Artists

My name is Ivan, I was born in Edgware Middlesex, London.

I first started listening to rock and roll when i was 3 years old, when my neighbour

at the time gave me a collection of Elvis singles which i used to play in my bedroom on

a battery powered record player that i had.

I listened to Elvis's songs over and over till i wore the records out. One of my favourite songs I used to play was a track from Jailhouse Rock called "Young and Beautiful". I knew all the words to the song and would sing it at family parties.

In later years i started to find out about other great artists from the 50's & 60's and they became influences on me as a singer, artists such as Sam Cooke, Billy Fury, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly,Cliff Richard, Marty Wilde, the Everly Brothers and various teen music of that era. I was also brought up listening to country music artists such as Jim Reeves, Faron Young, Charley Pride and Conway Twitty, which my mum and dad used to play. When i was at school my two favourite subjects were music and drama because i loved singing and i loved acting, but when i was 14 i thought my dreams had been

taken from me when i lost my voice and couldn't speak for nearly 2 years. I had to go to a speech therapist to learn how to speak again and build my confidence up.

My voice eventually came back when i was 16 on my last year of school. I'll never forget it because my music teacher put me in as lead singer in our end of year school play, i was very nervous wondering if i would sing okay and everything just came together, it was great. When i left school i went on to drama college in Stanmore, London. I studied there for 2 years and was also training in becoming a signwriter/engraver in which i later became qualified in, but i always knew what my dreams were and that was to become a singer and an actor.

I moved from London in 1997 to live in Caister, Great Yarmouth, and this is where it really started. I went to a pub called the "Never Turn Back" in Caister with my brother Steven and my mum and dad. The landlady who owned it, called Theresa, would also sing there and was looking for singers for a competition she was running, and she approached my brother and i and asked us if we would like to sing, so we got up and did a couple of Elvis numbers, and the people really liked us.

From then on we did 30 min spots on her show. Eventually my brother and i got our own pa system together and started out. We called ourselves the Hi-Lites ( the name came from our uncles group who'd had some success in the 60's & 70's.)

We began to get bookings in various pubs and eventually we started to break on the club circuit in the East Anglia region. This led to us being signed to a local record company, Anglian Music, where we have recorded five different albums.

  Alongside singing i joined some filming agencies in which i have done some television and extra work. I have appeared in the BBC's big budget drama "All The Kings Men" with David Jason, in which i played the part of a soldier. Also i have been in the BBC drama Spooks where i played the role of a forensic officer, along with extra's work in various adverts and the ITV drama the "Uninvited" with Leslie Grantham as a bodyguard.

  I also appear in a tv drama which came out in the spring of 2007 on ITV called "Kingdom" directed by Stephen Fry, where i play the part of a dodgy car dealer/art student. I have just finished filming an independent action horror comedy feature film

called "Fantacide", in which i appear as a journalist called Bobby Blaine, who investigates an evil cult. My brother Steve also makes an appearance.

Steve and i have met some wonderful people along the way who have followed us through our journey and we'd like to thank

them very much, and we hope it will continue for many years to come.