John O'Connor (born 1949) is a

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guitarist, songwriter, and composer. He lives in

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Bark Studio

O'Connor studied guitar at the

London College of Music London College of Music (LCM) is a music school in London, England. It is one of eight separate schools that make up the University of West London. History LCM was founded in 1887 and existed as an independent music conservatoire based at ...

. He formed Bark recording studio in the 1980s in

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, North London. He produced, engineered and played guitar on hundreds of records for singers, bands, TV and radio commercials. He moved to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

later that decade. He transitioned from writing music to playing music in the 1990s. He played in bands and toured with singers including

Maddy Prior Madeleine Edith Prior MBE (born 14 August 1947) is an English folk rock singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Steeleye Span. She was born in Blackpool and moved to St Albans in her teens. Her father, Allan Prior, was co-creator of the p ...

, Rick Kemp, Isla St Clair and Bucks Fizz.

The Firm

In 1982, he and songwriting partner Graham Lister wrote and recorded "Arthur Daley he's Alright". The song was released under the name The Firm by Stiff Records and reached the Top Ten in the UK charts. In 1987, along with co-writers Graham Lister and Rory Kehoe, O'Connor wrote and recorded "

Star Trekkin' "Star Trekkin' is a song by British novelty band the Firm. It parodies the original ''Star Trek'' TV series and prominently features comical voice caricatures of the ''Trek'' characters, provided by members of the band, a studio technician, and ...

". The single spent a

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at number one on the UK Singles Chart, and became the tenth best-selling single of 1987 in the UK, selling more than a million copies worldwide. All singles and more songs were later released on an album called ''Serious Fun'' released by K-Tel.

Eko

O'Connor moved to

in the late 1980s, where he began writing and recording instrumental

new age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

world music "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...

under the pseudonym Eko. He made five CDs for

Higher Octave Music Higher Octave Music is a sub-label imprint of Narada Productions. Since 2013, it is part of Universal Music Group's Capitol Music Group, which is located in Los Angeles. History Higher Octave was acquired by Virgin Records on behalf of EMI in 1 ...

, the first of which was ''Future Primitive'' (1989) which reached the Billboard Top Ten New Age Albums. The other albums he wrote were ''Logikal'' (1992), ''Alter Eko'' (1994), and ''Celtica (''1996). ''Future Primitive'' sold about 75,000 copies while the other albums were less popular and sold about 30,000 copies. After completing the final CD in 1996, he appears to have stopped using the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

''King of the Hill''

In 1997,

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

and Judgmental Films invited him to create the music for the first episode of a new animated television series, ''

King of the Hill ''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels that initially aired on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, with four more episodes airing in First-run syndicati ...

,'' for the

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television network. He became one of three regular composers for the Emmy award-winning show. The show ran for 13 seasons, ending in 2010. It remains in syndication. In 1998, he won the BMI TV Music Award.

References

External links

*
John O'Connor
at

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{{DEFAULTSORT:OConnor, John British session musicians English television composers Higher Octave Music artists New-age musicians Living people 1949 births