Simon Ellis

“A musical director is responsible for choosing the backing band members, doing the arrangements for all the songs and when you get to a high level with people like Britney Spears, you will be responsible for writing the incidental music, links and also making sure that all the music that you have written and arranged and composed for this concert goes out to all the various departments, and that they are all in tune with programming their lights, pyrotechnics and video content, so it’s a fairly big responsibility.“

Today my guest is producer and musical director Simon Ellis. With over thirty years in the music business, Simon has worked with an incredible amount of artists including Britney Spears, Spice Girls and S Club 7. When he is not writing and producing music, Simon is on tour not only as a musician but also as a musical director. I first got to know Simon when he was part of Ellis, Beggs and Howard who were a pop trio in the late 80s. The band gained a cult following with their debut single, Big Bubbles, No Troubles which is considered one of the most unique pop tracks of its time. I was interested in chatting with Simon to catch up on his career, as well as in finding out what the role of a musical director is in the modern age of live pop music. He’s a great guy to chat with, so I hope you are sitting comfortably and happy to stay with us.

We started off by going back in time to Simon’s childhood and how he developed his interest in music (03:46) before moving on to his early days in bands and working with graphic design (05:24). We then moved on to the story behind his band Ellis, Beggs, and Howard (12:54), his move into the role of a musical director (25:29), and dispelling the misconceptions that people have about modern live performances (28:16). Towards the end of our chat, I asked Simon about his business that helps aspiring songwriters and performers get to the next step without incurring huge costs (39:45) and I wanted to find out what he is listening to at the moment (43:52).

Show Notes

• Simon’s website
• Simon’s production and song writing services
• Big Bubbles No Troubles by Ellis Beggs and Howard
• Dr. Sex by Pleasure and the Beast
• For more, hear my conversations with Midge Ure, Gerry Leonard and Nick Duerden

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