John Marcangelo (born 1950,

Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies by road south-west of Carlisle and to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It is th ...

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...

, England) is an English pianist, drummer and composer of

folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers suc ...

Early life

He comes from The Valley in

. He went to St Begh's Catholic School, (now a junior school) on Coach Road, Whitehaven. He is the son of an Italian barber. He started his life in music with a band called The Invaders, in Cumbria, after leaving school, when earlier intending to go to Carlisle Art College. He later went to Leeds College of Music and trained as a classical musician (pianist and percussionist) where he met the violinist

Mik Kaminski Michael Kaminski (born 2 September 1951) is an English musician. He is best known for playing violin in the rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) between 1973 and 1979 and touring from 1981 to 1986, as well as being a member of Electric Ligh ...

Musical composition

After leaving college in Leeds, he went to London with Kaminski and drummer John Hodgson with their band called Cow, where Marcangelo played keyboard. He worked as a session musician and also in orchestra pits for musicals such as ''

Hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and f ...

''. Kaminski then joined ELO in 1973. Marcangelo found a new musical partner in the composer

Cornelius Cardew Cornelius Cardew (7 May 193613 December 1981) was an English experimental music composer, and founder (with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons) of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected experimental music, ...

in their band called

People's Liberation Music The Peoples' Liberation Music (PLM) was a political music group, playing folk and agit-pop, founded in 1972 by Laurie Scott Baker, John Marcangelo and John Tilbury. After Tilbury left in 1973 Cornelius Cardew and Keith Rowe joined with Vicky Silv ...

, with Vicky Silva as singer,

Laurie Scott Baker Laurie Scott Baker (1943 - 16 November 2022) was a British composer and musician of Experimental and Electronic music. He was a pioneer of live electronics and graphic scores from the 1960s. Life and career He was born 1943 in Sydney, Aust ...

on bass, and others. Together they worked with the opera singer

Jane Manning Jane Marian Manning OBE (20 September 193831 March 2021) was an English concert and opera soprano, writer on music, and visiting professor at the Royal College of Music. A specialist in contemporary classical music, she was described by one c ...

and toured the world, recording the first music concert for the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

in communist

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Cardew was killed in a

hit and run In traffic laws, a hit and run or a hit-and-run is the act of causing a traffic collision and not stopping afterwards. It is considered a supplemental crime in most jurisdictions. Additional obligation In many jurisdictions, there may be an ...

accident in 1981. Marcangelo was asked by Kaminski to record an album with

Violinski Violinski was a rock music, rock band formed in 1977 by Electric Light Orchestra violinist Mik Kaminski with former member Mike de Albuquerque on guitar and vocals. In March 1979 the band become a one-hit wonder with their instrumental "Clog ...

, and got another Cumbrian musician, Barry Dunnery a guitarist from

Egremont, Cumbria Egremont is a market town, civil parish and two Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral wards in Cumbria, England, and Historic counties of England, historically part of Cumberland. It is situated just outside the Lake Di ...

, to join them. From the album ''No Cause for Alarm'', recorded at the

Musicland Studios Musicland Studios was a recording studio located in Munich, Germany. It was established by Italian record producer, songwriter and performer Giorgio Moroder in the early 1970s.

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, came Marcangelo's most well known composition, "Clog Dance" reaching number 17 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in March 1979. Marcangelo then went on a European tour with Violinski and also contributed to their second and final album, ''Stop Cloning About''. Marcangelo has worked on cruise ships, first on the '' QE2'' as a drummer with the

Ronnie Carroll Ronnie Carroll (born Ronald Cleghorn; 18 August 1934 – 13 April 2015) was a Northern Irish singer, entertainer and political candidate. Career Carroll was born Ronald Cleghorn in 116 Roslyn Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1934, the son o ...

Orchestra, and has since performed on many cruises with his wife Cathy as the Celeste Trio with keyboard player Dave Taylor from

Distington Distington () is a large village and civil parish in Cumbria, England, south of Workington and north of Whitehaven. Historically a part of Cumberland, the civil parish includes the nearby settlements of Common End, Gilgarran and Pica. The ...

. After which he arranged all the orchestral arrangements for his wife’s (Celeste Francis aka Catherine Marcangelo) Headline Show and travelled as her music director playing piano accompaniment on the world’s major cruise lines. In 2007 “Clog Dance the Musical” by John Marcangelo, was performed at Whitehaven Civic Hall to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the William Pit disaster, repeated in 2017 for the 70th Anniversary. The composition has also been arranged by Bill Charleson and Bill Bailey for brass band. His Big Band arrangements are used when Catherine Marcangelo performs with renowned Fatchops Big Band based in the Midlands.

References

Video clips

Top of the Pops

Information on Clog Dance at Bayern 3 radio

External links

*
''Whitehaven News'' January 2007 article

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marcangelo, John 1950 births People from Whitehaven English composers English keyboardists English people of Italian descent Living people Alumni of Leeds College of Music