Sylvia McNeill
Encyclopedia
Sylvia McNeill was born 5 August 1947 in Harrogate
, North Yorkshire
, England.
She began her career singing and playing bass guitar with various groups and bands. She went abroad for several years, touring American bases on the continent. In 1969 she moved to London; since then she has appeared as a soloist in cabaret through the UK.
As well as a bass player for Leapy Lee
, she recorded as a solo vocalist from 1968 to 1975, including RCA
, Bell
, and United Artists
labels and she recorded such titles as “That’s Alright By Me”(composer Richard Kerr)
, “Ugly Man”
(composer Jim Ford
), “Chelsea Morning
” (composer Joni Mitchell
), “Be My Friend” (originally by Free
), “A Whiter Shade Of Pale
” (originally by Procol Harum
) and “I Don't Know How To Love Him
” (composers Andrew Lloyd Webber
& Tim Rice
) - the latter was released (11 August 1972), as by Sylvie McNeill, in time for the first UK stage musical of “Jesus Christ Superstar
”; she had actually performed it on The Benny Hill
Show” (original air date: 23 February 1972). Her producers included Kenny Young
, Jack Good
, Tony Hall, Tony Macaulay
, and Ed Welch
.
In one eighteen month period Sylvia made over thirty appearances on television including “The Benny Hill
Show”, “The Dave Allen Show”, "The Eric Morecambe
& Ernie Wise
” Show, “The Simon Dee
Show”, “The Dick Emery
Show”, “Roger Whittaker
’s World Of Music”, “The Golden Shot
”, Anglia TV "Glamour '70" Series (The search for Miss Anglia 1970, Heat 7 - staged in Grimsby, England), Ulster TV and her own eight week series for Grampian Television.
In addition to her own recordings, she sang on the track "Anne Boleyn/The Day Thou Gavest Lord Hath Ended" for keyboardist Rick Wakeman
's 1973 album The Six Wives of Henry VIII
.
In 1971 she acted in Emil Dean Zoghby and Ray Pohlman's musical, Catch My Soul
, at the Prince of Wales Theatre
in London, England with Lance LeGault
, Lon Satton
, Sharon Gurney, and Malcolm Rennie in the cast. This rock musical was produced by Jack Good
and directed by Braham Murray
and Michael Elliott
.
Harrogate
Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England. The town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters, RHS Harlow Carr gardens, and Betty's Tea Rooms. From the town one can explore the nearby Yorkshire Dales national park. Harrogate originated in the 17th...
, North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...
, England.
She began her career singing and playing bass guitar with various groups and bands. She went abroad for several years, touring American bases on the continent. In 1969 she moved to London; since then she has appeared as a soloist in cabaret through the UK.
As well as a bass player for Leapy Lee
Leapy Lee
Leapy Lee is an English singer, best known for his 1968 single "Little Arrows", which reached Number 2 in the UK Singles Chart and was a Top 40 country and pop hit in the United States.-Career:The song "Little Arrows", written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood, was also...
, she recorded as a solo vocalist from 1968 to 1975, including 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...
, Bell
Bell Records
Bell Records was an American record label founded in 1952 by Arthur Shimkin in New York, the owner of children's record label Golden Records, and initially a unit of Pocket Books, after the rights to the name were acquired from Benny Bell who used the Bell name to issue risque novelty records. A...
, and United Artists
United Artists Records
United Artists Records was a record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 initially to distribute records of its movie soundtracks, though it soon branched out into recording music of a number of different genres.-History:...
labels and she recorded such titles as “That’s Alright By Me”(composer Richard Kerr)
Richard Kerr (songwriter)
Richard Kerr is an English composer, who co-wrote "Mandy", "Looks Like We Made It" and "Somewhere in the Night" - all of which became hit singles for Barry Manilow.-Career:...
, “Ugly Man”
Jim Ford
Jim Ford was an American singer-songwriter originally from Johnson County, Kentucky. After living in New Orleans, Ford moved to Los Angeles, and finally settled in Fort Bragg, CA. His music is a mixture of soul, country and folk. His songs have been recorded by numerous artists, including Aretha...
(composer Jim Ford
Jim Ford
Jim Ford was an American singer-songwriter originally from Johnson County, Kentucky. After living in New Orleans, Ford moved to Los Angeles, and finally settled in Fort Bragg, CA. His music is a mixture of soul, country and folk. His songs have been recorded by numerous artists, including Aretha...
), “Chelsea Morning
Chelsea Morning
"Chelsea Morning" is a song written by Joni Mitchell and introduced on the singer's 1969 album Clouds..The song was inspired by Mitchell's room in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. The inspiration for the first verse comes partly from the distinct décor of her apartment...
” (composer Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
), “Be My Friend” (originally by Free
Free (band)
Free were an English rock band, formed in London in 1968, best known for their 1970 signature song "All Right Now". They disbanded in 1973 and lead singer Paul Rodgers went on to become a frontman of the band Bad Company along with Simon Kirke on drums; lead guitarist Paul Kossoff died from a...
), “A Whiter Shade Of Pale
A Whiter Shade of Pale
"A Whiter Shade of Pale" is the debut song by the British band Procol Harum, released 12 May 1967. The single reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 8 June 1967, and stayed there for six weeks. Without much promotion, it reached #5 on the US charts, as well...
” (originally by Procol Harum
Procol Harum
Procol Harum are a British rock band, formed in 1967, which contributed to the development of progressive rock, and by extension, symphonic rock. Their best-known recording is their 1967 single "A Whiter Shade of Pale"...
) and “I Don't Know How To Love Him
I Don't Know How to Love Him
"I Don't Know How to Love Him" is a song from the 1970 rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice , a torch ballad sung by the character of Mary Magdalene who in Jesus Christ Superstar is presented as bearing an unrequited love for the title character...
” (composers Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
& Tim Rice
Tim Rice
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...
) - the latter was released (11 August 1972), as by Sylvie McNeill, in time for the first UK stage musical of “Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971...
”; she had actually performed it on The Benny Hill
Benny Hill
Benny Hill was an English comedian and actor, notable for his long-running television programme The Benny Hill Show.-Early life:...
Show” (original air date: 23 February 1972). Her producers included Kenny Young
Kenny Young
Kenny Young is an American songwriter who has been an active writer, artist, and producer from 1963 to the present. His most famous song was "Under the Boardwalk," co-written with Arthur Resnick and recorded by The Drifters in 1964 and by The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, and many other artists;...
, Jack Good
Jack Good (producer)
Jack Good is a pioneering former TV television producer, musical theatre producer, record producer, musician and painter of icons.-Career:...
, Tony Hall, Tony Macaulay
Tony Macaulay
Tony Macaulay is a British author, composer for musical theatre, and songwriter, though it was the latter that made him a household name early in his career...
, and Ed Welch
Ed Welch
Edward William "Ed" Welch is an English television composer.-Career:In 1971, he recorded an album, Clowns, including songs he had co-written with Tom Paxton, and session musicians including Mike de Albuquerque and Cozy Powell. In 1972, acted as producer on a version of “I Don't Know How to Love...
.
In one eighteen month period Sylvia made over thirty appearances on television including “The Benny Hill
Benny Hill
Benny Hill was an English comedian and actor, notable for his long-running television programme The Benny Hill Show.-Early life:...
Show”, “The Dave Allen Show”, "The Eric Morecambe
Eric Morecambe
John Eric Bartholomew OBE , known by his stage name Eric Morecambe, was an English comedian who together with Ernie Wise formed the award-winning double act Morecambe and Wise. The partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's death of a heart attack in 1984...
& Ernie Wise
Ernie Wise
Ernest Wiseman OBE , known by his stage name Ernie Wise, was an English comedian, best known as one half of the comedy duo Morecambe and Wise, who became an institution on British television, especially for their Christmas specials.-Career:Ernest Wiseman was the eldest of five children, and changed...
” Show, “The Simon Dee
Simon Dee
Cyril Nicholas Henty-Dodd , better known by his stage name Simon Dee, was a British television interviewer and radio disc jockey who hosted a twice-weekly BBC TV chat show, Dee Time in the late 1960s...
Show”, “The Dick Emery
Dick Emery
Richard Gilbert "Dick" Emery was an English comedian and actor. Beginning on radio in the 1950s, an eponymous television series ran from 1963 to 1981. He was the brother of Ann Emery.-Life and career:...
Show”, “Roger Whittaker
Roger Whittaker
Roger Whittaker is an Anglo-Kenyan singer-songwriter and musician with worldwide record sales of over 55 million. His music can be described as easy listening. He is best known for his baritone singing voice and trademark whistling ability...
’s World Of Music”, “The Golden Shot
The Golden Shot
The Golden Shot is a British television game show produced by ATV for ITV between 1 July 1967 and 13 April 1975, based on the German TV show Der goldene Schuss. It is most commonly associated with host Bob Monkhouse, though, three other presenters also hosted the show during its lifetime...
”, Anglia TV "Glamour '70" Series (The search for Miss Anglia 1970, Heat 7 - staged in Grimsby, England), Ulster TV and her own eight week series for Grampian Television.
In addition to her own recordings, she sang on the track "Anne Boleyn/The Day Thou Gavest Lord Hath Ended" for keyboardist Rick Wakeman
Rick Wakeman
Richard Christopher Wakeman is an English keyboard player, composer and songwriter best known for being the former keyboardist in the progressive rock band Yes...
's 1973 album The Six Wives of Henry VIII
The Six Wives of Henry VIII (album)
The Six Wives of Henry VIII is the debut studio album from the English keyboardist and composer Rick Wakeman, released in January 1973 on A&M Records. It is an instrumental progressive rock album with its concept based on his interpretations of the musical characteristics of the six wives of Henry...
.
In 1971 she acted in Emil Dean Zoghby and Ray Pohlman's musical, Catch My Soul
Catch My Soul (UK stage version)
Disambiguation: for Film version see Catch My SoulCatch My Soul was the UK stage version of the rock musical produced by Jack Good. The show was a showcase for the talents of Lance LeGault, PP Arnold, P.J. Proby and an introduction to the rock musician Robert Tench and the band Gass...
, at the Prince of Wales Theatre
Prince of Wales Theatre
The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre on Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in the City of Westminster. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner...
in London, England with Lance LeGault
Lance LeGault
Lance LeGault , sometimes credited as W. L. LeGault, is an American film and television actor, best known as Colonel Roderick Decker in the 1980s American television series The A-Team.-Personal life:...
, Lon Satton
Lon Satton
Lon Satton Born: 1929, Philadelphia. U.S.A., is an actor and composer mostly known in Britain.- Stage works : He acted in Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill, and Ian McDiarmid's musical, "The Three Penny Opera," at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, England with Vanessa Redgrave, Joe Melia, Ronald...
, Sharon Gurney, and Malcolm Rennie in the cast. This rock musical was produced by Jack Good
Jack Good (producer)
Jack Good is a pioneering former TV television producer, musical theatre producer, record producer, musician and painter of icons.-Career:...
and directed by Braham Murray
Braham Murray
Braham Murray, OBE is an English theatre director. He has been an Artistic Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester since its foundation in 1976.-Early years:...
and Michael Elliott
Michael Elliott
Michael Elliott, OBE was an English theatre and television director.-Early life:He was born in London the son of a clergyman, Canon Elliott and was educated at Radley College and Keble College, Oxford...
.