|
|
|
|
Geoff Stephens
Geoff began writing for a living in the late 1950’s when BBC Radio accepted some of his satirical sketches for their Radio 4 “Monday Night At Home” program. This followed on from his amateur theatrical days when he wrote songs and sketches for musical revues presented by his own company, the Four Arts Society, during which time he worked as a school teacher, air traffic controller and silk screen printer. During this time he and Pam were married, and had three children, Jenny, Ruth and
Paul.
By 1964 Geoff’s professional songwriting career began in earnest, with an agreement with peermusic and a first hit “Tell Me When”, co-written with Les Reed which was Top 10 for the Applejacks. In that same year he and Peter Eden discovered and managed a new young singer-songwriter named Donovan, whom Geoff brought to peermusic, who signed him as a writer and artist. In peermusic’s
Denmark Street studio Geoff produced Donovan’s first big hit singles and first hit album “What’s Bin
Did and What’s Been Hid” so starting another hugely successful career.
For Geoff as a writer the hits continued. Most were co-written, but in 1965, despite always being a member of the “can’t read a note of music or play in any key but C” school of songwriters, he penned the haunting “The Crying Game” which became a Top 5 hit for Dave Berry (later to become the title song of the 1990’s film and a hit for Boy George). Then in 1966 he formed “The New Vaudeville
Band” writing and recording songs in a 1920’s style. Again unaided, he wrote their first single “Winchester Cathedral”. Not only was the song a No. 1 hit in the USA but it became an Ivor Novello and Grammy Award winner and went on to be a standard, covered by countless artists including big names as diverse as Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Sinatra.
“Winchester Cathedral” was followed by “Peek A Boo”, “Finchley Central” and “Green Street Green” and meanwhile, by 1967 Geoff, together with John Carter, had also penned “Semi-Detached
Suburban Mr.James” for Manfred Mann and, with Les Reed, another future standard “There’s A Kind Of Hush”- a hit for Hermans Hermits and some years later for the Carpenters.
After more hits for Hermans Hermits- “Sunshine Girl” and “My Sentimental Friend”, plus “Boy” for
Lulu, “Sorry Suzanne” for the Hollies and “Tears Wont Wash Away These Heartaches” for Ken
Dodd, Geoff and the family moved to Switzerland in 1969. However the move didn’t stop the flow of hits – 1970 Eurovision runner-up “Knock Knock Who’s There” by Mary Hopkin, “Daughter of Darkness” by Tom Jones, “The Lights of Cincinatti” by Scott Walker, “Goodbye Sam, Hello Samantha” by Cliff Richard and another US no.1 “Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast” all following in the next 3 years.
Throughout the 70’s the successes continued, with UK Top 10 hits by Dana (“It’s Gonna Be a Cold
Cold Christmas”), the Drifters (“Like Sister And Brother”), Sunny (“Doctors Orders”), Hot
Chocolate (“I’ll Put You Together Again”) and, most successfully of all, hits by David Soul (including No. 1 with “Silver Lady”) and by The New Seekers (including another No. 1 with Ivor Novello Award-winning “You Won’t Find Another Fool Like Me”. In this period he also enjoyed more US Top 10 hits - not only with “Doctors Orders”, and the Carpenters’ version of “There’s A Kind Of Hush”, but also with another new song “It’s Like We Never Said Goodbye” by Crystal Gayle.
In 1983 he and another leading British songwriter Don Black composed the songs for a musical
“DearAnyone” which came to the West End in that year, followed a year later by “The Magic Castle” by Geoff and Les Reed. Now back in the UK, Geoff and Pam settled in their present home in
Berkhamstead. Despite finding time to take up golf, Geoff continued writing during the 1980’s and
90’s and recognition of his achievements also continued- a BASCA Gold Badge award in 1995 and the special Jimmy Kennedy Ivor Novello Award for services to British Songwriting in 2000.
As recently as 2002 Geoff received a citation from BMI in the USA for 2million broadcasts of hi1969
US Top 5 hit “Smile A Little Smile For Me”. Not content to rest on his laurels, Geoff continues to write- most recently “To All My Loved Ones”, to be featured as the centerpiece of the Festival of
Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall this coming November - having long since established himself as one of Britain’s most successful professional songwriters of the modern era.
For more information, visit
http://www.toallmylovedones.com/
|
|
|
|
