed Christmas songs, pop music and even classics from the Hacienda – and a video of his performance was viewed three million times on Facebook.
The musician returned to delight crowds again on Sunday and told the M.E.N. how he loves giving public performances as he does not have a piano of his own.
Christopher, from Liverpool, said: “No one else in my family is into music but I always have been and I learned to play myself in my own room just picking things up.
“I can play a few hundred songs and I can do them all the way through but tend to just mix parts of them together as not everyone has the patience for a full song.
“I’ve never had a music lesson but I have this amazing love for entertaining people. It got an unbelievable reaction and there’s a lot more to come.”
Christopher, who also plays the saxophone, drums and guitar, has had requests to play in Cuba and Las Vegas since the video went viral.
He is trying to save enough money to buy his own piano and intends to go on Britain’s Got Talent next year.
The piano has been placed outside Forsyth Music Shop by store bosses for anyone who wants to have a go to play on.
Among the numbers Christopher played on Sunday were Oasis anthem Don’t Look Back in Anger, Let it Go, from Frozen, and Let it Be by the Beatles.
Christopher, who is a full-time carer for his mum, added: “When I play it just comes automatically like my hands are doing it but not my brain.”
Forsyth Music Shop, on Deansgate, celebrated its 160th birthday this year and is now owned by the fifth genera- tion of the Forsyth family. Manager Michael Welton, 43, said: “Christopher came on Friday and just started playing. We get a fair number of people doing that but it quickly became clear this was something different. He attracted quite a crowd and it was all off the top of his head.”