Martin Benedict Volpeliere-Pierrot (born 19 May 1965) is an English singer best known as the vocalist from the band

Curiosity Killed the Cat Curiosity Killed the Cat was a British pop band that achieved success in the UK in the late 1980s, with hit singles such as " Down to Earth", " Misfit" and " Ordinary Day", from their No. 1 debut album, '' Keep Your Distance''. This was follo ...

. He is known for sporting a distinctive hat often mistaken for a beret, which is actually a fiddler cap – a traditional Greek fisherman's hat – worn backwards.

Early life

Volpeliere-Pierrot is the son of 1960s celebrity photographer Jean Claude Volpeliere-Pierrot and the model Belinda Watson. He attended

Woolverstone Hall School In the early 1950s the London County Council obtained use of Woolverstone Hall near Ipswich, Suffolk, and some of adjoining land for the purpose of establishing a secondary grammar boarding school for London boys. The premises were previously o ...

near

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

, which he credited in a 1987 interview with giving him "real hope" through the education he received. In the mid-1980s he appeared as a model on the front of Mike Read's Pop Quiz board game (made by

Waddingtons Waddingtons was a British manufacturer of card games, card and board games. The company was founded by John Waddington of Leeds, England and the manager, actor and playwright Wilson Barrett, under the name ''Waddingtons Limited''. The name was c ...

in 1985) and formed the band

Curiosity Killed the Cat

was a pop band formed in 1984 which had several hit singles in the UK. At the time of their breakthrough, Volpeliere-Pierrot was known for wearing a

beret A beret ( or ; ; eu, txapela, ) is a soft, round, flat-crowned cap, usually of woven, hand-knitted wool, crocheted cotton, wool felt, or acrylic fibre. Mass production of berets began in 19th century France and Spain, and the beret remains ...

in most pictures of the band, though it was actually a peaked fisherman's hat, turned round with the peak to the rear so that it resembled a beret. Ben VP (as he was billed on a number of solo singles in the mid-1990s) was frequently referred to as 'Ben Vol-au-vent Parrot' in ''

Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand fo ...

'' magazine, with 'Bendy Ben' (or 'Boozy Ben') also used. Their 1989 hit "Name and Number" has been sampled and remixed several times, including a version credited to Elements vs Ben VP in 2006.

Post-Curiosity

The band, who had signed to RCA Records/BMG as Curiosity in the early 1990s, split in 1994, with Ben VP signing to Telstar Records to release the 1996 single "Gotta Get You Home". In 2018, Volpeliere-Pierrot appeared on Channel 4's ''

First Dates ''First Dates'' is a British reality television programme that has aired on Channel 4 since 20 June 2013. The programme has been narrated by Brian Protheroe since 2015. Production The programme was filmed at the Paternoster Chop House restaur ...

''. The programme paired him with a glamorous date ten years younger, but there was no attraction, instead the date called her mother and suggested that she go on a date with the singer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Volpeliere-Pierrot, Ben English male singers 1965 births Living people Singers from London Sophisti-pop musicians