Birth name Timothy Marcus Arnold Role Singer Parents Polly Perkins | Years active 1995–Present Grandparents Mitzi, Dickie Name Tim Arnold | |
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Genres Occupation(s) Musician, Songwriter, Singer, Composer, Record Producer Similar People | ||
Tim Arnold (born 3 July 1975) is an English singer-songwriter, composer, producer and musician from London. His music has been compared to David Bowie. He is also an active campaigner for the preservation of the London district known as Soho and its role in the enhancement of the performing arts. He is the founder of Save Soho, a coalition of performers including Stephen Fry and Benedict Cumberbatch, residents and politicians that came together out of concern for the future of Soho’s historic role as a national platform for the performing arts.
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He first achieved success as the singer and songwriter of Britpop band Jocasta in the mid-1990s. He runs the record label TA Music and has released fifteen albums, one with Jocasta and fourteen solo albums. He is also author and composer of the musical Secrets of Soho.
Early life
Tim Arnold's childhood was spent travelling through Europe, as his mother, Polly Perkins, performed cabaret in theatres and nightclubs. Between the ages of eight and fourteen, he lived in France, Spain and the UK.
Arnold has stated he believes in magic after meeting a Pagan “witch” at the age of nine.
At fourteen years old, he enrolled as a bard in The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. The teachings inspired him to leave his mother's home in Spain and return alone to England to study at the Rudolf Steiner School, where he formed the band Jocasta with best friend Jack Reynolds.
Jocasta
In 1994, Arnold and the band moved from Hertfordshire to London. Jocasta had chart hits with "Go" and "Change Me" in 1997. The band's only album, No Coincidence was released in June 1997, but they disbanded soon after its release.
Solo career
In 1999 he signed a publishing deal with Richard Branson's V2 Music. he also became Master of Music at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, composing original music for Peter Oswald's 'Augustine's Oak', a new verse play written especially for the Globe. In 2000 he briefly begun a new band called Spearshaker. The band recorded several songs at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales, which would later be released on Arnold's 3rd solo album 'En Route'.
In 2001, Arnold left V2 and signed to Universal Music Publishing. For two years, he wrote and produced music for newly signed artists at Universal, mostly pop, R&B, garage and hip hop.
In 2003 Arnold travelled to the Wat Tham Krabok Buddhist monastery in Thailand, the trip financed by his godmother, the actress June Brown, where he was successfully treated for drug addiction. Life at the monastery had a profound effect on Arnold who subsequently left London and moved to Thailand to live in the monastery, where the monks built him a recording studio.
He recorded his debut solo album Lokutara with the monks who cured him, in which the music was created by following cracks in the earth, which metamorphosed into pop rock melodies.
Brown and Arnold subsequently set up a fund to help other addicts receive treatment at Wat Tham Krabok.
A Tham Krabok success story, Arnold returned to the UK in 2004. Over the following 18 months, he recorded and released 6 solo albums, including Secrets of Soho recorded in Francis Bacon's spiritual home (The Colony Room).
Arnold embarked on his 11th solo album Sonnet 155 by writing over 30 letters to Shakespearean actors, including Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi, Pete Postlethwaite, Richard Briers, Janet Suzman and Emma Thompson in the hope that they would provide further inspiration and help turn ideas into songs. The responses he received became the basis for many of Arnold's songs. The album is a rock/classical crossover all driven by Shakespearean themes.
Sonnet 155 previewed to standing ovations at the Almeida Theatre, London (2 & 9 May 2010), a cross-media performance, including contributions from actors Richard Briers, Paul McGann, Benedict Cumberbatch and Lisa Dillon. The album also re-interprets classical pieces of music by Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakov and Michael Nyman - each song a contemporary response to a Shakespearean theme. B7 Media are currently developing the format of the stage show with a view to taking Sonnet 155 on tour.
In 2012, Arnold began performing new songs under the name The Soho Hobo. He performed several shows at The Soho Theatre, The Groucho Club and The Lexington with actors Jessie Wallace, Gary Kemp and Phil Daniels throughout 2012 and 2013 as showcases for his forthcoming album about Soho.
He began 2015 by giving the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson a guided tour of Soho as part of Arnold's Save Soho campaign. The pair were filmed by ITV news singing a duet of Arnold's song "Don't Go Changing Soho".
In 2015 he also appeared on The Voice and after auditioning, was selected by Ricky Wilson. By the second round, he was out of the competition losing his battle against eventual winner Stevie McCrorie.
After leavingThe Voice he released a single 'Hearts 4 Meat' in support of the Save Soho campaign that he leads with Stephen Fry and Benedict Cumberbatch. The song was inspired by Caitlin Moran's article in The Times 'Where is London If Soho Is Gone?'.
In July 2015, Arnold released his 14th album The Soho Hobo
Personal life
Arnold lives in London and was listed to represent Soho in Historic England’s 2016 exhibition ‘I Am London’ . He is a feminist and a life long vegetarian.