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Michael Philip Batt (born 6 February 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, record producer, director, and conductor. He was formerly the Deputy Chairman of the British Phonographic Industry.
As a solo artist, his notable contributions in the UK include creating pop act The Wombles, writing hits including "Bright Eyes” and introducing Katie Melua to the music scene.
Michael Philip Batt was born on 6 February 1949, in Southampton, England. He attended Peter Symonds School, Winchester. His blog refers to his role as cadet Company Sergeant Major at the school.[1]
Batt began his career in pop music at the age of eighteen when he answered an advertisement placed by Ray Williams in the New Musical Express on behalf of Liberty Records. Batt initially signed as a songwriter and artist to Liberty, but became head of A&R for the label only months later, at the age of nineteen. He signed and produced Tony (TS) McPhee'sThe Groundhogs and produced their first album, Scratching the Surface. He produced, co-wrote and played piano on Hapshash and the Coloured Coat's second album, Western Flier. Also in 1969, Batt released as producer/artist a Liberty single, his cover version of The Beatles' "Your Mother Should Know".
1970s
Mike Batt in 1970
In the early 1970s, having spent £11,000 recording half of a heavy rock orchestral album that was never released and which nearly bankrupted him, Batt was asked by the producers of a new children's television programme to write the theme music. Instead of taking his £200 fee, Batt asked for the character rights for musical production.[2] The choice produced his first hits as a singer-songwriter/producer by The Wombles in 1974. The collaboration produced eight hit singles[3] and four gold albums.
No longer financially unstable, Batt moved on to work with various artists as a songwriter/producer, most successfully with Steeleye Span and their single and album All Around My Hat in 1975.[4] Also in 1975, at the end of the summer, he entered the UK Singles Chart with the only hit under his name (credited "Mike Batt with the New Edition") with "Summertime City" – used as the theme music to Seaside Special, the BBC Television series recorded in various UK seaside resorts – which reached number 4.[5]
Batt produced Elkie Brooks' version of "Lilac Wine" in 1978. The song was a hit in the UK and across Europe. He wrote the song "Bright Eyes" for the animated film version of Watership Down. Recorded by Art Garfunkel, it reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart and was number one in six countries.[6] Batt also wrote the score for the film Caravans, released in 1978.
As a singer, Batt's solo albums included Schizophonia and Tarot Suite (1979, Epic Records) (both with the London Symphony Orchestra). From these albums came the European hit songs "Railway Hotel", "Lady of the Dawn" and "Ride to Agadir". He worked on these recordings with such fellow artists as Colin Blunstone and Roger Chapman as singers on Tarot Suite. A version of "Introduction (The Journey of a Fool)" from Tarot Suite was used as the theme for the Sydney radio station Triple M, from its first broadcast in 1980 until the 1990s. Over the course of May 2010, this theme tune, still based on the main central riff from "Introduction (The Journey of a Fool)" was re-recorded by Slash, former Guns N' Roses guitarist, as a new theme to mark the 30th anniversary of Triple M in Sydney. This was released to air at the end of June 2010.
In 1980, he released his next solo album, entitled Waves, recorded at Wisseloord Studios in Hilversum, Netherlands. In the same year, he went off with his family aboard his boat, Braemar, ending up in Australia after two and a half years, travelling via France, the West Indies, South America, Central America, Mexico, Los Angeles, Hawaii and Fiji.[7]
In 1981, on the Los Angeles-Sydney leg of the sea voyage, he was commissioned to write a piece for the 50th anniversary of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation which became the musical fantasy production Zero Zero.[8] Batt designed, co-directed and starred in the studio-based production of "Zero Zero" shot at Gore Hill studios in Sydney and aired by Channel 4 TV in the UK in the week of the Channel's broadcast launch in 1982. The album, featuring Batt with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, was released on Epic as a Mike Batt solo album. Batt's character "Number 17" falls in love and is sent to an emotional decontamination centre called "Zero Zero". The single, "Love Makes You Crazy", was released by Sony on Epic Records.
The album The Hunting of the Snark, based on Lewis Carroll's poem, was recorded in 1984. However, the album was withheld from sale after a dispute with Sony Music, to whom Batt had leased the self-financed masters. Batt went ahead with a promotional concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 1987, which he filmed at his own expense and was shown on BBC2.
In the late 1980s, Batt also produced, arranged and conducted Justin Hayward's album with the London Philharmonic Orchestra entitled Classic Blue and the music for The Dreamstone. A number of stars performed for the Dreamstone soundtrack; notably Billy Connolly, Ozzy Osbourne, former British heavyweight boxing champion Frank Bruno, and Bonnie Tyler. Batt performed the programme's theme song, Better Than A Dream. The first series was completed and broadcast in 1990 and lasted for three more series, ending in 1995.
In January 1990, Batt was appointed joint Musical Director of the Melbourne Summer Music festival, with the State Orchestra Of Victoria. Among the classical concerts and other programming he conducted, curated and performed on that visit to Australia, he programmed a debut costumed concert of a fuller length version of "The Hunting Of Snark", with narration by Michael Parkinson and the Bellman played by Keith Michell. On a second visit that year, he took the opportunity to mount a more ambitious version of the fully expanded show score at the State Theatre, Sydney. Having tried out the show in Australia Batt moved towards securing funding and a theatre to mount the show in London's West End, and subsequently did so at the Prince Edward Theatre, opening on 24 October 1991.
The production was designed and directed by Batt and starred Philip Quast as the Bellman, David McCallum as Lewis Carroll, and Kenny Everett as the Billiard Marker. There was a 50 piece live orchestra on stage, hidden variously by venetian blinds and gauzes upon which the scenery was projected entirely from more than 200 projectors and involved 12,000 hand-prepared still slides often moving in rapid succession to create animation. This visual technique had been developed by Batt over the years since the launch of his first solo album Schizophonia and had been used in his Zero Zero TV production of 1982. The show's revolutionary visual presentation (critic Sheridan Morley wrote in the International Herald Tribune that "the show's design will revolutionize theatre design for years to come") did not save it from a negative reaction by critics[who?] that suggested Batt's visuals were spectacular but that the score was unimpressive.
The show survived only seven weeks at the Prince Edward. There has been much argument about the merits of the piece since it closed. A theatre studies student, Andrew Loretto, even wrote his PhD thesis on the subject "The Snark and the Critics".
In 1995, he made a solo album for Sony Germany, Arabesque. Batt was then commissioned to write the official anthem for the inauguration of the Channel Tunnel by the Queen, entitled "When Flags Fly Together". This was performed for the Queen and President Mitterrand, along with many senior politicians, by The Band of the Royal Engineers, and sung by Robert Meadmore.
Batt composed and produced the four million-selling album The Violin Player, which launched classical violinist Vanessa-Mae (EMI Classics, 1995) from which the top twenty single of his arrangement of J.S. Bach's "Toccata and Fugue" was taken.[10]
Also in 1998, Batt produced, arranged and conducted the album Philharmania with the Royal Philharmonic and guest singers included Joey Tempest, Roger Daltrey, Marc Almond, Bonnie Tyler, Status Quo, Huey Lewis, Kim Wilde, Justin Hayward and others. Later the same year, Batt relaunched The Wombles pop group, with two hits, "Remember You’re A Womble" and "The Wombling Song".[3] In 2000, he collaborated with Roy Wood for a single which combined new versions of previous Christmas hits by Wizzard and The Wombles, released as "I Wish It Could Be a Wombling Merry Christmas".[3] In 1997, the year of The Queen and Prince Philip's Golden Wedding Anniversary, he was commissioned by the military to compose a piece, "Royal Gold", for the massed bands of the Coldstream, Welsh, Irish and Grenadier Guards, together with 100 pipers. The piece was performed in the presence of The Queen and Prince Philip at the Royal Tournament in that year. Batt simultaneously dedicated the piece to his own parents, whose Golden Wedding Anniversary happened to be in the same year.
Later, he would compose, arrange and conduct the music for the 1999 TV series Watership Down with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. An ambitious soundtrack album starring Stephen Gately from Boyzone, Paul Carrack from Mike and the Mechanics, Cerys Matthews from Catatonia and the RPO was recorded but, owing to disagreements with the record label, was never meaningfully released and subsequently acquired by Batt for his Dramatico label some years later. His orchestral suite "Watership Down" was created and recorded by the RPO at this time and was released on Dramatico, which was released in a 2 CD set with the soundtrack to Caravans.
Also, for the 1999 release of XTC's album Apple Venus Volume 1, he wrote the orchestral arrangements for the tracks "Green Man" and "I Can't Own Her".
2000s, 2010s and current work
After conceiving and co-creating the all-girl string quartet Bond and producing their first single, he then created the eight piece classical crossover band, The Planets. Their album Classical Graffiti was released in February 2002. It went to number one in the UK classical music chart on the day of release and remained there for three months.
After six weeks at number one in the UK Albums Chart, it sold six times platinum. Over 1.8million copies were sold in the UK and three million copies worldwide, making Melua the biggest selling UK female artist of 2004. Her second album, Piece by Piece (including Batt's song "Nine Million Bicycles") was released in September 2005, and sold 3.5million copies in Europe, going to number one in the UK, The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and hitting top five chart positions in eight other countries. At this point, Melua had become the biggest female UK album artist in the world for that year according to official British Phonographic Industry sales figures.[12]
In 2008, Batt performed and released A Songwriter's Tale, a compilation album of his hits, newly recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Henry Spinetti, Ray Cooper, Chris Spedding, Mitch Dalton and Tim Harries. The album reached position 24 in the UK albums chart. In 2011, his record label, Dramatico, released the album "Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor" by Caro Emerald, reaching more than 400,000 UK sales and paving the way for the release of "The Shocking Miss Emerald" by the same artist in 2013. This album went to number one in the UK album charts.
Melua departed the Batt (Dramatico) management stable and record label in January 2014 after a ten-year contract during which she had recorded six albums for Dramatico. Since 2014, Batt has guided his Dramatico organization towards a more theatrical/TV/film direction, albeit concentrating on projects which have his music at their core.
He has served on the boards of many industry organizations including The Performing Right Society, the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), being Deputy Chairman of the BPI from 2007[13] until November 2015. He has been a member of the Society of Distinguished Songwriters (SODS) since 1976. His awards include five Ivor Novello Awards issued by The British Academy Of Songwriters, Composers And Authors, according to their records.
In August 2014, Batt was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.[15]
In 2018, he produced and arranged Hawkwind's album The Road to Utopia, consisting primarily of new versions of their 1970s songs with a guest appearance from Eric Clapton. He arranged and conducted a series of concerts of Hawkwind songs featuring the band and orchestra in October and November 2018.[16]
In September 2018, the GUILD classical label released a recording of 'Holst: The Planets Suite for Large Orchestra' played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Batt. The release coincided with the centenary of the composition's first performance.[17]
In 2019, his fantasy adventure novel The Chronicles Of Don't Be So Ridiculous Valley was published by London Street Books.[20][21] The story is set in a fantasy world, and features slugs and fairies.[21]
Mike Batt published his autobiography, The Closest Thing to Crazy: My Life of Musical Adventures, in 2024.
Related Research Articles
The Wombles are fictional pointy-nosed, furry creatures created by Elisabeth Beresford and originally appearing in a series of children's novels from 1968. They live in burrows, where they aim to help the environment by collecting and recycling rubbish in creative ways. Although Wombles supposedly live in every country in the world, Beresford's stories are primarily concerned with the lives of the inhabitants of the burrow on Wimbledon Common in London, England.
Christopher John Spedding is an English guitarist and record producer. In a career spanning more than 50 years, Spedding is best known for his studio session work. By the early 1970s, he had become one of the most sought-after session guitarists in England. Spedding has played on and produced many albums and singles. He has also been a member of eleven rock bands: the Battered Ornaments, Frank Ricotti Quartet, King Mob, Mike Batt and Friends, Necessaries, Nucleus, Ricky Norton, Sharks, Trigger, and the Wombles. In May 1976, Spedding also produced the first Sex Pistols recordings.
Ketevan "Katie" Melua is a British singer and songwriter. She was born in Kutaisi, Georgia and raised in Belfast and London. Under the management of composer Mike Batt, she was signed to the small Dramatico record label. She made her musical debut in 2003 and within three years, she was the United Kingdom's best-selling female artist as well as Europe's highest selling European female artist.
Call off the Search is the debut studio album by British jazz and blues singer Katie Melua, released in 2003.
Piece by Piece is the second studio album by British jazz and blues singer Katie Melua. It was released on 26 September 2005 by Dramatico Records. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at #1 with 120,459 copies sold in its first week.
"Lilac Wine" is a song written by James Shelton.
"The Closest Thing to Crazy" is the debut single of Georgia-born singer Katie Melua. The song is featured on her first studio album, Call Off the Search (2003). The song was written as part of the musical Men Who March Away, and appeared first in 1995 on Mike Batt's album Arabesque.
"Nine Million Bicycles" is a song written and produced by Mike Batt for the singer Katie Melua's second album, Piece by Piece. It was released as the album's first single in September 2005 and reached number five on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Melua's first top five hit as a solo artist. It was a finalist for The Record of the Year prize, losing to "You Raise Me Up" by Westlife.
James Cregan is an English rock guitarist and bassist, best known for his associations with Family, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, and Rod Stewart. Cregan is a former husband of the singer Linda Lewis and worked with her as a record producer. He has also worked with London Quireboys, Glass Tiger, Katie Melua and formed Farm Dogs with Bernie Taupin.
The Wombles were a British novelty pop group, featuring musicians dressed as the characters from the children's TV show The Wombles, which in turn was based on the children's book series by Elisabeth Beresford. Songwriter and record producer Mike Batt wrote and also performed many commercially successful singles and albums as 'The Wombles', including the TV series' theme tune. British Hit Singles & Albums jokingly referred to them as the "furriest act... are natives of Wimbledon Common, London". In 2011, the band played at The Glastonbury Festival.
The Hunting of the Snark is a musical based on Lewis Carroll's 1876 poem The Hunting of the Snark, written by composer Mike Batt.
Wombling Free is a 1977 British film adaptation of the children's television series The Wombles. Directed by Lionel Jeffries, it stars The Wombles, David Tomlinson, Frances de la Tour, and Bonnie Langford.
Wombling Songs is the first album released by the Wombles. "The Wombling Song" was released as a single. The album was written, arranged and performed by Mike Batt, with vocals credited to "the younger Wombles, assisted by Mike Batt".
Remember You're a Womble was the second album released by The Wombles. The songs were recorded by Mike Batt (vocals/keyboards) with session musicians Chris Spedding (guitars), Les Hurdle (bass), Clem Cattini (drums), Ray Cooper (percussion), Rex Morris (saxophone), Eddie Mordue (saxophone) and Jack Rothstein (violin).
Keep On Wombling is the third album released by the Wombles. The songs were written and performed by Mike Batt (vocals/keyboards) with session musicians Chris Spedding (guitars), Les Hurdle (bass), Clem Cattini (drums), Ray Cooper (percussion), Rex Morris (sax), Eddie Mordue (sax) and Jack Rothstein (violin).
Live at the O² Arena is a live album by Georgian-born British singer–songwriter Katie Melua. It was recorded on 8 November 2008 at the O2 Arena in London. The CD release of the album contains 19 tracks whereas the vinyl edition features a different track listing with three additional songs, namely "Thank You Stars", "Two Bare Feet" and "Spellbound". Those three tracks are also included in the digital download release of the album.
Florence Rawlings is an English singer from South London, England. She first met Dramatico Entertainment chairman Mike Batt when she was 13 years old. He was auditioning female vocalists, and two of them stood out to him: one was Florence and the other was Katie Melua. Batt signed Melua, but as Florence was so young, it was agreed that she should finish her studies before embarking on her professional career. On completing her A level exams, Florence signed to Batt's Dramatico label.
Secret Symphony is the fifth studio album by British singer-songwriter Katie Melua, and was released on 5 March 2012. The album was recorded at Air Studios in London in collaboration with orchestrator and conductor Mike Batt.
"Whatever You Believe" is a song by the British singer-songwriter Mike Batt, which was originally recorded and released as a collaboration charity single featuring Batt with Jon Anderson of Yes and Steve Harley of Cockney Rebel. Released in 1988, the single tied-in with that year's ITV Telethon. The song was written and produced by Batt.
"Wombling Merry Christmas" is a Christmas song written by Mike Batt, and recorded by British band the Wombles. Released in November 1974, the song rose to a peak of No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart in December that year, spending 8 weeks in the chart. The song was also released in West Germany, but failed to chart.
References
Notes
Biography quoted from various sources, mostly from Batt's official website
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