Space Experience

Biography

is a musician, songwriter and arranger who was born in Edinburgh September 10th, 1927. After studying piano and trombone, he taught himself how to arrange and compose in his teens. He went to work with British big band leader Ted Heath in 1952 as a trombone player, but within two years Heath asked him to become his primary arranger. In the early 1960s, he and songwriter Johnny Worth (writing as "Les Vandyke") masterminded the career of a minor British pop star, Eden Kane. The team wrote and pr...

is a musician, songwriter and arranger who was born in Edinburgh September 10th, 1927.

After studying piano and trombone, he taught himself how to arrange and compose in his teens. He went to work with British big band leader Ted Heath in 1952 as a trombone player, but within two years Heath asked him to become his primary arranger. In the early 1960s, he and songwriter Johnny Worth (writing as "Les Vandyke") masterminded the career of a minor British pop star, Eden Kane. The team wrote and produced a string of British top 10 hits for Kane in 1961-63. In addition he wrote, produced or arranged hits by Adam Faith, Petula Clark, Anthony Newley, Sammy Davis Jr and many others.

Keating arranged and conducted a series of albums for London's Phase 4 series, notable for its use of synthesiser technology such as the Moog synthesizer and the EMS VSC3. The records were often used as demonstration discs in the 1970s in Hi-Fi stores because of their quality. Much of his work was rereleased following the Lounge music revival of the mid-90's and its use as breakbeats.

His song Bunny Hop is featured in the 1994 Tim Burton film Ed Wood.

His Theme from Z-Cars, a No. 5 Singles hit, was adopted by Everton as their theme song 35 years ago and remains so to this day.

As founder and principal of the Johnny Keating School of Music, Edinburgh, John has been directly responsible for the musical education of many students who later became successful professionals.

In 1999 he completed a four–volume academic reference book dedicated to the art of professional songwriting: Principles of Songwriting: A Study in Structure and Technique. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.