Ian was born in London, but at an early age went to live in Santa Barbara, California USA with his parents until the age of seven.
After returning to the UK he started taking singing lessons at the age of eleven with four different singing teachers. His big break came when his last singing teacher arranged for him to audition for the big band singer in the film 'Yanks' featuring Richard Gere. He was chosen for the part out of 400 others at the age of just 16! The movie was a huge success, taking 4 months to film and he sang with an 18-peice band, which he greatly enjoyed.
He then fronted his own jazz quartet, performing at club venues.
At just 20 years of age he started cruising on the original Oriana, performing with a production company, in such staring roles as Tony in West Side Story.