James Compton (born 1 December 1959 in North Tawton, Devon, England) is a British musician, composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist and actor.
Biography Compton moved to London in 1980 and joined his first professional band, Darts, on his 21st birthday. Three years later the entire band was cast in Yakety Yak, a musical featuring the songs of Leiber and Stoller. The band split in 1986. Later that year he joined Microdisney, an Irish indie band, going on to contribute to three singles and five albums.
Throughout his career, Compton has produced six albums and co-produced ten singles.
In 1990 he returned to the stage and went on to become musical supervisor of sixteen more musicals, eight of which had successful West End runs. Compton was responsible for all the music and soundscapes in Morecambe (a tribute to the British comedian Eric Morecambe) which won a Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment for its run at the Duchess Theatre in 2009. More recently he participated in an off-Broadway run of The City Club, a blues and boogie-woogie musical that he composed with Tony De Meur and Tim Brown. Compton also worked as composer on six motion pictures (including Dark Streets which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song), numerous television productions and various electronic media. Michael Caine is to be seen line dancing to Compton's guitar and piano work in the 2013 motion picture Mr. Morgan's Last Love.
In 2005 he started studying for a master's degree in Electronic Arts at Middlesex University, specialising in interactive audio in computer games.
He is now working with people who have suffered brain injury, making music.
Discography Straight Eight 1981 Album Straight to the Heart Darts 1981 Single Jump, Children, Jump co-producer Darts 1981 Single Show us your Shoe co-producer Darts 1981 Album Doo Wop Darts Darts 1981 Album Darts – Across America Darts 1983 Single The Mystery of Ragoula co-producer Darts 1983 EP Yakety Yak co-producer Darts 1983 Single Lorraine co-producer Darts 1983 Single Can't Teach a Fool co-producer Darts 1984 Single Groovin''' || co-producer |- | Darts || 1984 || Single || Blow Away (co-written) || co-producer |- | Alison Moyet || 1984 || B-side || Hitch Hike || co-producer |- | Microdisney || 1987 || Single || Town to Town || |- | Microdisney || 1987 || Single || Singer's Hampstead Home || |- | Microdisney || 1988 || Single || Gale Force Wind || |- | Microdisney || 1987 || Album || Crooked Mile || |- | Microdisney || 1988 || Album || 39 Minutes || |- | Microdisney || 1995 || Album || Big Sleeping House || |- | Microdisney || 1999 || Album || The Peel Sessions Album || |- | Microdisney || 2007 || Album || Daunt Square to Elsewhere || |- | The Railway Children || 1988 || Album || Recurrence || |- | Microgroove || 1989 || Album || The Human Groove || producer |- | Cast Album || 1992 || Album || Good Rockin' Tonite! || |- | Cast Album || 1998 || Album || Saucy Jack & the Space Vixens || co-producer |- | Hank Wangford || 1999 || Album || Wake Up Dead || |- | Various || 2000 || Album || Mother and Baby Relax || producer |- | Peggy Seeger || 2001 || Album || Love Will Linger On || |- | Darrel Higham || 2004 || Album || The Cochran Collection Vol.2 || |- | J Evans Band || 2005 || Album || In the Wild Years || producer |- | Soundtrack || 2006 || Album || O Jerusalem || songwriter |- | Soundtrack || 2008 || Album || Dark Streets || songwriter |- | Paul Ansell's Number 9 || 2011 || Album || Money and Lies || |- | Paul Ansell's Number 9 || 2013 || Album || A Date with Paul Ansell's No. 9 || |- | Cast Album || 2013 || Album || Saucy Jack & the Space Vixens 2'' producer
Theatre 1983 Yakety Yak musical director, actor, multi instrumentalist West End, Astoria Theatre and international tour 1990 Beehive; The Sixties Musical musical supervisor, instrumentalist Newcastle, Northern Stage 1991 Good Rockin' Tonite! musical director, actor, multi instrumentalist West End, Prince of Wales 1992 Leader of the Pack musical supervisor and arranger West End, Duke of Yorks 1993 Forever Plaid musical director, instrumentalist West End, Apollo Theatre 1994 The Queen and I musical supervisor Royal Court & Vaudeville Theatre 1995 The Man of Mode musical supervisor, composer Tour 1995 Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat musical supervisor and arranger Lyric Theatre, Belfast 1996 Elvis: The Musical musical director, actor, multi instrumentalist West End, Prince of Wales 1997 Saucy Jack & the Space Vixens musical director, composer, instrumentalist West End, Queens Theatre and tour 1998 Four Steps to Heaven musical director, multi instrumentalist West End, Piccadilly Theatre and tour 2001 Puppetry of the Penis musical supervisor, composer West End, Whitehall Theatre 2001–2004 Saucy Jack & the Space Vixens musical supervisor, composer Saucy Jack's Bar, London 2006 The City Club musical supervisor, actor, instrumentalist Edinburgh Festival 2009 Morecambe musical supervisor, composer and sound designer West End, Duchess Theatre and tour 2011 Stop Dreamin''' || musical supervisor, instrumentalist || Theatre Royal Windsor and tour |- | 2012 || The City Club'' musical supervisor, composer Minetta Lane Theatre, Manhattan
TV and multimedia 1983 Camel cinema advert co-producer 1984 Rubik's Cube video composer and producer 1989 Comic Asides arranger and actor BBC 2 1997 The Jack Docherty Show performer and composer Channel 5 1998 Back to the Future composer and producer of title music ITV 2000 Trigger Happy TV musician on soundtrack Channel 4 2001 The Tweenies Game composer for multimedia game Sonica 2002 The Magic Drum composer for multimedia game Sonica 2003 Maestromediaservices creator of audio content for sound library 2002 Guildband.com audio content creator website 2004 Gunfight audio content creator for animation Shagrat.net 2004 Flight to Cancun audio content creator for animation Student Universehttp://www.shagrat.net/ 2005 Electronic Arts start master's degree in interactive audio Middlesex University 2007–2009 Top Rockers create backing tracks and sound design for animatronic rock and roll puppet shows Thorpe Park 2010 Plunderland sound designer and composer for game app JohnnyTwoShoes
Film 2004 Film as Subversive Art music editor and arranger Sticking Place Films 2006 O Jerusalem songwriter Samuel Goldwyn Films 2008 Dark Streets lead composer for film-noire musical Samuel Goldwyn Films 2009 The Tournament songwriter AV Pictures 2009 The Ministers songwriter Allumbra Pictures 2010 Lullaby for Pi arranger Rezo Films 2013 Mr Morgan's Last Love musician on soundtrack Image Entertainment
References
External links
Compton playing at the 100 Club