Nick Heath

Nick Heath
Born	Nicholas Heath (1949-03-25) 25 March 1949 Wimbledon, London, England

Nick Heath (born 25 March 1949, Wimbledon, London, England) is an English music, television and film producer, publisher, designer and founder of Birdland Film,^[1][2] Nick Heath Design Group^[3] and Heath Media.^[4]

Son of British big band leader Ted Heath, he is the recipient of numerous awards for his endeavors in the entertainment industry.

Additionally, one of his architectural/design projects (in Fulham, London) was listed as part of London’s Annual Open House for the ‘Best Buildings In The City’.^[5]

Music

He joined Robbins Music Corporation – the music publishing division of MGM,^[6] in the A&R department, and was initially responsible for managing the company’s film soundtrack division including: The Wizard of Oz, Singin' in the Rain, Kiss Me Kate, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Guys and Dolls, High Society, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Gigi, Ben-Hur, North by Northwest, How the West Was Won, Doctor Zhivago, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Thomas Crown Affair, Shaft and Ken Russell’s production of The Boy Friend with Twiggy and Timothy Buttons.

Establishing, and heading up a contemporary song writing division for Robbins, and subsequently setting up EMI Music Publishing,^[7] Heath worked with John Sebastian,^[8] Tim Hardin, Peter Frampton, Rod Stewart, Soft Machine, Mickey Gallagher, John Turnbull, Alan Parsons, Roy Thomas Baker, David Paton, Billy Lyall and Ian Bairnson.

He formed the artiste management companies, Firework and Heath Music Group, who signed the Scottish band Pilot, and they had worldwide chart success with "Magic" and "January" and The Korgis who had chart success with "If I Had You" and "Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime".

Founding Rialto Records,^[9] an independent record label and Heath Music Group, music publishing and artist management company, he had further success with The Korgis, The Planets, The Regents and The Mobiles. Rialto Art, under his art direction won numerous Design & Art Direction (D&AD) awards and nominations.

Publishing

Heath founded The Rainbow Group of companies representing Walt Disney, Universal, Paramount, and Columbia Pictures which exclusively published book and audio editions of the film output from these studios, including Jungle Book, A-Team, Ghostbusters. He produced the award winning dramatized 'Theatre for Children' series of Roald Dahl books Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, The BFG and Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Television

With Nick Austin (Beggars Banquet Records) and Mike Appleton, he executive produced the 'Art of Landscape' classical music series, providing Channel 4 with more than 200 hours of daytime music television programming. 'Art of Landscape' was eventually broadcast for 6000 hours in 26 countries around the world.

Film

Heath formed producer partnerships with Nora Ephron^[10] at Columbia Pictures, and Andrew Eaton and Michael Winterbottom at Polygram/Universal.

He executive produced the Toronto World of Comedy Film Festival^[11] selection The Most Unromantic Man In The World, which was written and directed by his son, James Heath and Gratian Dimech.

More recently Heath formed the US/UK based feature film and television production company, Birdland Film.^[1][12] Birdland focuses on developing and producing original screenplays and adaptations of novels for screen and TV.

Design

Founder of the Nick Heath Design Group,^[3] Heath has designed residential and commercial buildings and interiors in the UK and the US. One of his recent projects in London, The Piper Building, was listed as one of 'Best Buildings In The City' as part of the London Annual Open House.^[5]

References