Geoff Unwin (born 8 October 1936) is an English musician and composer. He was an early user and promoter of the

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

, a tape-based sampling keyboard, and co-wrote the theme music for the first ''

On the Buses ''On the Buses'' is a British television British sitcom, sitcom that was broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV from 1969 to 1973. It was created by Chesney and Wolfe, Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe, who wrote most of the episodes. It spawned thr ...

'' film.

Biography

Unwin was born on 8 October 1936 and grew up in

Norris Green Norris Green is a suburb and ward of Liverpool, England, in the east of the city. At the 2001 Census it had a population of 17,784, which had fallen to 15,047 at the 2011 Census. History Historically a part of Lancashire, Norris Green's develop ...

, Liverpool. He studied at a branch of the

London College of Music London College of Music (LCM) is a music school in London, England. It is one of eight separate schools that make up the University of West London. History LCM was founded in 1887 and existed as an independent music conservatoire based at Gr ...

in Liverpool and started playing in

variety theatre Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a compère ...

in 1947. By 1962, he was working in The Magic Carpet Inn in

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

, London, where he was spotted by big band leader Eric Robinson and television personality and magician David Nixon. He started working for Robinson and Nixon through their company Mellotronics, and it was through this association that he became the featured artist on Mellotron promotional appearances, both live and on television and radio. He featured on a ten-minute promotional film made by

Pathé Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French people, French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest ...

that was regularly shown in cinemas and appeared on the children's television show ''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Tel ...

'', demonstrating the Mellotron to

Valerie Singleton Valerie Singleton (born 9 April 1937) is an English television and radio presenter best known as a regular presenter of the popular children's series ''Blue Peter'' from 1962 to 1972. She also presented the BBC Radio 4 '' PM'' programme for t ...

. Unwin claims to have visited

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

when Lennon was living in

Weybridge Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as ''Waigebrugge'' and ''Weibrugge'' in the 7th century and the name derives from a crossing point of the ...

, Surrey in the mid-1960s "to give him a few pointers" and toured South Africa in 1966. Unwin left Mellotronics in 1969 and started working for

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

as an A&R man and producer, where he composed the music for the first film version of ''On The Buses'', including co-writing the theme tune with

Roger Ferris Roger Paul Ferris is a British pop music composer, prevalent throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He is father of British pianist, arranger, and producer and Steinway & Sons global ambassador Dominic Ferris. Composition work In 1975 Ferris wrote t ...

. Unwin moved to Spain in the mid-1980s after his daughter, Naomi, decided to relocate there after getting married but returned to the UK in 1988. Naomi later found fame on the Spanish television show ''

Un, Dos, Tres ''Un, dos, tres... responda otra vez'' (), usually shortened as ''Un, dos, tres...'', and named ''Un, dos, tres... a leer esta vez'' () in its last season, was a Spanish prime-time television game show, created by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, whic ...

''.

Discography

* ''Hammer Comedy Film Music Collection'' (composer)

References

;Books *

External links

The Mellotron
– British Pathé promotional film featuring a performance by Unwin {{DEFAULTSORT:Unwin, Geoff Musicians from Liverpool English keyboardists People from Norris Green 1936 births Living people