Keith Hopwood (born 26 October 1946) is an English pop and rock musician, singer-songwriter, composer, businessman and record producer, who served as the rhythm guitarist and backing vocals for the 1960s pop band,

Herman's Hermits Herman's Hermits are an English beat, rock and pop group formed in 1964 in Manchester, originally called Herman and His Hermits and featuring lead singer Peter Noone. Produced by Mickie Most, the Hermits charted with number ones in the UK a ...

. Hopwood also served as a keyboardist, singer and guitarist for the post-

Peter Noone Peter Blair Denis Bernard Noone (born 5 November 1947) is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist and actor. He was the lead singer "Herman" in the 1960s pop group Herman's Hermits. Early life Noone was born in Davyhulme, Lancashire, ...

outfit, Sour Mash, which recorded an unreleased album, ''A Whale of a Tale'' for

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

Early life

Born on 26 October 1946 at Park Hospital,

Davyhulme Davyhulme is an area of Greater Manchester, England, historically in Lancashire. The population at the 2011 census was 19,634. Davyhulme Sewage Works The area is notable for Davyhulme Sewage Works, one of the largest wastewater treatment pl ...

area of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, he attended Urmston Grammar School.

Career

Herman's Hermits 1968 US television concert special

A talented musician and composer, he continues to live and work in the

music industry The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...

in the UK. Several rare demo recordings from his time in Herman's Hermits are available through his website. Peter Noone credits his old friend with coming up with the idea of recording "

Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter" is a popular song written by British actor, screenwriter and songwriter Trevor Peacock. It was originally sung by actor Tom Courtenay in ''The Lads'', a British TV play of 1963, and released as a singl ...

" as an afterthought, when Herman's Hermits were short of material for their first album. Noone's heavily accented delivery, together with Hopwood's muted rhythm guitar work, propelled the track to number one on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

. Contrary to many reports, the song was not an old

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...

number, and the Hermits did play on the track as well as on many other Herman's Hermits records, including all of the band's number-one US and UK hits.

Ralph McTell Ralph McTell (born Ralph May, 3 December 1944) is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s. McTell is best known for his song " Streets of London" (19 ...

recorded the

theme tune Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...

Cosgrove Hall Films Cosgrove Hall Films (also known as Cosgrove Hall Productions) was an English animation studio founded by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall; its headquarters was in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester. Cosgrove Hall was once a major producer of childr ...

's adaptation of ''

The Wind in the Willows ''The Wind in the Willows'' is a children's novel by the British novelist Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. It details the story of Mole, Ratty, and Badger as they try to help Mr. Toad, after he becomes obsessed with motorcars and gets ...

'' written by Hopwood and Malcolm Rowe, and this was released as a single in 1984, after the series was aired on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

. Hopwood also co-wrote the music for Cosgrove Hall's adaptations of

Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his ''Discworld'' series of 41 novels. Pratchett's first nov ...

's ''

Soul Music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became po ...

'' and "

Wyrd Sisters ''Wyrd Sisters'' is Terry Pratchett's sixth ''Discworld'' novel, published in 1988. It re-introduces Granny Weatherwax of ''Equal Rites''. Plot ''Wyrd Sisters'' features three witches: Granny Weatherwax; Nanny Ogg, matriarch of a large tribe ...

" with Phil Bush. Soundtrack albums were released in 1997. Hopwood and Rowe co-wrote and produced the music to the 1989

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

of Roald Dahl's ''

The BFG ''The BFG'' (short for ''The Big Friendly Giant'') is a 1982 children's book written by British novelist Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. It is an expansion of a short story from Dahl's 1975 book '' Danny, the Champion of the World ...

''. Other Cosgrove Hall shows he composed for were ''

Creepy Crawlies ''Creepy Crawlies'' was a stop motion animation series created by Cosgrove Hall. The series consisted of 52 ten-minute episodes, which were broadcast on CITV, Children's ITV between 1987 and 1989. All episodes were written by Peter Reeves and di ...

'', ''

Alias the Jester ''Alias the Jester'' is a British animated series created by Cosgrove Hall Films, airing in 13 episodes on ITV starting on 13 November 1985. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation aired the show in 1987 during their after school timeslot and ...

'' with Malcolm Rowe, ''

Foxbusters ''The Foxbusters'' is a British animated TV series very loosely based on the Dick King-Smith book ''The Foxbusters''. It was made by Cosgrove Hall, and consists of two series of thirteen 11-minute episodes each, made between 1999 and 2000. The ...

'', ''

Andy Pandy ''Andy Pandy'' is a British children's television series that first appeared on BBC Television in summer 1950. Originally live, a series of 26 filmed programmes was shown until 1970, when a new series of 13 episodes was made. A revival of the s ...

'', ''

Discworld ''Discworld'' is a comic fantasy"Humorous Fantasy" in David Pringle, ed., ''The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' (pp.31-33). London, Carlton,2006. book series written by the English author Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat pla ...

'', with Phil Bush, and '' Albie'', alone. In 2004 he composed the music for the remake of ''

Pingu ''Pingu'' is a stop-motion children's television series co-created by Otmar Gutmann and Erika Brueggemann. It was originally produced from 1990 to 2000 by Swiss company The Pygos Group (originally called Trickfilmstudio) for SF DRS in Switzerl ...

'' for HIT Entertainment, and started work on ''

Bob the Builder ''Bob the Builder'' is a British animated children's television series created by Keith Chapman for HIT Entertainment and Hot Animation. The series follows the adventures of Bob, a building contractor, specialising in masonry, along with ...

'' TV series and Specials, which was to last until production ceased in 2011. In 2013 he formed a music rights company, CHF Music, with Cosgrove Hall Fitzpatrick Entertainment, the newly launched company run by Brian Cosgrove and Simon Hall, to look after all the music content for their new shows. In 2017 he started working on the series "Daisy & Ollie, starring Jason Manford, now produced by Hoopla Animation. Currently 130 episodes produced. In 2021 he wrote and produced (along with son Dan) his first solo album Never Too Late. Containing eleven original songs this was released 1 February 2022

Pluto Music

In 1968, Keith Hopwood and

Derek Leckenby Derek "Lek" Leckenby (14 May 1943 – 4 June 1994)Chris Welch ''The Independent'', 9 June 1994. Retrieved 28 November 2010. was an English musician and lead guitarist, most famous for his work with English pop group Herman's Hermits. Early lif ...

founded Pluto Music, a company that composes musical scores for commercials, films, and animation. Leckenby died in 1994, but Hopwood continues operating the company. Pluto Studios has been very successful, providing services to many top acts including

The Clash The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the wa ...

. Hopwood has proved himself a fine soundtrack composer, working mostly on animated television series including the hugely successful "Bob the Builder." Always a composer, he wrote and co-wrote numerous songs recorded by Herman's Hermits, and other bands such as Brinsley Schwarz. Hopwood also published and promoted the singer-songwriter, Helen Watson. He has also helped create many tracks for his granddaughter, Izzy Hopwood, who has had great musical talent from a young age.

Personal life

On 21 January 1968 Keith Hopwood married Penny Pagni, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. They were married for 17 years and they had three children: Daxalen "Dax" (born on 5 July 1968), Joel (born in 1976) and Zhian (born in 1978). In 1989, Hopwood married Maria Verdellis. They had a son, Daniel (born in 1991).

References

External links

Pluto Music official websiteKeith Hopwood mini-bio
at the

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Hopwood, Keith 1946 births Living people Rhythm and blues guitarists English composers English pop guitarists English businesspeople English male singer-songwriters English record producers People from Davyhulme People educated at Urmston Grammar Herman's Hermits members Beat musicians