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Mike Moran | |
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| Birth name | Michael Moran |
| Born | 4 March 1948 Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
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| Instrument(s) | Keyboards |
| Years active | 1960s–present |
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Michael Moran (born 4 March 1948) is an English musician, songwriter, composer and record producer.
Moran studied at the Royal College of Music in London prior to becoming a session musician and a composer and arranger. His work in the latter field includes scoring music for such HandMade Films productions as Time Bandits (1981), The Missionary (1982) and Water (1985). His other film scores included Bloodbath at the House of Death (1984), The Turnaround (1995), A Fox's Tale (2008), Blessed (2008) and A Thousand Kisses Deep (2011), as well as arranging the score to Death Wish 3 (1985), and his TV work includes providing music for Strangers (1978), Harry's Game (1982), Taggart (1985), The Bombmaker (2001), and Sherlock: Case of Evil (2002). He also played with the Ian Gillan Band.
"Rock Bottom", which he wrote in partnership with Lynsey de Paul, was the UK entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1977, and put him in the spotlight for the first time. Although leading early on in the voting, the song eventually came second in the contest. Nevertheless, it went on to become a Top 20 hit in many European countries including France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, where it reached the top of their singles chart. It was more successful in Continental Europe than in the United Kingdom and was also covered by many local artists in a number of different languages. [1]
De Paul and Moran went on to write a number of songs such as "Let Your Body Go Downtown", a UK Top 40 hit for the Martyn Ford Orchestra, [2] and the follow-up "Going to a Disco", as well as "Without You" and "Now and Then", which appeared on the de Paul albums Tigers and Fireflies (1979) and Just a Little Time (1994) respectively.
For many years Moran was the musical director for the UK ITV children's music series Get It Together , performing each week, accompanying the various studio guests and playing the theme music. He had another attempt at writing a UK Eurovision entry in 1990, when he wrote "That Old Feeling Again" for Stephen Lee Garden, which placed fifth out of the eight songs in the UK song selection competition.
Other songs co-written by Moran are "Snot Rap" (recorded by Kenny Everett), as well as "No Mean City" (the theme to the crime drama Taggart , sung by Maggie Bell), "It's Alright" (the theme to the crime drama New Tricks , sung by Dennis Waterman) and the music for the UK game series Chain Letters , Lucky Ladders , The Krypton Factor .
Moran has worked with Ozzy Osbourne, Nicko McBrain, George Harrison, and various members of Queen. He was co-producer, arranger, keyboards performer and co-author of all the tracks on the album Barcelona , the classical crossover collaboration between Queen frontman Freddie Mercury and opera singer Montserrat Caballé, released in 1988. He produced The Queen Album (1988), Piaf (1994) and Essential Musicals (2006) for Elaine Paige.
More recently, Moran appeared in Dragons' Den (series 7, episode 3) as the musical director of a Dusty Springfield musical, and also produced the Tommy Fleming album The West's Awake (2014).
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2016) |
John Barry Prendergast was a British composer and conductor of film music.
The United Kingdom held a national preselection to choose the song that would go to the Eurovision Song Contest 1977, which was held in Wembley, London following the United Kingdom's victory in the previous year's contest.
Lynsey de Paul was an English singer-songwriter and producer. After initially writing hits for others, she had her own chart hits in the UK and Europe in the 1970s, starting with UK top 10 single "Sugar Me", and became the first British female artist to achieve a number one with a self-written song. She represented the UK in the 1977 Eurovision Song Contest, scoring another chart-topping hit in Switzerland and had a successful career as a two-time Ivor Novello Award-winning composer, record producer, actress and television celebrity.
Barbara Ruth Dickson is a Scottish singer and actress whose hits include "I Know Him So Well", "Answer Me" and "January February". Dickson has placed fifteen albums on the UK Albums Chart from 1977 to date, and had a number of hit singles, including four which reached the top 20 on the UK Singles Chart. The Scotsman newspaper has described her as Scotland's best-selling female singer in terms of the numbers of hit chart singles and albums she has achieved in the UK since 1976.
Matt Monro was an English singer. Known as "The Man with the Golden Voice", he performed internationally during his 30-year career. AllMusic has described Monro as "one of the most underrated pop vocalists of the '60s", who "possessed the easiest, most perfect baritone in the business".
Michael Philip Batt, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, record producer, director and conductor. He was formerly the Deputy Chairman of the British Phonographic Industry.
Ronald Hazlehurst was an English composer and conductor who, having joined the BBC in 1961, became its Light Entertainment Musical Director.
Gerard W. Kenny is an American singer-songwriter, based in London, England. In 1981, he received the Ivor Novello Award for Best Television Theme Music for his song "I Could Be So Good for You", the theme tune of the ITV series Minder.
Ronald Ernest Alfred Roker is an English songwriter, singer and record producer.
Malcolm James Roberts was an English traditional pop music singer, who enjoyed three hit singles from 1967 to 1969 on the UK Singles Chart. He was also an actor and musical theatre star.
John Stanley Livingstone Harris was a Scottish composer, producer, arranger, conductor, and musical director. He lived in the United States from 1972 until his death.
"Won't Somebody Dance with Me" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul in 1973, which was awarded an Ivor Novello Award in 1974. Her original version of the ballad made the UK, Irish and Dutch Top 20s, and the song was featured in Michael Winner's remake of the film The Big Sleep, The Muppet Show, and the 1970s version of the New Mickey Mouse Club.
Sheldon David "Scott" English was an American songwriter, arranger and record producer. He is best known as the co-writer of "Brandy" which he wrote with Richard Kerr. The song became a No. 1 hit for Barry Manilow in 1974, with the title changed to "Mandy". English had also released a single of "Brandy" which reached No. 12 on the UK Singles Chart in November 1971, and entered the US charts in March 1972.
Paul Michael Curtis is an English singer, songwriter, record producer from London, who holds the record for the highest number of songs to make the finals of the A Song for Europe contest, the BBC's annual competition to choose the UK's entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, competing with 22 separate songs from 1975 to 1992.
"Rock Bottom" was the British entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1977, performed in English by Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran. It was also written and produced by de Paul and Moran and released on the Polydor record label. Originally it was written for the group Blue Mink; and submitted unbeknown to de Paul and Moran as an entry for A Song For Europe by the publishers; when it was selected, de Paul agreed to perform the song if Moran would join her. On 9 March 1977, "Rock Bottom" was selected to represent the UK at the A Song for Europe 1977 event held at the New London Theatre, presented by Terry Wogan.
John Cameron is a British composer, arranger, conductor and musician. He is well known for his many film, TV and stage credits, and for his contributions to pop recordings, notably those by Donovan, Cilla Black and the group Hot Chocolate. Cameron's instrumental version of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love", became a hit for his group CCS and, for many years, a version of Cameron's arrangement was used as the theme music for the BBC TV show, Top of the Pops.
Tigers and Fireflies is an album recorded in 1978 and released by Lynsey de Paul in April 1979 on the Polydor record label. It was launched at a special event at the Mayfair Club in London, with de Paul looking similar to the 1940s film star Veronica Lake. The album was recorded at Long View Farm Studios with additional recording at Mediasound Studios, New York and produced by Rupert Holmes. In his 1986 biography, Justin de Villeneuve, de Paul's manager at the time wrote "I gave Rupert Holmes a call in New York. He agreed to see me if I flew to America. Polydor, with the prospect of the involvement with Holmes, agreed to up the budget". The collaboration between de Paul and Holmes on Tigers and Fireflies was mentioned on the Ray Shasho Show, when Shasho interviewed Holmes on his BBS radio show on 7 August 2018. The story behind the recording of the album was also discussed in the book Dervish Dust: The Life and Words of James Coburn. Speaking to Music Week about the album, Jim Cook said "Throw away all of your preconceived ideas about Lynsey de Paul".
Into My Music - Anthology 1975-1979 is a digitally remastered double album, featuring songs written and performed by Lynsey de Paul, that was released on 18 March 2013 on Cherry Red's RPM Retrodisc label. All recordings have been remastered by de Paul and Simon Murphy from original tape sources and co-produced by de Paul and Mark Stratford. The album is packaged with photographs and memorabilia from de Paul's personal archive and text by Michael Robson.
Love Bomb is the fourth album released in 1975 by the British singer-songwriter Lynsey de Paul, and her second album released on Jet Records in the UK and Polydor in Germany, Australia and Japan. In the US and Canada, it was released in January 1976 on Mercury Records. The album was recorded at the Marquee Studios, London, England, produced by de Paul and arranged by Tony Hymas, with Terry Cox playing drums, John Dean percussion, Chris Rea guitar and Frank McDonald bass. The striking sleeve cover photo of de Paul in U.S. military style clothing was taken by Brian Aris.
Roger Holman is a British musician and composer. He is best known for the televised musical Smike, and as the co-writer of Stephanie De Sykes's two hit singles.
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