User:Winifredwoodnorth

ROD MELVIN is a pianist,singer, songwriter and composer. Born Whitehaven ,Cumbria, England in 1949. His first public performances were with art-student group The Moodies which was formed at Reading University Fine Art Department. The Moodies hosted a party at which the young Roxy Music appeared. Melvin continued to perform with The Moodies in the UK ( Edinburgh Festival, 1973, theatres and art colleges ang galleries ) and in Germany where the group's show was filmed by director, Wolf Gremm and shown on German TV. Melvin returned to Germany to star in and write and perform the music for a feature film by Gremm. (Meine Sorgen Mucht Ich Haben). In 1974, he was asked to play piano on the first single recording by Ian Dury's band "Kilburn & The High Roads" which was produced by Chris Thomas. After this session, Melvin joined the band and toured in the UK. The band then recorded the album Handsome which featured two songs co-written by Melvin and Ian Dury. Prior to this Melvin had also performed with Lindsay Kemp in theatre shows and had recorded with Brian Eno on "I'll Come Running To Tie Your Shoe " and "Wimoweh(The Lion Sleeps Tonight)"  aswell as "Another Green World". Other songs written with Ian Dury that were recorded were What A Waste, England's Glory(recorded by Max Wall) and "Tell Yor Daddy". While continuing as a popular pianist/singer with London residencies Melvin then took up the piano chair and MD role for the Comic Strip live shows, created by Peter Richardson in the early 1980s at the Boulevard Theatre, Soho, London. This led to an album being recorded and a tour. The other musicians in the resident trio were Simon Brint (bass) and Rowland Rivron (drums). Melvin later worked again with Peter Richardson on films Stella Street, Sex Actually and Churchill, The Hollywood Years.