# James Compton (musician)

James Compton (born 1 December 1959 in North Tawton, Devon, England) is a British musician, composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist and actor.

## Biography

Compton moved to London in 1980 and joined his first professional band, Darts, on his 21st birthday. Three years later the entire band was cast in Yakety Yak, a musical featuring the songs of Leiber and Stoller. The band split in 1986. Later that year he joined Microdisney, an Irish indie band, going on to contribute to three singles and five albums.
Throughout his career, Compton has produced six albums and co-produced ten singles.
In 1990 he returned to the stage and went on to become musical supervisor of sixteen more musicals, eight of which had successful West End runs. Compton was responsible for all the music and soundscapes in Morecambe (a tribute to the British comedian Eric Morecambe) which won a Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment for its run at the Duchess Theatre in 2009. More recently he participated in an off-Broadway run of The City Club, a blues and boogie-woogie musical that he composed with Tony De Meur and Tim Brown. Compton also worked as composer on six motion pictures (including Dark Streets which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song), numerous television productions and various electronic media. Michael Caine is to be seen line dancing to Compton's guitar and piano work in the 2013 motion picture Mr. Morgan's Last Love.
In 2005 he started studying for a master's degree in Electronic Arts at Middlesex University, specialising in interactive audio in computer games.
He is now working as a consultant for multimedia applications, websites and games, working to enhance narrative with sound and music.

## Discography

| Straight Eight | 1981 | Album | Straight to the Heart | |
| Darts | 1981 | Single | Jump, Children, Jump | co-producer |
| Darts | 1981 | Single | Show us your Shoe | co-producer |
| Darts | 1981 | Album | Doo Wop Darts | |
| Darts | 1981 | Album | Darts – Across America | |
| Darts | 1983 | Single | The Mystery of Ragoula | co-producer |
| Darts | 1983 | EP | Yakety Yak | co-producer |
| Darts | 1983 | Single | Lorraine | co-producer |
| Darts | 1983 | Single | Can't Teach a Fool | co-producer |
| Darts | 1984 | Single | Groovin' | co-producer |
| Darts | 1984 | Single | Blow Away (co-written) | co-producer |
| Alison Moyet | 1984 | B-side | Hitch Hike | co-producer |
| Microdisney | 1987 | Single | Town to Town | |
| Microdisney | 1987 | Single | Singer's Hampstead Home | |
| Microdisney | 1988 | Single | Gale Force Wind | |
| Microdisney | 1987 | Album | Crooked Mile | |
| Microdisney | 1988 | Album | 39 Minutes | |
| Microdisney | 1995 | Album | Big Sleeping House | |
| Microdisney | 1999 | Album | The Peel Sessions Album | |
| Microdisney | 2007 | Album | Daunt Square to Elsewhere | |
| The Railway Children | 1988 | Album | Recurrence | |
| Microgroove | 1989 | Album | The Human Groove | producer |
| Cast Album | 1992 | Album | Good Rockin' Tonite! | |
| Cast Album | 1998 | Album | Saucy Jack & the Space Vixens | co-producer |
| Hank Wangford | 1999 | Album | Wake Up Dead | |
| Various | 2000 | Album | Mother and Baby Relax | producer |
| Peggy Seeger | 2001 | Album | Love Will Linger On | |
| Darrel Higham | 2004 | Album | The Cochran Collection Vol.2 | |
| J Evans Band | 2005 | Album | In the Wild Years | producer |
| Soundtrack | 2006 | Album | O Jerusalem | songwriter |
| Soundtrack | 2008 | Album | Dark Streets | songwriter |
| Paul Ansell's Number 9 | 2011 | Album | Money and Lies | |
| Paul Ansell's Number 9 | 2013 | Album | A Date with Paul Ansell's No. 9 | |
| Cast Album | 2013 | Album | Saucy Jack & the Space Vixens 2 | producer |

## Theatre

| 1983 | Yakety Yak | musical director, actor, multi instrumentalist | West End, Astoria Theatre and international tour |
| 1990 | Beehive; The Sixties Musical | musical supervisor, instrumentalist | Newcastle, Northern Stage |
| 1991 | Good Rockin' Tonite! | musical director, actor, multi instrumentalist | West End, Prince of Wales |
| 1992 | Leader of the Pack | musical supervisor and arranger | West End, Duke of Yorks |
| 1993 | Forever Plaid | musical director, instrumentalist | West End, Apollo Theatre |
| 1994 | The Queen and I | musical supervisor | Royal Court & Vaudeville Theatre |
| 1995 | The Man of Mode | musical supervisor, composer | Tour |
| 1995 | Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat | musical supervisor and arranger | Lyric Theatre, Belfast |
| 1996 | Elvis: The Musical | musical director, actor, multi instrumentalist | West End, Prince of Wales |
| 1997 | Saucy Jack & the Space Vixens | musical director, composer, instrumentalist | West End, Queens Theatre and tour |
| 1998 | Four Steps to Heaven | musical director, multi instrumentalist | West End, Piccadilly Theatre and tour |
| 2001 | Puppetry of the Penis | musical supervisor, composer | West End, Whitehall Theatre |
| 2001–2004 | Saucy Jack & the Space Vixens | musical supervisor, composer | Saucy Jack's Bar, London |
| 2006 | The City Club | musical supervisor, actor, instrumentalist | Edinburgh Festival |
| 2009 | Morecambe | musical supervisor, composer and sound designer | West End, Duchess Theatre and tour |
| 2011 | Stop Dreamin' | musical supervisor, instrumentalist | Theatre Royal Windsor and tour |
| 2012 | The City Club | musical supervisor, composer | Minetta Lane Theatre, Manhattan |

## TV and multimedia

| 1983 | Camel cinema advert | co-producer | |
| 1984 | Rubik's Cube video | composer and producer | |
| 1989 | Comic Asides | arranger and actor | BBC 2 |
| 1997 | The Jack Docherty Show | performer and composer | Channel 5 |
| 1998 | Back to the Future | composer and producer of title music | ITV |
| 2000 | Trigger Happy TV | musician on soundtrack | Channel 4 |
| 2001 | The Tweenies Game | composer for multimedia game | Sonica |
| 2002 | The Magic Drum | composer for multimedia game | Sonica |
| 2003 | Maestromediaservices | creator of audio content for sound library | |
| 2002 | Guildband.com | audio content creator | website |
| 2004 | Gunfight | audio content creator for animation | Shagrat.net |
| 2004 | Flight to Cancun | audio content creator for animation | Student Universehttp://www.shagrat.net/ |
| 2005 | Electronic Arts | start master's degree in interactive audio | Middlesex University |
| 2007–2009 | Top Rockers | create backing tracks and sound design for animatronic rock and roll puppet shows | Thorpe Park |
| 2010 | Plunderland | sound designer and composer for game app | JohnnyTwoShoes |

## Film

| 2004 | Film as Subversive Art | music editor and arranger | Sticking Place Films |
| 2006 | O Jerusalem | songwriter | Samuel Goldwyn Films |
| 2008 | Dark Streets | lead composer for film-noire musical | Samuel Goldwyn Films |
| 2009 | The Tournament | songwriter | AV Pictures |
| 2009 | The Ministers | songwriter | Allumbra Pictures |
| 2010 | Lullaby for Pi | arranger | Rezo Films |
| 2013 | Mr Morgan's Last Love | musician on soundtrack | Image Entertainment |