Catherine Howe
Encyclopedia
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.
Howe began an acting
career in the late 1960s, and has since gained a cult following in the folk music
: Record Collector
in 2007 called her "one of the great unrecognised voices". Observer Music in 2007 said "Catherine Howe was a Kate Bush before her time".
. She commenced an acting career in the late 1960s, performing in contemporary television dramas such as Z Cars, The Wednesday Play
, Doctor Who
and Dixon of Dock Green
. Howe went on to appear in Barney Platts-Mill's film
, Private Road. In 1970, Howe met Andrew Cameron Miller, an executive at Reflection, a subsidiary of CBS Records
, resulting in her recording
her debut album
What A Beautiful Place at Trident Studios in London, in February 1971. Miller paired Howe with Bobby Scott, an American
pianist
and record producer
who had previously co-written The Hollies
' "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
". However, Reflection ceased to trade when the album was on the point of release, and as a result it remained largely unheard until it was reissued in 2007 on the Numero label
. The re-release met with critical acclaim; gaining a five-star review from Observer Music. The master tapes were by then lost and the re-recording was made from an original source copy.
Howe featured on soundtrack
recordings in the UK and Europe throughout the 1970s, and provided the lead vocal for Ennio Morricone
's theme song "Un genie, deux associes, une cloche" in 1976. She worked with the Italian
jazz
musician Piero Piccioni
, recording two songs for his 1972 film God Under the Skin and singing in an Italian television broadcast with Piccioni two years later. Howe's second LP Harry was released in the UK in 1975 on RCA
, for which the title track received an Ivor Novello Award (only the second female recording artist to achieve this). Harry remains available as a mobile phone ringtone. Also in 1975, Howe appeared on film as the singer during the title credits of the British sex farce, Can You Keep It Up For A Week? RCA released a follow-up album, Silent Mother Nature in 1976, winning Folk Album of the Year from the Sunday Times. A single was released entitled "Until The Morning Comes" written by the Scottish
singer/guitarist Dave Kelly
and Ray McRiner, and was performed on LWT's
Supersonic
. The following year, the title tracks of both RCA albums were re-released (together with the aforementioned single) on the EP The Truth of the Matter, and was one of the Top 75 selling EPs of 1977. Throughout that year Howe produced and sang the songs for BBC Television
's That's Life!
. Howe's fourth album came two years later, Dragonfly Days, released on Ariola Records
. Ariola also released singles by Howe prior to and following the album, some of which are not included on the LP, and promoted as far away as South America. The third single "Quietly and Softly" also featured as the B-side to "Switchboard" by Georg Kajanus' group "April Love".
One was with Mike Batt
, Howe's self-penned "Sit Down And Think Again", another was a cover
of Carole King
's "Goin' Back" produced by Pip Williams
. Dragonfly Days remains her only record
not reissued on CD
. In 1979, the BBC filmed Rhythm on 2: Catherine Howe and Judie Tzuke, a live concert at Ipswich
's Corn Exchange. The following year, again for the BBC, Howe featured on both the Jeremy Taylor
and Sacha Distel
shows.
.
Howe is currently working on a book on the life of the 19th-century secularist George Holyoake
as well as continuing with her songwriting. In 2002 Howe returned to recording, producing a new CD, her fifth: Princelet Street. This coincided with the launch of an official website and preceded the re-issue of her 1970s albums What a Beautiful Place (with the Numero label), Harry (with BGO) and Silent Mother Nature (with BGO). Of Princelet Street, Howe wrote:
Howe continues to work on new recordings, also giving occasional live performances.
Original soundtracks, compilation albums and re-releases:
Singles and EPs:
Composer: Piero Piccioni / Director: Folco Quilici
Composer: Piero Piccioni
Composer: Ted Dicks and Hazel Adair / Director: Jim Atkinson
Composer: Ennio Morricone / Director: Damiano Damiani
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
. She is an Ivor Novello Award winner who has earned critical acclaim in dozens of music magazines both in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, including Folk Album of the Year from the Sunday Times.
Howe began an acting
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
career in the late 1960s, and has since gained a cult following in the folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
: Record Collector
Record Collector
Record Collector is the United Kingdom's longest-running monthly music magazine. It distributes both within the UK and worldwide. It started in 1979.-The early years:...
in 2007 called her "one of the great unrecognised voices". Observer Music in 2007 said "Catherine Howe was a Kate Bush before her time".
1960s-1970s: early career
Howe trained as an actress at the Corona Drama School in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. She commenced an acting career in the late 1960s, performing in contemporary television dramas such as Z Cars, The Wednesday Play
The Wednesday Play
The Wednesday Play was an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. Every week's play was usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured...
, Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
and Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green was a popular BBC television series that ran from 1955 to 1976, and later a radio series. Despite being a drama series, it was initially produced by the BBC's light entertainment department.-Overview:...
. Howe went on to appear in Barney Platts-Mill's film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, Private Road. In 1970, Howe met Andrew Cameron Miller, an executive at Reflection, a subsidiary of CBS Records
CBS Records
CBS Records is a record label founded by CBS Corporation in 2006 to take advantage of music from its entertainment properties owned by CBS Television Studios. The initial label roster consisted of only three artists; rock band Señor Happy and singer/songwriters Will Dailey and P.J...
, resulting in her recording
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
her debut album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
What A Beautiful Place at Trident Studios in London, in February 1971. Miller paired Howe with Bobby Scott, an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
who had previously co-written The Hollies
The Hollies
The Hollies are an English pop and rock group, formed in Manchester in the early 1960s, though most of the band members are from throughout East Lancashire. Known for their distinctive vocal harmony style, they became one of the leading British groups of the 1960s and 1970s...
' "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
"He Ain't Heavy... He's My Brother" is a popular music ballad written by Bobby Scott and Bob Russell. Originally recorded by Kelly Gordon in 1969, the song became a worldwide hit for The Hollies later that year and again for Neil Diamond in 1970....
". However, Reflection ceased to trade when the album was on the point of release, and as a result it remained largely unheard until it was reissued in 2007 on the Numero label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
. The re-release met with critical acclaim; gaining a five-star review from Observer Music. The master tapes were by then lost and the re-recording was made from an original source copy.
Howe featured on soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
recordings in the UK and Europe throughout the 1970s, and provided the lead vocal for Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...
's theme song "Un genie, deux associes, une cloche" in 1976. She worked with the Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
musician Piero Piccioni
Piero Piccioni
Piero Piccioni , was an Italian lawyer turned major film score composer. A pianist, organist, conductor, composer, he was also the prolific author of more than 200 film soundtracks.-Early life:...
, recording two songs for his 1972 film God Under the Skin and singing in an Italian television broadcast with Piccioni two years later. Howe's second LP Harry was released in the UK in 1975 on RCA
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
, for which the title track received an Ivor Novello Award (only the second female recording artist to achieve this). Harry remains available as a mobile phone ringtone. Also in 1975, Howe appeared on film as the singer during the title credits of the British sex farce, Can You Keep It Up For A Week? RCA released a follow-up album, Silent Mother Nature in 1976, winning Folk Album of the Year from the Sunday Times. A single was released entitled "Until The Morning Comes" written by the Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
singer/guitarist Dave Kelly
Dave Kelly
Dave Kelly may refer to:*Dave Kelly , Canadian TV host and voice actor*Dave Kelly , guitarist, vocalist, and member of the Blues Band*Dave Kelly , songwriter, musician, engineer, producer, and owner of Madhouse Records in Jamaica...
and Ray McRiner, and was performed on LWT's
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
Supersonic
Supersonic (TV series)
Supersonic is a British children's television music show which featured pop music artists of the day. Launched in 1975, it was produced by London Weekend Television for the ITV network and ran for two years...
. The following year, the title tracks of both RCA albums were re-released (together with the aforementioned single) on the EP The Truth of the Matter, and was one of the Top 75 selling EPs of 1977. Throughout that year Howe produced and sang the songs for BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
's That's Life!
That's Life!
That's Life! was a magazine-style television series on BBC1 between 26 May 1973 and 19 June 1994, presented by Esther Rantzen throughout the entire run, with various changes of co-presenters. The show was generally recorded about an hour prior to transmission, which was originally on Saturday...
. Howe's fourth album came two years later, Dragonfly Days, released on Ariola Records
Ariola Records
Ariola Records is a German record label. As of the late 1980s, it was a subsidiary label of BMG which in turn has since become a part of the international media conglomerate Sony Music Entertainment...
. Ariola also released singles by Howe prior to and following the album, some of which are not included on the LP, and promoted as far away as South America. The third single "Quietly and Softly" also featured as the B-side to "Switchboard" by Georg Kajanus' group "April Love".
One was with Mike Batt
Mike Batt
Michael Philip "Mike" Batt is a British songwriter, musician, producer and Deputy Chairman of the British Phonographic Industry...
, Howe's self-penned "Sit Down And Think Again", another was a cover
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
's "Goin' Back" produced by Pip Williams
Pip Williams
Pip Williams, is a record producer, arranger and guitarist, best known for producing albums for Status Quo and The Moody Blues.-Career:...
. Dragonfly Days remains her only record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
not reissued on CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
. In 1979, the BBC filmed Rhythm on 2: Catherine Howe and Judie Tzuke, a live concert at Ipswich
Ipswich
Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...
's Corn Exchange. The following year, again for the BBC, Howe featured on both the Jeremy Taylor
Jeremy Taylor
Jeremy Taylor was a clergyman in the Church of England who achieved fame as an author during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. He is sometimes known as the "Shakespeare of Divines" for his poetic style of expression and was often presented as a model of prose writing...
and Sacha Distel
Sacha Distel
Sacha Distel was a French singer and guitarist who had hits with a cover version of the Academy Award-winning "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" , "Scoubidou", and "The Good Life". He was born in Paris.-Career:Sacha Distel, born Alexandre Distel, was a son of Russian White émigré Leonid Distel...
shows.
1980s-present: respite and return to music
None of Howe's albums sold in large quantity in their time, and after Dragonfly Days, she decided to retire from the music industry. Howe explained in her own words on the tradmusic.com website: "Despite promotion and tours with Andy Fairweather-Low, Chris de Burgh, David Soul and later with Randy Edleman, the albums and singles didn't sell enough. I thought it was because of me, but it was as much (I've since learned) because they weren't in the shops to buy. To remedy this it was suggested that maybe I should write 'country and western', maybe I should change my hair, maybe wear black leather. So the music business, which I loved, and I parted company. Like a bad marriage, some damage was sustained before separation took place...." There was some activity in the 1980s with a re-issue of the "Harry" single in 1984 (due to public demand with the birth of Prince Harry). A year later, Howe contributed two songs to the Sounds of Yorkshire LP: a re-recording of "Lucy Snow" ("Lucy Snowe") from the Silent Mother Nature album; and a new piece in a traditional vein, "Yorkshire Hills". In 1989 Howe had a daughter, Jenny, and later earned a first class degree in History and Religion from the Open UniversityOpen University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
.
Howe is currently working on a book on the life of the 19th-century secularist George Holyoake
George Holyoake
George Jacob Holyoake , English secularist and co-operator, was born in Birmingham, England. He coined the term "secularism" in 1851 and the term "jingoism" in 1878.-Owenism:...
as well as continuing with her songwriting. In 2002 Howe returned to recording, producing a new CD, her fifth: Princelet Street. This coincided with the launch of an official website and preceded the re-issue of her 1970s albums What a Beautiful Place (with the Numero label), Harry (with BGO) and Silent Mother Nature (with BGO). Of Princelet Street, Howe wrote:
My great-grandmother Susannah Constantine was born on Princelet Street in 1851, her mother worked as a silk winder, her father as a fancy comb maker. Lots of my family lived in or near the City of London in the early 1800s, and even before I knew this I used to go city walking there as a girl because it felt like coming home. Princelet Street the album is inspired by the street and a sense of family, past and present, and as I enjoyed writing and recording its songs I hope you'll enjoy hearing them....
Howe continues to work on new recordings, also giving occasional live performances.
Discography
Studio albums:- What a Beautiful Place - 1971
- Harry - 1975
- Silent Mother Nature - 1976
- Dragonfly Days - 1979
- Princelet Street - 2005
- English Tale - with Vo Fletcher, 2010
Original soundtracks, compilation albums and re-releases:
- Il dio sotto la pelle OST - 1972
- Un genie, deux associes, une cloche OST - 1976
- Sounds of Yorkshire (compilation) - 1985 (Contributes two tracks)
- Harry / Silent Mother Nature Re-mastered CD - 2006
- What a Beautiful Place Re-mastered CD, with previously unreleased demo track - 2007
- What a Beautiful Place Re-mastered LP, with previously unreleased demo track - 2010
Singles and EPs:
- "Nothing More Than strangers" / "My Child" - Reflection, 1971
- "Firestar Express" / "Forse eri tu" / "St. Francis in Katmandu" - CBS, Italian release with Piero Piccioni, 1974
- "Harry" / "When The Sparrow Flies" - RCA, 1974
- "What Are Friends for Anyway?" / "Keep Me Talking" - RCA, 1976
- "Freedom Enough" / "Lucy Snow" - RCA, 1976
- "Until The Morning Comes" / "Lucy Snow" - RCA, 1976
- "The Truth of the Matter" EP - "Until The Morning Comes" / "Harry" / "Silent Mother Nature" - RCA, 1977
- "Sit Down and Think Again" / "Someone's Got to Love You Sometime" - Ariola, produced by Mike Batt, 1978
- "Move On Over" / "Too Far Gone" - Ariola, 1978
- "Turn The Corner Singing" / "Too Far Gone" - Ariola, 1979
- "Quietly and Softly" / "Daylight" - Ariola, 1979
- "Switchboard" (April Love) / "Quietly and Softly" (Catherine Howe) - Ariola, 1979
- "When The Night Comes" / "How Does Love Feel?" - Ariola, 1980
- "Goin' Back" / "How Does Love Feel?" - Ariola, 1980
- "Almost Love" (vocal version of Inside Moves theme) / "Inside Moves" theme (instrumental) - Breeze, 1981
- "Harry" / "When The Sparrow Flies" - RCA, reissue in blue and gold sleeve, 1984
- "In the Hot Summer" / "Let's Keep it Quiet Now" - Numero, 2010
- "Going Home" EP / "Nothing Love Does Surprises Me" / "White Winter Hymnal" - with Vo Fletcher, Proper Music, 2010
Theme songs
- "It's Possible," title track from God Under the Skin [Il dio sotto la pelle] (1972)
Composer: Piero Piccioni / Director: Folco Quilici
- "Firestar Express" from an Italian TV show, with Piero Piccioni (1974)
Composer: Piero Piccioni
Composer: Ted Dicks and Hazel Adair / Director: Jim Atkinson
- "Glory, Glory, Glory," theme song from A Genius, Two Friends and an Idiot [Un genie, deux associes, une cloche] (1976)
Composer: Ennio Morricone / Director: Damiano Damiani
Selected film and television appearances
- Dixon of Dock GreenDixon of Dock GreenDixon of Dock Green was a popular BBC television series that ran from 1955 to 1976, and later a radio series. Despite being a drama series, it was initially produced by the BBC's light entertainment department.-Overview:...
as Janet Sutcliffe - 1966 (TV) - Doctor Who as Ara - 1967 (TV)
- The Wednesday PlayThe Wednesday PlayThe Wednesday Play was an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. Every week's play was usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured...
as Graziella - 1967 (TV) - Z Cars as Jenny Fisher - 1971 (TV)
- Private Road as Iverna - 1971 (film)
- Firestar Express - Italian broadcast with Piccioni and l'Orchestra Racconta - 1974 (TV)
- Can You Keep It Up For A Week? as herself - 1974 (film)