Pinball And Other Stories

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Martin would write a lyric in different sections and I somehow had to find a way to bind them together, while giving each individual section the kind of musical choices the words suggested. There was a lot of criticism about Martin from the record company. They tried to take his name off the first album, so it would look like I was the only contributor. I threatened to stop working on the album if they did that so they relented. The producer Del Newman wasn’t sure about the songs Martin participated in either. He preferred the songs I wrote alone. My songs were varied, but they weren’t as mad as Martin’s! We used some songs Martin and I wrote for a musical called Lotte’s Electric Opera. They were totally out of context, so they were even weirder! But I like that. Martin’s a great friend so I always wanted him to be involved.” I was living in Covent Garden at the time. I had one room in a friend’s house, and it was literally like a diary entry of what was happening to me then. We had a cat – the cat that finished off the bread. There was a Norman Mailer book about Marilyn Monroe that I saw when I was walking through Soho one morning. So that got included. Hey Jude you were alright, was a reference to the Beatles breaking up. So it was a stream of consciousness diary about what was happening to me at that time. Further information From one of the shows Brian was in, comes an incendiary version of Lucille which seems to fit the aesthetic of I/You perfectly and doesn’t feel out of place at all compared with what’s gone before. Better known today as the voice of First Dates and First Dates Hotel, Brian is a well-established actor who’s graced both stage and screen since 1968 when he moved to Lincoln and made his debut in rep.

In 1997, there started to be signs of a resurgence of interest in his '70s music, as the Basta label put out a set called Brian's Big Box. In 2005, Protheroe assembled unheard material, including new songs, for the CitySong collection. The next year saw the release of Pinball and Other Stories, a compilation of his '70s material that also had a handful of unheard '80s originals to round out the disc. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine HOMETOWN Salisbury, England Brian Protheroe (born 16 June 1944) [1] is an English singer, songwriter, narrator and actor. He is best known for his first single, " Pinball", which was released in August 1974, and entered the UK Singles Chart at number 40 and reached a peak of number 22. He has narrated the Channel 4 dating show First Dates since 2015. [2] Career [ edit ] Music [ edit ] a b c d e f g h i Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Firsted.). Guinness Publishing. p.2009. ISBN 0-85112-939-0. Protheroe joined the folk group Folk Blues Incorporated (FBI) when he was nineteen, while at this time listening to Bob Dylan and the Beatles. He came to London with FBI in 1965, and played in folk music clubs in and around London. In 1966, Protheroe began his career as an actor. His first job was with his local repertory theatre in Salisbury. He worked there for about seven months then spent the next five years in various theatre companies around Britain, developing his musical skills as well as becoming an experienced actor. In 1968, he worked for nearly two years in a theatre company in Lincoln, where he met Martin Duncan who was also a musician, writer and actor. Over the next few years they collaborated on various musical and artistic projects. With a career spanning music and acting, Brian Protheroe has left an indelible mark on both stages. Renowned for his classic hit ‘Pinball’ and a run of acclaimed albums in the mid-70s, Brian now invites us to delve into the heart of his classic hit.Over the years, Brian has largely resisted live performances. “It’s not really something I do,” he says. “I did a one-off gig at the Mermaid Theatre in London in about 74-75, which was okay. In 1983, I did one at the Theatre Royal Stratford East where I was working at the time. I’ve done a couple since. All through those years, acting was my main occupation. That’s why it didn’t work out with the record company, I was much more comfortable in the acting environment than in the record environment. I loved being in the studio, working with session musicians and the producer and engineer that we had. I didn’t get on so much with plugging the music and all the extraneous stuff which wasn’t about simply creating”. His final Chrysalis album I/You, with it’s distinctive cover art, featured session musicians like Alan Parker, Simon Phillips and Michael Giles on drums, whilst label mates Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson and Barriemore Barlow added flute and percussion to the adaptation of Shakespeare’s Under the Greenwood Tree. In 1982 he was cast in the BBC Two play Spider's Web by Agatha Christie, and in the following year played the role of Edward IV in the BBC Television Shakespeare productions of Henry VI, Part 2, Henry VI, Part 3 and Richard III. In 1984 he played in the West End musical Pump Boys and Dinettes on piano and vocals and percussion. The traditional showmanship is brough to the fore on The Good Brand Band Song, which has echoes of The Beatles and 10cc running through it, there’s a wonderful element of showmanship and English music hall or Pythonesque humour that is drip fed through Protheroe’s songwriting. I was living behind the Cambridge Theatre in Covent Garden having recently broken up with a girlfriend. The lyric is an extended diary entry of my experiences at the time. Loneliness and feelings of not being in control like a silver ball being flipped around in a pinball machine. It didn’t remotely cross my mind that the song would still be around 46 years later.”

Chrysalis and Protheroe parted ways after 1976, and he returned to acting full-time. He had an appearance in Richard Donner's 1978 Superman film but, for the most part, Protheroe was a mainstay of BBC productions and British stage. From this point on, he acted steadily, doing anything from Shakespeare to spy thrillers. In 2002 Protheroe played the role of Gower in Adrian Noble's production of Pericles, Prince of Tyre. In 2007 he was cast as Saruman in the original stage musical version of The Lord of the Rings. Performances began at London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 21 June 2007. Protheroe played his final performance at the end of his year contract in June 2008.Why do you think that relationship has endured and been so successful from a songwriting perspective?

a b c Bell, Max (4 January 1975). "Brian Protheroe: Pinball". New Musical Express . Retrieved 4 August 2019. In 1973, Protheroe was playing the part of a pop singer in a play called Death on Demand, when a representative from Chrysalis Records heard a song he had written for the show. His first single, " Pinball", was released in August 1974, [3] and it entered the UK Singles Chart at number 40 and reached a peak of number 22. [4] Then followed by an album of the same name. [3] The follow-up single "Fly Now" made Capital Radio's "Capital Countdown" chart. [ citation needed] This focus on the lyrics as well as the music is an obvious reflection of Protheroe’s acting, and with some superb arrangements and production by Del Newman, whose orchestral arrangements enhance many songs on here (just like they did on albums by Elton John and Cat Stewart) and help bring Protheroe’s warm vocals to the fore. Finding the perfect rhyme for a word that you’re determined not to change which will also fit perfectly into the meaning/feel required in its context.”Brian has continued making music over the years, notably as part of the Albion Band when they became the house band for the National Theatre in the 1980s and continues to perform sporadically with Steeleye Span multi-instrumentalist Julian Littman. Since 2013, Brian’s authoritative voice has been heard by millions as narrator of the Channel 4 reality show First Dates. How does he find being the voice of one of the most successful British television shows of recent years? “What a fantastic job, it’s like having another pension!” he enthuses. “It’s a proper dating service, they do genuinely try to match people up. It works really well. I’ve done a couple of other First Dates– Australia, Canada, Ireland – but I think the British one works particularly well because of the variety. There are gay and lesbian couples, there’s old and young and they really try and match them properly.” I tell Brian I couldn’t believe it was him when I found out. “Isn’t it a bizarre combination, that I should be doing that as well as making those records? It’s extraordinary. But I love that.” Eclecticism is still what drives Brian Protheroe. We met in 1981 on a Play For Today [a BBC anthology drama series] called Bavarian Night about a school that hires a band to play at an end of term entertainment event. I was the singer/bassist and Julian was the guitarist. We were also in a musical together in the 80s called Pump Boys And Dinettes. Six months in the West End and two tours really cemented the relationship.” Litvinenko cast revealed for new ITV1 drama with David Tennant". tellymix. 19 June 2023 . Retrieved 20 July 2023.