Philip Stuart Pickett (born 19 November 1946) is an English songwriter, musician, vocal arranger, producer and artist manager.
He is principally known as a songwriter and musician and for co-writing and recording "
Karma Chameleon
"Karma Chameleon" is a song by English band Culture Club, featured on the group's 1983 album ''Colour by Numbers''. The single was released in the United Kingdom in September 1983 and became the second Culture Club single to reach the top of th ...
", one of the biggest hits of the 1980s era with
Boy George
George Alan O'Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer, songwriter, DJ, author and mixed media artist. Best known for his soulful voice and his androgynous appearance, Boy George has been the lead singe ...
and
Culture Club
Culture Club are an English pop band formed in London in 1981. The band comprises Boy George (lead vocals), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards), Mikey Craig (bass guitar) and formerly included Jon Moss (drums and percussion). Emerging in the New ...
during his tenure as keyboard player and backing vocalist for the group on every live performance throughout the world during the 1980s. Prior to this, Pickett co-founded hit-making pop band
Sailor
A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship.
The profession of the s ...
in 1973 which achieved considerable chart-topping success in the mid-1970s
Glamrock
Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was performed by musicians who wore outrageous costumes, makeup, and hairstyles, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists drew on divers ...
period and with whom he still regularly performs to the present day. Pickett's songs have also been recorded by many other artists including
Labi Siffre
Claudius Afolabi Siffre (born 25 June 1945) is a British singer, songwriter and poet. Siffre released six albums between 1970 and 1975, and four between 1988 and 1998. His best known compositions include " It Must Be Love" which reached number 1 ...
,
Sheena Easton
Sheena Shirley Easton (; born 27 April 1959) is a Scottish singer and actress. Easton came into the public eye in an episode of the first British musical reality television programme '' The Big Time: Pop Singer'', which recorded her attempts to ...
,
Georgie Fame
Georgie Fame (born Clive Powell; 26 June 1943) is an English R&B and jazz musician. Fame, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still performing, often working with contemporaries such as Alan Price, Van Morrison and Bill Wyman. Fame is the on ...
,
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker (20 May 1944 – 22 December 2014) was an English singer known for his gritty, bluesy voice and dynamic stage performances that featured expressive body movements. Most of his best known singles were recordings of son ...
,
Brian Kennedy and
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was an English impresario, visual artist, singer, songwriter, musician, clothes designer and boutique owner, notable for combining these activities in an inventive and provoc ...
, used in countless TV commercials and included in the soundtrack of Hollywood films
Electric Dreams,
Top Secret!
''Top Secret!'' is a 1984 American action comedy film written and directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker ( ZAZ). It stars Val Kilmer (in his film debut role) and Lucy Gutteridge alongside a supporting cast featuring Omar Shari ...
,
The Lost Boys
''The Lost Boys'' is a 1987 American supernatural black comedy horror film directed by Joel Schumacher, produced by Harvey Bernhard with a screenplay written by Jeffrey Boam, Janice Fischer and James Jeremias, from a story by Fischer and Jeremia ...
and his West End Musical Theatre debut, Casper The Musical.
Early years
Pickett was born on 19 November 1946 in
Münster
Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state distr ...
, Germany (B.A.O.R.) the only child of father Philip George Pickett, an RAF pilot officer killed in a flying accident in Rhodesia in 1950 and mother Eileen Elizabeth Pickett who died in Spain in 1993.
Upon leaving school at Sutton Coldfield near Birmingham England in 1964, Phil took the advice of a family mentor, Philip Sutton, a director of
Garfield Weston
Willard Garfield Weston (26 February 189822 October 1978) was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist who was a member of the prominent Weston family. He led George Weston Limited and its various subsidiaries and associated companies, includin ...
's
Associated British Foods
Associated British Foods plc (ABF) is a British multinational food processing and retailing company headquartered in London, England. Its ingredients division is the world's second-largest producer of both sugar and baker's yeast and a major pr ...
, by choosing to take an apprenticeship in the bakery industry, but by this time was also immersing himself in a growing passion and talent for musical composition. An interest in American music, particularly R&B, led him to form his first band, "The Blues Unit" with some school and college friends. After completing his apprenticeship on his 21st birthday, whilst taking a 12-month sabbatical travelling across the US, Pickett enjoyed a brief but life-changing chance encounter with legendary jazz musician
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...
in a North Beach supper club in San Francisco, who whilst raising a glass to the young man, strongly advised him to "follow his heart" and return to England to pursue a music career instead.
Music career 1969–1973
Upon hearing an early arrangement of an obscure Peter Paul and Mary album track, the then relatively unknown "Leaving on a Jet Plane" that Pickett had curated and was now performing with his folk singing partner Paddy Maguire at "Mother's" in Erdington 1968, Warner Bros executives Ian Ralfini and Martin Wyatt arriving from London to audition the duo and realising the track was already published by Warners, released it a few weeks later and the song went straight to Number One in the UK chart staying there for several weeks.
Moving to London in 1969, Phil was employed as an arranger by E. H. Morris, a US music publisher based in Hanover Square W1 with the added responsibility of sifting through the many tapes sent in by hopeful writers. One of the songwriters was Norwegian guitarist / vocalist,
Georg Kajanus
Georg Johan Tjegodiev r TchegodaieffKajanus (born 9 February 1946) is a Norwegian composer and pop musician, best known as the lead singer and songwriter of the British pop group Sailor.
Early years
Kajanus was born in Trondheim, Norway, to Prin ...
, who after being recommended to the publisher, Phil contacted with a view to forming a group. The duo, now called "Kajanus Pickett" recorded an album of self-composed material, "Hi-Ho Silver" for Arty Mogul's Signpost label, an imprint of
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...
. Around this period Pickett also worked with Vanda and Young, playing on many of their early tracks and also wrote a number of songs with
Scott English
Sheldon David "Scott" English (January 10, 1937 – November 16, 2018) was an American songwriter, arranger and record producer. He is best known as the co-writer of "Brandy" which he wrote with Richard Kerr. This song became a No. 1 hit fo ...
and B.A. Robertson, all of them E.H. Morris songwriters in the late 1960s/early '70s. One of his songs, "Lay Me Down" was recorded by
Georgie Fame
Georgie Fame (born Clive Powell; 26 June 1943) is an English R&B and jazz musician. Fame, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still performing, often working with contemporaries such as Alan Price, Van Morrison and Bill Wyman. Fame is the on ...
– Pickett's first significant 'cover' recording.
Sailor, 1973–
Although the "Kajanus Pickett" L.P. achieved fairly limited success upon release, in 1973 Pickett co-founded pop band
Sailor
A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship.
The profession of the s ...
with Kajanus with the addition of keyboard player, Henry Marsh, and drummer, Grant Serpell. Sailor recorded a total of 10 albums throughout their career achieving considerable UK and international success during the early to mid-1970s with a number of hit singles produced by
Jeffrey Lesser
Jeffrey Lesser is a U.S.-based historian of Latin America who is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor at Emory University. Prior to that he was the Winship Distinguished Professor of the Humanities. After two terms as the chair of the History Dep ...
and
Rupert Holmes
David Goldstein (born February 24, 1947), better known as Rupert Holmes, is a British-American composer, singer-songwriter, dramatist and author. He is widely known for the hit singles "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" (1979) and " Him" (1980). ...
, most notably 'A Glass of Champagne' and 'Girls Girls Girls' – the former hit dislodging Queen's
Bohemian Rhapsody
"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen, released as the lead single from their fourth album, '' A Night at the Opera'' (1975). Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, the song is a six-minute suite, notable for its lack ...
at the UK Number 1 spot in the NME chart in 1976 after having resided at the Number 2 slot for several weeks. (Thirty years on, in 2006, 'Champagne' was again heavily featured, this time in a TV advertising campaign for Marks and Spencer accompanied by some of the world's top supermodels and widely attributed as a major contributory factor in the High Street retailer's successful renaissance and rebranding exercise.) The band topped the charts all over Europe in the 1970s earning many gold albums and sell-out tours with a reputation for extravagantly unique and theatrical productions. The group also frequently appeared on the BBC's iconic ''
Top of the Pops
''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British Record chart, music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show ...
'' TV show and Mike Mansfield's ''Supersonic'' on LWT together with their many overseas equivalents.
Kajanus eventually left the group in 1978 with Pickett taking up the reins of Sailor by recording "Dressed for Drowning " (Epic/ Caribou) an album predominantly written by him and produced by US record producer
James William Guercio
James William Guercio (born July 18, 1945) is an American music producer, musician, songwriter, and director. He is well known for his work as the producer of Chicago's early albums as well as early recordings of The Buckinghams and Blood, Sweat ...
at his famous Caribou Ranch Studios in Colorado in 1979. This incarnation featured Phil's bandmate Henry Marsh and newcomers, brother and sister duo, Virginia (Ginny) and Gavin David, Serpell having left to become a teacher. In a ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
K ...
'' interview at the time, the Beach Boys' (late)
Carl Wilson
Carl Dean Wilson (December 21, 1946 – February 6, 1998) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys. He was their lead guitarist, the youngest sibling of bandmates Brian and Dennis, and the group's ''de ...
, who later sang with Pickett on one of the Caribou recordings ('Whatever's in Your Heart') named "Dressed For Drowning" his favourite album of that year (1980). Another of his songs, 'Don't Send Flowers' was covered by
Sheena Easton
Sheena Shirley Easton (; born 27 April 1959) is a Scottish singer and actress. Easton came into the public eye in an episode of the first British musical reality television programme '' The Big Time: Pop Singer'', which recorded her attempts to ...
as the opening track of her debut triple-platinum album ''
Take My Time
''Take My Time'' is the debut album by UK pop singer Sheena Easton. Released in January 1981, the album reached #17 in the UK and earned her a Gold Disc. Two months later, a ten track version of the album was released in the USA and Canada as ''S ...
'' considerably adding to Pickett's growing reputation as a pop songwriter in that year.
In 1993, Pickett whilst attending meetings in Germany, was approached by pop impresario/ promoter, Rainer Haas with a view to reform the original line-up of Sailor; Georg Kajanus, Grant Serpell, Henry Marsh and himself to perform a series of concert tours throughout Germany and Austria. Upon agreement to the generous terms negotiated by Pickett, the band were immediately signed up by Haas to play 100 concerts during 1993–94 and performed their music to bigger audiences than in their entire hit-making career throughout the early to mid-1970s. Sailor were unique amongst their erstwhile contemporaries for (a) being a 100% original line-up and, (b) for recording two new contemporary hits in Benelux and Germany in the 1990s – "The Secretary" and "La Cumbia" (These tracks were recorded on an earlier recording project for BMG on two albums, "Sailor" and "Streetlamp" for which Kajanus composed all the material, as in earlier years a pre-condition of his involvement in recording).
Sailor's music catalogue is still controlled by the band's first manager, Steve Morris, son of the late E.H. (Buddy) Morris to the present day through his company Sashay Music.
In 1995, Kajanus retired from live performance, his place being taken up by lead guitarist/vocalist Peter Lincoln. Grant Serpell retired in 2011 and was replaced by Henry Marsh's son Thomas Marsh. Peter Lincoln left to join The Sweet in 2006 and was replaced by Oliver Marsh, Henry's younger son on lead vocals and guitar. Sailor still perform fairly regularly, mainly in Germany, Benelux and Scandinavia with Pickett having so far played on every live performance with the band since 1973 to the present day.
Culture Club / Boy George 1982–86
On returning to England from the US in 1982 Pickett, by now in demand as a session player and arranger, joined
Boy George
George Alan O'Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer, songwriter, DJ, author and mixed media artist. Best known for his soulful voice and his androgynous appearance, Boy George has been the lead singe ...
's band,
Culture Club
Culture Club are an English pop band formed in London in 1981. The band comprises Boy George (lead vocals), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards), Mikey Craig (bass guitar) and formerly included Jon Moss (drums and percussion). Emerging in the New ...
on keyboards and backing vocals initially co-writing "
It's a Miracle" and "
Karma Chameleon
"Karma Chameleon" is a song by English band Culture Club, featured on the group's 1983 album ''Colour by Numbers''. The single was released in the United Kingdom in September 1983 and became the second Culture Club single to reach the top of th ...
". The latter song, according to
Sir Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields.
Branson expressed ...
(in ''
Losing My Virginity
''Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography'' is the autobiography of the British businessman Richard Branson. Published in 1998, it was later followed by other biographical books by Branson, including ''Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Glob ...
'') to whom his label Culture Club were signed "Became Number 1 in every country in the world that had a chart, selling 1.4 million records in the UK alone." This earned Phil two
Ivor Novello Awards
The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and composing. They have been presented annually in London by the Ivors Academy (formerly the BASCA) since 1956, and over 1,000 statuettes have been a ...
,
possibly the music industry's most prestigious songwriting award in 1983 – for "Best Pop Song" and "Highest-Selling A-side". Pickett played extensively on all of the band's records throughout this period and also co-wrote many other songs with the band including
Move Away
"Move Away" is a song by British band Culture Club, issued as the lead single from their fourth album, '' From Luxury to Heartache'' (1986). The song was produced by Lew Hahn and Arif Mardin. Released in March 1986, it became the group's eight ...
produced by
Arif Mardin
Arif Mardin (March 15, 1932 – June 25, 2006) was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco and country. He worked at Atlantic Records for ov ...
which in 1986 climbed to Number 7 in the US ''Billboard'' chart before the lead singer's drugs conviction in the UK which eclipsed the band's career and prospects for several years afterwards.
However Phil composed a number of other songs with
Boy George
George Alan O'Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer, songwriter, DJ, author and mixed media artist. Best known for his soulful voice and his androgynous appearance, Boy George has been the lead singe ...
prior to this period including the title track of the movie ''
Electric Dreams'' sung by
P.P. Arnold
PP, pp or Pp may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Pianissimo'', a music term meaning ''very quiet'', from musical dynamics
* Production code for the 1967–1968 ''Doctor Who'' serial ''The Enemy of the World''
* Police Procedural - a subgen ...
and "How Silly Can You Get" sung by
Val Kilmer
Val Edward Kilmer (born December 31, 1959) is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer found fame after appearances in comedy films, starting with ''Top Secret!'' (1984) and ''Real Genius'' (1985), as well as the military action film ...
debuting in the Zucker Brothers' ''Top Secret!'' "
Karma Chameleon
"Karma Chameleon" is a song by English band Culture Club, featured on the group's 1983 album ''Colour by Numbers''. The single was released in the United Kingdom in September 1983 and became the second Culture Club single to reach the top of th ...
" is currently heavily featured in Boy George's new production of the ''
Taboo
A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...
'' musical in London's West End (2013) and the track is consistently employed as a ubiquitous 1980s presence in countless Hollywood movie soundtracks and TV advertising campaigns throughout the world.
Other projects and management
Pickett recorded the 1984
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
theme song, ''Destiny'' with
MCA.
Jon Moss
Jonathan Aubrey Moss (born 11 September 1957) is an English drummer, best known as a member of the 1980s new wave group Culture Club. He has also played with other bands, including London, the Nips, the Damned and Adam and the Ants.
Early li ...
from Culture Club contributed with drums and the single cover was created by fashion
illustrator
An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...
Tony Viramontes.
[Rhys-Morgan, Dean. ''Bold, Beautiful and Damned: The World of 1980's Fashion Illustrator Tony Viramontes'', London: Lawrence King Publishing Ltd., 2013 , p.33]
In 1989, Pickett discovered charismatic Nigerian singer songwriter
Keziah Jones
Keziah Jones (born Olufemi Sanyaolu on 10 January 1968) is a Nigerian singer-songwriter and guitarist. He describes his musical style as "Blufunk", which is a fusion between raw blues elements and hard, edgy funk rhythms. Also his Nigerian roo ...
busking in Portobello Road London, a relationship that soon evolved into management. After considerable initial success, the two parted company in 1994 but are back together again 17 years on, when the by now highly successful performer and recording artist approached Phil in 2010 for exclusive representation a second time around. Phil's management company, Rugged Management LLP now manages Keziah and a few other selected artists and projects.
Phil Pickett was actively involved in the successful PPL campaign for the 'Extension of Copyright Term' from 50 to 70 years recently where on behalf of the
PPL and the
Musicians Union he gave a speech at the Houses of Parliament in 2009 in front of MP's journalists and government ministers. More recently, in 2012 he was voted on to the board at B.A.S.C.A. (The British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors) and as a previous Ivor winner, is currently involved in helping to set up a contemporary televised national songwriting competition. In December 2012 Phil Pickett signed a long term administration / publishing deal for his back catalogue and current and future songs with Imagem Music Publishers / Boosey and Hawkes.
Throughout a long career in the music industry, Phil Pickett has also been associated with a huge variety of artists, writers and producers including Phil Ramone, Quincy Jones, Arif Mardin, Stewart Levine, Paul McCartney, Joe Cocker, Jeff Beck, Take That, Malcolm McLaren and has written songs for West End musical theatre Casper
[ & The Mask and Hollywood movies, including Electric Dreams Top Secret! and ]The Lost Boys
''The Lost Boys'' is a 1987 American supernatural black comedy horror film directed by Joel Schumacher, produced by Harvey Bernhard with a screenplay written by Jeffrey Boam, Janice Fischer and James Jeremias, from a story by Fischer and Jeremia ...
In July 2015, Phil Pickett was invited to join the songwriting fraternity - The Society Of Distinguished Songwriters
The Society Of Distinguished Songwriters - Sailor Official Fanclub Page or "S.O.D's" as they are commonly known in the business. Other members include Sir Tim Rice, Justin Hayward, Mike Batt, Gary Barlow and Björn Ulvaeus.
References
*"A Glass of Champagne-The Official Sailor Story" by James McCarraher published by Sarum
*"Losing My Virginity" by Sir Richard Branson published by Crown Publishing Group
*"Take It Like a Man" by Boy George and Spencer Bright published by Harper Collins
*Wikipedia Culture Club ""The song ("Electric Dreams") was written with Phil Pickett (former member of the 1970s band Sailor) who had also co-written "Karma Chameleon" and frequently played keyboards for the group. Also "At the 1984 Brit Awards the band won two awards: Best *British Group, and Best British Single ("Karma Chameleon")
*http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=5775
*BASCA Ivor Novello Award Recipients 1983 "Karma Chameleon" Winner Best Song Musically and Lyrically and Highest Selling A-Side
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pickett, Phil
English music managers
English new wave musicians
English songwriters
Living people
1946 births