Simon Webb - musical biography
Simon Webb is a composer, musical director, conductor, arranger and performer. He was born in Bridgnorth, in the UK, into an artistic family and began his musical life early. At the age of 8 he won a choral scholarship to St. Michaels College, Tenbury, and a year later made his début broadcast on BBC Radio's Choral Evensong. Soon broadcasting and concerts were a regular part of his life. At 13 he won an organ scholarship to R.G.S. Worcester and joined the Worcestershire Symphony Orchestra. He soon started playing professionally and discovered rock 'n' roll and the theatre.
Upon leaving school he was spotted by director John Hole at the Swan Theatre, Worcester, and put to work as a pianist, percussionist, violinist, bass guitarist, musical director and composer for a packed repertory season! He played violin, keyboards and bass guitar in Guys and Dolls, was MD for the Christmas Show, composed the music for Butterflies Are Free and co-wrote the musical Hannah Snell. He completed the year with a stint at the Edinburgh Festival playing keyboards in the fringe hit Shylock.
He went on to read music at York University specialising in composition and conducting. Upon graduation he was appointed musical director of the Theatre Royal, York and subsequently wrote the music for many productions there including Dr. Faustus, The Devil's Law Case, Twelfth Night, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. He has since worked in theatres (repertory and commercial) all over the UK, writing and directing music. In the West End his musical directing credits include The Who's Tommy at The Queen's Theatre, and conducting Cats at The New London Theatre. At The National Theatre, he recently wrote, directed and performed the music for Nicholas Hytner's productions of The Winter's Tale and Henry V, and Mark Ravenhill's Totally Over You.
For television his writing credits include themes and scores for over a hundred British TV programmes including Delia Smith's Summer and Winter Collections, Channel 4's Fragile Earth nature series and Streets Ahead dance series, Think Tank, The Big Stage, Members Only, Help Squad, Hodson Confidential, The Antiques Trail, Kick Off, The Juno Mission, You Bet, Hale and Pace, Jobs For the Boys, Night Network, Telethon, 'Lights!, Camera!, Magic!, Chef School, Treacle People, Taxi!, Mary Berry At Home, Monkey Business, The British Comedy Awards, Avenue Of The Stars and Casanova's Love Letters . His tv musical directing credits include Wogan, Sunday Sunday, Friday Night Live, and Saturday Night Live.. His arranging credits include The Paradise Club, Test The Nation, and Last Night Of The Proms.
He has worked on a many films including Playing Away, (directed by Horace Ove and starring Norman Beaton, for Channel 4's Film On Four) for which he wrote the score; The Untitled, a film for television (directed by Mark Murphy and starring Ronald Pickup, for LWT) for which he also composed the score; Runaway Dreams, an American film, for which he was musical director and arranger of a great rock score by Whitesnake's legendary guitarist, Bernie Marsden; Riders of the Storm, a Hollywood film starring Dennis Hopper, for which he co-wrote the theme song with veteran songwriter Pierre Tubbs; Coast to Coast, a BBC 2 film starring Lenny Henry and John Shea, for which he was musical director, Tequila Sunrise (starring Mel Gibson, Kurt Russell and Michelle Pfeiffer) working as a programmer and keyboard player with Duran Duran's Andy Taylor, and Bernard Edwards and Tony Thompson from Chic; and Heavenly Pursuits (directed by Charley Gormley and starring Helen Mirren and Tom Conti) arranging, conducting and musical directing a beautiful atmospheric score by B.A. Robertson. His most recent film is a short directed by Michael Shark entitled Minus 1. He is currently in preproduction on Mark Murphy's new film, Desolate.
As a musical director, Simon has worked with many great creative talents including Pete Towshend, Elaine Page, Don Black, Phil Daniels, Imelda Staunton, Lenny Henry, Liz Dawn, BA Robertson, June Whitfield, Richard O'Brien, Jean Rigby, Bernie Marsden, Wanda Jackson, Wes McGhee, and Kevin Williams. In the summer of 2007 he worked on the Mayor of London's SING LONDON project, holding workshops and directing the music for the finale on the South Bank which included 350 singers!
Simon has been composing music since the age of four and his style has developed into a unique blend of old and new: He embraces the sound-worlds of the choir and orchestra, of soloist and ensemble, of pop, jazz and rock, and he collaborates with great musicians from all walks of musical life framing their performances in ultramodern soundscapes: String quartets morph into synthesisers, heavy electric guitars duet with oboes, operatic voices are shaped into extraordinary sonic extravaganzas. All this made possible by years of experience working with many great musicians and singers, combined with a passion for finding 'the new' in new music, and the desire to push the latest technology to (and beyond) the limits. His music is fresh, original and very contemporary.
His first solo album The Brain was released in 2006 on his own label wwWebmusic. The second, A Leap Into The Light, was released in 2007. In the pipeline are In Another World, a song-cycle for choir and orchestra, and Powwow, a multi-media project.
Simon is also a member of the Wes McGhee band, playing good-time Texas rock 'n roll piano and Mexican blues organ live to adoring audiences in the UK and on the European festival circuit. With Wes he has recorded and performed with many interesting singers and musicians including Kimmie Rhodes, Wanda Jackson, Joe Giltrap, Ponty Bone, and Roxy Gordon.
Simon is a keen sportsman. His passion is sailing (he's currently building his own boat - a large sailing catamaran), but cricket was his first love. He was lucky enough, at the age of 6, to have a next door neighbour, Don Jones, who opened the batting for Shropshire and decided to make sure that the young Simon could bat straight and bowl quick. By the age of 9, having seen Wes Hall open the West Indian attack, running in from the boundary at Edgebaston, Simon adopted the tactic in his school's cricket, and quickly started getting wickets, and earning the title; demon fast bowler . He trialled for Worcestershire, and played school cricket with Imran Kahn (later to become Pakistan cricket captain). He played club cricket for York at a competitive level, has guested for many clubs including The British and Dominion Cricket Club in Los Angeles, and now plays occasional friendly cricket for showbiz team Chadwick C.C.
In 1992 he travelled to the Cricket World Cup finals in Australia (watching Pakistan beat England and Imran lift the cup.) Travelling home, he had an idea to combine music and sport. He formed Music For Sport, a music library that specializes in high quality contemporary instrumental music.
Simon is published by EMI, Standard Music, Music For Sport, Bucks Music, and wwWebmusic.
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