Russell Churney
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
composer
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...
, pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
, arranger
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
and musical director
Music director
A music director may be the director of an orchestra, the director of music for a film, the director of music at a radio station, the head of the music department in a school, the co-ordinator of the musical ensembles in a university or college , the head bandmaster of a military band, the head...
. He was also a member of the legendary comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
/cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
group, Fascinating Aïda. His sister is Ooberman
Ooberman
Ooberman are a band with strong indie, folk and progressive influences first formed in 1997. They split up in 2003, shortly after the release of their second album Hey Petrunko, but announced their reformation in April 2006 and began releasing music again soon thereafter.-Early years:Ooberman...
keyboardist and vocalist Sophia Churney
Sophia Churney
Sophia Churney is an English singer-songwriter and musician, best known for her work with the band Ooberman, as well as their side acts Symphonika, The Magic Theatre and Ooberon. Her brother was the late musical performer Russell Churney.-External links:*...
.
Biography
Born as Lindsay Russell Churney in LiverpoolLiverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, Churney was educated at Merchant Taylors' School
Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby
Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby is a British independent school for day pupils, located in Great Crosby on Merseyside....
in Great Crosby
Great Crosby
Great Crosby is an area of the town of Crosby, in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England.-Location:In 1907, the Victoria County History described Great Crosby's location thus: 'The ancient township of Great Crosby, which includes Waterloo, lies on the northern shore of the estuary...
and Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
.
He spent seven years working with the comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
Julian Clary
Julian Clary
Julian Peter McDonald Clary is an English comedian and novelist, known for his deliberately stereotypical camp style, with a heavy reliance on innuendo and double entendre.-Early life and education:...
, touring extensively with Clary and singer Barb Jungr
Barb Jungr
Barb Jungr is an English singer-songwriter, composer and writer, of Czech and German parentage. She is perhaps best known as a chansonnière, or singer of chansons—in the sense of classic, lyric-driven French songs; in the broader sense of European songs in the cabaret style; and in the even...
, and appearing with Jungr on Clary's Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
TV series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
Sticky Moments with Julian Clary. Together with Jungr, he devised and performed in shows including
Bare, Killing Me Softly, Songs From The Heart,
Chanson: The Space In Between, Barb, Bob and Brel, and the musical The Ballad of Norah's Ark.
He recorded the album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
Durga Rising (1997) with Jungr and percussionist Kuljit Bhamra
Kuljit Bhamra
Kuljit Bhamra MBE Hon DMus is a British composer, record producer and musician whose main instrument is the tabla. He is best known as one of the record producers who pioneered the British Bhangra sound and for his many collaborations with musicians from different genres and continents...
, and he performs
Performance
A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
on Jungr's albums Bare (1999), Chanson: The Space In Between
Chanson: The Space in Between
-Track listing:#"Ne Me Quitte Pas" – 5:32#:Originally recorded by Jacques Brel on 11 September 1959, and released on his album La Valse à Mille Temps .#"Sunday Morning, St Denis" – 6:29...
(2000), and Every Grain of Sand: Barb Jungr Sings Bob Dylan
Every Grain of Sand: Barb Jungr Sings Bob Dylan
Every Grain of Sand is a tribute album to Bob Dylan recorded by Barb Jungr. The album is named after a Dylan song of the same name.-Track listing:#"I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" – 4:06...
(2002).
With Des de Moor
Des de Moor
Des de Moor is a writer, singer, musician and songwriter. His first performance in front of a paying audience was in Hertford, Hertfordshire, England in June 1976. He worked with local bands and performed in folk clubs in the Hertford area during the late 1970s and 1980s before moving to London in...
(like Jungr, a chansonnier, or singer of chanson
Chanson
A chanson is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specialising in chansons is known as a "chanteur" or "chanteuse" ; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.-Chanson de geste:The...
s), he devised and performed in Darkness and Disgrace: Travels with a Wild-Eyed Alien from Bromley, a show directed by Jungr and based around songs by David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
. Churney and de Moor also recorded an accompanying album Darkness and Disgrace: Des de Moor and Russell Churney Perform the Songs of David Bowie (2003), featuring Jungr.
Other musical shows on which Churney worked as musical director and pianist include Portraits in Song (with Elizabeth Mansfield),
The Lonely Fate of the Femme Fatale (with Sandra Lawrence),
Back With You (with Dillie Keane
Dillie Keane
Louise M. "Dillie" Keane is an Olivier Award-nominated actress, singer and comedienne. She is perhaps best known as one third of the comedy cabaret trio Fascinating Aida since its 1983 inception, but she has also had a prominent solo career.-Theatre and Fascinating Aida:Keane was nominated for a...
), Cabaret Whores (with Howard Samuels), Straker Sings Brel (with Peter Straker),
and Big Night Out at the Little Palace Theatre (with Sandi Toksvig
Sandi Toksvig
Sandra Brigitte “Sandi” Toksvig is a Danish comedian, author and presenter on British radio and television.-Career:...
and Dillie Keane
Dillie Keane
Louise M. "Dillie" Keane is an Olivier Award-nominated actress, singer and comedienne. She is perhaps best known as one third of the comedy cabaret trio Fascinating Aida since its 1983 inception, but she has also had a prominent solo career.-Theatre and Fascinating Aida:Keane was nominated for a...
).
He also recorded the albums One Last Flutter with
Fascinating Aida and Back With You with Dillie Keane
Dillie Keane
Louise M. "Dillie" Keane is an Olivier Award-nominated actress, singer and comedienne. She is perhaps best known as one third of the comedy cabaret trio Fascinating Aida since its 1983 inception, but she has also had a prominent solo career.-Theatre and Fascinating Aida:Keane was nominated for a...
. He composed original scores
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
for film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s including One Minute Past Midnight (directed by Celia Galan Julve, 2004) and the Channel 4 documentaries Return Trip (dir Carol Morley) and The Alcohol Years (directed by Carol Morley, 2000).
Pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer refers to a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. The most common type of pancreatic cancer, accounting for 95% of these tumors is adenocarcinoma, which arises within the exocrine component of the pancreas. A minority arises from the islet cells and is classified as a...
, aged 42. A memorial concert was held in his honour on the 29th June 2008. It was entitled The Lovely Russell, and featured such performers as Barb Jungr
Barb Jungr
Barb Jungr is an English singer-songwriter, composer and writer, of Czech and German parentage. She is perhaps best known as a chansonnière, or singer of chansons—in the sense of classic, lyric-driven French songs; in the broader sense of European songs in the cabaret style; and in the even...
, Sandi Toksvig
Sandi Toksvig
Sandra Brigitte “Sandi” Toksvig is a Danish comedian, author and presenter on British radio and television.-Career:...
, Fascinating Aida
Fascinating Aida
Fascinating Aïda is a British comedy singing group and satirical cabaret act, which has retired twice, most recently in 2004. After the death in 2007 of the group's pianist and musical director, Russell Churney, all plans for a new show were shelved. Some of their most famous songs include...
, Julian Clary
Julian Clary
Julian Peter McDonald Clary is an English comedian and novelist, known for his deliberately stereotypical camp style, with a heavy reliance on innuendo and double entendre.-Early life and education:...
and many others. All were friends or associates of Russell, with the exception of Sylvester McCoy
Sylvester McCoy
Sylvester McCoy is a Scottish actor. As a comic act and busker he appeared regularly on stage and on BBC Children's television in the 1970s and 80s, but is best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who from 1987 to...
, who donated one of his prop hats from his character in Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. The proceeds of the concert went to Russell's favourite charities.
External links
- MusicalTalk Podcast episode discussing Russel Churney with Fascinating Aïda's Adele Anderson
- Russell Churney section of the Fascinating Aïda website
- Obituary, The Times, 13 March 2007
- Des de Moor's Tribute