Pete Atkin | |
|---|---|
 Atkin performing in 2012 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | 22 August 1945 |
| Origin | Cambridge, England |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, radio producer |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, keyboards |
| Years active | 1967–present |
| Labels | EMI, Essex Music, RCA |
Pete Atkin (born 22 August 1945) is a British singer-songwriter and radio producer, notable for his 1970s musical collaborations with Clive James and for producing the BBC Radio 4 series, This Sceptred Isle .
Born in Cambridge, England, [1] Atkin attended Romsey County Primary School and The Perse School, where he learnt to play the violin. In 1959, he formed a church youth club band called 'The Chevrons' for whom he played piano with four schoolfriends. He studied Classics and English at Cambridge University, [1] where he was a member of St John's College. In 1966 he joined Cambridge Footlights, becoming the musical director for the revues.
Atkin made his first recording in 1967: a private pressing of 160 copies of While The Music Lasts. Next year he was taken to EMI with Julie Covington to record the most popular number from the 1967 Revue Show: the complex "Duet", which had appeared on his first album. At six minutes, it was too long to be a single and has never received commercial release; the tape has since been lost. Atkin released another privately pressed album in 99 copies entitled The Party's Moving On in 1969.
Essex Music funded the recording of fourteen tracks in 1969. The producer, Don Paul, was a friend of the disc jockey Kenny Everett, who played, amongst others, the song "Master of the Revels" which is the first track on his first album Beware of the Beautiful Stranger. [1] The lyrics to this, and all but two of the other tracks on the album, by Atkin, were written by Clive James who met Atkin whilst they were both members of Footlights. [1]
Before the release of Beware of the Beautiful Stranger in 1970, Atkin, Covington and Dai Davies recorded a series of twelve 15-minute programmes edited by James for London Weekend Television. These shows, also called The Party's Moving On, each featured three songs and were broadcast only in London late at night. They led to the commissioning of the larger revue format series What Are You Doing After The Show?
Atkin did, and still does, write his own lyrics, but it was the collaboration with Clive James that produced his most famous songs. [1] Atkin and James recorded six albums in the 1970s - the last four with RCA on which label the first two were also reissued - as well as writing an album for Covington, best known for her number one hit "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" in 1976. [1] However, despite Atkin's popularity on the college performance circuit the records did not sell in any great numbers. [1] When singer Val Doonican recorded a cover version of the song "The Flowers and the Wine", the royalties from that alone exceeded the total from all album sales. For Atkin, touring provided a respectable but not luxurious income.
The release of the fourth album, The Road of Silk was accompanied by a promotional tour with a backing band, in contrast to Atkin's usual solo tours. [2] Despite the investment this implied, Atkin and James became increasingly dissatisfied with their handling by RCA. After the release of the next album Secret Drinker they had no wish to continue the relationship, and to fill their contractual obligations they concocted the album Live Libel, a collection of humour pieces which Atkin had used over the years to lighten the mood in concerts. Paradoxically this album resulted in their most successful tour to date, as James joined Atkin on stage for an evening of song, satire and poetry. James read from the first of his epic poetic satires, The Fate of Felicity Fark in the Land of the Media while Atkin sang songs from the latest release and previous favourites. [3]
To their dismay, the offers from other record labels did not flow in after the tour ended. Clive James returned to his blossoming career, while Atkin, after trying to make a living as a carpenter, responded to a 'Situation Vacant' notice from the BBC, and thus embarked on the next phase of his career.
James' lyrics were far from mainstream popular music, being frequently dense with poetic references. At their most accessible they might describe the life of a machine tool shop supervisor, as in "Carnations on the Roof". The song "My Egoist", in contrast, is translated almost entirely from a poem by Guillaume Apollinaire. Other references include Rainer Maria Rilke's Duino Elegies and William Shakespeare's sonnets.
Atkin's musical settings drew most of their inspiration from Tin Pan Alley, although in the above-mentioned "Carnations on the Roof" he set a sombre description of a working class life to themes characteristic of Tamla Motown. Often Atkin turned James' intentions upside down, as with "The Last Hill That Shows You All The Valley", which James wrote as a dirge but which Atkin set to a thumping, angry rock beat. The combination worked as James' mournful cataloguing of man's inhumanity to man became a cry of protest.
A sonnet in French by Gérard de Nerval, "El Desdichado", which begins "Je suis le ténébreux, le veuf" (roughly I am the shadowy man, the widower), inspired two separate lyrics by James, one of which was "The Shadow and the Widower", an interior dialogue reflecting on a failed romance as a man wanders home through a sterile urban landscape. The same poem, coincidentally, was set to music and performed by Flanders and Swann. A detailed breakdown of the references within this song (and several others) can be found on Atkin's website. [4]
After this James became a well-known television personality and Atkin became a radio producer. Their music catalogue went out of print until all six original albums were re-released on CD in the 1990s. [3]
In 1976, Atkin's recording contract with RCA expired and he concentrated on renovating his house and building furniture for other people. He also wrote columns on DIY for the UK environmentalist magazine Vole . Chris Parr of the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh commissioned Atkin to write a musical play for their Festival season in 1977. The result was A & R, which was substantially re-written for a 1978 production by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Donmar Warehouse in London where it ran for six months in repertory.
In 1981, Atkin succeeded Griff Rhys Jones as BBC Radio Light Entertainment Producer. He subsequently became a Script Editor in 1983 and Chief Producer, Radio 4 in 1986. His productions included Just a Minute , My Word! , My Music , Week Ending , Legal, Decent, Honest and Truthful (written by Guy Jenkin and Jon Canter, and starring Martin Jarvis), After Henry (by Simon Brett with Prunella Scales, Joan Sanderson, Ben Whitrow, and Gerry Cowper), Second Thoughts, Christopher Lee's The House, Flying The Flag, Peter Tinniswood's Uncle Mort's North Country, Jarvis's Frayn, My Grandfather, Martin Jarvis reading Richmal Crompton's Just William stories, and Yes Minister .
Atkin moved to Bristol in 1989 to be Head of BBC Network Radio there. [1] After four years in post, he became a freelance producer in 1993. His most notable freelance production is This Sceptred Isle – a 216-part specially commissioned history of Britain, written by historian Christopher Lee and read by Anna Massey, Paul Eddington, Peter Jeffrey, and others (including Atkin himself under a pseudonym), recorded and broadcast over 14 months in 1995 and 1996. It was re-edited for release on ten BBC double cassettes and won the 1996 Talkie Award for best non-fiction, best design, and Talkie of the Year. Atkin also worked as script editor for Hat Trick Productions, as part of their sitcom and drama development team.
In 2005, Atkin provided the voice of Mr. Crock in the animated movie, Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. He also received a "special consultant" credit for the movie Chicken Run (2000), which was created and produced by the same studios, Aardman Animations. Both Aardman and Pete Atkin are based in Bristol. Atkin also provided some additional voices in the 2009 film, Planet 51 .
Atkin also worked as a voice director on the twelfth season/C.G.I. version of Thomas the Tank Engine and the C.G.I. version of Fireman Sam . Atkin has even worked on The Gruffalo films as a voice direction consultant.
In 2001, 2003 and 2005, Atkin and James undertook national tours of the UK talking about, reading and singing, their songs, poetry and prose. In 2003 the duo also toured Australia. Atkin has also performed from time to time in folk clubs solo and, more recently, with the pianist and arranger Simon Wallace.
This revival dates back to 1996 when Steve Birkill, an electronics entrepreneur and satellite television pioneer, approached Atkin at a concert and asked permission to create a website celebrating his work. Atkin provided background information for this, and it was supported by a mailing list. Birkill named the list "Midnight Voices" from the lyric of the song "Payday Evening".
Birkill also invited Atkin to headline a local folk festival he supported in Monyash, Derbyshire. On the strength of Atkin's performance and the response to it, and Atkin himself realising he still had a following, this was repeated the following year, with accompanying performance CD releases by subscription. The second show also featured a tribute band, a varying cast of amateur players under the rubric of 'The Beautiful Changers'.
At the 2000 show, Atkin announced that the music conglomerate BMG, which had acquired the RCA catalogue and rights, had finally released the master recordings for the final four of his albums. They were subsequently re-released on CD in the same fashion as the first two, whose rights had been owned by a different company.
Atkin then recorded The Lakeside Sessions — a double CD of new recordings of some previously written but unrecorded Atkin/James songs. The CD Winter Spring is made up entirely of new material co-written with James. His next CD, Midnight Voices, made with Simon Wallace, consisted of reinterpretations of 15 songs originally recorded and released in the 1970s. The title is in part a tribute to the "virtual and actual group of friends and aficionados" who ran and contributed to the Midnight Voices discussion group.
In 2002, the electronic music outfit Lemon Jelly used a guitar sample from "The Pearl Driller" (from Driving Through Mythical America album) as part of the "Nice Weather For Ducks".
The Colours Of The Night, a thirteen track album of new songs, released on 6 July 2015 on the Hillside Music label, is said to "mark the final chapter in a songwriting partnership with Australian broadcaster and poet Clive James that has endured for almost fifty years". At the time of its release, James had been seriously ill with leukaemia for several years. He died in 2019.
Atkin lives in Bristol with his American wife, where he also performs as the piano/keyboard player in the Bristol-based band, The Shrinks. On 7 January 2016, Atkin was crossing the road in Bristol when he was hit in the face by a bus, suffering multiple injuries and subsequently losing the sight of one eye. However, he has since returned to performing. [5]
In September 2023, Atkin released a second collaboration with Simon Wallace, The Luck of the Draw. The fourteen-track record included five songs from their 1970s records, two songs originally written for and recorded by Julie Covington, five from their recordings in the 2000s, including The Lakeside Sessions and Winter Spring, and two previously unreleased songs.
The "Midnight Voices" mailing list has now been replaced by an online discussion forum [6] with multiple subject areas.
 | This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: formatting and non-use of wikitable(s).(December 2012) |
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.
Bert Kaempfert was a German orchestra leader, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, arranger, and composer. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records and wrote the music for a number of well-known songs, including "Strangers in the Night", “Danke Schoen” and "Moon Over Naples".
Clive James was an Australian critic, journalist, broadcaster, writer and lyricist who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1962 until his death in 2019. He began his career specialising in literary criticism before becoming television critic for The Observer in 1972, where he made his name for his wry, deadpan humour.
A cast recording is a recording of a stage musical that is intended to document the songs as they were performed in the show and experienced by the audience. An original cast recording or OCR, as the name implies, features the voices of the show's original cast. A cast recording featuring the first cast to perform a musical in a particular venue is known, for example, as an "original Broadway cast recording" (OBCR) or an "original London cast recording" (OLCR).
Julie Covington is an English singer and actress, best known for recording the original version of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina", which she sang on the 1976 concept album Evita.
Nilsson Sings Newman is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson, released in February 1970 on RCA Victor. It features songs written by Randy Newman. Recorded over six weeks in late 1969, the album showcases Nilsson's voice multi-tracked in layers of tone and harmony. Its arrangements are otherwise sparse, with most of the instrumentation provided by Newman on piano. The record was not a great commercial success, but won a 1970 "Record of the Year" award from Stereo Review magazine. The LP record cover art was illustrated by Dean Torrence.
Smokie are an English rock band from Bradford, Yorkshire. The band found success at home and abroad after teaming up with Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn. They have had a number of lineup changes and were still actively touring in 2024. Their most popular hit single, "Living Next Door to Alice", peaked at No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart and, in March 1977, reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as going to No. 1 on the Australian singles chart. Other hit singles include "If You Think You Know How to Love Me", "Oh Carol", "Lay Back in the Arms of Someone", and "I'll Meet You at Midnight".
Mark Roebuck is an American composer and musician living near Charlottesville, Virginia, known primarily for his work as the main songwriter for the 1980s underground power pop group The Deal, and for his later project, Tribe of Heaven. Imagine We Were, recorded with Dave Matthews in 1989-90 and was finally put out as an independent release in 2005.
Soledad Brothers were an American garage rock trio from Maumee, Ohio. Taking strong influence from blues rock, the band consisted of Ben Swank on drums, Johnny Walker on guitar and vocals, and Oliver Henry on sax and guitar. The band produced four albums: Soledad Brothers (2000), Steal Your Soul and Dare Your Spirit to Move (2002), Voice of Treason (2003), and The Hardest Walk (2006).
My Favorite Songwriter, Porter Wagoner is the tenth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton. It was released on October 2, 1972, by RCA Victor.
Once More is the fifth collaborative studio album by Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton. It was released on August 3, 1970, by RCA Victor. The album was produced by Bob Ferguson. It peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and number 191 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album's single, "Daddy Was an Old Time Preacher Man", peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and was nominated for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group at the 13th Annual Grammy Awards.
Promised Land is the twenty-first studio album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley, released by RCA Records on January 8, 1975. It was recorded in December 1973 at Stax Records studios in Memphis and released on Presley's 40th birthday in January, 1975. In the US the album reached number 47 on the Billboard Top 200 chart and number 1 in Billboard's Top Country LPs chart, as well as the Cashbox Country albums chart. In the UK the album reached #21.
Forever Now is the 10th studio album released by British pop musical group Level 42, released in March 1994. There were two releases of the album with different track-listings and cover art. The first release in 1994 on RCA Records has 11 tracks. In 1996, the album was re-issued by the label Resurgence, with 15 tracks including six additional tracks, but without the songs "Tired Of Waiting" and "All Over You". Also, some of the songs on this version varied in length from those on the RCA release, and the track "Billy's Gone" was completely remixed. The Resurgence album was re-released in 2009 by the label Edsel, as a double CD, bringing "Tired Of Waiting" and "All Over You" back to the track-listing again, and also adding extended remixes of "All Over You", "Forever Now", "Learn To Say No" and "Love In A Peaceful World". The sleeve notes for the reissue state that the Resurgence version of the album contained the original intended track- listing.
Alan Wakeman is an English saxophonist who was a member of Soft Machine during 1976, appearing on the album Softs. He is a cousin of the keyboard player Rick Wakeman.
Clive Langer is an English record producer and songwriter, active from the mid-1970s onwards.
Wanted! The Outlaws is a compilation album by Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser, released by RCA Records in 1976. The album consists of previously released material with four new songs. Released to capitalize on the new outlaw country movement, Wanted! The Outlaws earned its place in music history by becoming the first country album to be platinum-certified, reaching sales of one million.
Catherine Howe is an English singer-songwriter. She is an Ivor Novello Award winner who has earned critical acclaim in dozens of music magazines both in the UK and the US, including Folk Album of the Year from The Sunday Times.
Yesterday's Wine is the 13th studio album and a concept album by country singer Willie Nelson. Nelson had been recording for RCA Victor since the early 1960s, and had released no significant hit records. By 1970, his recordings had reached mid-chart positions. Nelson lost the money he made from his song-writing royalties by financing concert tours that were generally unsuccessful and unprofitable. In addition to problems with his music career, Nelson had a troubled personal life. He had divorced his wife, Shirley Collie, and his Tennessee ranch had been destroyed by a fire.
Rich Kid Blues is a studio album by British singer Marianne Faithfull, recorded in 1971 under the title Masques and first released in 1985.
The Definitive Collection is a double CD compilation album of songs credited to Australian rock band Australian Crawl and the band's lead singer, James Reyne. The album was released in October 2002. The versions of “Lakeside”, “Unpublished Critics” and “Things Don’t Seem” are all previously unreleased versions.
Most of this article is derived from Atkin's own sleeve notes or from the sources listed here. Where the source may not be clear it has been included as a comment that is visible in Edit mode.
| International | |
|---|---|
| Artists | |
