British composer and performer Alan Hawkshaw died on 16 October 2021 aged 84, leaving behind him a legacy of over 7,000 performances on record as composer and musician, including a number of well-known TV theme tunes such as Grange Hill, Channel 4 News, The Dave Allen Show and the Countdown timer music. Hawkshaw was born on 27 March 1937 in Leeds,and worked as a printer for several years before becoming a professional musician, first joining the pop group The Crescendos, and then in the early 1960's becoming a member of rock and roll group Emile Ford and the Checkmates. He also formed the Mohawks and Rumplestiltskin with some fellow session musicians, playing the Hammond organ in both groups, and in 1965 he played piano on The Hollies 'Put Yourself In My Place' on their 'Hollies' album, as well as playing with David Bowie on the 'Bowie At The Beeb' album, soloing on the Top Gear recording of 'In The Heat Of The Morning'. In 1969, Hank Marvin recruited Hawkshaw into The Shadows to tour Japan, where he can he heard taking lead piano on 'Theme From Exodus' on the resulting live album 'The Shadows Live In Japan', and in 1970 he played on the band's 'Shades Of Rock' album. After leaving The Shadows he did rejoin Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch, & John Farrar, playing on both of their albums under the name of Marvin, Welch & Farrar. Around this time he was composing and recording music for KPM Records, which was one of the best 'libaray music' specialists in the UK. Musicians would record instrumental pieces in a particular genre, like funk or rock (The Pretty Things famously recorded a number of these albums for De Wolfe), and KPM would press them up onto albums and send them round to TV and film production companies for them to pick tunes that they might want to feature in their productions. Alongside Keith Mansfield, Alan Parker, and Johnny Pearson, Hawkshaw was at the forefront of this enterprise, and it's reckoned that he played on over 7,000 recordings in his career, many of which can be found on KPM's library discs, as well as his own albums. In the 1970's, he worked for Olivia Newton-John, Jane Birkin, and Serge Gainsbourg as a musical director, arranger and pianist, and was also a keyboard player for Cliff Richard, for whom he co-wrote 'The Days Of Love', one of six shortlisted songs which Richard performed in A Song for Europe that year. As well as his TV themes, including composing all the music for the 'Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World' series, he also wrote or played the music for many adverts, including ads for Cadbury's Milk Tray, Sunsilk shampoo, Heinz Spaghetti, Bird's Eye, and Esso, and his recordings have been sampled by a host of modern artists, with the opening three notes from The Mohawks' 'The Champ' being one of the most sampled pieces ever. Even if you don't know his name you've probably enjoyed his music more than you know, and so as a tribute to 'the best-know British composer that you've never heard of', here's a selection of his compositions from his KPM records from 1969 to 1971 - and just listen to 'Pollution' from 1970 and decide amongst yourselves who came up with the riff first - Hawkshaw or Deep Purple.
Track listing
01 Work Out
02 The Difference
03 Action Replay
04 Delivery Date
05 Powerboat
06 Purity
07 Freight Line
08 Studio 69
09 The Brisk Scene
10 Go Go Go
11 Stratosphere
12 Beat Me 'Til I'm Blue
13 Thrills And Spills
14 Lady Grey
15 Pollution
16 Speed Speed Speed
17 Smooth And Easy
18 The Busy Scene
19 Chilli 'n' Grits
20 Electromotion
