- Born
- Died
- Birth nameNeil Grant Richardson
- Son of a Worcestershire clergyman, Neil Grant Richardson was born in Stourport on 5 February 1930, and lived in the village of Hartlebury. As a composer his main activity has been supplying material to stock music libraries, notably KPM. He and several other KPM composers (including Sydney Dale, Alan Moorhouse and Johnny Pearson) composed and conducted under the joint pseudonym "Oscar Brandenburg." One of Neil's music library pieces, "Approaching Menace," became extremely popular as the title music to the long-running BBC television quiz Mastermind (1972), although it was used in other programmes around the world and even turned up in Philippine horror movies such as The Twilight People (1972). Another of his pieces, "Scotch Broth," was used to accompany the television test card. Surprisingly, Neil's credited work in films and television has been mainly as assistant composer and arranger on series such as Poirot (1989) and hit movies like Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). From 1990 he decided to hyphenate his name to Neil Grant-Richardson.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jim Marshall
- His 1960s song "The Riviera Affair" was used for many years as the theme to "The 4 O'Clock Movie" on New York station WOR-TV (Channel 9) from 1975 to 1982.
- Aged eight, he went to become a chorister at Westminster Abbey.[2] After leaving the Abbey school, he became a music scholar at Lancing College, Sussex, and continued his musical studies at the Royal College of Music, studying clarinet, piano and composition with professor William Lloyd Webber.
- The real tragedy is that much of Neil's work is owned and controlled by music libraries, including the BBC. The BBC must possess thousands of recordings of its Radio Orchestra, many of which feature Neil Richardson. During the 70s, he was a central part of so many shows: String Sound, a half hour show devoted to the BBC Radio Strings; the Radio Orchestra show, a weekly fest of good music, presented by Steve Race; and numerous gala concerts and other l broadcasts.
- During his National Service, he played solo clarinet with the band of the Royal Air Force at Cranwell. After completing his national service, he began a career as an arranger, writing and conducting for the BBC, particularly the then-numerous BBC Radio and concert orchestras.
- He was instrumental in creating the BBC Northern Radio Orchestra in 1975 and was its conductor for many years.
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