Leigh Haggerwood is a contemporary composer based in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, UK. He specializes in songwriting, keyboards, singing, music production, audio engineering and sound-to-picture scoring. His credits include music for numerous TV shows and commercials which are broadcast around the world. Along with chef

Jamie Oliver James Trevor Oliver MBE OSI (born 27 May 1975) is an English chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. He is known for his casual approach to cuisine, which has led him to front numerous television shows and open many restaurants. Oliver reache ...

, Leigh Haggerwood was a founding member of the band Scarlet Division, which released the single, "Sundial", in October 2000 through Sony Music. Haggerwood also wrote several songs for Jamie Oliver's live shows which included the YouTube hit "Lamb Curry – Give It to Me Hot", " The Kiss of Summer and "Fish Stew". His TV credits include the ITV ''

Text Santa ''Text Santa'' was a charity initiative set up in 2011 by ITV to support UK-based charities during the Christmas period. The appeal to the public is to donate money mainly via text donation and profits from merchandise. The telethons have been ho ...

'' Theme and incidental musical, ''

Oliver's Twist ''Olivers Twist'' is a 2002 television series featuring chef Jamie Oliver. The name of the program is a play on the title of Charles Dickens' novel ''Oliver Twist''. Following the popularity of his first TV series, ''The Naked Chef'', Oliver be ...

'' ( Just the Start, the theme song), Trinny and

Susannah ''Susannah'' is an opera in two acts by the American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida State University. Floyd adapted the story from the Apocryphal tale of Susanna (Book of D ...

, ''

Jamie's School Dinners ''Jamie's School Dinners'' is a four-episode documentary series that was broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom from 23 February to 16 March 2005. The series was recorded from Spring to Winter of 2004 and featured British celebrity chef ...

'', '' Petrolheads'' on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

and

TV Land TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division. Originally a spinoff of Nick at Nite consisting exclusively of classic television shows, the channel now airs a combination of recent and cla ...

's '' High School Reunion''.

The Florin Street Band

Haggerwood is best known for his

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

-themed creation The Florin Street Band which he put together to record an original Christmas song he had written called "

My Favourite Time of Year "My Favourite Time of Year" is a Christmas song performed by The Florin Street Band which was written and sung by British composer Leigh Haggerwood in 2010. His aim was to create a song with strong melodies that would match the classics, and br ...

". Disappointed by the demise of

Christmas song Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject ma ...

writing in the UK, Leigh set out to create a traditional-sounding song with epic production values and strong melodies. His idea included a music video set in 19th century England with snow-lined streets, lanterns, period costumes and snow-dusted rooftops. UK record companies would not fund such an ambitious idea as they did not consider it financially viable. So Leigh eventually decided to make it happen himself by employing session musicians to record the song and funding the music video with his life savings. He produced the record at

Trevor Horn Trevor Charles Horn (born 15 July 1949) is an English music producer, label and recording studio owner, musician and composer. He is best known for his production work in the 1980s, and for being one half of the new wave band The Buggles (wit ...

Sarm Studios Sarm Studios is an independent recording studio in London. Originally founded in east London in 1973, the studio's original location was renamed Sarm East Studios in 1982 when Jill Sinclair and Trevor Horn purchased Basing Street Studios from Isl ...

and requested the services of 36 session musicians including The English Chamber Choir. The majority of Leigh's work is sung and performed by other artists, but Leigh decided to sing "My Favourite Time of Year" himself so that he could maintain the Victorian theme and make sure it would end up as he intended. The period music video was the biggest challenge of the project, but after a long search, Leigh found talented British director, Nick Bartleet, who shared his vision and helped make it a reality. As the plans progressed, American cinematographer

John Perez John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

offered his services as Director of Photography, and the extraordinary video was shot at

Blists Hill Victorian Town Blists Hill Victorian Town is an open-air museum built on a former industrial complex located in the Madeley area of Telford, Shropshire, England. The museum attempts to recreate the sights, sounds and smells of a Victorian Shropshire town ...

Ironbridge Ironbridge is a large village in the borough of Telford and Wrekin in Shropshire, England. Located on the bank of the River Severn, at the heart of the Ironbridge Gorge, it lies in the civil parish of The Gorge. Ironbridge developed beside, an ...

in Shropshire. The song and video received a public response through

social network A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...

ing websites with many people describing it as a future classic. The song and video have won the UK Songwriting Contest. ;Text Santa

is a charity initiative first broadcast on UK television network, ITV, in 2011. The project aims to raise money and awareness for a number of charities during the festive season and is heavily promoted by ITV in the form of TV shows, radio and sponsorship by major brands. The producers were keen to use "

" as the theme music to the appeal, which Leigh agreed to. With his experience as a media composer, he re-versioned the song and created other original music for the shows. ;Winter Wonder Since releasing "My Favourite Time of Year" in 2010, Leigh Haggerwood has created a Florin Street Christmas musical. In 2013 he decided to make another Victorian music video for one of the new songs entitled "Winter Wonder", which is about a celebration that the towns-folk put on as Winter draws in. The music video featured 100 cast members including dancers and local children from the village of Englishcombe in Bath, UK where it was filmed at the 14th century Tithe barn. "Winter Wonder" with lyrics and music by Leigh Haggerwood, was released on 16 December 2013, and went on to win the UK Songwriting Contest in 2014.iTunes.com: The Florin Street Band – "Winter Wonder"
/ref> ;Light Our Way Taken from the Florin Street Musical, "Light Our Way" is a love ballad between lead characters Travis and Bridie. It centers around a chant-like melody, with soft orchestration, choral backing and climactic orchestration. The song was featured on The Florin Street Band's 2015 DVD release.

References

External links

Leigh Haggerwood's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haggerwood, Leigh English composers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)