English singer-songwriter, arranger and director
Mike Batt
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Birth name
| Michael Philip Batt
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Born
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1949-02-06
)
6 February 1949
(age 75)
Southampton, England
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Genres
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Occupation(s)
| - Singer-songwriter
- musician
- record producer
- arranger
- director
- conductor
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Instrument(s)
| - Vocals
- piano
- guitar
- keyboards
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Years active
| 1969?present
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Labels
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Website
| www.mikebatt.com
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Musical artist
Michael Philip Batt
,
LVO
(born 6 February 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, record producer, director, and conductor. He was formerly the Deputy Chairman of the
British Phonographic Industry
.
Having attained significant international recognition as a solo artist, his notable contributions in the UK include creating
The Wombles
pop act, writing many hits including the chart-topping "
Bright Eyes
", and introducing
Katie Melua
to the music scene.
He has conducted many orchestras, including the
London Symphony
,
Royal Philharmonic
,
London Philharmonic
,
Sydney Symphony
and
Stuttgart Philharmonic
in both classical and pop recordings and performances.
Early life and career
[
edit
]
Michael Philip Batt was born on 6 February 1949, in
Southampton
, England. He attended
Peter Symonds School
,
Winchester
. His blog refers to his role as cadet Company Sergeant Major at the school.
[1]
Batt began his career in pop music at the age of eighteen when he answered an advertisement placed by
Ray Williams
in the
New Musical Express
on behalf of
Liberty Records
. Batt initially signed as a songwriter and artist to Liberty, but became head of
A&R
for the label only months later, at the age of nineteen. He signed and produced
Tony (TS) McPhee's
The Groundhogs
and produced their first album,
Scratching the Surface
. He produced, co-wrote and played piano on
Hapshash and the Coloured Coat
's second album,
Western Flier
. Also in 1969, Batt released as producer/artist a Liberty single, his cover version of
The Beatles
' "
Your Mother Should Know
".
1970s
[
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]
In the early 1970s, aged 23, married with children, and having spent £11,000 recording half of a heavy rock orchestral album that was never released and which nearly bankrupted him, Batt was asked by the producers of a new children's television programme to write the theme music. Instead of taking his £200 fee, Batt asked for the character rights for musical production.
[2]
The choice produced his first hits as a singer-songwriter/producer by
The Wombles
in 1974. The collaboration produced eight hit singles
[3]
and four
gold
albums.
No longer financially unstable, Batt moved on to work with various artists as a songwriter/producer, most successfully with
Steeleye Span
and their single and album
All Around My Hat
in 1975.
[4]
Also in 1975, at the end of the summer, he entered the
UK Singles Chart
with the only hit under his name (credited "Mike Batt with the New Edition") with "Summertime City" ? used as the theme music to
Seaside Special
, the BBC Television series recorded in various UK seaside resorts ? which reached number 4.
[5]
Batt produced
Elkie Brooks
' version of "
Lilac Wine
" in 1978. The song was a hit in the UK and across Europe. He wrote the song "
Bright Eyes
" for the animated film version of
Watership Down
. Recorded by
Art Garfunkel
, it reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart and was number one in six countries.
[6]
Batt also wrote the score for the film
Caravans
, released in 1978.
1980s
[
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]
As a singer, Batt's solo albums included
Schizophonia
and
Tarot Suite
(1979,
Epic Records
) (both with the
London Symphony Orchestra
). From these albums came the European hit songs "Railway Hotel", "Lady of the Dawn" and "
Ride to Agadir
". He worked on these recordings with such fellow artists as
Colin Blunstone
and
Roger Chapman
as singers on
Tarot Suite
. A version of "Introduction (The Journey of a Fool)" from
Tarot Suite
was used as the theme for the Sydney radio station
Triple M
, from its first broadcast in 1980 until the 1990s. Over the course of May 2010, this theme tune, still based on the main central riff from "Introduction (The Journey of a Fool)" was re-recorded by
Slash
, former
Guns N' Roses
guitarist, as a new theme to mark the 30th anniversary of Triple M in Sydney. This was released to air at the end of June 2010.
In 1980, he released his next solo album, entitled
Waves
, recorded at Wisseloord Studios in
Hilversum
, Holland. In the same year, he went off with his family aboard his boat,
Braemar
, ending up in Australia after two and a half years, travelling via France, the West Indies, South America, Central America, Mexico, Los Angeles, Hawaii and Fiji.
[7]
In 1981, on the Los Angeles-Sydney leg of the sea voyage, he was commissioned to write a piece for the 50th anniversary of the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
which became the musical fantasy production
Zero Zero
.
[8]
Batt designed, co-directed and starred in the studio-based production of "Zero Zero" shot at Gore Hill studios in Sydney and aired by Channel 4 TV in the UK in the week of the Channel's broadcast launch in 1982. The album, featuring Batt with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, was released on Epic as a Mike Batt solo album. Batt's character "Number 17" falls in love and is sent to an emotional decontamination centre called "Zero Zero". The single, "Love Makes You Crazy", was released by Sony on Epic Records.
Returning to the UK in 1983, Batt wrote, produced and arranged three more
Top Ten
hits, "
Please Don't Fall in Love
" (for
Cliff Richard
), "
A Winter's Tale
" (for
David Essex
, with lyrics co-written by
Tim Rice
) and "
I Feel Like Buddy Holly
" (for
Alvin Stardust
). In the same year, he helped write lyrics for
Abbacadabra
.
[2]
In 1983, he wrote and produced "
Ballerina (Prima Donna)
", which, recorded by
Steve Harley
, peaked at no. 51 in the UK.
[9]
With
Richard Stilgoe
, Batt co-wrote the lyrics to the title song of
Andrew Lloyd Webber
's "
Phantom of the Opera
", producing and arranging the single by
Steve Harley
and
Sarah Brightman
. Batt's and Stilgoe's lyrics were later partially replaced by those of
Charles Hart
. Batt's arrangement of the song is still partially used in the stage version.
The album
The Hunting of the Snark
, based on
Lewis Carroll
's poem, was recorded in 1984. However, the album was withheld from sale after a dispute with Sony Music, to whom Batt had leased the self-financed masters. Batt went ahead with a promotional concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 1987, which he filmed at his own expense and was shown on BBC2.
In the late 1980s, Batt also produced, arranged and conducted
Justin Hayward
's album with the
London Philharmonic Orchestra
entitled
Classic Blue
and the music for
The Dreamstone
. A number of stars performed for the Dreamstone soundtrack; notably
Billy Connolly
,
Ozzy Osbourne
, former British heavyweight boxing champion
Frank Bruno
, and
Bonnie Tyler
. Batt performed the programme's theme song,
Better Than A Dream
. The first series was completed and broadcast in 1990 and lasted for three more series, ending in 1995.
1990s
[
edit
]
In January 1990, Batt was appointed joint Musical Director of the Melbourne Summer Music festival, with the State Orchestra Of Victoria. Among the classical concerts and other programming he conducted, curated and performed on that visit to Australia, he programmed a debut costumed concert of a fuller length version of "The Hunting Of Snark", with narration by Michael Parkinson and the Bellman played by Keith Michell. On a second visit that year, he took the opportunity to mount a more ambitious version of the fully expanded show score at the State Theatre, Sydney. Having tried out the show in Australia Batt moved towards securing funding and a theatre to mount the show in London's West End, and subsequently did so at the
Prince Edward Theatre
, opening on 24 October 1991.
The production was designed and directed by Batt and starred
Philip Quast
as the Bellman, David McCallum as Lewis Carroll, and Kenny Everett as the Billiard Marker. There was a 50 piece live orchestra on stage, hidden variously by venetian blinds and gauzes upon which the scenery was projected entirely from more than 200 projectors and involved 12,000 hand-prepared still slides often moving in rapid succession to create animation. This visual technique had been developed by Batt over the years since the launch of his first solo album
Schizophonia
and had been used in his
Zero Zero
TV production of 1982. The show's revolutionary visual presentation (critic
Sheridan Morley
wrote in the
International Herald Tribune
that "the show's design will revolutionize theatre design for years to come") did not save it from a negative reaction by critics
[
who?
]
that suggested Batt's visuals were spectacular but that the score was unimpressive.
The show survived only seven weeks at the Prince Edward. There has been much argument about the merits of the piece since it closed. A theatre studies student, Andrew Loretto, even wrote his PhD thesis on the subject "The Snark and the Critics".
In 1995, he made a solo album for
Sony Germany
,
Arabesque
. Batt was then commissioned to write the official anthem for the inauguration of the
Channel Tunnel
by
the Queen
, entitled "When Flags Fly Together". This was performed for the Queen and
President Mitterrand
, along with many senior politicians, by The Band of the Royal Engineers, and sung by Robert Meadmore.
Batt composed and produced the four million-selling album
The Violin Player
, which launched classical violinist
Vanessa-Mae
(EMI Classics, 1995) from which the top twenty single of his arrangement of
J.S. Bach
's "Toccata and Fugue" was taken.
[10]
In 1997, Batt produced an album for the
soprano
Anna Maria Kaufmann, with the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
; an original dramatic song cycle called
Blame It on the Moon
, from which his song, "Running with a Dream" was taken as the theme for
Germany's national football team
at the
1998 World Cup
.
[2]
Also in 1998, Batt produced, arranged and conducted the album
Philharmania
with the Royal Philharmonic and guest singers included
Joey Tempest
,
Roger Daltrey
,
Marc Almond
,
Bonnie Tyler
,
Status Quo
,
Huey Lewis
,
Kim Wilde
,
Justin Hayward
and others. Later the same year, Batt relaunched The Wombles pop group, with two hits, "Remember You’re A Womble" and "The Wombling Song".
[3]
In 2000, he collaborated with
Roy Wood
for a single which combined new versions of previous Christmas hits by
Wizzard
and The Wombles, released as "I Wish It Could Be a Wombling Merry Christmas".
[3]
In 1997, the year of The Queen and Prince Philip's Golden Wedding Anniversary, he was commissioned by the military to compose a piece, "Royal Gold", for the massed bands of the Coldstream, Welsh, Irish and Grenadier Guards, together with 100 pipers. The piece was performed in the presence of The Queen and Prince Philip at the Royal Tournament in that year. Batt simultaneously dedicated the piece to his own parents, whose Golden Wedding Anniversary happened to be in the same year.
Later, he would compose, arrange and conduct the music for the 1999 TV series
Watership Down
with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. An ambitious soundtrack album starring
Stephen Gately
from
Boyzone
,
Paul Carrack
from
Mike and the Mechanics
,
Cerys Matthews
from
Catatonia
and the RPO was recorded but, owing to disagreements with the record label, was never meaningfully released and subsequently acquired by Batt for his Dramatico label some years later. His orchestral suite "Watership Down" was created and recorded by the RPO at this time and was released on Dramatico, which was released in a 2 CD set with the soundtrack to
Caravans
.
Also, for the 1999 release of
XTC
's album
Apple Venus Volume 1
, he wrote the orchestral arrangements for the tracks "Green Man" and "I Can't Own Her".
2000s, 2010s and current work
[
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]
After conceiving and co-creating the all-girl string quartet
Bond
and producing their first single, he then created the eight piece classical crossover band,
The Planets
. Their album
Classical Graffiti
was released in February 2002. It went to number one in the UK classical music chart on the day of release and remained there for three months.
He formed his own record label,
Dramatico
, in 2000, working with a small group of artists including
Katie Melua
,
Carla Bruni
,
[2]
Marianne Faithfull
,
Caro Emerald
,
Gurrumul
, and
Sarah Blasko
.
[11]
From 2005, Dramatico became one of the top UK based
indie labels
. Batt discovered
Katie Melua
in 2002 while scouting for a new artist with whom to work. Melua's album
Call Off The Search
(containing six of Batt's songs including "
The Closest Thing to Crazy
") was released on Dramatico in November 2003.
After six weeks at number one in the
UK Albums Chart
, it sold six times platinum, over 1.8 million copies, in the UK and three million copies in total, making Melua the biggest selling UK female artist of 2004. Her second album,
Piece by Piece
(including Batt's song "
Nine Million Bicycles
") was released in September 2005, and sold 3.5 million copies in Europe, going to number one in the UK, The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and hitting top five chart positions in eight other countries. At this point, Melua had become the biggest female UK album artist in the world for that year according to official British Phonographic Industry sales figures.
[12]
In 2008, Batt performed and released
A Songwriter's Tale
, a compilation album of his hits, newly recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,
Henry Spinetti
,
Ray Cooper
,
Chris Spedding
, Mitch Dalton and
Tim Harries
. The album reached position 24 in the UK albums chart. In 2011, his record label, Dramatico, released the album "Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor" by Caro Emerald, reaching more than 400,000 UK sales and paving the way for the release of "The Shocking Miss Emerald" by the same artist in 2013. This album went to number one in the UK album charts.
Melua departed the Batt (Dramatico) management stable and record label in January 2014 after a ten-year contract during which she had recorded six albums for Dramatico. Since 2014, Batt has guided his Dramatico organization towards a more theatrical/TV /film direction, albeit concentrating on projects which have his music at their core.
He has served on the boards of many industry organizations including The Performing Right Society, the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), being Deputy Chairman of the BPI from 2007
[13]
until November 2015. He has been a member of the Society of Distinguished Songwriters (SODS) since 1976. His awards include five
Ivor Novello Awards
issued by The British Academy Of Songwriters, Composers And Authors, according to their records.
Batt was appointed
Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order
(LVO) in the
2013 Birthday Honours
for services to the Royal Household.
[14]
In August 2014, Batt was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to
The Guardian
expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's
referendum on that issue
.
[15]
In 2018, he produced and arranged
Hawkwind
's album
The Road to Utopia
, consisting primarily of new versions of their 1970s songs with a guest appearance from
Eric Clapton
. He arranged and conducted a series of concerts of Hawkwind songs featuring the band and orchestra in October and November 2018.
[16]
In September 2018, the GUILD classical label released a recording of 'Holst: The Planets Suite for Large Orchestra' played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Batt. The release coincided with the centenary of the composition's first performance.
[17]
In July 2019, Batt was made a Companion of the
Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts
by co-founder Paul McCartney.
[18]
His fantasy adventure novel
The Chronicles Of Don't Be So Ridiculous Valley
is published by London Street Books.
[19]
In 2022, Batt launched Croix-Noire, an art project with
Jean-Charles Capelli
, linking music, comics and video games.
[20]
Discography
[
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]
- MBO ? The Mike Batt Orchestra (1970?1972)
- 1970:
Batt Tracks
- 1971:
Portrait of The Rolling Stones
- 1971:
Portrait of Elton John
- 1971:
Portrait of Simon & Garfunkel
- 1971:
Portrait of Bob Dylan
- 1972:
Portrait of Cat Stevens
- 1972:
Portrait of George Harrison
- 1974:
Portrait of Mike Batt
(Sampler 1971?1972)
- The Wombles (1973?1978)
- 1973:
Wombling Songs
- 1974:
Remember You’re A Womble
- 1974:
Keep on Wombling
- 1975:
Superwombling
- 1978:
Wombling Free
(Soundtrack)
- Mike Batt (Since 1973)
- 1973:
Yoga for Health
- 1973:
Moog at the Movies
- 1974:
Ye Olde Moog
- 1977:
Schizophonia
- 1979:
Tarot Suite
- 1980:
Waves
- 1981:
Six Days in Berlin
- 1982:
Zero Zero
- 1988:
Songs of Love and War
- 1995:
Arabesque
- Compilations / Reissues
- 1992:
The Winds of Change: Mike Batt Greatest Hits
- 1999:
The Ride to Agadir ? Best (1977?1983)
- 2008:
A Songwriter's Tale
- 2008:
A Songwriter's Tale
(Special Edition with DVD)
- 2009:
Waves
/
Six Days in Berlin
- 2009:
Songs of Love
/
Arabesque
- 2009:
Schizophonia
/
Tarot Suite
- 2009:
Zero Zero
(Special Edition with DVD)
- 2009:
The Hunting of The Snark
(Special Edition with DVD)
- 2009:
Caravans
/
Watership Down Orchestral Suite
- 2009:
The Dreamstone
/
Rapid Eye Movement
- 2009:
A Songwriter's Tale
/
The Orinoco Kid
- 2015:
A Classical Tale
? Compilation of some released and unreleased classical compositions
- 2020:
The Penultimate Collection
? Compilation of 34 released and 2 brand new recordings
- Musicals
- 1982:
Zero Zero
(with Sydney Symphonic Orchestra)
- 1987:
The Hunting of the Snark
(with Friends and London Symphony Orchestra)
- Soundtracks
- 1974-1975:
Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings
- 1978:
Wombling Free
- 1978:
Caravans
(with London Philharmonic Orchestra)
? For the
same-titled film
- 1985:
Dragon Dance
(Theme of
The Dragon
)
- 1990:
The Dreamstone
(with Friends and London Philharmonic Orchestra)
? For the
same-titled animated series
- 1997:
Keep the Aspidistra Flying
(with London Philharmonic Orchestra)
? For the
same-titled film
- Known as
A Merry War
(in USA and New Zealand)
- 2000:
Watership Down
(with Friends and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)
? For the
same-titled animated series
Productions
[
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]
References
[
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]
- Notes
Biography quoted from various sources, mostly from Batt's
official website
External links
[
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]
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International
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National
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Artists
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Other
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