death_date death_place years_active birth_place |name label background birth_date instrument genre article_title birth_name occupation
7 june 2006 london , england 1965 -- 95 london , england des champ santa ponsa non_vocal_instrumentalist 9 july 1928 piano rock , pop , electronic des champ
 desmond herbert champ musician , bandleader , producer , arranger
des champ

des champ -lrb- 9 july 1928 -- 7 june 2006 in london , england -rrb- was a musician , bandleader , producer , and arranger .
in a musical career lasting over 35 years , des gained notoriety in the british music business for his ground-breaking production and arrangement work in collaboration with partner roger easterby .
des first achieved chart success with vanity fare , whose `` hitchin ' a ride '' sold a million copies in the us alone , but his most notable pop achievement was with glam-rock band chicory tip , whose `` son of my father '' featured a moog synthesizer -lrb- a relatively obscure instrument at the time -rrb- .
`` son of my father '' went on to top the uk pop music charts for three weeks in early 1972 and was a seminal influence on 80s synthesizer bands like abc .
later in his career , des worked as musical director for shirley bassey , 5000 volts , and tony monopoly , before finally taking a regular day job with the orchestration department at bbc radio two .
he died of cancer on 7 june 2006 in london .
