After picking up the saxophone when he was 15, Hamilton spent the early 1970s playing for Smiling Hard at the
Top Ten Club on the
Reeperbahn. They went on to tour Europe and Australia and were often hired by US artists, notably playing for
Edwin Starr and
Ben E. King. In 1979, Hamilton recorded "
H.A.P.P.Y. Radio" After being pulled off stage one night in France, Hamilton met
David Bowie, who let him feature in some music videos, notably "
Wild Is the Wind" and "The Drowned Girl". Hamilton joined
the Boomtown Rats and recorded an album
V Deep before extensively touring with them, and performing at
Live Aid. In 1984, Hamilton performed as a musician in
Give My Regards to Broad Street, a film written by
Paul McCartney. During the mid-1980s, Hamilton met
George Michael, and recorded many
Wham! records such as "
I'm Your Man" and "
The Edge of Heaven". He also featured in many of their music videos, and later supported Michael during his solo career, recording (and touring) multiple studio albums, such as
Faith,
Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 and
Older. Hamilton was part of the
25 Live tour, where Michael held the first concert at the newly built
Wembley Stadium. During Hamilton's career, he recorded and toured with many other artists. and toured with the band in Paris and New York. He also recorded with
Kim Wilde,
Bon Jovi,
Brian May,
Gary Barlow,
Marc Almond,
Nina Hagen,
Altered Images and many more. He has toured alongside Dire Straits Legacy. Hamilton has composed
theme and
incidental music for television and film in both the US and the UK. He has a songwriting partnership with guitarist
Phil Palmer, and they won the UK Songwriting Contest in 2015 with the song "Everything's Great All The Time". As well as saxophones, Hamilton also plays keyboards and EWI (electronic wind instrument). == References ==