Ken Howard & Alan Blaikley
Kenneth Charles "Ken" Howard (born December 26, 1939 in Hampstead / London ) and Alan Tudor Blaikley (born March 23, 1940 , Hampstead / London) belonged to the most successful British teams of authors in pop music from 1964 onwards and draw one for their overall success single pop band alone responsible.
Career
Ken Howard started as an employed writer in the drama department of the BBC ( Man Alive or The Kids Are United ), the private broadcaster ITV broadcast Howard's Enter The Adventure . At that time Howard had written some pop songs for which he was looking for an as yet unknown band. For this purpose he visited the Mildmay Tavern in London , where the Honeycombs (then still Sheratons) had been performing since 1963 . Together with Alan Blaikley, Howard had the title Have I the Right? composed. Both made contact there with the later Honeycombs , arranged test recordings in the nearby recording studio of the eccentric producer Joe Meek and became the managers of the band around the drummer Ann "Honey" Lantree. Meek used the same production techniques that he had tested more or less successfully with other performers. His trademarks were multiple overdubbing , high-level recordings of the instruments, limiting , compression and delaying the speed.
First record
These effects also came with Have I The Right? used in May 1964. In order to intensify the uncompromising beat, Meek had the five band members in the studio's wooden staircase stamp their feet synchronously on the stairs, recorded by four microphones. The song with high compression reached the first place on the British charts after its release on June 16, 1964 and became a worldwide million seller . A plagiarism lawsuit by Geoff Goddard, who was closely related to Howard / Blaikley through Joe Meek, has been withdrawn. Joe Meek had supported Howard / Blaikley's view that Have I The Right? is not a plagiarism of Goddard's Give Me The Chance . So did the London High Court in July 1965 when it dismissed the action.
The Howard / Blaikley compositions Is It Because (October 1964), I Can't Stop (recorded in December 1964 and published in January 1965) or Something Better Beginning (April 1965) were less successful . The reason for this was in particular that the team of authors, in its role as manager, sent the Honeycombs on tour to Australia as Have I The Right? conquered the top position in the British charts and therefore could not cement the success by appearing at home. The Honeycombs' first LP was out in October 1964, and nine of 14 tracks were written by Howard / Blaikley. Only That's The Way (August 1965), which in terms of its melodic form was in complete contrast to the over-produced million seller, was able to reach twelfth place. The next album All Systems Go! (November 1965) only contained four titles from the team of authors.
Howard / Blaikley expanded their management work with unknown bands like The Wolves , The Keys and Gary Wright . The Keys took over the Howard / Blaikley composition Color Slide for their single, which was released in mid-1964 , The Wolves brought out the track Now by Howard / Blaikley in November 1964. This was followed by the title Zabadak (LP Take A Heart , released on November 30, 1964) for the Sorrows , which will later make headlines in a cover version.
Successful pop group is discovered
Alan Blaikley heard the band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich at a summer gig in Clacton-on-Sea in 1964 and brought this band to Joe Meek, who wanted to record them at a slower tape speed. When the band resisted, Meek threw them out of the studio after half an hour. In November 1964, they were then produced by Steve Rowland in the London Phillips Studios. On January 29, 1965, No Time / Is It Love? their first single, the A-side of which was written by Howard / Blaikley. It did not make it into the charts, as did the successor record All I Want / It Seems A Pity, which appeared on July 2, 1965 . Only the third attempt, the single You Make It Move / I Can't Stop , published on November 5, 1965, was able to place in the British charts, where it reached number 26. The A-side already contained the characteristic fuzz- tone effect that was to be heard on many Dave Dee records in the future. The breakthrough came with Hold Tight (March 1966), which was able to penetrate to fourth place in the British charts.
Howard / Blaikley were responsible for all of the band's hits from then on. The authors were aware of the risk of successive, but very similar-sounding singles and decided to enrich the instrumentation with Greek-sounding instruments for the single Bend It, which was launched on September 9, 1966, and to increase the sirtaki rhythm by accelerating the tempo adapt. To get a bouzouki-like sound, an electric mandola was used. The piece, peppered with ambiguities (the title was an allusion), advanced to the band's best placement to date with a second place and achieved million seller status. This scheme was later varied with Latin American percussion ( Save Me ; December 1966), Russian balalaika ( Okay ; May 1967) or African drums ( Zabadak ; November 1967). Zabadak was a version of the original Sorrows that was much more successful as a cover version . The only top listing came with the second million seller Legend Of Xanadu , which climbed to number one after its release on February 8, 1968. The title caught the eye with its melodramatic bullfighting atmosphere and whip-cracking effects, which meant a complete departure from the previous sounds.
Howard / Blaikley wrote a total of 13 successive hits for the band, which stood out for their catchy melodies, unusual sound effects and often ambiguous allusions. The team of authors can claim a total of 33 titles from the band as authors, so that Dave Dee & Co. was completely dependent on this team of authors until August 1969.
Other compositions
In the meantime, the writing team had also dealt with other bands. The teen epic From The Underworld by the short-lived band The Herd was successful and reached sixth place after its release in September 1967. Produced by Steve Rowland and enriched with a Big Ben chime in the intro and a Bach trumpet in the middle section, the unusual song from the band's underworld attracted a lot of attention through a concentration of hippie clichés. The following singles Paradise Lost (December 1967) and I Don't Want Our Lovin 'To Die (April 1968) were written by Howard / Blaikley and made it into the Top20. The Scottish Marmalade took over in October 1968 from the Wait For Me Marianne team , who could only reach a 30th place. In the future, the team produced all the hits of the Marmalade, including the top hit Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da from December 1968, to Baby Make It Soon (June 1969). Together with Geoff Stephens, Ken Howard wrote the title Boy for Lulu , which came out in May 1968 and climbed to 15th place.
Apart from pop, Howard / Blaikley wrote seven songs for the album Matthews Southern Comfort by Ian Matthews , which was released in January 1970 and was also produced by the writing team (using the pseudonym Steve Barlby). Amongst the songs that were tending towards folk rock was I've Lost You , which was successfully covered as a single by Elvis Presley (recorded on June 4, 1970 in Nashville). Two days later, Elvis Heart of Rome , composed by Geoff Stephens and Blaikley / Howard, was released with a Spanish guitar as the B-side of I'm Leaving . The second album by Ian Matthews, whose formation had been named after the first album title Matthews Southern Comfort , was also produced by Howard / Blaikley; Second Spring was launched in July 1970. They brought a science fiction story to pop for the Flaming Youth , but their concept album Ark II from October 1969 did not achieve any commercial success apart from good reviews. Most of the 15 titles - named after planets or other astronomical terms - were contributed by the team of authors and consequently presented on October 2, 1969 in the London Planetarium. The group's drummer, Phil Collins , then joined Genesis . Engelbert Humperdinck took over her Love Can Fly (LP Engelbert ; March 1969), for the pop group Bay City Rollers they produced Manana / Because I Love You (September 1972).
Film music composer
After Howard / Blaikley left pop music, they devoted themselves to a musical in London ( Mardi Gras ; July 1976) and composed film music for the seven-part television series Flame Trees Of Thika (September 1 to October 13, 1981) or for By The Sword Divided (October 16, 1983 to March 10, 1985). Then they wrote the music for 4 episodes of the Miss Marple series (beginning with A Body In The Library on December 26, 1984) and for the program Screenplay (September 7, 1988). On December 6, 1985, Howard directed a controversial television docu-drama about the anniversary of the murder of John Lennon ( A Journey in the Life ).
statistics
In total, Howard / Blaikley wrote at least 48 titles. 17 of these songs reached the top 20 national charts, three titles sold over a million times.
Individual evidence
- ^ Gordon Thompson: Please Please Me, Sixties British Pop - Inside Out. 2008, p. 294.
- ^ Joseph Murrells: Million Selling Records. 1985, p. 193.
- ↑ John Tobler: NME Rock 'N' Roll Years. 1992, p. 148
- ^ Joseph Murrells: Million Selling Records. 1985, p. 222.
- ^ Joseph Murrells: Million Selling Records. 1985, p. 259.
- ↑ PopmusicInfo about Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley