Bob Bradley (composer)

Overview

Bob Bradley is an Award winning British composer, songwriter, arranger, musician, and record producer. He was born in Teesside. He is the director of the Firm (formerly Organiq music). A music production and creation team based in Leeds who are responsible for the soundtracks of most major TV documentaries made in the North of England. Co-producer and writer of various Sugababes tracks, producer and arranger for Above and Beyond acoustic.

Career

He has amassed many credits over his 20 or so years in the business. Starting as a singer/songwriter, Bob was touring from the age of 11 with his brother Peter Bradley Junior who later formed the highly respected alternative rock band, Subcircus. They became friends with the Everly Brothers in their early teens, performing in front of the Everly's and introduced by Don as 'the new Everly's' in front of a sell out crowd at Newcastle City hall. Bob later joined the Bristol based art rock collective the Blue Aeroplanes where he was described as a seventeen-year-old whiz kid by the now defunct Melody Maker music magazine. With them he recorded a couple of albums accompanied by much touring.

After departing from the Aeroplanes, Bob went on to have a brief spell with Indie darlings the house of love and recorded an EP with Guy Chadwick under the name the Madonnas. Throughout this time, Bob was active in the London session circuit, playing with many acclaimed artists, musicians and producers. In 1997 he signed with new indie label V2 Records with his own project Lovebabies. The band featured female vocalist, Jenny Clark. They released their debut single 'Explore' to a lukewarm reception possibly due to its experimental direction. Lovebabies' dark and moody sound drew comparisons with Sneaker Pimps and Morcheeba. A follow up single was released in early 1998, 'Blue Earth Angel', featuring remixes from Attica Blues and DJ Pulse. A full-length album was recorded under the title 'For The Realization Of Zion' which was supposedly a nod to the secrets buried within the Priory of Sion, but due to disappointing sales of the previous singles, this release was withdrawn, although some samplers escaped. The UK may not have taken to Lovebabies but they did spend time in the Australian top 10.

It was shortly after this episode that Bob became one of the original members of the UK production house Xenomania with whom he amassed an impressive CV of pop credits, working with artists such as Sugababes, Girls Aloud, Natalie Imbruglia and Gabriella Cilmi. He was responsible for the opening bass riff on the Sugababes hit Red Dress amongst others. During his time with Xenomania, he was offered numerous offers to take on soundtrack work which he eventually agreed to tackle. Since then he has composed music scores for BBC, ITV, C4, Nat Geo, Discovery & History channels and received a Royal Television Society award for his work on BBCs 'Adam's guide to the Cosmos'. In 2012 Bob was asked to produce and arrange a demo of Above & Beyond's Love is not enough. The demo created a great buzz and Months later, the go-ahead was given to start work on Above and Beyond's acoustic Album. Bob brought in singers Alex Vargas and Annie Drury as well as using A&B favourite Zoe Johnston. The album spawned a succession of acclaimed live concerts at London's Porchester Hall and Los Angeles' Greek Theatre, where they were joined on stage by EDM pioneer Skrillex. The performances were described by Billboard magazine as "one of the finest and more memorable shows in EDM history". Bob now resides in Leeds where he runs the Black Lodge recording facility and oversees the Firm.

Co-written/produced/played

Composed

Written or worked with