Keith Hopwood
Encyclopedia
Keith Hopwood is an English musician
, singer-songwriter
, composer
, businessman
and record producer
, who served as the rhythm guitarist and backing vocals
for the 1960s pop
band
, Herman's Hermits
. Hopwood also served as a keyboardist
and backing guitarist
for the post-Peter Noone
outfit, Sour Mash, which recorded
an unreleased album
, A Whale of a Tale for RCA
.
area of Manchester
, he attended Urmston Grammar School
.
and composer
, he continues to live and work in the music industry in the UK. Several rare demo
recordings from his time in Herman's Hermits are available through his website
. Peter Noone credits his old friend with coming up with the idea of recording "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter
" as an afterthought, when Herman's Hermits were short of material for their first album
. Noone's heavily accented delivery, together with Hopwood's muted rhythm guitar work, propelled the track to number one
on the US Billboard Hot 100
chart
. Contrary to many reports, the song was not an old music hall
number, and the Hermits did play on the track as well as on many other Herman's Hermits records, including all of the band's number-one US and UK hits.
Ralph McTell
recorded the theme tune to Cosgrove Hall's adaptation of The Wind in the Willows
written by Hopwood and Malcolm Rowe, and this was released as a single
in 1984, after the series was aired on ITV
. Hopwood also co-wrote the music for Cosgrove Hall's adaptation of Terry Pratchett
's Soul Music
with Phil Bush. A soundtrack album
was released in 1997.
Hopwood and Rowe co-wrote and produced the music to the 1989 film adaptation of Roald Dahl's The BFG
.
founded Pluto Music, a company that composes musical scores for commercial
s, film
s, and animation
. Leckenby died in 1994, but Hopwood continues operating the company. Pluto Studios has been very successful, providing services to many top acts including The Clash
. Hopwood has proved himself a fine soundtrack
composer
, working mostly on animated television series including the hugely successful "Bob the Builder." Always a composer, he wrote and co-wrote numerous songs recorded by Herman's Hermits, and other bands such as Brinsley Schwarz
. Hopwood also promoted the singer-songwriter
, Helen Watson
.
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, 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...
, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, businessman
Businessperson
A businessperson is someone involved in a particular undertaking of activities for the purpose of generating revenue from a combination of human, financial, or physical capital. An entrepreneur is an example of a business person...
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 served as the rhythm guitarist and backing vocals
Backing vocalist
A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
for the 1960s pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
, Herman's Hermits
Herman's Hermits
Herman's Hermits are an English beat band, formed in Manchester in 1963 as Herman & The Hermits. The group's record producer, Mickie Most , emphasized a simple, non-threatening, clean-cut image, although the band originally played R&B numbers...
. Hopwood also served as a keyboardist
Keyboardist
A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...
and backing guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
for the post-Peter Noone
Peter Noone
Peter Noone is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist and actor, best known as "Herman" of the successful 1960s rock group Herman's Hermits.-Early life:...
outfit, Sour Mash, which recorded
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...
an unreleased 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...
, A Whale of a Tale for 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...
.
Early life
Born on 26 October 1946 at Park Hospital, DavyhulmeDavyhulme
Davyhulme is a locality within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester, England. Historically part of Lancashire, it is contiguous with the town of Urmston....
area of Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, he attended Urmston Grammar School
Urmston Grammar School
Urmston Grammar, known as Urmston Grammar School until September 2010, is a co-educational grammar school in Urmston, Greater Manchester, England. It is a state school within Trafford Local Authority. The school was assessed as "outstanding" in its 2008 Ofsted report...
.
Career
A talented musicianMusician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, he continues to live and work in the music industry in the UK. Several rare demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
recordings from his time in Herman's Hermits are available through his website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
. Peter Noone credits his old friend with coming up with the idea of recording "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter
Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter
"Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter" is a popular song written by Trevor Peacock. It was originally sung by actor Sir Tom Courtenay in The Lads, a British TV play of 1963....
" as an afterthought, when Herman's Hermits were short of material for their first 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...
. Noone's heavily accented delivery, together with Hopwood's muted rhythm guitar work, propelled the track to number one
Chart topper
Chart topper may refer to:*Record chart, a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time**Billboard charts, a ranking of the relative popularity of songs or albums in the United States...
on the US Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
. Contrary to many reports, the song was not an old music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
number, and the Hermits did play on the track as well as on many other Herman's Hermits records, including all of the band's number-one US and UK hits.
Ralph McTell
Ralph McTell
Ralph McTell is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s....
recorded the theme tune to Cosgrove Hall's adaptation of The Wind in the Willows
The Wind in the Willows (TV series)
The Wind in the Willows is a 52-episode TV series that was originally broadcast between 1984 and 1987, based on characters from Kenneth Grahame's classic story The Wind in the Willows and following the 1983 film The Wind in the Willows. It was made by animation company Cosgrove Hall for Thames...
written by Hopwood and Malcolm Rowe, and this was released as a single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
in 1984, after the series was aired on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
. Hopwood also co-wrote the music for Cosgrove Hall's adaptation of Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
's Soul Music
Soul Music (TV series)
Soul Music is a seven-part animated television adaptation of the book of the same name by Terry Pratchett, produced by Cosgrove Hall, and first broadcast on 12 May 1997. It was the first film adaptation of an entire Discworld novel...
with Phil Bush. A soundtrack album
Soundtrack album
A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television program. In some cases, not all the tracks from the movie are included in the album; however there are rare cases of songs in the trailers that do not appear in...
was released in 1997.
Hopwood and Rowe co-wrote and produced the music to the 1989 film adaptation of Roald Dahl's The BFG
The BFG (film)
The BFG is a 1989 animated film based on the book of the same name by Roald Dahl. It was first shown on Christmas Day 1989 on ITV1 in the UK.The film was dedicated to animator George Jackson who worked on numerous Cosgrove Hall Productions-Plot:...
.
Pluto Music
In 1968, Keith Hopwood and Derek LeckenbyDerek Leckenby
Derek "Lek" Leckenby was an English musician and lead guitarist, most famous for his work with English pop group Herman's Hermits.-Early life:Leckenby was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire...
founded Pluto Music, a company that composes musical scores for commercial
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
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...
s, and animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
. Leckenby died in 1994, but Hopwood continues operating the company. Pluto Studios has been very successful, providing services to many top acts including The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
. Hopwood has proved himself a fine 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...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, working mostly on animated television series including the hugely successful "Bob the Builder." Always a composer, he wrote and co-wrote numerous songs recorded by Herman's Hermits, and other bands such as Brinsley Schwarz
Brinsley Schwarz
Brinsley Schwarz were a 1970s English pub rock band, named after their guitarist Brinsley Schwarz. With Nick Lowe on bass and vocals, keyboardist Bob Andrews and drummer Billy Rankin, the band evolved from the 1960s pop band Kippington Lodge.-Formation:...
. Hopwood also promoted the 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...
, Helen Watson
Helen Watson (singer-songwriter)
Helen Watson is an English singer-songwriter. Her music encompasses blues, soul, jazz, pop and folk.-Biography:Watson began performing on the folk-club circuit during the late 1960s whilst working as a teacher in Manchester...
.
External links
- Pluto Music official website
- Keith Hopwood mini-bio at the IMDbInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
websiteWebsiteA website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...