| Ben Volpeliere-Pierrot | |
| Birth Name: | Martin Benedict Volpeliere-Pierrot |
| Birth Date: | 1965 5, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Earls Court, London, England |
| Known For: | Lead singer of Curiosity Killed the Cat |
| Years Active: | 1984–present |
Martin Benedict Volpeliere-Pierrot (born 19 May 1965) is an English singer best known as the vocalist from the band Curiosity Killed the Cat. 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.[1]
Volpeliere-Pierrot is the son of 1960s celebrity photographer Jean Claude Volpeliere-Pierrot and the model Belinda Watson.[2] He attended Woolverstone Hall School near Ipswich, which he credited in a 1987 interview with giving him "real hope"[3] through the education he received. In the mid-1980s he appeared as a model[4] on the front of Mike Read's Pop Quiz board game (made by Waddingtons in 1985) and formed the band Curiosity Killed the Cat.
Curiosity Killed the Cat were 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 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 magazine,[5] 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[6] in 2006.[7]
The band, who had signed to RCA Records/BMG[8] as Curiosity in the early 1990s,[9] split in 1994, with Ben VP signing to Telstar Records to release the 1996 single "Gotta Get You Home".[10]
In 2018, Volpeliere-Pierrot appeared on Channel 4's First Dates.[11] [12] 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.