Andrew Skeet

Biography

Andrew Skeet attended Trinity Boys School in Croydon where, as a boy singer, he appeared on soundtracks such as Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, Barbra Streisand's Yentl and Another Country starring Rupert Everett as Guy Bennett and Colin Firth as Tommy Judd. Skeet then studied music at the University of East Anglia and at The Royal College of Music in London.

Television and film Commission

With former Howie B collaborator Luke Gordon, Skeet established the production company Roxbury Music and their music has been used extensively on British television. Programmes which have featured music by Roxbury include The Apprentice, Dispatches, Banged Up Abroad, Britain's Lost World, Freaky Eaters, What Katy Did Next, Gumball's 3000 Miles, Kali, a collaboration with Mike Figgis for the London Film Festival and Locked Up Abroad. Their music has been heard all over the world with tracks released on a series of library albums for Universal on The Atmosphere label, Chappell and Bruton.

Skeet has scored the upcoming feature-length documentary from Optimistic Productions directed by Daniel Edelstyn How To Re-establish A Vodka Empire and, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, released a concert and album of music from hit video games.

Collaborations

Skeet is a sometime member of Neil Hannon's The Divine Comedy and has worked as an arranger and orchestrator for artists such as George Michael, Sinéad O'Connor, Suede & James Lavelle's Unkle. With Neil Hannon he has toured regularly as MD and keyboard player of The Divine Comedy following the departure of Joby Talbot and has appeared on two albums as arranger and conductor; Hannon's ninth album Victory for the Comic Muse, released in June 2006, and 2010's Bang Goes the Knighthood.

In November 2010 Skeet collaborated with Grammy-award-winning artist Imogen Heap on an orchestral score played live to picture called Love The Earth which was premiered at the Albert Hall. They also worked together on a choral commission for the Bird's Eye Festival at the BFI – an a cappella choral score to the first ever surrealist film The Seashell and the Clergyman (Germaine Dulac, 1927) with the Holst Singers. Skeet regularly works with TV and film composer Daniel Pemberton as orchestrator and conductor on Desperate Romantics, Occupation, Hiroshima, Monster Moves, Money and the 2010 revival of Upstairs Downstairs. He has worked with Welsh electronic music group Hybrid contributing orchestral and string arrangements to Morning Sci-fi and Disappear Here.

Skeet has worked as an orchestrator on several feature films including Ridley Scott's Robin Hood, Garth Jennings' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Basil Dearden's The League of Gentlemen and as lead orchestrator and conductor on Nick Murphy's forthcoming feature The Awakening starring Rebecca Hall, Dominic West and Imelda Staunton.

Compositions, arrangements, orchestrations and recordings

This is a partial list

With The Divine Comedy:
2006– Victory for the Comic Muse (arranger, keyboards)
2010– Bang Goes the Knighthood (arranger, keyboards)

With Hybrid
2010– Disappear Here (orchestrator, arranger)

With Imogen Heap
2010–The Seashell and the Clergyman (arranger)
2011– Love the Earth (orchestrator)

With Anthony Phillips as Skeet & Phillips:
First Flight (composer)
Seventh Heaven (composer)

As Composer:
the following are library albums for Universal; each album presented contains tracks by Andrew Skeet

2007– 3000 Miles: Gumball 3000 (with Luke Gordon)
2011– How To Re-Establish a Vodka Empire (City of Prague Philharmonic)

As Orchestrator
2005– The Movies (video game) (conductor: jazz & rock music, orchestrator)
2007– Heroes and Villains
2009– Desperate Romantics (with Daniel Pemberton)
2010– Upstairs, Downstairs (with Daniel Pemberton) [arranger, orchestrator] 2011– The Awakening (with Daniel Pemberton) [Orchestrator, conductor]

As Conductor:
2011– The Greatest Video Game Music (London Philharmonic Orchestra) (Conductor)
2012– The Greatest Video Game Music 2 (London Philharmonic Orchestra) (Producer, Conductor)