The Yage Letters were an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 musical group active in the Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...

, Cumbria

Cumbria

Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...

 region, from 1991 to 1997. The group consisted of Chris Burke (guitars and vocals) and Steve Crabtree (guitars and vocals).

The Yage Letters released their only album, Northern Melodica Mews, which took more than five years to record. Northern Melodica Mews was recorded in A/O Studios. Burke and Crabtree were co-owners of the studio with songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

s Chris East and Barry Vernon. East penned the 1979 Cliff Richard

Cliff Richard

Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....

 hit single

Hit single

A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...

, "My Kinda Life", wrote songs for and with the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 duo The Judds

The Judds

The Judds were an American country music duo composed of Naomi Judd and her daughter, Wynonna Judd. Signed to RCA Records in 1983, the duo released six studio albums between then and 1991. One of the most successful acts in country music history, The Judds won five Grammy Awards for Best Country...

, and British songwriter, Mickey Jupp

Mickey Jupp

Michael 'Mickey' Jupp is an English musician and songwriter, mainly associated with the Southend music scene....

. East's song, "Mobile Alabama School Leaving Hullabaloo" went to #3 in the UK charts in 2008, as the B-side

A-side and B-side

A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...

 to "Thank You for a Lifetime" by Cliff Richard.

After his tenure with The Yage Letters, Crabtree produced and directed the 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...

 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...

, Blood on the Turntable - The Sex Pistols (2004). Crabtree also produced and directed Virtual World/Real Millions, a June 2007 episode of BBC's The Money Programme

The Money Programme

The Money Programme is a finance and business affairs television programme on BBC2.It was first broadcast on 5 April 1966 and presented by "commentators" William Davis, Erskine Childers and Joe Roeber. At this time David Attenborough was the controller of BBC2...

, which was the first full BBC programme to be broadcast inside a virtual world, Second Life

Second Life

Second Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003. A number of free client programs, or Viewers, enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars...

.

Crabtree was the series producer

Television producer

The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...

 of BBC Young Musician of the Year

BBC Young Musician of the Year

The BBC Young Musician of the Year is a televised national music competition. It is broadcast on BBC Two and BBC Four biennially, despite the name, and hosted by the British Broadcasting Corporation...

in 2008.