 |
James Compton (born 1 December 1959 in North Tawton, Devon, England) is a British musician, composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist and actor.
|
James Compton (born 1 December 1959 in North Tawton, Devon, England) is a British musician, composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist and actor.
Compton moved to London in 1980 and joined his first professional band, Darts, on his 21st birthday. Three years later the entire band was cast in Yakety Yak , a musical featuring the songs of Leiber and Stoller.[ citation needed ] The band split in 1986. Later that year he joined Microdisney, an Irish indie band, going on to contribute to three singles and five albums.[ citation needed ]
Throughout his career, Compton has produced six albums and co-produced ten singles.
In 1990 he returned to the stage and went on to become musical supervisor of sixteen more musicals, eight of which had successful West End runs.[ citation needed ] Compton was responsible for all the music and soundscapes in Morecambe (a tribute to the British comedian Eric Morecambe) which won a Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment for its run at the Duchess Theatre in 2009.[ citation needed ] More recently[ when? ] he participated in an off-Broadway run of The City Club, a blues and boogie-woogie musical that he composed with Tony De Meur and Tim Brown. [1] Compton also worked as composer on six motion pictures (including Dark Streets which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song), numerous television productions and various electronic media.[ citation needed ] Michael Caine is to be seen line dancing to Compton's guitar and piano work in the 2013 motion picture Mr. Morgan's Last Love . [2]
In 2005 he started studying for a master's degree in Electronic Arts at Middlesex University, specialising in interactive audio in computer games.
He is now working as a consultant for multimedia applications, websites and games, working to enhance narrative with sound and music.[ citation needed ]
| Straight Eight | 1981 | Album | Straight to the Heart | |
| Darts | 1981 | Single | Jump, Children, Jump | co-producer |
| Darts | 1981 | Single | Show us your Shoe | co-producer |
| Darts | 1981 | Album | Doo Wop Darts | |
| Darts | 1981 | Album | Darts – Across America | |
| Darts | 1983 | Single | The Mystery of Ragoula | co-producer |
| Darts | 1983 | EP | Yakety Yak | co-producer |
| Darts | 1983 | Single | Lorraine | co-producer |
| Darts | 1983 | Single | Can't Teach a Fool | co-producer |
| Darts | 1984 | Single | Groovin' | co-producer |
| Darts | 1984 | Single | Blow Away (co-written) | co-producer |
| Alison Moyet | 1984 | B-side | Hitch Hike | co-producer |
| Microdisney | 1987 | Single | Town to Town [3] | |
| Microdisney | 1987 | Single | Singer's Hampstead Home | |
| Microdisney | 1988 | Single | Gale Force Wind [4] | |
| Microdisney | 1987 | Album | Crooked Mile | |
| Microdisney | 1988 | Album | 39 Minutes | |
| Microdisney | 1995 | Album | Big Sleeping House | |
| Microdisney | 1999 | Album | The Peel Sessions Album | |
| Microdisney | 2007 | Album | Daunt Square to Elsewhere | |
| The Railway Children | 1988 | Album | Recurrence | |
| Microgroove | 1989 | Album | The Human Groove [5] | producer |
| Cast Album | 1992 | Album | Good Rockin' Tonite! | |
| Cast Album | 1998 | Album | Saucy Jack & the Space Vixens | co-producer |
| Hank Wangford | 1999 | Album | Wake Up Dead | |
| Various | 2000 | Album | Mother and Baby Relax | producer |
| Peggy Seeger | 2001 | Album | Love Will Linger On | |
| Darrel Higham | 2004 | Album | The Cochran Collection Vol.2 | |
| J Evans Band | 2005 | Album | In the Wild Years | producer |
| Soundtrack | 2006 | Album | O Jerusalem | songwriter |
| Soundtrack | 2008 | Album | Dark Streets | songwriter |
| Paul Ansell's Number 9 | 2011 | Album | Money and Lies | |
| Paul Ansell's Number 9 | 2013 | Album | A Date with Paul Ansell's No. 9 | |
| Cast Album | 2013 | Album | Saucy Jack & the Space Vixens 2 | producer |
| 1983 | Yakety Yak [6] | musical director, actor, multi instrumentalist | West End, Astoria Theatre and international tour |
| 1990 | Beehive; The Sixties Musical | musical supervisor, instrumentalist | Newcastle, Northern Stage |
| 1991 | Good Rockin' Tonite! | musical director, actor, multi instrumentalist | West End, Prince of Wales |
| 1992 | Leader of the Pack | musical supervisor and arranger | West End, Duke of Yorks |
| 1993 | Forever Plaid | musical director, instrumentalist | West End, Apollo Theatre |
| 1994 | The Queen and I [7] | musical supervisor | Royal Court & Vaudeville Theatre |
| 1995 | The Man of Mode | musical supervisor, composer | Tour |
| 1995 | Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat | musical supervisor and arranger | Lyric Theatre, Belfast |
| 1996 | Elvis: The Musical | musical director, actor, multi instrumentalist | West End, Prince of Wales |
| 1997 | Saucy Jack & the Space Vixens [8] | musical director, composer, instrumentalist | West End, Queens Theatre and tour |
| 1998 | Four Steps to Heaven | musical director, multi instrumentalist | West End, Piccadilly Theatre and tour |
| 2001 | Puppetry of the Penis | musical supervisor, composer | West End, Whitehall Theatre |
| 2001–2004 | Saucy Jack & the Space Vixens [8] | musical supervisor, composer | Saucy Jack's Bar, London |
| 2006 | The City Club [9] [10] | musical supervisor, actor, instrumentalist | Edinburgh Festival |
| 2009 | Morecambe [11] | musical supervisor, composer and sound designer | West End, Duchess Theatre and tour |
| 2011 | Stop Dreamin' | musical supervisor, instrumentalist | Theatre Royal Windsor and tour |
| 2012 | The City Club | musical supervisor, composer | Minetta Lane Theatre, Manhattan |
| 1983 | Camel cinema advert | co-producer | |
| 1984 | Rubik's Cube video | composer and producer | |
| 1989 | Comic Asides | arranger and actor | BBC 2 |
| 1997 | The Jack Docherty Show | performer and composer | Channel 5 |
| 1998 | Back to the Future | composer and producer of title music | ITV |
| 2000 | Trigger Happy TV | musician on soundtrack | Channel 4 |
| 2001 | The Tweenies Game | composer for multimedia game | Sonica |
| 2002 | The Magic Drum | composer for multimedia game | Sonica |
| 2003 | Maestromediaservices | creator of audio content for sound library | |
| 2002 | Guildband.com | audio content creator | website |
| 2004 | Gunfight | audio content creator for animation | Shagrat.net [12] |
| 2004 | Flight to Cancun | audio content creator for animation | Student Universehttp://www.shagrat.net/ [13] |
| 2005 | Electronic Arts | start master's degree in interactive audio | Middlesex University |
| 2007–2009 | Top Rockers | create backing tracks and sound design for animatronic rock and roll puppet shows | Thorpe Park |
| 2010 | Plunderland | sound designer and composer for game app | JohnnyTwoShoes [14] |
| 2004 | Film as Subversive Art [15] | music editor and arranger | Sticking Place Films |
| 2006 | O Jerusalem [16] | songwriter | Samuel Goldwyn Films |
| 2008 | Dark Streets | lead composer for film-noire musical | Samuel Goldwyn Films |
| 2009 | The Tournament | songwriter | AV Pictures |
| 2009 | The Ministers | songwriter | Allumbra Pictures |
| 2010 | Lullaby for Pi | arranger | Rezo Films |
| 2013 | Mr Morgan's Last Love | musician on soundtrack | Image Entertainment |
You Can't Take It with You is a comedic play in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The original production of the play premiered at the Chestnut Street Opera House in Philadelphia, on November 30, 1936. The production then transferred to Broadway's Booth Theatre on December 14, 1936, where it played for 838 performances.
John Eric Bartholomew, known by his stage name Eric Morecambe, was an English comedian who together with Ernie Wise formed the double act Morecambe and Wise. The partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's death in 1984. Morecambe took his stage name from his home town, the seaside resort of Morecambe in Lancashire.
The Coasters are an American rhythm and blues/rock and roll vocal group who had a string of hits in the late 1950s. With hits including "Searchin'", "Young Blood", "Charlie Brown", "Poison Ivy", and "Yakety Yak", their most memorable songs were written by the songwriting and producing team of Leiber and Stoller. Although the Coasters originated outside of mainstream doo-wop, their records were so frequently imitated that they became an important part of the doo-wop legacy through the 1960s. In 1987, they were the first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Leiber and Stoller were an American songwriting and record production duo, consisting of lyricist Jerome Leiber and composer Michael Stoller. As well as many R&B and pop hits, they wrote numerous standards for Broadway.
Michael Carlyle Hall is an American actor, singer, and songwriter. He is known for playing David Fisher in the HBO drama series Six Feet Under (2001–2005) and the titular character in the Showtime series Dexter (2006–2013). For these roles, he has collectively won a Golden Globe Award and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. He reprised the role of Dexter for the miniseries revival Dexter: New Blood (2021–2022).
Steve Peregrin Took was an English musician and songwriter, best known for his membership of the duo Tyrannosaurus Rex with Marc Bolan. After breaking with Bolan, he concentrated on his own singer-songwriting activities, either as a solo artist or as a frontman for several bands.
MC Skat Kat is an animated cat character who appeared with Paula Abdul in the video for her song "Opposites Attract" in 1989.
Yakkity Yak is an Australian-Canadian animated television series created by Mark Gravas for Nickelodeon. It was produced by Studio B Productions and Kapow Pictures. It aired on Teletoon in Canada and on the American version of Nickelodeon in the United States from 9 November 2002 until 12 December 2003. 26 episodes were produced.
Vixen is an American rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1980. During its most commercially successful period from 1987 to 1992, the band consisted of Jan Kuehnemund, Janet Gardner, Share Ross, and Roxy Petrucci (drums).
"Yakety Sax" is a pop novelty instrumental jointly composed by James Q. "Spider" Rich and Boots Randolph.
Michael William Sammes was an English musician and vocal session arranger, performing backing vocals on pop music recorded in the UK from 1955 to the 1970s.
Katie Morgan is an American pornographic actress.
Darts is a nine-piece British doo-wop revival band that achieved chart success in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The London-based band had a number of UK top 20 hits including three successive number twos with revivals of early US rock and roll, R&B and original songs.
Fritzi Scheff was an American actress and singer.
"Yakety Yak" is a song written, produced, and arranged by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller for the Coasters and released on Atco Records in 1958, spending seven weeks as #1 on the R&B charts and a week as number one on the Top 100 pop list. This song was one of a string of singles released by the Coasters between 1957 and 1959 that dominated the charts, making them one of the biggest performing acts of the rock and roll era.
"April Showers" is a 1921 popular song composed by Louis Silvers with lyrics by B. G. De Sylva.
Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens is a cult science fiction musical reminiscent of The Rocky Horror Show. The 2006 West End run starred Faye Tozer and was choreographed by Bruno Tonioli. The cast interact with the audience as if the audience were patrons of the club in which the musical is set.
Shelley Blond is an English actress.
Margaret Anne Florence is an actress, singer, and model based in New York City. Margaret Anne has been featured in major motion pictures, television, independent films, and on the New York stage. She frequently appears in national and international television commercials and print advertisements.
Horace Trubridge is a trade union leader and musician.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)