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Peter Stewart Wiggs (born 15 May 1966)
is an English musician and DJ from Reigate, Surrey.
Saint Etienne
Pete Wiggs is a member of the pop/dance group
Saint Etienne (alongside
Bob Stanley and
Sarah Cracknell
Sarah Cracknell (born 12 April 1967) is an English singer-songwriter and lead singer of the electronic music band Saint Etienne.
Career
Cracknell's career started with the Windsor-based indie band The Worried Parachutes in 1982. Following the d ...
) for which he co-writes songs, produces and plays keyboards on stage. With the advent of computer based digital recording in the early 2000s, Wiggs set up his home studio Needham Sound (named after Chris Needham from the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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documentary ''In Bed With Chris Needham'').
Film and soundtracks
Wiggs has assisted in the production of several Saint Etienne film projects filmed and directed by Paul Kelly. ''
Finisterre'' (2002) used the music from the band's album also titled ''
Finisterre'' to create "a hymn to the dark corners and empty hallways of a great city that is subtle and artistic" – ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''.
For their second collaboration, ''
What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day
''What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day?'' is a fan club only release by Saint Etienne featuring 18 original and unreleased pieces of music that featured in their film of the same name about the redevelopment of the Lower Lea Valley
The Lower ...
'' (2005) – "an extraordinarily resonant urban pastoral" filmed in London's
Lower Lea Valley
The Lower Lea Valley is the southern end of the Lea Valley which surrounds the River Lea. It is part of the Thames Gateway redevelopment area and was the location of the 2012 Summer Olympics.
A 2005 documentary ''What Have You Done Today, Mer ...
during the early preparations for the 2012 Olympic Games – Wiggs, Stanley and Ian Catt composed an original soundtrack which was performed live to the film at
The Barbican (who had commissioned the event).
Wiggs, Stanley, Kelly and producer Andrew Hinton were 'artists in residence' at The
Southbank Centre
Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge).
It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the Nat ...
in 2006. The centrepiece of their year's residency was the film ''This Is Tomorrow'' (2007) about the history of the Southbank Centre. The film was premiered with a live performance of the score (composed by Wiggs, Stanley and
Ian Catt
Ian Catt is a British record producer and multi-instrumentalist associated with several popular indie groups, including Saint Etienne, with whom he has been a touring member. He has also collaborated with Saint Etienne's vocalist Sarah Cracknell ...
– and conducted by
Gerard Johnson) including a sixty piece
orchestra at the
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...
.
Wiggs and Stanley were commissioned to compose alternative scores for Designed in Britain (1959) and Design for Today (1965)
the
BFI
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...
's
COI collection Volume 2 DVD and Blu-ray.
Wiggs, Stanley and Catt have provided the
theme music
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 ...
and score for the first season of
American Greetings
American Greetings Corporation is a privately owned American company and is the world's second largest greeting card producer behind Hallmark Cards. Based in Westlake, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland, the company sells paper greeting ...
' children's
cartoon series ''
Maryoku Yummy''.
In 2013, Wiggs composed and performed the score to the Paul Kelly and Saint Etienne film ''How We Used To Live'', which was first shown at the London Film Festival. The same year, Wiggs was commissioned by the
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
to write a new score for 1904 silent ghost story, ''
The Mistletoe Bough'', directed by Percy Stow.
In 2014, Wiggs wrote and performed the score to ''Year 7'', which was directed by Rob Leggatt and written by
Rafe Spall. The film was shortlisted for the Best UK Short Award at the 2015 London Short Film Festival.
DJ career
Wiggs was born in
Reigate
Reigate ( ) is a town status in the United Kingdom, town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'' and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The earlie ...
, Surrey, and has DJed since the early days of Saint Etienne, with occasional appearances at the
Sunday Social and a
residency at the Kahuna Burger. Wiggs and Stanley ran their own club "Don't Laugh" in the mid 1990s and hosted "Turntable Cafe" events at the
Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Queen Elizabeth Hall (QEH) is a music venue on the South Bank in London, England, that hosts classical, jazz, and avant-garde music, talks and dance performances. It was opened in 1967, with a concert conducted by Benjamin Britten.
The ...
in 2006/2007.
Radio
Wiggs co-hosts a weekly radio show, "The Séance", with James Papademetrie on Brighton's
Radio Reverb
RadioReverb is a Brighton based non-profit community radio station. The station broadcasts on 97.2 FM and DAB radio as well as online, to the Brighton and Hove area.
History
RadioReverb originally started by broadcasting as a Restricted Servic ...
and Slack City Radio, and together they put on séance DJ events.
Writing
Wiggs co-wrote four issues of fanzine ''CAFF'' in the mid 1980s with his childhood friend and fellow band member Bob Stanley and had a regular column ("Pete Wiggs' life and style") in the dance magazine ''
Jockey Slut'', from 1997 to 1998.
Record labels
Wiggs was involved in the running of two record labels along with Bob Stanley: Icerink Records (1992–94) and EMIdisc (1996).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiggs, Peter
1966 births
Living people
Alternative dance musicians
English keyboardists
People educated at Whitgift School
People from Croydon
People from Reigate
Remixers
English DJs