Pete Atkin
Encyclopedia
Pete Atkin is a British
singer-songwriter
and radio producer
notable for his 1970s musical collaborations with Clive James
and for producing the BBC Radio 4
series This Sceptred Isle
.
on 22 August 1945, Atkin attended Romsey County Primary School and The Perse School, where he learnt to play the violin
. In 1959 he formed a church youth club band called The Chevrons for whom he played piano with four schoolfriends. He studied Classics
and English
at Cambridge University
where he was a member of St John's College
. In 1966 he joined Cambridge Footlights, for whom he became the musical director of the revues.
with Julie Covington
to record the most popular number from the 1967 Revue Show: the complex Duet, which had appeared on his first album. At six minutes, it was too long to be a single and has never received commercial release; the tape has since been lost. Atkin released another privately pressed album in 99 copies entitled The Party's Moving On in 1969.
Essex Music funded the recording of fourteen tracks in 1969. The producer, Don Paul
, was a friend of the disc jockey Kenny Everett
, who played, amongst others, the song Master Of The Revels which is the first track on his first album Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger. The lyrics to this, and all but two of the other tracks on the album, by Atkin, were written by Clive James who met Atkin whilst they were both members of Footlights.
Before the release of Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger in 1970 Atkin, Covington and Dai Davies
recorded a series of twelve 15-minute programmes edited by James for London Weekend Television
. These shows, also called The Party's Moving On, each featured three songs and were broadcast only in London late at night. They led to the commissioning of the larger revue format series What Are You Doing After The Show?
Atkin did, and still does, write his own lyrics, but it was the collaboration with Clive James that produced his most famous songs. Pete Atkin and Clive James recorded six albums in the 1970s, as well as writing an album for Julie Covington
, best known for her number one hit Don't Cry For Me Argentina in 1976. However, despite Atkin's popularity on the college performance circuit the records did not sell in any great numbers. When singer Val Doonican
recorded a cover version of the song "The Flowers and the Wine" the royalties from that alone exceeded the total from all album sales. For Atkin, touring provided a respectable but not luxurious income.
The release of the fourth album, "The Road of Silk" was accompanied by a promotional tour with a backing band featuring the guitarist Chris Spedding
, in contrast to Atkin's usual solo tours. Despite the investment this implied, Atkin and James became increasingly dissatisfied with their handling by their record label, RCA
. After the release of the next album "Secret Drinker" they had no wish to continue the relationship, and to fill their contractual obligations they concocted the album "Live Libel", a collection of humour pieces which Atkin had used over the years to lighten the mood in concerts. Paradoxically this album resulted in their most successful tour to date, as Clive James joined Pete Atkin on stage for an evening of song, satire and poetry. Clive James read from the first of his epic poetic satires, "The Fate of Felicity Fark in the Land of the Media" while Pete Atkin sang songs from the latest release and previous favourites.
To their dismay, the offers from other record labels did not flow in after the tour ended. Clive James returned to his blossoming career, while Atkin, after trying to make a living as a carpenter, responded to a Situation Vacant notice from the BBC, and thus embarked on the next phase of his career.
. Other references include Rainer Maria Rilke
's Duino Elegies
and William Shakespeare
's sonnets.
Atkin's musical settings drew most of their inspiration from Tin Pan Alley
, although in the above mentioned Carnations on the Roof he set a somber description of a working class life to themes characteristic of Tamla Motown. Often Atkin turned James' intentions upside down, as with The Last Hill That Shows You All The Valley, which James wrote as a dirge
but which Atkin set to a thumping, angry rock beat. The combination worked as James' mournful cataloguing of man's inhumanity to man
became a cry of protest.
A sonnet
in French by Gérard de Nerval
, El Desdichado, which begins "Je suis le ténébreux, le veuf" (roughly I am the shadowy man, the widower), inspired two separate lyrics by James, one of which was The Shadow and the Widower, an interior dialogue reflecting on a failed romance as a man wanders home through a sterile urban landscape. The same poem, coincidentally, was set to music and performed by Flanders and Swann
. A detailed breakdown of the references within this song (and several others) can be found on Pete Atkin's website.
In 1976 Atkin's recording contract with RCA Records
expired and he concentrated on renovating his house and building furniture for other people. He also wrote columns on DIY for the UK environmentalist
magazine Vole
. Chris Parr
of the Traverse Theatre
, Edinburgh
commissioned Atkin to write a musical play for their Festival season in 1977. The result was A & R, which was substantially re-written for a 1978 production by the Royal Shakespeare Company
at the Donmar Warehouse
in London where it ran for six months in repertory.
In 1981 Atkin succeeded Griff Rhys Jones
as BBC Radio Light Entertainment Producer. He subsequently became a Script Editor in 1983 and Chief Producer, Radio 4 in 1986. His productions included Just a Minute
, My Word!
, My Music, Week Ending
, Legal, Decent, Honest and Truthful (written by Guy Jenkin and Jon Canter
, and starring Martin Jarvis), After Henry (by Simon Brett
with Prunella Scales
, Joan Sanderson
, Ben Whitrow
, and Gerry Cowper
), Second Thoughts, Christopher Lee's The House, Flying The Flag, Peter Tinniswood's Uncle Mort's North Country, Jarvis's Frayn, My Grandfather, Martin Jarvis reading Richmal Crompton
's Just William
stories, and Yes Minister
.
Atkin moved to Bristol
in 1989 to be Head of BBC Network Radio there. After four years in post, he became a freelance producer in 1993. His most notable freelance production is This Sceptr'd Isle — a 216-part specially commissioned history of Britain, written by historian Christopher Lee
and read by Anna Massey
, Paul Eddington
, Peter Jeffrey
, and others (including Atkin himself under a pseudonym), recorded and broadcast over 14 months in 1995 and 1996. It was re-edited for release on ten BBC double cassettes and won the 1996 Talkie Award for best non-fiction, best design, and Talkie of the Year. Atkin also worked as script editor for Hat Trick Productions
, as part of their sitcom and drama development team.
In 2005 Atkin provided the voice of Mr. Crock in the animated movie "Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit". He also received a "special consultant" credit for the movie "Chicken Run
" (2000), which was created and produced by the same studios, Aardman Animations
. Both Aardman and Pete Atkin are based in Bristol
.
Atkin also worked as a voice director on the twelfth season
/C.G.I. version of Thomas the Tank Engine
and the C.G.I. version of Fireman Sam
.
The revival, however, dates back to 1996 when Steve Birkill, an electronics entrepreneur and satellite television pioneer, approached Atkin at a concert and asked permission to create a website celebrating his work. Pete provided a good deal of background information for this, and along with the usual fansite materials, there was a mailing list to which the interested and the curious could subscribe. Unusually Birkill elected to distribute the messages manually rather than relying on an electronic mailing list
such as majordomo. He named the list "Midnight Voices" from the lyric of the song "Payday Evening".
Birkill also invited Atkin to headline a local folk festival he supported in Monyash
, Derbyshire
. On the strength of Atkin's performance and the response to it, not to mention Atkin himself realizing he still had an audience, this was repeated the following year, with accompanying performance CD releases by subscription. The second show also featured a tribute band
, a varying cast of amateur players under the rubric of "The Beautiful Changers" whose performance was at least enthusiastic. Consensus among the Midnight Voices was that the shows should be an annual event. Later versions of the show used small theater or school hall venues, with other professional artists invited to perform as well.
At the 2000 show, Atkin announced that the music conglomerate BMG
, which had acquired the RCA catalogue and rights, had finally released the master recordings for the final four of his albums. They were subsequently re-released on CD in the same fashion as the first two, whose rights had been owned by a different company.
Atkin then recorded The Lakeside Sessions—a double CD of new recordings of some of the Atkin/James songs which never made it onto vinyl the first time round. The CD Winter Spring is made up entirely of new material co-written with James. His latest CD "Midnight Voices" made with Simon Wallace
consists of reworkings of 15 songs originally written and released in the seventies. It is available from Hillside Music's website only in 2007 but set for a wider release in 2008. The title is in part a tribute to the "virtual and actual group of friends and aficionados" i.e. Steve Birkill and the other members of the Midnight Voices discussion group.
In 2002 the electronic music outfit Lemon Jelly
used a guitar sample from The Pearl Driller (from Driving Through Mythical America album) as part of the Nice Weather For Ducks.
Atkin resides with his American wife in Bristol where he performs as the piano/keyboard player in Bristol
-based band The Shrinks.
The Midnight Voices mailing list has now been replaced by an online discussion forum with multiple subject areas.
Driving Through Mythical America Philips (1971), RCA (1973)
A King At Nightfall - RCA (1973)
The Road Of Silk - RCA (1974)
Secret Drinker - RCA (1974)
Live Libel - RCA (1975)
The Lakeside Sessions, Volume 1: History & Geography - CD, Hillside Music (2001)
The Lakeside Sessions, Volume 2: A Dream Of Fair Women - CD, Hillside Music (2001)
The Lakeside Sessions - Double CD, Hillside Music (2002)
Winter Spring - CD, 10 new songs, Hillside Music (2003)
Midnight Voices - CD 15 Songs, Hillside Music (official release in Feb 2008)
A King At Nightfall / The Road Of Silk...plus - Double CD, See For Miles (2001), now deleted.
Secret Drinker / Live Libel - 2-on-1 CD, See For Miles (2001), now deleted
Beware of the Beautiful Stranger, Edsel (2009)
Driving Through Mythical America, Edsel (2009)
A King At Nightfall / The Road Of Silk - double CD, Edsel (2009).
Secret Drinker / Live Libel - double CD, Edsel (2009).
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...
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...
and radio producer
Radio producer
A radio producer oversees the making of a radio show. There are two main types of producer. An audio or creative producer and a content producer. Audio producers create sounds and audio specifically, content producers oversee and orchestrate a radio show or feature...
notable for his 1970s musical collaborations with Clive James
Clive James
Clive James, AM is an Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet and memoirist, best known for his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs, for his chat shows and documentaries on British television and for his prolific journalism...
and for producing the BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
series This Sceptred Isle
This Sceptred Isle
This Sceptred Isle is a BBC radio series about the history of the lands and peoples of the British Isles. It was produced by Pete Atkin and broadcast in 1995 twice each day --- in the morning and late at night --- on Radio 4...
.
Early life
Born in CambridgeCambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
on 22 August 1945, Atkin attended Romsey County Primary School and The Perse School, where he learnt to play the violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
. In 1959 he formed a church youth club band called The Chevrons for whom he played piano with four schoolfriends. He studied Classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
and English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
at Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
where he was a member of St John's College
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints....
. In 1966 he joined Cambridge Footlights, for whom he became the musical director of the revues.
Music career
Atkin made his first recording in 1967: a private pressing of 160 copies of While The Music Lasts. Next year he was taken to EMIEMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
with Julie Covington
Julie Covington
Julie Covington is an English singer and actress, best known for recording the original version of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina".-Career:...
to record the most popular number from the 1967 Revue Show: the complex Duet, which had appeared on his first album. At six minutes, it was too long to be a single and has never received commercial release; the tape has since been lost. Atkin released another privately pressed album in 99 copies entitled The Party's Moving On in 1969.
Essex Music funded the recording of fourteen tracks in 1969. The producer, Don Paul
Don Paul
Don Paul may refer to:*Don Paul , former linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams*Don Paul , former cornerback for the Chicago Cardinals and the Cleveland Browns...
, was a friend of the disc jockey Kenny Everett
Kenny Everett
Kenny Everett was an English comedian, radio DJ and television entertainer. Born Maurice James Christopher Cole, Everett is best known for his career as a radio DJ and for the Kenny Everett television shows.-Early life:...
, who played, amongst others, the song Master Of The Revels which is the first track on his first album Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger. The lyrics to this, and all but two of the other tracks on the album, by Atkin, were written by Clive James who met Atkin whilst they were both members of Footlights.
Before the release of Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger in 1970 Atkin, Covington and Dai Davies
Russell Davies
Robert Russell Davies , known as Russell Davies, is a British journalist and broadcaster. He presents a Sunday radio programme on BBC Radio 2 which spotlights popular song, as well as Brain of Britain on Radio 4.-Background:...
recorded a series of twelve 15-minute programmes edited by James for London Weekend Television
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...
. These shows, also called The Party's Moving On, each featured three songs and were broadcast only in London late at night. They led to the commissioning of the larger revue format series What Are You Doing After The Show?
Atkin did, and still does, write his own lyrics, but it was the collaboration with Clive James that produced his most famous songs. Pete Atkin and Clive James recorded six albums in the 1970s, as well as writing an album for Julie Covington
Julie Covington
Julie Covington is an English singer and actress, best known for recording the original version of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina".-Career:...
, best known for her number one hit Don't Cry For Me Argentina in 1976. However, despite Atkin's popularity on the college performance circuit the records did not sell in any great numbers. When singer Val Doonican
Val Doonican
Val Doonican is an Irish singer. From 1965 to 1986 he was a regular fixture on the BBC Television's schedule with The Val Doonican Show, which featured his own singing performances and a variety of guest artists...
recorded a cover version of the song "The Flowers and the Wine" the royalties from that alone exceeded the total from all album sales. For Atkin, touring provided a respectable but not luxurious income.
The release of the fourth album, "The Road of Silk" was accompanied by a promotional tour with a backing band featuring the guitarist Chris Spedding
Chris Spedding
Chris Spedding is an English rock and roll and jazz guitarist, best known for his session work. Allmusic states - "Spedding is one of the UK's most versatile session guitarists, and has had a long career on two continents that saw him tackle nearly every style of rock and roll, as well as...
, in contrast to Atkin's usual solo tours. Despite the investment this implied, Atkin and James became increasingly dissatisfied with their handling by their record label, 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...
. After the release of the next album "Secret Drinker" they had no wish to continue the relationship, and to fill their contractual obligations they concocted the album "Live Libel", a collection of humour pieces which Atkin had used over the years to lighten the mood in concerts. Paradoxically this album resulted in their most successful tour to date, as Clive James joined Pete Atkin on stage for an evening of song, satire and poetry. Clive James read from the first of his epic poetic satires, "The Fate of Felicity Fark in the Land of the Media" while Pete Atkin sang songs from the latest release and previous favourites.
To their dismay, the offers from other record labels did not flow in after the tour ended. Clive James returned to his blossoming career, while Atkin, after trying to make a living as a carpenter, responded to a Situation Vacant notice from the BBC, and thus embarked on the next phase of his career.
The Songs
James' lyrics were far from mainstream popular music, being frequently dense with poetic references. At their most accessible they might describe the life of a machine tool shop supervisor, as in Carnations on the Roof. A song such as My Egoist, in contrast, is translated almost entirely from a poem by Guillaume ApollinaireGuillaume Apollinaire
Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....
. Other references include Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
's Duino Elegies
Duino Elegies
The Duino Elegies are a set of ten elegies written in German by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke from 1912 to 1922. They are frequently referred to as Rilke's most acclaimed poetic work.-Presentation:...
and William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's sonnets.
Atkin's musical settings drew most of their inspiration from Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...
, although in the above mentioned Carnations on the Roof he set a somber description of a working class life to themes characteristic of Tamla Motown. Often Atkin turned James' intentions upside down, as with The Last Hill That Shows You All The Valley, which James wrote as a dirge
Dirge
A dirge is a somber song expressing mourning or grief, such as would be appropriate for performance at a funeral. A lament. The English word "dirge" is derived from the Latin Dirige, Domine, Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam , the first words of the first antiphon in the Matins of the Office...
but which Atkin set to a thumping, angry rock beat. The combination worked as James' mournful cataloguing of man's inhumanity to man
Man's inhumanity to man
The phrase "Man's inhumanity to man" is first documented in my balls]] poem called Man was made to mourn: A Dirge in 1784. It is possible that Burns reworded a similar quote from Samuel von Pufendorf who in 1673 wrote, "More inhumanity has been done by man himself than any other of nature's...
became a cry of protest.
A sonnet
Sonnet
A sonnet is one of several forms of poetry that originate in Europe, mainly Provence and Italy. A sonnet commonly has 14 lines. The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song" or "little sound"...
in French by Gérard de Nerval
Gérard de Nerval
Gérard de Nerval was the nom-de-plume of the French poet, essayist and translator Gérard Labrunie, one of the most essentially Romantic French poets.- Biography :...
, El Desdichado, which begins "Je suis le ténébreux, le veuf" (roughly I am the shadowy man, the widower), inspired two separate lyrics by James, one of which was The Shadow and the Widower, an interior dialogue reflecting on a failed romance as a man wanders home through a sterile urban landscape. The same poem, coincidentally, was set to music and performed by Flanders and Swann
Flanders and Swann
The British duo Flanders and Swann were the actor and singer Michael Flanders and the composer, pianist and linguist Donald Swann , who collaborated in writing and performing comic songs....
. A detailed breakdown of the references within this song (and several others) can be found on Pete Atkin's website.
Other work
After this James became a well-known television personality and Atkin became a radio producer. Their music catalog went out of print until all six original albums were re-released on CD in the 1990s.In 1976 Atkin's recording contract with RCA Records
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...
expired and he concentrated on renovating his house and building furniture for other people. He also wrote columns on DIY for the UK environmentalist
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
magazine Vole
Vole (magazine)
Vole was a British environmentalist magazine published between 1977 and 1980. The magazine was intended to have a more light-hearted tone than the other countryside and ecology magazines of the time: the founders' working title for the magazine was "The Questing Vole", from a nature column...
. Chris Parr
Chris Parr
Chris Parr is a British theatre director and television executive.In the late 1960s and early 1970s Parr was Fellow in Theatre at the University of Bradford. In the mid 1970s he became Artistic Director of the Traverse Theatre....
of the Traverse Theatre
Traverse Theatre
The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1963.The Traverse Theatre commissions and develops new plays or adaptations from contemporary playwrights. It also presents a large number of productions from visiting companies from across the UK. These include new plays,...
, Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
commissioned Atkin to write a musical play for their Festival season in 1977. The result was A & R, which was substantially re-written for a 1978 production by the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
at the Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...
in London where it ran for six months in repertory.
In 1981 Atkin succeeded Griff Rhys Jones
Griff Rhys Jones
Griffith "Griff" Rhys Jones is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, television presenter and personality. Jones came to national attention in the early 1980s for his work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Mel Smith...
as BBC Radio Light Entertainment Producer. He subsequently became a Script Editor in 1983 and Chief Producer, Radio 4 in 1986. His productions included Just a Minute
Just a Minute
Just a Minute is a BBC Radio 4 radio comedy panel game chaired by Nicholas Parsons. Its first transmission on Radio 4 was on 22 December 1967, three months after the station's launch. The Radio 4 programme won a Gold Sony Radio Academy Award in 2003....
, My Word!
My Word!
My Word! was a long-running radio panel game broadcast by the BBC on the Home Service and Radio 4 . It was created by Edward J. Mason and Tony Shryane, and featured comic writers Denis Norden and Frank Muir, famous in Britain for the series Take It From Here...
, My Music, Week Ending
Week Ending
Week Ending... was a satirical radio current affairs sketch show, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4, usually on Friday evenings. It was devised by writer/producers Simon Brett and David Hatch, and was originally hosted by Nationwide presenter Michael Barratt.The show's title was always announced as...
, Legal, Decent, Honest and Truthful (written by Guy Jenkin and Jon Canter
Jon Canter
Jon Canter is an English television comedy writer for Lenny Henry and other leading comedians. Canter was born and brought up in the Jewish community of Golders Green, North London and studied law at the University of Cambridge where he became President of Footlights.After a spell in advertising...
, and starring Martin Jarvis), After Henry (by Simon Brett
Simon Brett
Simon Brett is a prolific writer of whodunnits. The son of a chartered surveyor, he was educated at Dulwich College and Wadham College, Oxford, where he got a first-class honours degree in English...
with Prunella Scales
Prunella Scales
Prunella Scales CBE is an English actress, known for her role as Basil Fawlty's long-suffering wife in the British comedy Fawlty Towers and her award-nominated role as Queen Elizabeth II in the British film A Question of Attribution.-Career:Throughout her long career, Scales has usually been cast...
, Joan Sanderson
Joan Sanderson
Joan Sanderson was an English television and stage actress. During a long career she invariably played dragonish dowagers, stuck-up spinsters and suburban matrons.-Theatre:...
, Ben Whitrow
Benjamin Whitrow
Benjamin "Ben" Whitrow is a British actor. He attended the Dragon School, Tonbridge School, and RADA. Whitrow was also part of the King's Dragoon Guards from 1956 to 1958. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1981...
, and Gerry Cowper
Gerry Cowper
Geraldine Cowper is an English actress who is best known for playing Rosie Miller in EastEnders. In the mid 1980s she took the part of Clare France in After Henry on BBC radio and also appeared on television as Jim Hacker's daughter in Yes Minister.-Career:Cowper was Clare France, the youngest of...
), Second Thoughts, Christopher Lee's The House, Flying The Flag, Peter Tinniswood's Uncle Mort's North Country, Jarvis's Frayn, My Grandfather, Martin Jarvis reading Richmal Crompton
Richmal Crompton
Richmal Crompton Lamburn was a British writer, most famous for her Just William humorous short stories and books.-Life:...
's Just William
Just William
Just William is the first book of children's short stories about the young school boy William Brown, written by Richmal Crompton, and published in 1922. The book was the first in the series of William Brown books which was the basis for numerous television series, films and radio adaptations...
stories, and Yes Minister
Yes Minister
Yes Minister is a satirical British sitcom written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn that was first transmitted by BBC Television between 1980–1982 and 1984, split over three seven-episode series. The sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, ran from 1986 to 1988. In total there were 38 episodes—of which all but...
.
Atkin moved to Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
in 1989 to be Head of BBC Network Radio there. After four years in post, he became a freelance producer in 1993. His most notable freelance production is This Sceptr'd Isle — a 216-part specially commissioned history of Britain, written by historian Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee (historian)
Christopher Lee is a British writer, historian and broadcaster, best-known for writing the radio documentary series This Sceptred Isle for the BBC.Lee's career began as a defence and foreign affairs correspondent for the BBC...
and read by Anna Massey
Anna Massey
Anna Raymond Massey, CBE was an English actress. She won a BAFTA Award for the role of Edith Hope in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner’s novel Hotel du Lac.-Early life:...
, Paul Eddington
Paul Eddington
Paul Eddington CBE was an English actor best known for his appearances in popular television sitcoms of the 1970s and 80s: The Good Life, Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.-Early life:...
, Peter Jeffrey
Peter Jeffrey
Peter Jeffrey was a British actor with many roles in television and film.Jeffrey was born in Bristol, the son of Florence Alice and Arthur Winfred Gilbert Jeffrey. He was educated at Harrow School and Pembroke College, Cambridge but had no formal training as an actor...
, and others (including Atkin himself under a pseudonym), recorded and broadcast over 14 months in 1995 and 1996. It was re-edited for release on ten BBC double cassettes and won the 1996 Talkie Award for best non-fiction, best design, and Talkie of the Year. Atkin also worked as script editor for Hat Trick Productions
Hat Trick Productions
Hat Trick Productions is a British independent production company that produces television programmes, mainly specialising in comedy.-History:...
, as part of their sitcom and drama development team.
In 2005 Atkin provided the voice of Mr. Crock in the animated movie "Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit". He also received a "special consultant" credit for the movie "Chicken Run
Chicken Run
Chicken Run is a 2000 British stop-motion animation film made by the Aardman Animations studios, the production studio of the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit films...
" (2000), which was created and produced by the same studios, Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations, Ltd., also known as Aardman Studios, or simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, United Kingdom. The studio is known for films made using stop-motion clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring Plasticine characters Wallace and Gromit...
. Both Aardman and Pete Atkin are based in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
.
Atkin also worked as a voice director on the twelfth season
Thomas and Friends - Season 12
Thomas and Friends is a children's television series based on Rev. W. Awdry's children's books, The Railway Series.Season 12 premiered on 1 September, 2008 in the United Kingdom , with Michael Angelis as the narrator...
/C.G.I. version of Thomas the Tank Engine
Thomas the Tank Engine
Thomas the Tank Engine is a fictional steam locomotive in The Railway Series books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher. He became the most popular character in the series, and the accompanying television spin-off series, Thomas and Friends.Thomas is a tank engine, painted blue...
and the C.G.I. version of Fireman Sam
Fireman Sam
Fireman Sam is a Welsh animated children's television series about a fireman called Sam, his fellow firefighters, and other townspeople in the Welsh town of Pontypandy . The original idea for the show came from two ex-firemen from Kent...
.
Revival
In 2001, 2003 and 2005 Atkin and James undertook national tours of the UK talking about, reading and singing, their songs, poetry and prose. In 2003 the duo also toured Australia. Atkin has also performed occasional concerts in folk clubs.The revival, however, dates back to 1996 when Steve Birkill, an electronics entrepreneur and satellite television pioneer, approached Atkin at a concert and asked permission to create a website celebrating his work. Pete provided a good deal of background information for this, and along with the usual fansite materials, there was a mailing list to which the interested and the curious could subscribe. Unusually Birkill elected to distribute the messages manually rather than relying on an electronic mailing list
Electronic mailing list
An electronic mailing list is a special usage of email that allows for widespread distribution of information to many Internet users. It is similar to a traditional mailing list — a list of names and addresses — as might be kept by an organization for sending publications to...
such as majordomo. He named the list "Midnight Voices" from the lyric of the song "Payday Evening".
Birkill also invited Atkin to headline a local folk festival he supported in Monyash
Monyash
Monyash is a village in the Derbyshire Peak District about five miles west of Bakewell.Monyash lies at an elevation of 300m above sea level, and has a population of about 280 people. The village is located in a shallow hollow in the limestone plateau at the head of Lathkill Dale, which starts just...
, Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
. On the strength of Atkin's performance and the response to it, not to mention Atkin himself realizing he still had an audience, this was repeated the following year, with accompanying performance CD releases by subscription. The second show also featured a tribute band
Tribute band
A tribute act is a music group, singer, or musician who specifically plays the music of a well-known music act - sometimes one which has disbanded, ceased touring or is deceased. Probably the largest class of tributes acts are Elvis impersonators, individual performers who mimic the songs and style...
, a varying cast of amateur players under the rubric of "The Beautiful Changers" whose performance was at least enthusiastic. Consensus among the Midnight Voices was that the shows should be an annual event. Later versions of the show used small theater or school hall venues, with other professional artists invited to perform as well.
At the 2000 show, Atkin announced that the music conglomerate BMG
BMG
Bertelsmann Music Group, , was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japan's Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann...
, which had acquired the RCA catalogue and rights, had finally released the master recordings for the final four of his albums. They were subsequently re-released on CD in the same fashion as the first two, whose rights had been owned by a different company.
Atkin then recorded The Lakeside Sessions—a double CD of new recordings of some of the Atkin/James songs which never made it onto vinyl the first time round. The CD Winter Spring is made up entirely of new material co-written with James. His latest CD "Midnight Voices" made with Simon Wallace
Simon Wallace
Simon Wallace is a British composer and pianist.Simon Wallace was born in Newport, South Wales. He studied music at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and University College, Oxford, where he ran the Oxford University Jazz Club and played with The Oxcentrics a Dixieland jazz band...
consists of reworkings of 15 songs originally written and released in the seventies. It is available from Hillside Music's website only in 2007 but set for a wider release in 2008. The title is in part a tribute to the "virtual and actual group of friends and aficionados" i.e. Steve Birkill and the other members of the Midnight Voices discussion group.
In 2002 the electronic music outfit Lemon Jelly
Lemon Jelly
Lemon Jelly is a British electronic music duo from London, formed in 1998. Since their inception, the band's line-up has included Fred Deakin and Nick Franglen. Lemon Jelly has been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and BRIT Awards....
used a guitar sample from The Pearl Driller (from Driving Through Mythical America album) as part of the Nice Weather For Ducks.
Atkin resides with his American wife in Bristol where he performs as the piano/keyboard player in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
-based band The Shrinks.
The Midnight Voices mailing list has now been replaced by an online discussion forum with multiple subject areas.
Solo albums
Re-issues
Singles
- Be Careful When They Offer You The Moon / Master Of The Revels - Philips 6006 050 (1970)
- Carnations On The Roof / Screen-Freak - RCA 2329 (1973)
- Master Of The Revels / Thief In The Night - RCA 2416 (1973)
- The Man Who Walked Towards The Music / Senior Citizens - RCA LPBO 5012 (1974)
- I See The Joker / Sessionman's Blues (both new versions) - RCA 2517 (1975)
With The Shrinks
- Horfield To Hollywood - CD, (2000)
- On The Stoop - CD, (2002)
- More Damned Lies - CD, (2003)
- Further Along The Road -CD, (2006)
Compilations (Pete Atkin only)
- Rider To The World's End - Cassette, RCA
- Master Of The Revels - LP, RCA (1977)
- Touch Has A Memory - CD and cassette, RCA (1990)
Compilations (Various Artists)
- Heads Together / First Round - Songwriters' Workshop sampler, Vertigo (1971)
- The Mermaid Frolics - AmnestyAmnesty InternationalAmnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
Gala Benefit album, Polydor (1977) - Down River Recordings: - Live Volume 1 CD, Martin & Kingsbury (2002)
- 9 x 2 – English Contemporary Chanson - CD, Irregular Records (2002)
Private Issues
- While The Music Lasts - Private Issue LP (1967)
- The Party's Moving On - Private Issue LP (1969)
- Pete Atkin At Monyash - Private Issue concert CD (1997)
Recorded Music
- The Beautiful Changes - Julie CovingtonJulie CovingtonJulie Covington is an English singer and actress, best known for recording the original version of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina".-Career:...
, Columbia (EMI, 1971) - The Beautiful Changes...plus - Julie Covington, Re-issue CD by See For Miles (1999)
Cover versions
- Master Of The Revels - Don Partridge
- Errant Knight - John The Fish
- The Flowers And The Wine - Val DoonicanVal DoonicanVal Doonican is an Irish singer. From 1965 to 1986 he was a regular fixture on the BBC Television's schedule with The Val Doonican Show, which featured his own singing performances and a variety of guest artists...
- The Flowers And The Wine - John The Fish
- The Flowers And The Wine - Doug Ashdown
- Girl On The Train - Joe Stead
- Touch Has A Memory - Wizz JonesWizz JonesRaymond Ronald Jones better-known as Wizz Jones is an English acoustic guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has been performing since the late 1950s and recording from 1965 to the present...
External links
- The Complete Pete Atkin Discography including lyrics, chords, parody lyrics audio samples, and unreleased songs.
- PeteAtkin.com - Extensive website - unofficial but "recognised and encouraged" by Pete Atkin