Simon May (born 15 August 1944) is a British composer. He has composed many British television theme tunes, including EastEnders and Howards' Way, and the music for the 1988 film The Dawning.

Biography

Born in Devizes and a pupil of Dauntsey's School, May was a choral scholar at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a degree in modern languages in 1965. While teaching languages and music at Kingston Grammar School, he co-wrote a musical named Smike with a colleague, history teacher Clive Barnett, and songwriting partner Roger Holman. The show has subsequently been staged many times by youth drama groups.

While working at ATV, he was asked to compose some music for Crossroads. Stephanie de Sykes reached number 2 in the UK singles chart in 1974 with the subsequent "Born With a Smile on My Face", which was used within a storyline on the show.

He was one of the members of the vocal harmony group Rain, with de Sykes, Alex Keenan and Chas Mill. The group recorded the theme song "Golden Day", penned by Lynsey de Paul and Barry Blue, for the TV programme "The Golden Shot" to co-incide with the return of Bob Monkhouse as its host. They also released an album produced by Len Beadle, with the title "Rain Featuring Stephanie De-Sykes" in 1974.

May himself performed "The Summer of My Life", which reached number seven in the UK singles chart in October 1976. The song originally appeared in Crossroads, in a scene between Meg and Hugh. It was one of the best selling singles of the year, and was one of few songs to spend three weeks in a row at number seven in the UK Singles Chart. His follow-up single, "We'll Gather Lilacs - All My Loving (Medley)", flopped, reaching number 49 in May 1977. Don Black put lyrics to the popular theme, and Anita Dobson (who portrayed Angie Watts in the show) reached number 4 in the UK in August 1986 with "Anyone Can Fall in Love". which was based around the extended version of the 1993 theme. In 2009 he was asked to revamp the EastEnders theme again, to update the one running from 1994, making it lighter in tone and bringing back elements of the original theme missing in the previous version.

May wrote "Peggy's Theme" for Barbara Windsor's exit episode from EastEnders screened on 10 September 2010.

Post-EastEnders

Lyrics were also added to May's theme to Howards' Way; Marti Webb reached number 13 with "Always There" in 1986, a year after the orchestral version of the theme (credited to May and Leslie Osborne) had reached number 21 in the same UK Singles Chart.

In 1994, New Vintage: The Best of Simon May, a compilation of some of May's work was released to coincide with his "A Night Away From The TV" UK tour. The tour was not a commercial success and some dates had to be cancelled. Two versions were released; one, a book-only version and also a CD-set, with a shorter printed autobiography.

May is visiting professor at the Faculty of Media, Arts and Society, Southampton Solent University who in 2015 conferred on him the degree of Honorary Doctor of Music. He is also Patron of the Devizes Junior Eisteddfod, Vice President of the British Federation of Festivals and Patron of the Swindon 105.5 Community Radio Station.

May's work includes

Television

  • Adventures of Enid Blyton
  • Animal SOS
  • Brat Camp
  • Body Spies
  • Castaway 2000 / Castaway 2007
  • City Hospital
  • Dealing with Dickinson
  • Don't Try This at Home
  • EastEnders
  • Eldorado
  • Evacuation
  • Food & Drink
  • Great Estates
  • Hampton Court
  • Health Farm
  • Holiday '86
  • Howards' Way
  • Jobs for the Boys
  • Jobs for the Girls
  • Lakesiders
  • Lion Country (end theme of 'Animal Park')
  • 1988 Olympics (ITV)
  • Paramedics
  • People
  • Pet Rescue
  • Relatively Speaking (1996 BBC game show)
  • The Really Useful Show
  • Russ Abbot Show
  • Seaworld
  • Secrets of Enid Blyton
  • Smike [also a stage musical]
  • Skorpion
  • Swiss Family Robinson
  • Testing Testing
  • Trainer
  • The Tribe
  • The Trial of James Earl Ray
  • Turnstile
  • TV Weekly
  • The Adventures of Swiss Family Robinson
  • The Vet
  • The Legend of William Tell
  • You Know What You Ate Last Summer

Films

  • The Dawning (1988)
  • HST West (1986) was done for Video 125. The theme 'The Holiday Suite' is the same as Holiday programme for the BBC. And the full version can heard on the DVD of HST West & Far West.
  • HST Far West (1990)
  • HST Great West (1993)
  • The Fleet for The Northern Lights (1996)
  • Caught in the Act (2008)
  • House Husbands (2009)

Stage musicals

  • Rip van Winkle
  • Smike [also dramatised for BBC television]

Further reading

References

  • Music On Screen Official website, with many music clips
  • Peggy's Theme
  • Smike The Musical Official website, with many music clips and information about the show
  • BBC video article about Simon may
  • Interview with Simon May in International Songwriters Association's "Songwriter Magazine"