Peter Brewis
Encyclopedia
Peter Brewis is a composer
and instrumentalist who has been active in several spheres of music from ballet
and modern dance
to music theatre and rock music
. Although he was classically
trained, studying under the famous French
music educator Nadia Boulanger
, he is best known for his song-writing for comedy shows such as Spitting Image
for which he composed I've Never Met a Nice South African
.
where he won the Cobbett Prize
for composition. After graduation he took lessons in composition from Nadia Boulanger, studied electronic music
with Lawrence Casserly and Javanese Gamelan
with Alec Roth.
Brewis spent a period as composer-in-residence with Scottish Ballet
's Movable Workshop. He composed the music for the company's joint production with Travis Workshop of C. P. Taylor's Columba
. Stuart Hopps was the choreographer. Other dance projects includes Finale for Charlie composed for Charles Augin and Endangered Species created for the Kosh Theatre Company.
He has composed several musical
s. Some of these were for educational projects. However, his Don Quixote was composed for the husband and wife team of Reg Bolton and Annie Stainer and the Traverse Theatre
. Mel Smith
and Bob Goody were working on a two-man show at the same venue. Brewis teamed up with them and together they created three black comedy
musicals, including Irony in Dorking which won a Fringe First Award and The Gambler whose 1986 revival at the Hampstead Theatre
was nominated for an Olivier Award and was also recorded by the specialist musical theatre label First Night Records. Brewis's other musicals include Hansel and Gretel, put on at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in 1999 and Rat's Ahoy, co-written with Ruby Wax
but as yet unperformed though Brewis has provided music for other stage shows of hers. Another revue that won the Fringe First Award in which Brewis was involved was White Collar Club.
Brewis has collaborated on several of Smith's other projects. These include the television shows, Smith and Goody
, Not the Nine O'clock News
and Alas Smith and Jones
, for the last two of which Brewis provided music and lyrics, the films Morons from Outer Space
and The Tall Guy
and the stage show Not in Front of the Audience in which the cast of Not the Nine'O'clock News performed Brewis's short musical Laker! as well as material from the television show, including several of Brewis's songs.
Other television shows on which Brewis has worked include the comedy programmes Three of a Kind, A Kick Up the Eighties
, The Lenny Henry Show
, Carrott's Lib
, Lenny Beige and Spitting Image
. Although he provided lyrics for all of these shows, Brewis also composed music for other people's lines, for example in the song I've Never Met a Nice South African which was the B-side for the chart-topping The Chicken Song
. He has music credits for the shows The Strangerers
, The History of the World, Filthy, Rich and Catflap, Hardwicke House
, Friday Night Live
, The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer
, Hale and Pace
, Comic Relief
, The Young Ones
, Angus Deayton
's End of the Year Show and Too Much Sun
. Brewis has also provided music for documentaries, children's
programmes and commercials.
Film credits include About a Boy
, for which Brewis wrote and composed "Santa's Super Sleigh", Staggered and several films by Vera Neubauer, Phil Mulloy and Claire Barwell. Brewis has also composed music for several stage plays, including a production of As You Like It
which he himself directed at the Battersea Arts Centre
.
Brewis has not only played his own music but he has also performed or recorded with a number of bands. These include;
He has also been musical director for many shows, including:
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and instrumentalist who has been active in several spheres of music from ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
and modern dance
Modern dance
Modern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century. Although the term Modern dance has also been applied to a category of 20th Century ballroom dances, Modern dance as a term usually refers to 20th century concert dance.-Intro:...
to music theatre and rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
. Although he was classically
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
trained, studying under the famous French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
music educator Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...
, he is best known for his song-writing for comedy shows such as Spitting Image
Spitting Image
Spitting Image is a British satirical puppet show that aired on the ITV network from 1984 to 1996. It was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central Television. The series was nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards, winning one for editing in 1989....
for which he composed I've Never Met a Nice South African
I've Never Met A Nice South African
"I've Never Met a Nice South African" is a satirical song originating in a sketch on the British television series Spitting Image. It was written by John Lloyd and Peter Brewis and was sung by Andy Roberts. In 1986 it was commercially released as the B-side of the chart-topping "The Chicken Song"...
.
Career
Brewis studied composition at the Royal College of MusicRoyal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
where he won the Cobbett Prize
Walter Willson Cobbett
Walter Willson Cobbett CBE was a British businessman and amateur violinist, and editor/author of Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music. He also endowed the Cobbett Medal for services to Chamber Music....
for composition. After graduation he took lessons in composition from Nadia Boulanger, studied electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
with Lawrence Casserly and Javanese Gamelan
Gamelan
A gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included....
with Alec Roth.
Brewis spent a period as composer-in-residence with Scottish Ballet
Scottish Ballet
Scottish Ballet is the national ballet company of Scotland and one of the four leading ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet...
's Movable Workshop. He composed the music for the company's joint production with Travis Workshop of C. P. Taylor's Columba
Columba
Saint Columba —also known as Colum Cille , Colm Cille , Calum Cille and Kolban or Kolbjørn —was a Gaelic Irish missionary monk who propagated Christianity among the Picts during the Early Medieval Period...
. Stuart Hopps was the choreographer. Other dance projects includes Finale for Charlie composed for Charles Augin and Endangered Species created for the Kosh Theatre Company.
He has composed several musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
s. Some of these were for educational projects. However, his Don Quixote was composed for the husband and wife team of Reg Bolton and Annie Stainer and the Traverse Theatre
Traverse Theatre
The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1963.The Traverse Theatre commissions and develops new plays or adaptations from contemporary playwrights. It also presents a large number of productions from visiting companies from across the UK. These include new plays,...
. Mel Smith
Mel Smith
Melvin Kenneth "Mel" Smith is an English comedian, writer, film director, producer, and actor. He is most famous for his work on the sketch comedy shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Griff Rhys Jones.- Early life :Smith's father, Kenneth, was born...
and Bob Goody were working on a two-man show at the same venue. Brewis teamed up with them and together they created three black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
musicals, including Irony in Dorking which won a Fringe First Award and The Gambler whose 1986 revival at the Hampstead Theatre
Hampstead Theatre
Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in the vicinity of Swiss Cottage and Belsize Park, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. In 2009 it celebrates its 50 year anniversary.The original theatre was...
was nominated for an Olivier Award and was also recorded by the specialist musical theatre label First Night Records. Brewis's other musicals include Hansel and Gretel, put on at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in 1999 and Rat's Ahoy, co-written with Ruby Wax
Ruby Wax
Ruby Wax is a BAFTA nominated American comedian who made a career in the United Kingdom as part of the alternative comedy scene in the 1980s.-Early life:...
but as yet unperformed though Brewis has provided music for other stage shows of hers. Another revue that won the Fringe First Award in which Brewis was involved was White Collar Club.
Brewis has collaborated on several of Smith's other projects. These include the television shows, Smith and Goody
Smith and Goody
Smith and Goody was a children's sketch show on ITV shown for one series in 1980. It was made for the ITV network by Thames Television. It starred, and was written by Mel Smith and Bob Goody, with music provided by Peter Brewis. As well as being a comedy, the series had tried to advocate literature...
, Not the Nine O'clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News is a television comedy sketch show which was broadcast on BBC 2 from 1979 to 1982.Originally shown as a comedy "alternative" to the BBC Nine O'Clock News on BBC 1, it featured satirical sketches on current news stories and popular culture, as well as parody songs, comedy...
and Alas Smith and Jones
Alas Smith and Jones
Alas Smith and Jones is a British comedy sketch television series featuring Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. It was broadcast on the BBC from 1984 to 1998...
, for the last two of which Brewis provided music and lyrics, the films Morons from Outer Space
Morons from Outer Space
Morons from Outer Space is a 1985 comedy/science-fiction film directed by Mike Hodges.-Plot:The story begins on a small spaceship docking with a refueling station. On board are a group of four aliens, Bernard, Sandra, Desmond, and Julian...
and The Tall Guy
The Tall Guy
The Tall Guy is a 1989 romantic comedy and the feature film debut of screenwriter Richard Curtis and director Mel Smith. It was produced by London Weekend Television for theatrical release and stars Jeff Goldblum, Emma Thompson, and Rowan Atkinson...
and the stage show Not in Front of the Audience in which the cast of Not the Nine'O'clock News performed Brewis's short musical Laker! as well as material from the television show, including several of Brewis's songs.
Other television shows on which Brewis has worked include the comedy programmes Three of a Kind, A Kick Up the Eighties
A Kick Up the Eighties
A Kick Up the Eighties was a 1981-1984 BBC Scotland sketch show starring Robbie Coltrane, Tracey Ullman, Richard Stilgoe, Miriam Margolyes, Rik Mayall, Ron Bain and Roger Sloman....
, The Lenny Henry Show
The Lenny Henry Show
The Lenny Henry Show is a comedy sketch show featuring Lenny Henry. In its first incarnation it ran for two seasons on BBC 1, in 1984 and 1985. Each season had six episodes. A 40-minute special was aired in December 1987...
, Carrott's Lib
Carrott's Lib
Carrott's Lib is a British satirical comedy series broadcast between 1982 and 1983. It starred Jasper Carrott and a cast of many comedians. The show was not just a satirical comedy, it was also a sketch show with many comedians of the future, most famously Chris Barrie & Jan Ravens...
, Lenny Beige and Spitting Image
Spitting Image
Spitting Image is a British satirical puppet show that aired on the ITV network from 1984 to 1996. It was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central Television. The series was nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards, winning one for editing in 1989....
. Although he provided lyrics for all of these shows, Brewis also composed music for other people's lines, for example in the song I've Never Met a Nice South African which was the B-side for the chart-topping The Chicken Song
The Chicken Song
-12" vinyl:-Chart performance:...
. He has music credits for the shows The Strangerers
The Strangerers
The Strangerers is a British television science fiction comedy drama serial written by Rob Grant and was broadcast on Sky One between February and April 2000....
, The History of the World, Filthy, Rich and Catflap, Hardwicke House
Hardwicke House
Hardwicke House was a 1987 seven-episode sitcom produced by Central Independent Television for the ITV network. It was so negatively received that only the first two episodes were transmitted.-Plot and episode titles :...
, Friday Night Live
Friday Night Live
Friday Night Live may refer to:* Friday Night Live , a television series aired on Network Ten as a part of Big Brother Australia* Friday Night Live , successor to Saturday Live...
, The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer
The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer
The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer was a BBC TV sketch show written by and starring double act Vic Reeves & Bob Mortimer. Its first series appeared in 1993 following the duo's move to the BBC after parting company with Channel 4...
, Hale and Pace
Hale and Pace
Hale and Pace are an English comedy duo who have starred in several TV sketch series.-Early career:Gareth Hale and Norman Pace met at Avery Hill teacher training college in Eltham South East London. They discovered much in common, particularly humour, and began playing clubs in a comedy band. One...
, Comic Relief
Comic Relief
Comic Relief is an operating British charity, founded in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Lenny Henry in response to famine in Ethiopia. The highlight of Comic Relief's appeal is Red Nose Day, a biennial telethon held in March, alternating with sister project Sport Relief...
, The Young Ones
The Young Ones (TV series)
The Young Ones is a British sitcom, first broadcast in 1982, which ran for two series on BBC2. Its anarchic, offbeat humour helped bring alternative comedy to television in the 1980s and made household names of its writers and performers...
, Angus Deayton
Angus Deayton
Gordon Angus Deayton is an English actor, writer, musician, comedian and broadcaster. He is best known for his role as Victor Meldrew's long-suffering neighbour Patrick Trench in the comedy series One Foot in the Grave...
's End of the Year Show and Too Much Sun
Too Much Sun
Too Much Sun is a 1990 film directed by Robert Downey Sr.. It was filmed in Beverly Hills, California, USA and Los Angeles, California, USA,.-Availability:...
. Brewis has also provided music for documentaries, children's
programmes and commercials.
Film credits include About a Boy
About a Boy (film)
About a Boy is a 2002 comedy-drama film directed by brothers Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz, based on the novel of the same name by Nick Hornby. The film stars Golden Globe winner Hugh Grant as Will, Nicholas Hoult as Marcus, Academy Award nominee Toni Collette as Fiona, and Academy Award winner Rachel...
, for which Brewis wrote and composed "Santa's Super Sleigh", Staggered and several films by Vera Neubauer, Phil Mulloy and Claire Barwell. Brewis has also composed music for several stage plays, including a production of As You Like It
As You Like It
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
which he himself directed at the Battersea Arts Centre
Battersea Arts Centre
The Battersea Arts Centre is a performance space near Clapham Junction in Battersea, in the London Borough of Wandsworth that specialises in music and theatre productions.-History:...
.
Brewis has not only played his own music but he has also performed or recorded with a number of bands. These include;
- Swan Revived, who supported HawkwindHawkwindHawkwind are an English rock band, one of the earliest space rock groups. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes. They are also a noted precursor to punk rock and now are considered a link between the hippie and punk cultures....
when they toured in 1973 at the height of the latter's success, - the electronic-folk group MagnetMagnet (band)Magnet were a band formed for the purpose of recording the soundtrack to the 1973 film The Wicker Man. The band were assembled by musician Gary Carpenter to perform songs composed by New York songwriter Paul Giovanni...
which was formed for and appeared in the original film of The Wicker Man, - Stomu YamashtaStomu YamashtaStomu Yamashta Stomu Yamashta Stomu Yamashta (born is a Japanese percussionist, keyboardist and composer. He is sometimes credited as Stomu Yamash'ta. His father was the band director Kiyoharu Yamashita (1907–1991)....
's large touring rock and dance troupe The Man from the East, - the backing group of The MarvelettesThe MarvelettesThe Marvelettes were an American singing girl group on the Tamla label. Motown's first successful female vocal group, the Marvelettes are most notable for recording the company's first #1 Pop hit, "Please Mr...
- and The Peter Straker Band who recorded an album for EMIEMIThe EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
co-produced by Freddie MercuryFreddie MercuryFreddie Mercury was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range...
.
He has also been musical director for many shows, including:
- the Japanese tour by the original cast of The Rocky Horror ShowThe Rocky Horror ShowThe Rocky Horror Show is a long-running British horror comedy stage musical, which opened in London on 19 June 1973. It was written by Richard O'Brien, produced and directed by Jim Sharman. It came eighth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals"...
, - that show's transfer to the West EndWest End theatreWest End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
- and the original run of Chorus GirlsChorus Girls (musical)Chorus Girls was a musical written in 1981 by The Kinks lead singer and songwriter Ray Davies, who collaborated with The Long Good Friday screenwriter Barrie Keefe....
at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East.
Source
- Composer's website: contains biographical and career details as well as musical snippets.