Ken Howard | |
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 A portrait photo of UK composer, author, television director, Ken Howard | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Kenneth Charles Howard |
| Born | 26 December 1939 Worthing, West Sussex, England |
| Genres | Pop music, classical music, film score |
| Occupation(s) | Songwriter, lyricist, author, television director |
| Years active | 1960s–present |
| Website | www |
Kenneth Charles Howard [1] (born 26 December 1939) [2] is an English songwriter, lyricist, author and television director.
Howard was born in Worthing, West Sussex. From 1947 to 1956, he attended University College School (UCS) in London, [3] where he became friends with Alan Blaikley, and from 1956 to 1957 he attended Aiglon College in Villars, Switzerland. [4] After a year working with Granada Television in London, he went to Edinburgh University where he read Social Anthropology. Cast vocally together with fellow London student Eva Hermann in Varsity Vanities of 1959, [5] they became known as the vocal duo "Eva and Ken", winning a weekly slot in Scottish Television's musical show Jigtime, [6] singing songs from around the world, and recording for Fontana Records. Howard graduated with an MA degree and began working with BBC Television's drama department in White City.
He also joined forces with two old UCS friends, Alan Blaikley and Paul Overy, with whom, between 1962 and 1963, he ran and edited four issues of a magazine, Axle Quarterly, publishing early work by Melvyn Bragg, Ray Gosling, Alexis Lykiard, Gillian Freeman and Simon Raven amongst others. An offshoot of the Quarterly was a series of five booklets on controversial topics commissioned by Blaikley, Howard and Overy, named Axle Spokes (Axle Publications, 1963). These included Peter Graham's The Abortive Renaissance, [7] a critical examination of British New Wave cinema; John Gale's Sex – Is it easy?, [8] the emergence of the permissive society; Gavin Millar's Pop! – Hit or miss?, [9] the British hit-parade in the early days of the Beatles; Anthony Rowley's Another Kind of Loving, [10] homosexuality in the years when it was still a criminal offence in the UK; and Melville Hardiment's Hooked, [11] an enquiry into the extent and nature of drug addiction in the early 1960s.
In the 1960s and 1970s, in collaboration with Alan Blaikley, Ken Howard composed the music and words for many international top 10 hits, [12] [13] [14] including two UK number ones, "Have I the Right?" (The Honeycombs) [15] and "The Legend of Xanadu" (Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich). [16] [17] [18]
Among other performers for whom they wrote were The Herd, Petula Clark, Phil Collins, Sacha Distel, Rolf Harris, Frankie Howerd (the theme song for his film Up Pompeii ), Engelbert Humperdinck, Horst Jankowski, Eartha Kitt, Little Eva, Lulu and Matthews Southern Comfort. [19]
Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley were the first British composers to write for Elvis Presley, including the hit "I've Lost You" (1970), [20] which he later performed in the film That's The Way It Is . [21] Their collaboration with the maverick psychiatrist R. D. Laing led to the release of the cult album Life Before Death. [22] [23]
Howard and Blaikley's concept album, Ark 2 (1969), performed by Flaming Youth, [24] drew the comment that Blaikley and Howard "have a wit, gaiety, dignity and melodic flair reminiscent of Leonard Bernstein...which suggest that pop is becoming the serious music – in the proper sense – of the age" [25]
Howard and Blaikley were responsible for theme and incidental music for several television drama series including The Flame Trees of Thika (1981) and By the Sword Divided (1983–1985), [26] both subsequently aired in the US on Alistair Cooke’s Masterpiece Theatre , and the BBC's long-running series of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple (1984–1992). Howard also scored BBC TV's BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning Shadowlands with Claire Bloom and Joss Ackland in 1985, Mervyn Peake's Mr Pye with Derek Jacobi and Judy Parfitt, [27] and Ronald Neame's last film, Foreign Body in 1986, plus BBC TV's The Black and Blue Lamp (1988) [28] and The Angry Earth [29] in 1989.
Howard and Blaikley wrote two West End musicals, Mardi Gras (Prince of Wales Theatre, 1976) [30] and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole (Wyndham's Theatre, 1984–1986), and two BBC TV musicals Orion (1977) (based on the earlier work of Ark 2) and Ain't Many Angels (1978). They also wrote music and lyrics for the 1990 UK tour of Roald Dahl's Matilda . [31]
As a British film maker Howard has worked extensively in drama, music and documentary films. These have included (for the BBC) A Penny for Your Dreams, John Lennon – A Journey in the Life, The Miracle of Intervale Avenue, Open Mind, Mr Abbott's Broadway and Sunny Stories; (for ITV) South Bank Show profiles of the New World Symphony Orchestra, Danny Kaye, Frank Sinatra, Hakan Hardenberger, Johnnie Ray and Maxim Vengerov, EK-OK, and Will Apples Grow on Mars?. The BBC drama A Penny for Your Dreams which he co-wrote, composed and directed won the Festival Award at the Celtic Media Festival in Caernarfon in 1988. His BBC films, Braveheart and Today I am A Man, both won the Royal Television Society Best Children's Factual Award. [32] His EMI DVD Maxim Vengerov: Living the Dream won the BBC Music Magazine Award for Best Music DVD in 2008. [33]
He was a director of Landseer Productions Ltd in London until 2019. [34]
His first novel, The Young Chieftain, aimed at a teenage audience, was published by Tamarind Books, a division of Random House, in September 2010. [35] His second novel, Follow Me – A Quest in Two Worlds, was published by Venture Press in November 2017. [36]
Howard is Chairman of The Casey Trust, aiding children worldwide. [37]
Pauline Matthews, better known by her stage name Kiki Dee, is an English pop singer. Known for her blue-eyed soul vocals, she was the first female singer from the UK to sign with Motown's Tamla Records.
Alan Merrill was an American vocalist, guitarist and songwriter. In the early 1970s, he was one of the few resident foreigners to achieve pop star status in Japan. He was the writer of, and lead singer on, the first released version of the song "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which was recorded by his band the Arrows in 1975. The song became a breakthrough hit for Joan Jett in 1982.
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich were an English rock band active during the 1960s. Formed in Salisbury in 1964, the band consisted of David John Harman, Charles Clark (Dozy) later replaced by Trevor Leonard Ward-Davies (Dozy), John Dymond (Beaky), Michael Wilson (Mick) and Ian Frederick Stephen Amey (Tich). Their novel name, zany stage act and lurid dress sense helped propel them to chart success with a string of hit singles penned by songwriters Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley including "Hold Tight!", "Bend It!" and "Zabadak!". Over the course of the band's career, they played several different genres, including freakbeat, mod and pop. Two of their single releases sold in excess of one million copies each, and they reached number one in the UK Singles Chart with the second of them, "The Legend of Xanadu". Unlike many other British bands of the 1960s who were associated with the British invasion of the United States, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich had limited commercial US success. Since their original break-up in 1973, the band have reunited in various formations and a lineup featuring Dymond.
The Honeycombs were an English beat group, founded in 1963 in North London, best known for their chart-topping, million-selling 1964 hit, "Have I the Right?" The band featured Honey Lantree on drums, one of the few high-profile female drummers at that time. They were unable to replicate the success of their first single and disbanded by 1967.
Geoffrey Stephens was an English songwriter and record producer, most prolific in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and 1970s. He wrote a long series of hit records, often in conjunction with other British songwriters including Tony Macaulay, John Carter, Roger Greenaway, Peter Callander, Barry Mason, Ken Howard, Alan Blaikley, Don Black, Mitch Murray, and Les Reed.
Timothy Charles Whitnall is an English actor, playwright and screenwriter. He is known for playing Angelo in the long-running CITV series Mike and Angelo and narrating the BBC children's TV programme Teletubbies from 1997 to 2001. As a writer, he has won a BAFTA and an Olivier Award for his work on TV movie Best Possible Taste: The Kenny Everett Story and play Morecambe. He is also a voice actor, providing voices on television shows such as Fifi and the Flowertots, Roary the Racing Car and Thomas & Friends.
"Have I the Right?" was the debut single and biggest hit of British band The Honeycombs. It was composed by Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley, who had made contact with The Honeycombs, a London-based group, then playing under the name of The Sheratons, in the Mildmay Tavern in the Balls Pond Road in Islington, where they played a date. Howard and Blaikley were impressed by the group's lead vocalist, Dennis D'Ell, and the fact that they had a female drummer, Anne (‘Honey’) Lantree. The group were looking for material to play for an audition with record producer Joe Meek, and they played the songs Howard and Blaikley had just given them. Meek decided to record one of them, "Have I the Right?", there and then. Meek himself provided the B-side, "Please Don’t Pretend Again".
Alan Tudor Blaikley was an English songwriter and composer, best known for writing a series of international hits in the 1960s and 1970s in collaboration with Ken Howard, including the UK number ones "Have I the Right?" and "The Legend of Xanadu". Together with Howard, he also wrote two West End musicals and a number of TV themes, including the theme music for the BBC's long-running series of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple.
"The Legend of Xanadu" is a single by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich that reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in 1968 and was the group's biggest hit. It was written by songwriters Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley. As was the case with many of the group's recordings, it features novelty elements — a trumpet section and the distinctive sound of a whip cracking in the chorus. The musical accompaniment was directed by John Gregory. The single was certified gold in November 1968.
"Terry" is a song by Kirsty MacColl, released as a single in October 1983, and charting at No. 82 in the UK the following month. It was her first release after returning to Stiff Records, and was the last in a run of poorly selling singles released between "There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis" and "A New England". The music video featured an appearance from actor and comedian Ade Edmondson, who played MacColl's rejected boyfriend who got her back after fighting off a rival man. The photo on the front sleeve features MacColl and Chris Heester.
David John Harman, known professionally as Dave Dee, was an English singer-songwriter, musician, A&R manager, fundraiser and businessman. He was the frontman for the 1960s pop band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich.
"Zabadak!" is a song by British musical group Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, written by Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley. It was released as a single in September 1967, peaking at number 3 on the UK Singles Chart and becoming the group's only single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 52.
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich is the debut self-titled album by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. It largely features songs penned by Alan Blaikley and Ken Howard including the band's first top 20 hit "Hold Tight!", which reached a peak of #4 on the UK Singles Chart in April 1966. In 1967, the album was issued in some countries under the title What's in a Name.
If Music Be the Food of Love... Prepare for Indigestion is the second studio album by English rock band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, released in December 1966. It features the singles "Hideaway", "You Make It Move" and "Bend It!". Unlike the band's debut album, it failed to reach the top 20 of the UK Albums Chart, peaking at number 27. Reviewing the album for Allmusic, Lindsay Planer described If Music Be the Food of Love... as "another batch of strong Brit-pop compositions" and praised the band's sense of humour and "sharp musicality".
Peter Straker is a Jamaican-born British singer and actor.
"From the Underworld" is a single by the English rock band the Herd, released in August 1967. Written by the band's managers Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley, the song's lyrics are based on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. It became the band's first hit upon release, reaching number 6 on the UK Singles Chart and launching singer Peter Frampton as a pop star. It was later included on the group's only studio album Paradise Lost (1968).
"Last Night in Soho" is a single by English pop band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, released by Fontana on 28 June 1968. Written by the band's regular songwriters Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley, it was the follow-up to the chart topper "The Legend of Xanadu" and gave the band their final top-ten placing on the UK Singles Chart, reaching number 8.
"You Make It Move" is a song by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, released as a single in November 1965. It was the group's first charting single, peaking at number 26 on the UK Singles Chart.
"Tonight Today" is a song by the remaining members of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich after the departure of Dave Dee. It was released as a single in November 1969.
"I Don't Want Our Loving to Die" is a single by the English rock band the Herd, released in March 1968. Written by Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley, it was the last of the band's three hits on the UK Singles Chart and their most successful, reaching number five in May 1968. The song was generally well received by the music press, with several critics noting its contrast against the Herd's previous hit singles.
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