Biography
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Born
5 October 1923
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Died
28 June 1976 (aged 52)
Malcolm Lockyer (5 October 1923 - 28 June 1976) was a film composer and conductor.
In his early years he developed an interest in dance and from here gathered an interest in music. At the age of nineteen he became a musician in the Royal Air Force and in 1944 joined the Buddy Featherstonhaugh Sextet. His biggest successes in composition were for the BBC series Friends and Neighbours in 1959 for which he wrote the theme. He wrote the scores for at least three films: Island of Terror (1966), Sandy the Seal (1969), and La Loba y La Paloma (1974). He also composed the music for the 1965 film Dr. Who and the Daleks, some arrangements from that film have since been released on a CD called The Eccentric Dr. Who.
One of the highlights of Lockyer's career was arranging and conducting the Bing Crosby album Holiday in Europe (1961), described as "one of the all-time Crosby classics" by the noted jazz critic Will Friedwald in his liner notes to the CD Bing Crosby: Legends of the 20th Century, which includes seven tracks from the album.
Lockyer conducted frequently throughout the 1960s. Among the many orchestras he led were those for: the BBC Radio Home Service's radio musical version of Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat (1962) and the films Our Man in Marrakesh (1966) and Deadlier than the Male (1967).
Lockyer was the musical director for the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest staged at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh. Unusually however, as noted in John Kennedy O'Connor's The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History, he did not conduct the home entry for the UK. Lockyer had taken part in the very first UK selection process to find Britain's debut Eurovision entry in 1957. He performed the song "All", which won the contest. However, Patricia Bredin went on to perform the song at the final in Frankfurt.
Shortly before his death in 1976 he conducted The Million Airs Orchestra in 26 Glenn Miller tribute concerts.
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