Biography
David Bedford's musical endeavors extended far beyond rock, which occupied only a limited segment of his overall output. Long before entering that domain, he had already gained recognition as an avant-garde composer of note. His ties to progressive and new age figure Mike Oldfield led him to conduct and orchestrate multiple works by the latter. Similar duties connected him with Elvis Costello, Roy Harper, a-ha, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Madness.
Bedford surfaced as a rock composer in the mid-'70s, building directly on his earlier contributions to Oldfield's Tubular Bells through the progressive concept albums The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Odyssey, and Instructions for Angels. His entry into rock occurred unintentionally. His primary domain remained contemporary classical music, an area where he had already secured a firm standing before meeting Oldfield. Training at the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College, London, preceded a teaching stint at the Whitfield School in Hendon. From 1969 through 1981 he served as composer-in-residence at Queens College, London, followed by an Associate Visiting Composer post at Gordonstoun, Scotland. His serious avant-garde career took shape in the late '60s; the crossover into popular music arose after he scored the theatrical piece From Marie Antoinette to the Beatles. That assignment introduced him to Soft Machine's manager, who commissioned Bedford to orchestrate Joy of a Toy, the debut solo album by band founder Kevin Ayers on EMI's progressive Harvest imprint. Bedford joined Ayers' band on keyboards for that release and its successors, also appearing with the group live. It was there that he first encountered bassist Mike Oldfield.
Bedford launched his own recording career in the early '70s. His debut, Nurses Song with Elephants, appeared in 1972 on Dandelion. He sustained his avant-garde output with pieces such as Star Clusters, Nebulae, & Places in Devon for chorus and orchestra. Oldfield, whose compositional drive had been nurtured by Bedford during their shared time in Ayers' ensemble, soon completed the extended instrumental Tubular Bells; Bedford handled its orchestration and conducting. The album inaugurated the Virgin label and achieved substantial international success. Bedford later performed comparable roles on Hergest Ridge and prepared a purely orchestral version of Tubular Bells, recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The original Tubular Bells release, further amplified by its placement in The Exorcist, elevated Virgin from a nascent independent into a robust operation that challenged Island, Harvest, and Charisma with artists including Kevin Coyne, Gong, Hatfield and the North, and Henry Cow.
Bedford directly profited from Virgin's expansion when he recorded Star's End in 1974, an avant-garde orchestral commission from the Royal Philharmonic. Though conceived in a strictly classical idiom, the piece enjoyed modest progressive-rock traction, aided by his Tubular Bells connection. In 1975 he unveiled The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, an adaptation of the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem. Conceived initially as a children's opera, it reached listeners instead as a Virgin album. Departing from conventional orchestral resources, the work centered on Bedford's multi-layered electronic keyboards, with Mike Oldfield supplying electric guitar and actor Robert Powell (Mahler, The 39 Steps, Jesus of Nazareth, Hannay) providing narration. Its reception prompted Bedford to pursue another hybrid classical-rock statement. The Odyssey received both a Virgin recording and a January 25, 1977, premiere at Royal Albert Hall featuring Jon Lord, Mike Ratledge, Dave Stewart, Peter Lerner, Neil Ardley, and Mike Oldfield on guitar. The studio version again included Oldfield plus Andy Summers on guitar for "Circe's Island."
Like other progressive-rock creators, Bedford saw his audience diminish in the latter half of the 1970s. After The Odyssey in 1976, Instructions for Angels, which featured Mike Ratledge on synthesizer, followed in 1977 and marked his final substantial popular release. In subsequent decades he concentrated on serious compositions such as Rigel 9 (1988), Great Equatorial (1994), Wind Music of Rundell (1998), and My Mother My Sister and I (2000). One of his final classical works, The Wreck of the Titanic, received its premiere at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on July 1, 2010, performed by the Liverpool Youth Orchestra and Youth Choir, the Notre Dame Catholic College for the Arts Girls' Choir, and the St. Oswald's Catholic Junior School Choir. A further presentation had been planned for the Sands Centre in Carlisle in 2012 to mark the centenary of the ship's sinking. David Bedford succumbed to lung cancer on October 1, 2011, at age 74, before those plans could be realized.
Bedford surfaced as a rock composer in the mid-'70s, building directly on his earlier contributions to Oldfield's Tubular Bells through the progressive concept albums The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Odyssey, and Instructions for Angels. His entry into rock occurred unintentionally. His primary domain remained contemporary classical music, an area where he had already secured a firm standing before meeting Oldfield. Training at the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College, London, preceded a teaching stint at the Whitfield School in Hendon. From 1969 through 1981 he served as composer-in-residence at Queens College, London, followed by an Associate Visiting Composer post at Gordonstoun, Scotland. His serious avant-garde career took shape in the late '60s; the crossover into popular music arose after he scored the theatrical piece From Marie Antoinette to the Beatles. That assignment introduced him to Soft Machine's manager, who commissioned Bedford to orchestrate Joy of a Toy, the debut solo album by band founder Kevin Ayers on EMI's progressive Harvest imprint. Bedford joined Ayers' band on keyboards for that release and its successors, also appearing with the group live. It was there that he first encountered bassist Mike Oldfield.
Bedford launched his own recording career in the early '70s. His debut, Nurses Song with Elephants, appeared in 1972 on Dandelion. He sustained his avant-garde output with pieces such as Star Clusters, Nebulae, & Places in Devon for chorus and orchestra. Oldfield, whose compositional drive had been nurtured by Bedford during their shared time in Ayers' ensemble, soon completed the extended instrumental Tubular Bells; Bedford handled its orchestration and conducting. The album inaugurated the Virgin label and achieved substantial international success. Bedford later performed comparable roles on Hergest Ridge and prepared a purely orchestral version of Tubular Bells, recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The original Tubular Bells release, further amplified by its placement in The Exorcist, elevated Virgin from a nascent independent into a robust operation that challenged Island, Harvest, and Charisma with artists including Kevin Coyne, Gong, Hatfield and the North, and Henry Cow.
Bedford directly profited from Virgin's expansion when he recorded Star's End in 1974, an avant-garde orchestral commission from the Royal Philharmonic. Though conceived in a strictly classical idiom, the piece enjoyed modest progressive-rock traction, aided by his Tubular Bells connection. In 1975 he unveiled The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, an adaptation of the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem. Conceived initially as a children's opera, it reached listeners instead as a Virgin album. Departing from conventional orchestral resources, the work centered on Bedford's multi-layered electronic keyboards, with Mike Oldfield supplying electric guitar and actor Robert Powell (Mahler, The 39 Steps, Jesus of Nazareth, Hannay) providing narration. Its reception prompted Bedford to pursue another hybrid classical-rock statement. The Odyssey received both a Virgin recording and a January 25, 1977, premiere at Royal Albert Hall featuring Jon Lord, Mike Ratledge, Dave Stewart, Peter Lerner, Neil Ardley, and Mike Oldfield on guitar. The studio version again included Oldfield plus Andy Summers on guitar for "Circe's Island."
Like other progressive-rock creators, Bedford saw his audience diminish in the latter half of the 1970s. After The Odyssey in 1976, Instructions for Angels, which featured Mike Ratledge on synthesizer, followed in 1977 and marked his final substantial popular release. In subsequent decades he concentrated on serious compositions such as Rigel 9 (1988), Great Equatorial (1994), Wind Music of Rundell (1998), and My Mother My Sister and I (2000). One of his final classical works, The Wreck of the Titanic, received its premiere at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on July 1, 2010, performed by the Liverpool Youth Orchestra and Youth Choir, the Notre Dame Catholic College for the Arts Girls' Choir, and the St. Oswald's Catholic Junior School Choir. A further presentation had been planned for the Sands Centre in Carlisle in 2012 to mark the centenary of the ship's sinking. David Bedford succumbed to lung cancer on October 1, 2011, at age 74, before those plans could be realized.
Albums
