Junior Campbell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Junior Campbell (born William Campbell, May 31, 1947, Glasgow, Scotland), is a Scottish composer and musician.
Founder member, lead guitarist, piano player, and singer with the Scottish band, The Marmalade.
Campbell is also known for co-composing the music and lyrics for the children's TV series, Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends
[edit] Biography
He grew up in Springboig, in the east end of Glasgow, and was educated at Thorntree Primary in Greenfield and Eastbank Academy in Shettleston.
As a youngster, Campbell had a distinct unique style of guitar playing, whereby he played left handed, with the strings upside down, right hand strung - tuned to "open E".[citation needed] He joined Pat Fairley to form Dean Ford and The Gaylords, on his fourteenth birthday in May 1961, (later to become The Marmalade in 1966), acting as lead guitarist, piano player, and singer.
With The Marmalade, he co wrote and produced the multi million selling "Reflections of My Life", "Rainbow" and "I See the Rain" amongst others, in a line of hits from 1967 to 1971. Campbell's reverse tape guitar solo on "Reflections of My Life" and "I See the Rain" are particularly outstanding - the latter was Jimi Hendrix's favourite cut of 1967.[citation needed]
Tired of touring, Campbell left Marmalade in March 1971.[citation needed] During the 1970s he had two solo records released, both of which, "Hallelujah Freedom" (#9) (1972), (with Doris Troy on backing vocals), and "Sweet Illusion" (#15) (1973) made Top 20 chart appearances in the UK Singles Chart.
He then studied orchestration and composition with Eric Guilder and Max Saunders at the Royal College of Music and became an arranger/record producer for many artists including Barbara Dickson, arranging and producing her first hit single "Answer Me". He also arranged and conducted Dickson's performances in her first season run on the BBC One's The Two Ronnies in 1977.
Campbell has composed music for television drama and film, including the 1989 war film That Summer of White Roses (starring Tom Conti and Rod Steiger, Susan George and Alun Armstrong, and the 1994 BAFTA winner Taking Over the Asylum, which starred Ken Stott, David Tennant and Elizabeth Spriggs.
He also composed the music for the 1998 BBC TV adaptation of the Minette Walters murder mystery, The Scold's Bridle starring Miranda Richardson, Bob Peck, Sian Phillips, Douglas Hodge, Trudie Styler, and Beth Winslet.
However, more recently, he is perhaps most notable for co-writing the music and lyrics for the children's TV series, Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends and TUGS
Campbell lives in Sussex with his wife Susie, and has three children and three grandchildren.
