Mickey Simmonds
Encyclopedia
Mickey Simmonds is an English
session
keyboardist
, arranger
and composer
. He is best known for his work with progressive rock acts, Mike Oldfield
, Renaissance
, Camel
and Fish
. He has also worked with Joan Armatrading
, Paul Young
, The Rutles
, Art Garfunkel
, Kiki Dee
, John Coghlan
's Diesel Band, Elkie Brooks
, Judie Tzuke
, Imagination
, Bucks Fizz
, Jennifer Rush
, The Mods, 4 Bills & a Ben, and, most recently The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.
Simmonds has a long standing relationship with Neil Innes
, hence The Rutles
(including all the arrangements on Archaeology 1996) and The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, whose studio album Pour l'Amour des Chiens
was co-produced by Simmonds & Innes.
Simmonds has released two solo albums, The Shape of Rain (1996) and The Seven Colours of Emptiness (2009). As influences, he cites progressive rock
acts such as early Genesis
, Emerson, Lake & Palmer
and Pink Floyd
.
(1985), Islands
(1987), and Heaven's Open
(1991), as well as on tour 1983 -1993.
, also co-wrote all tracks on the follow-up album Internal Exile
and performed on the tours promoting these albums. Fish described him as the musical director of his early solo years. He resigned in 1992 to be replaced by Foster Patterson, but later returned for the tour promoting Sunsets on Empire
(1997) and co-wrote two and performed on three tracks on Raingods with Zippos
(1999).
during the tour following the Dust and Dreams album release in 1992 (which had featured Ton Scherpenzeel
on keyboards), performances of which appeared on the Camel live album Never Let Go
(1993); he also played on the subsequent studio album Harbour of Tears
(1996). Foster Patterson, his successor in Fish's solo band, would later take his place in Camel as well.
band from Bordeaux
called XII Alfonso on The Lost Frontier (1996), Odyssées (1999), Claude Monet vol.2 1889–1904 (2005), Charles Darwin (Fall 2011).
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...
session
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
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...
, arranger
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
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 is best known for his work with progressive rock acts, Mike Oldfield
Mike Oldfield
Michael Gordon Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature...
, Renaissance
Renaissance (band)
Renaissance are an English progressive rock band, most notable for their 1978 UK top 10 hit "Northern Lights" and progressive rock classics like "Carpet of the Sun", "Mother Russia" and "Ashes Are Burning".-Original incarnation :...
, Camel
Camel (band)
Camel are an English progressive rock band formed in 1971. An important group in the Canterbury scene, they have been releasing studio and live recordings steadily, with considerable success, since their formation.-1970s:...
and Fish
Fish (singer)
Derek William Dick, better known as Fish, is a Scottish progressive rock singer, lyricist and occasional actor, best known as the former lead singer of Marillion.-Biography:...
. He has also worked with Joan Armatrading
Joan Armatrading
Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading, MBE is a British singer, songwriter and guitarist. Armatrading is a three-time Grammy Award-nominee and has been nominated twice for BRIT Awards as Best Female Artist...
, Paul Young
Paul Young (singer and guitarist)
Paul Antony Young is an English pop musician. Formerly the frontman of the short-lived bands Kat Kool & The Kool Cats, Streetband and Q-Tips, his following solo success as a solo recording artist turned him into a 1980s teenage pop idol...
, The Rutles
The Rutles
The Rutles are a band that are known for their visual and aural pastiches and parodies of The Beatles. Originally created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes as a fictional band to be featured as part of various 1970s television programming, the group recorded, toured, and released two UK chart hits in...
, Art Garfunkel
Art Garfunkel
Arthur Ira "Art" Garfunkel is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and actor, best known as being a member of the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel...
, Kiki Dee
Kiki Dee
Kiki Dee is an English singer with a career spanning more than 40 years....
, John Coghlan
John Coghlan (drummer)
John Robert Coghlan was an original member of the English rock band, Status Quo.The son of a Glasgow-born father and a London born half-French mother, Coghlan grew up in Dulwich, and was educated at Kingsdale Comprehensive school until leaving school at 15 to begin an apprenticeship as a...
's Diesel Band, Elkie Brooks
Elkie Brooks
Elkie Brooks is an English singer, formerly a vocalist with Vinegar Joe, and later a solo artist. Elkie has been nominated twice for Brit Awards' top female singer. She is known for her powerful husky voice...
, Judie Tzuke
Judie Tzuke
Judie Tzuke is an English singer/songwriter. She is most well known for her 1979 hit "Stay With Me Till Dawn", which reached no.16 on the UK Singles Chart.-Early life:...
, Imagination
Imagination
Imagination, also called the faculty of imagining, is the ability of forming mental images, sensations and concepts, in a moment when they are not perceived through sight, hearing or other senses...
, Bucks Fizz
Bucks Fizz (band)
Bucks Fizz are an English pop group who achieved success in the 1980s, most notably for winning the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Making Your Mind Up". The group was formed in January 1981 specifically for the contest and comprised four vocalists: Bobby G, Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and...
, Jennifer Rush
Jennifer Rush
Jennifer Rush is an American/German-based pop/rock singer, best known for the million-selling single "The Power of Love", which she co-wrote and which went on to be covered by Laura Branigan and Celine Dion.-Career:...
, The Mods, 4 Bills & a Ben, and, most recently The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.
Simmonds has a long standing relationship with Neil Innes
Neil Innes
Neil James Innes is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python, and for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.-Personal life:...
, hence The Rutles
The Rutles
The Rutles are a band that are known for their visual and aural pastiches and parodies of The Beatles. Originally created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes as a fictional band to be featured as part of various 1970s television programming, the group recorded, toured, and released two UK chart hits in...
(including all the arrangements on Archaeology 1996) and The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, whose studio album Pour l'Amour des Chiens
Pour l'Amour des Chiens
Pour l'Amour Des Chiens is the first all new studio album by The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band in 35 years...
was co-produced by Simmonds & Innes.
Simmonds has released two solo albums, The Shape of Rain (1996) and The Seven Colours of Emptiness (2009). As influences, he cites progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
acts such as early Genesis
Genesis (band)
Genesis are an English rock band that formed in 1967. The band currently comprises the longest-tenured members Tony Banks , Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins . Past members Peter Gabriel , Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips , also played major roles in the band in its early years...
, Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, also known as ELP, are an English progressive rock supergroup. They found success in the 1970s and sold over forty million albums and headlined large stadium concerts. The band consists of Keith Emerson , Greg Lake and Carl Palmer...
and Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
.
Work with Mike Oldfield
Simmonds played on three albums; The Complete Mike OldfieldThe Complete Mike Oldfield
The Complete Mike Oldfield is a compilation album by Mike Oldfield, released on Virgin Records on 1 October 1985. The double album is subdivided into four sections, with The instrumental section and The Vocal section containing shorter pieces, and The Complex section and The Live section containing...
(1985), Islands
Islands (Mike Oldfield album)
Islands is the 11th album by Mike Oldfield, released in 1987. Guest singers on the album are Bonnie Tyler, Kevin Ayers, Anita Hegerland and Jim Price. A different track list and cover was used for the American edition....
(1987), and Heaven's Open
Heaven's Open
Heaven's Open is the 14th record album performed by Mike Oldfield, released in 1991. It was his last album on Virgin, and also the only album he released under the name Michael Oldfield, instead of Mike Oldfield.- History :...
(1991), as well as on tour 1983 -1993.
Work with Fish
Simmonds was the dominant writer on Fish's 1990 solo debut Vigil in a Wilderness of MirrorsVigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors
Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors was the first solo album that rock singer Fish released after he departed Marillion in 1988. Although the recordings for this album finished as early as June 1989, EMI Records decided to delay the release until early 1990, to avoid collision with Marillion's album...
, also co-wrote all tracks on the follow-up album Internal Exile
Internal Exile
Internal Exile was Fish's second solo album after leaving Marillion in 1988. The album, released 28 October 1991, was inspired by the singer's past, his own personal problems and his troubled experiences with his previous record label EMI.The album's music reflects Fish's indulgence in the vast...
and performed on the tours promoting these albums. Fish described him as the musical director of his early solo years. He resigned in 1992 to be replaced by Foster Patterson, but later returned for the tour promoting Sunsets on Empire
Sunsets on Empire
Sunsets on Empire is a studio album by Fish, the fourth with original material since he left Marillion in 1988. It was mostly written together with Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree, who co-composed six of ten tracks on the original version and also produced the album...
(1997) and co-wrote two and performed on three tracks on Raingods with Zippos
Raingods with Zippos
Raingods with Zippos is a 1999 Progressive rock album by ex-Marillion vocalist Fish. It was released on the Roadrunner record label, more well known for its heavy metal releases. Raingods with Zippos is often hailed one of Fish's greatest achievements along with his 1990 debut Vigil in a Wilderness...
(1999).
Work with Camel
Simmonds toured with CamelCamel (band)
Camel are an English progressive rock band formed in 1971. An important group in the Canterbury scene, they have been releasing studio and live recordings steadily, with considerable success, since their formation.-1970s:...
during the tour following the Dust and Dreams album release in 1992 (which had featured Ton Scherpenzeel
Ton Scherpenzeel
Ton Scherpenzeel is a keyboardist and a founding member of the Dutch rock band Kayak, together with Pim Koopman and Max Werner whom he met whilst at the Hilversum Muziek Lyceum ....
on keyboards), performances of which appeared on the Camel live album Never Let Go
Never Let Go (live)
Never Let Go is a live album by the progressive rock band Camel released in 1993. It was recorded in Enschede, Holland, September 5, 1992.-Track listing:Disc one# "Never Let Go" – 7:22# "Earthrise" – 8:02...
(1993); he also played on the subsequent studio album Harbour of Tears
Harbour of Tears
Harbour of Tears is a studio concept album by English progressive rock band Camel. It tells the story of an Irish family who is painfully separated as their young ones depart to the United States to seek a better future...
(1996). Foster Patterson, his successor in Fish's solo band, would later take his place in Camel as well.
Work with Renaissance
Simmonds appeared on Tuscany (2001) and the live album In the Land of the Rising Sun: Live in Japan 2002.Work with XII Alfonso
Simmonds worked with a FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
band from Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
called XII Alfonso on The Lost Frontier (1996), Odyssées (1999), Claude Monet vol.2 1889–1904 (2005), Charles Darwin (Fall 2011).