Leigh Haggerwood
| Leigh Haggerwood | |
|---|---|
| Born | England |
| Occupations | Singer, Songwriter, Record Producer, Musician |
| Instruments | Vocals, Keyboards, Piano |
| Associated acts | Scarlet Division, The Florin Street Band |
| Website | www.ukcomposer.com, www.florinstreet.com |
Leigh Haggerwood is a contemporary composer based in Bath, UK. He specializes in songwriting, keyboards, singing, music production, audio engineering and sound-to-picture scoring. His credits include music for numerous TV shows and commercials which are broadcast around the world.[1]
Along with chef Jamie Oliver, Leigh Haggerwood was a founding member of the band Scarlet Division,[2] who released the single, "Sundial", in October 2000 through Sony Music.[3]
Haggerwood also wrote several songs for Jamie Oliver's live shows which included the YouTube hit "Lamb Curry - Give It to Me Hot",[4] "The Kiss of Summer and "Fish Stew". His TV credits include the ITV Text Santa Theme and incidental musical,[5] Oliver's Twist, Trinny and Susannah, Jamie's School Dinners, Petrolheads on BBC Two and TV Land's High School Reunion.
The Florin Street Band
Haggerwood is best known for his Victorian-themed creation The Florin Street Band which he put together to record an original Christmas song he had written called "My Favourite Time of Year". Disappointed by the demise of Christmas song writing in the UK, Leigh set out to create a traditional-sounding song with epic production values and strong melodies. His idea included a music video set in 19th century England with snow-lined streets, lanterns, period costumes and snow-dusted rooftops. UK record companies would not fund such an ambitious idea as they did not consider it financially viable. So Leigh eventually decided to make it happen himself by employing session musicians to record the song and funding the music video with his life savings.[6]
He produced the record at Trevor Horn's Sarm Studios and requested the services of 36 session musicians including The English Chamber Choir. The majority of Leigh's work is sung and performed by other artists, but Leigh decided to sing "My Favourite Time of Year" himself so that he could maintain the Victorian theme and make sure it would end up as he intended.[7]
The period music video was the biggest challenge of the project, but after a long search, Leigh found talented British director, Nick Bartleet, who shared his vision and helped make it a reality. As the plans progressed, American cinematographer John Perez offered his services as Director of Photography, and the extraordinary video was shot at Blists Hill Victorian Town at Ironbridge in Shropshire. The song and video received an public response through social networking websites with many people describing it as a future classic. The song has won the UK Songwriting Contest.[8]
- Text Santa
Text Santa is a charity initiative first broadcast on UK television network, ITV, in 2011. The project aims to raise money and awareness for a number of charities during the festive season and is heavily promoted by ITV in the form of TV shows, radio and sponsorship by major brands.[9] The producers were keen to use "My Favourite Time of Year" as the theme music to the appeal, which Leigh agreed to. With his experience as a media composer, he re-versioned the song and created other original music for the shows.
- Winter Wonder
Since releasing My Favourite Time of Year in 2010, Leigh Haggerwood has created a Florin Street Christmas musical. In 2013 he decided to make another Victorian music video for one of the new songs entitled Winter Wonder, which is about a celebration that the towns-folk put on as Winter draws in. The music video featured 100 cast members including dancers and local children from the village of Englishcombe in Bath, UK where it was filmed at the 14th century Tithe barn. "Winter Wonder" with lyrics and music by Leigh Haggerwood, was released on 16 December 2013 with "My Favourite Time of Year" as the B-side track.[10]
References
- ↑ "The British Academy of Songwriter's, Composers and Authors". BASCA. 2010-12-14. Retrieved 2011-12-12.
- ↑ "The Hutt Russell Organisation". hrpl. Retrieved 2000-09-20.
- ↑ "BBC News". BBC News Online. 2000-12-17. Retrieved 2000-12-17.
- ↑ "London Evening Standard". London Evening Standard. 01/12/2007. Retrieved 01/12/2007.
- ↑ "ITV Text Santa". ITV1. 2011-12-19. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
- ↑ "BBC Essex". BBC. 2010-12-14. Retrieved 2010-12-14.
- ↑ "PR Newswire". PR Newswire. 05/12/2011. Retrieved 05/12/2011.
- ↑ "Bath barn to be home for Florin Street Band's Christmas video". 21 November 2013. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
- ↑ "ITV Text Santa Homepage". ITV Text Santa. 05/12/2011. Retrieved 05/12/2011.
- ↑ iTunes.com: The Florin Street Band - "Winter Wonder"