Bio

Bio

Gorky-Park-Piano1

Cathy in Gorky Park

 

My amazing website designer Lisa Hayden-Miller said, “Wow!  You should be 180 years old with all the things you’ve done!”

 

I apologise if I have got some dates/decades wrong! but, as Lisa says above, I’ve crammed a lot in.

 

So many people to thank. Sorry if I have missed you out. I’ve had the most amazing, fabulous, brilliant ride, but it’s not over yet!

 

Cathy x

Click on Photo Album to view some photos which relate to some of the stories below.

 

1967 14½ years old. New York. That summer Patty at Bing- Po-Ne-Mah camp.  Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Coney Island of the Mind. BIG influences. Mum died. 1968. Sent to English boarding school: St. George’s, Ascot. Cold bedrooms. Good friends. Hunger. Put on Broadway shows. A day at John Lennon’s Tittenhurst Park with Hare Krishna. Piano lessons: Guildhall School of Music. 1970 LTCL Trinity College of Music. London (conducting, piano, flute and singing). Nick Glennie-Smith was my contemporary and friend. I left after 2 terms.

 

The 1970s

 

HMV Records. Classical Dept. Volunteered at Contact (the Elderly)founder was Trevor Lyttleton (Humphrey’s brother).  Visited a monastery in Wareside. Stunning grounds. Perfect for staging a ‘rock’ concert. How? I needed help. Uncle Ed (NYC) Conversaphone Records knew Nat Joseph (London) Transatlantic Records. I called Nat from Oxford Circus tube (phones inside stations!) Gave me Derek Taylor’s number at WEA New Oxford St. Called Derek. “Come right over!” Met the magical Mr. Taylor in his massive office. Also, there for a meeting were Alice Cooper and Brian Wilson. Strange, but true! So, Derek says “I don’t organise concerts, but I know a couple of guys who do”. He called Mike Alfandary and Harvey Goldsmith. I went to their tiny office in NW3. We organised a concert. Humble Pie. No funding. No concert. Derek then got me my first job and my first boss! John Velasco at EH Morris, plugging Dorothy Squires (!) records at Radio 1. This is where I met the lovely Billy Livsey (a future co-writer) and B A Robertson. Over several years Derek Taylor always had time to give me advice or just have a chat. A unique and amazing man. Great times at Tiddy Dols, The Hard Rock, ‘The Speak,’ etc. with Deep Purple, Medicine Head and all the rest….

 

Radio 1 DJ Alan Black who, with Annie Nightingale, presented ‘Sounds of the Seventies’, produced my first singer/songwriter demos. Kept my day job working in the press department at WEA on the Rolling Stones 1970 European tour. An entire floor upstairs covered in free T shirts, LPs. Tongue T-Shirts, necklaces etc.! PR for Caravan and Brother Lees! at Terry King Associates.

 

Music journo pal Paul Weir got me a gig playing piano & singing b/vox with A&M band, Esperanto on their 1974 UK tour. Glenn Shorrock, lead vocals. UK tour. Magma as support. 26 guys. And me. Oh, and Magma (managed by the legendary Giorgio Gomelsky) they ate rice and onions at the back of the bus. After the tour, was a lounge pianist at night at men’s club, The Burlington Club, Mayfair. Recorded tracks for the amazing singer/songwriter Casey Synge (Gringo, Thunderthighs). More temp jobs: Bronze Records, Anakarta, Bell Records (when the Bay City Rollers were at their height), William Morris Agency. Best moment:  Frederico Fellini (a client at the agency) was casting for his 1976 film ‘Casanova’  and he was looking for an unknown girl to be given a role, casually walked round the office, looked at all our faces. A girl was selected but, sadly, it wasn’t me. Wizard, Michael White (working on the musical ‘Annie’), Atlantic Records for Dave Dee, catalyst with Peter Knight.

 

Music Editor Music Sales. Omnibus Press.  Lovely Pearce Marchbank and ‘Miles’. Very groovy. CBS Records A&R Dept. There when The Sex Pistols went from company to company getting signed/unsigned. Crazy. Met my wonderful hubby, Jeremy Ensor, A & R man there.

 

The 1980s

 

‘Vertical Hold’: Musical Revue, Jacksons Lane (with David and Paul Norell). Wrote some music with Commedia dell’arte director Maria Santovani.

 

Media buyer for Henry Thacker. Henry’s friend was looking for someone to write a song for Cocoribe for a major radio campaign. I got it. Scripts by Mel Smith and Griff Rhys-Jones. Recorded at Hanz Zimmer’s first studio in Fulham. That was my LAST office job. Hooray! Towerbell Records later released I Should Coco (Nuts to You), based on the ad. Bob England became my manager on the the roster with the lovely Chas and Dave.

Top of the Pops Towerbell label mates Chas & Dave had a hit single, ‘Come on you Spurs’ with Tottenham Hotspur. I was dressed as the cockerel (you can’t miss me). Available on YouTube if you are desperate. (Thanks, guys) But Paul & Linda McCartney were there. I made Paul sign my Tottenham rosette. NOT a happy bunny.

 

More TV/Radio ads. Lovely Sue Oakley (Masius). Great money. Great fun. One was directed by the late Tony Scott. Then did my singer songwriter thing. Producers: Steve Levine, Jon Eden, Bugatti and Musker, Brill and Langridge. Became a singer songwriter – mentorship especially from publisher Lucien Grainge now Sir Lucien Chairman of the Universal Group and also from Andrew Lauder, Stuart Slater and Stewart Newton.

 

CTS Recording with writer/producer Ted Carfrae. I walked in on one of my heroes, Henry Mancini.  Lovely chat at the piano. Light blue cashmere sweater (sigh).

Staff writer. Warner Chappell Music writing with the best – Billy Livsey, Jimbeau Hinson, Richard Niles, Mark Damron, Jim Diamond, Graham Lyle, Jon and Sally Tiven, Wendy Wu, Mark Griffiths, Sean Byrne and Scott English. With  Peter Oxendale co-wrote some demos for ‘Dawn Chorus and the Blue Tits’ (Liz Kershaw, Carole Vorderman and Lindsay Forrest). Whilst at Chappells the legend that is Clive Davis personally chose one of my tracks ‘Stop Another Heartbreakin’ (co-written with Billy Livsey) for Melissa Manchester’s album, ‘Emergency’. Produced by the also legendary Arif Mardin. Time to mention the fabulous Tessa Niles – superb singer and special friend, who sang gorgeous vocals for me on most of my songs, films, TV ads and TV shows. Thank you! Then signed to Screen Gems as a songwriter. Demos co-written with Jan Ince produced by Trevor Spencer. Also with Mark Damron of the band Resistance signed to Phonogram.

 

TV  Commissioned by HTV Directors John Mead and Colin Stevens.  Wonderful programmes. A film: ITV film Bewitched by a Dolphin. Game shows. Health series, chat shows. Then a very special invitation by BAFTA to write the theme music for ‘An Evening with Anthony Hopkins’ at St David’s Hall Cardiff.

 

Quit smoking. But failed to persuade my neighbour Simon Gray (the playwright). Then…THE BEST THING EVER. Two wondrous children, Josie and Charlie.

 

More Volunteering: Prison Visitor for 3 years Holloway Prison. And Babies in Prison. Childline. Harrowing. Heart breaking. Life changing.

 

The 1990s

 

Animation Films  Commissions by the brilliant Penelope Middelboe and Martin Lamb (Right Angle) and Chris Grace (S4C).  Christmas Films Moscow, Varga Films Budapest, Dave Edwards Cardiff. Broadcasts: Channel 4, BBC TV, worldwide sales to 28 countries. I was commissioned to compose the music/lyrics for three films for the multi award winning series – ‘Animated Tales of the World’ and for ‘Testament: Creation and the Flood’. THE best animators on the planet. Blessed.

 

Musicals. Plays. More Theatre Collaborated with Richard Bean writing the music for his first play ‘Of Rats and Men’, Edinburgh Festival and the Canal Cafe Theatre, London. Joined MMD. My first musical, ‘The Demon Headmaster’ based on the hugely successful BBC TV series was workshopped at the National Theatre then a nationwide No 1 UK tour.

 

The 2000s

 

Other musicals followed – ‘The Legendary Golem’ at the New End Theatre, ‘The Little Princess‘ (with Eric Angus and Anton Agalbato) at the Tarragon Theatre, Toronto, ‘Legacy’ with Jen Toksvig at the Soho Theatre. The 52 piece London Philharmonic Orchestra performed part of the score at the Arundel Festival. Part of the musical was also performed twice on board HMS Victory in Portsmouth. David Gilmore directed a reading at the Drury Lane Theatre with Janie Dee, Gary Milner, Steve Watts… for ‘The Wimbledon Poisoner’. The Boy Who Fell into A Book: Sir Alan Ayckbourn directed our musical adaptation of his play with a six week run at the Stephen Joseph Theatre (with Eric Angus and Paul James).

 

Many performances of my songs performed at Jermyn Street Theatre, the Pigalle Club, Arts Theatre Club, Royal Festival Hall, Connaught Rooms, Cochrane Theatre, the Bridewell Theatre, the Shaw Theatre, The Gate, Kings Head Theatre, the Edinburgh Festival Edinburgh (Gilded Balloon), the Bedlam Theatre, Stockwell Playhouse, Stephen Joseph Theatre, the Crucible Theatre Sheffield, Greenwich Theatre and the Donmar Warehouse.

 

Other Collaborations: with Spike Milligan putting music to his poems some of which are still included in Janie Dee’s One Woman Shows. Janie has been a huge part of my theatre life, starring in all my workshops, singing my songs in her one woman shows and generally a massive supporter of my work. Thank you. Also, several years collaborating with Michael Ondaatje writing music to his poetry from his play ‘The Collected Works of Billy the Kid’. Most of the songs were performed at several venues in London

 

I’ve worked with the best. I have been very lucky and I’m not finished yet…

 

 

 

Cathy,-by-Miriam-Blythe Cathy: by Miriam Blythe