FORMER Riddlesden man Nick Blacka and his band GoGo Penguin have embarked on a national tour.

The jazz musicians promise lyrical piano melodies with the rhythms of dance music as they play Manchester’s O2 Ritz in November.

Double bassist Nick, drummer Rob Turner and pianist Chris Illingworth are renowned for exhilarating live shows.

Their trademark mash-up of minimalist piano themes, deeply propulsive bass lines and electronica-inspired drums has seen them shortlisted for the Mercury Prize and signed to a three-album deal by Blue Note Records.

The ‘minimalist and anthemic’ music was created after Nick completed years as musical study, inspired at the age of 13 by listening to his brother’s friend’s band rehearsing for a school assembly.

Nick, whose parents still live in Riddlesden, attended the village’s St Mary’s Primary School, then South Craven School in Cross Hills.

The young teen pestered his mother for a bass guitar, and moved to Nelson and Colne College to study A level Music.

He said: “I became more interested in jazz through my bass teacher Steve Berry who is a well-respected jazz educator and double bass player. He also sparked my interest in taking up the double bass.”

Nick went on to study music at Manchester City College and Leeds College of Music, learning with leading double bassist Jon Thorne, playing regularly at Matt & Phred’s jazz club in Manchester, and gaining a BA Hons in Jazz Studies

With GoGo Penguin, Nick and his comrades draw from many areas of contemporary electronic music as well as jazz and classical music.

Into the mix go arcade game bleeps, glitchy breakbeats, hypnotic Aphex-style melodies, grinding bass lines and a rumbling low-end.

The band released the album Man Made Object last February. The band’s Live At Abbey Road EP was recorded at the famous Beatles studio, and was released digitally early this month.