Mike Batt
(born Michael Philip Batt
, 6 February 1949, Southampton, England) is a British based songwriter, musician, producer and Deputy Chairman of the British Phonographic Industry. He is best known for helping to create The Wombles; writing the chart-topping "Bright Eyes"; and discovering Katie Melua.
|
MIKE BATT TICKETS
|
Early career
Batt began his career in
pop music at the age of eighteen when he answered the same advertisement as
Elton John and
Bernie Taupin placed by
Ray Williams in the
New Musical Express
by
Liberty Records. Batt became part of Liberty's production team, and in 1969 he took over production duties from Noel Walker, on
McKenna Mendelson Mainline's first release,
Stink
. Walker and Batt were credited on the
album only as "Liberty Staff". Also in 1969, Batt released as producer/
artist a Liberty
single, his
cover version of
The Beatles' "
Your Mother Should Know". Batt subsequently became Head of
A&R for Liberty.
1970s
In the early 1970s, aged 23, married, with children, and having spent £11,000
recording half of a
rock orchestral album that was never released, 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.
The choice produced his first
hits as a singer/songwriter/producer by
The Wombles, in 1974. The collaboration produced eight hit singles
[1] and four
gold albums.
Now financially successful, Batt moved on to work with various artists as a songwriter/producer, most successfully with
Steeleye Span and their most successful single and album
All Around My Hat
in 1975.
[2] Also in 1975, at the end of the summer, he entered the
UK Singles Chart with the only hit under his own name (credited alongside the New Edition) with "Summertime City", which reached number 4.
[3]
He produced the hit single "
Lilac Wine" for
Elkie Brooks 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 in the UK Singles Chart.
[4]
1980s
As a singer, his solo albums included
Schizophonia
and
Tarot Suite
(both with the
London Symphony Orchestra). From these albums came the European hit songs "Railway Hotel", "Lady of the Dawn" and "The Ride to Agadir". A version of "Introduction (The Journey of a Fool)" from
Tarot Suite
was used as the theme for the
Sydney,
Australia radio station,
Triple M, from its first broadcast in 1980 until well into the 1990s.
In 1980 Batt released his next album, entitled
Waves
(including the European hit "The Winds of Change"). 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. At the end of that journey, he wrote for the 50th anniversary of the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation the
musical,
Zero, Zero
.
Returning to the UK in 1983, Batt wrote and produced 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).
The album
The Hunting of the Snark
, based on
Lewis Carroll's
poem, was recorded in 1984. It was presented as a dramatised concert at Sydney’s State Theatre in 1990, and was produced as a musical in
London's
West End in 1991 with Batt designing and directing. Performers included: Mike Batt as The Boots,
Billy Connolly as The Bellman,
Roger Daltrey as The Barrister,
Justin Hayward as The Butcher,
John Hurt as The Narrator and
Julian Lennon.
In the late 1980s, Batt also produced
Justin Hayward's album
Classic Blue
and the music for
The Dreamstone
,
ITV's fifty two part animated series, once again with the
London Philharmonic Orchestra. A number of stars performed for the Dreamstone soundtrack; notably Billy Connolly,
Ozzy Osbourne, former British heavyweight boxing champion
Frank Bruno (all of whom performed on "The War Song of the Urpneys"),
Bonnie Tyler (who sang a
duet with Batt entitled "Into the Sunset". It was not used on the show, but it was meant to be Dreamstone's official love song).
Joe Brown performed "The Vile Brothers Mountain Band" along with
Gary Glitter. Batt performed the theme song from the series "Better Than A Dream". The show was completed and finally aired in 1990.
1990s
In 1995 he made a solo album for
Sony Germany, entitled
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 members of the choir of the Harvey Grammar School,
Folkestone.
Batt composed and produced the four million-selling album,
The Violin Player
, with classical violinist
Vanessa-Mae (EMI Classics, 1995) from which the Top Twenty single of
J.S. Bach's "Toccata and Fugue" was taken.
[5]
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
World Cup in June 1998.
Also in 1998, Batt produced, arranged and conducted the album,
Philharmania
with the Royal Philharmonic and guest singers included
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" (at number 13) and "The Wombling Song" (at number 27).
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" - UK number 22).
Later he would work on the music for the 1999
Watership Down
TV series, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Art Garfunkel again performed a song for the TV soundtrack, "When You're Losing Your Way in The Rain" which was not used in the show. The song however originated from Batt's earlier album,
Tarot Suite
, and was originally performed by
Colin Blunstone. "Bright Eyes" was instead performed by the former
Boyzone member
Stephen Gately, although the new version was not as successful as Garfunkel's original. Other stars who were featured on the soundtrack included
Cerys Matthews (performing "Thank You Stars", which would later be
covered by
Katie Melua on her album,
Piece By Piece
),
Paul Carrack who performed "Winter Song" and
Gary Martin provided the narration for "Frith's Blessing". Batt also performed an original song, "A View From A Hill".
2000s and current work
A
Conservative supporter, Batt was asked to write the
2001 UK General Election song "Heartland", thereby replacing
Andrew Lloyd Webber as the official Conservative Party composer.
[6]
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 and went straight to number one on the UK classical music chart on the day of release and remained there for three months. Batt was sued for
copyright infringement over the track "A One Minute Silence", which consisted of one minute of silence and was credited to 'Batt/Cage'. The publishers of
John Cage's music alleged that the credit invoked Cage's silent piece
4'33?, and that the trust was entitled to receive
royalties. An out of court settlement was reached, with Batt paying a six-figure sum to the John Cage Trust.
[7] [8]
Batt formed his own
record label Dramatico in 2002, which has a small group of artistes including
Carla Bruni.
[9] Dramatico has since 2005, been one of the top three UK based
indie labels, based on official sales figures. Batt is presently dedicating most of his time to guiding the career of
Katie Melua, whom he discovered in 2002 while scouting for a
jazz musical project he was working on. 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 to date has sold 3.5 million copies in Europe, going to number 1 in the UK, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and going top five in eight other countries.
In 2008, Batt started the year with one concert in Munich and a radio concert tour in Germany, to promote his new CD,
A Songwriter's Tale
- a
compilation album of his hits, some sung by himself and most of them newly recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,
Henry Spinetti,
Ray Cooper,
Chris Spedding, Mitch Dalton and
Tim Harries.
His band toured with Spinetti (drums), Spedding (guitar), Harries (bass), Frank Gallagher (keyboards and violins),
Luis Jardim (percussion) and Florence Rawlings (vocals and background vocals).
References
- British Hit Singles & Albums
- British Hit Singles & Albums
- British Hit Singles & Albums
- British Hit Singles & Albums
- British Hit Singles & Albums
- Wombles composer pens Tory poll hit
- Archives.cnn.com
- Silent music dispute resolved
- Mike Batt: he can't forget he's a Womble