Laurie Johnson facts for kids

Laurence Reginald Ward Johnson MBE (7 February 1927 – 16 January 2024) was an English composer and bandleader who has written scores for dozens of film and television series and has been described as "one of the most highly regarded arrangers of big-band swing and pop music" in England. Much of Johnson's music was written for the KPM music library, for which he composed and conducted between 1960 and 1965.

Early career and KPM

Johnson was born in Hampstead, England on 7 February 1927. He studied at the Royal College of Music, where his tutors included Herbert Howells and Ralph Vaughan Williams. He spent four years in the Coldstream Guards (playing French horn) before moving to the entertainment industry in the 1950s. One of his first major projects was as composer and music director in a musical Lock Up Your Daughters (1959), which opened in Bernard Miles' Mermaid Theatre. The score, with lyrics by Lionel Bart, won an Ivor Novello Award. Johnson's stage work included music for the Peter Cook revue, Pieces of Eight (1959), and The Four Musketeers (1967), starring Harry Secombe.

Johnson began writing and recording for the KPM Music Library in 1960, holding orchestral sessions at the Friends House on Euston Road and at Denis Preston's Lansdowne Studios, aided by engineer Adrian Kerridge. At the sessions Johnson produced two styles of music: light orchestral and big band jazz. He was also house conductor for KPM in the 1960s. Some of these recordings were issued as commercial recordings - The New Big Sound of the Laurie Johnson Orchestra (1963) and The Big New Sound Strikes Again (1965) on Denis Preston's Record Supervision label, and the Two Cities Suite (1966), which was licensed to Pye Records. Many of his library music pieces have been used for a number of animated series, including SpongeBob SquarePants and Ren And Stimpy.

Television

In 1961, Johnson entered the UK Singles Chart with "Sucu Sucu", the theme music from the UK television series Top Secret. It was in this area of television scoring that he was to be most prolific, and in 1965 he left KPM to work directly for various television companies. From the 1960s to the 1980s he composed over fifty themes and scores, including the theme used on This Is Your Life (entitled "Gala Performance"), The Avengers (from 1965), Animal Magic (entitled "Las Vegas"), Jason King, The New Avengers and The Professionals. He was one of the founders, with Albert Fennell and Brian Clemens, of Mark One Productions, the television production company responsible for The New Avengers and The Professionals. More recently, Johnson provided DVD commentaries on several of the series in which he was involved.

Johnson was responsible for the theme music to the BBC Radio 1 series Sounds of Jazz, introduced by Peter Clayton and broadcast on Sunday evenings from October 1973 onwards.

Film music

Johnson's film scores included The Good Companions, The Moonraker (1958), Tiger Bay, Dr. Strangelove, First Men in the Moon, You Must Be Joking!, And Soon the Darkness, Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter and Diagnosis: Murder (the 1975 Christopher Lee film). Among his other works was the music for the television film, Mister Jerico, which involved many of the original Avengers team, including Patrick Macnee.

Orchestral and band music

Johnson released several recordings on the Unicorn-Kanchana label. These included his own compositions The Royal Tour, The Wind in the Willows and Symphony: Synthesis for a large ensemble comprising a jazz orchestra and symphony orchestra. Originally released by EMI Records, Symphony featured several famous jazz names including Tubby Hayes, Don Lusher, Joe Harriott, Kenny Wheeler and Stan Tracey, as well as the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Johnson also released an album of music from The Avengers, The New Avengers and The Professionals, an album of his scores for The First Men in the Moon, Dr Strangelove and Captain Kronos, and two albums of the compositions of others: the film music of Dmitri Tiomkin, and Bernard Herrmann's suite for North by Northwest.

In 1997, Johnson began touring with the band he formed, The London Big Band. Their "Theme From 'The Professionals'" peaked on the UK Singles Chart at number 36 in May 1997.

Personal life

In 1962, Johnson bought a 7-bedroom house in Stanmore, North London, where he was still living as of 2015. He published an autobiography, Noises in the Head, in 2000. He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to music.

Johnson died on 16 January 2024, at the age of 96.

List of works

Television credits

• No Hiding Place (1959)
• Echo Four Two (1961)
• Top Secret (1961)
• Animal Magic (1962)
• Riviera Police (1965)
• The Avengers (1965)
• This Is Your Life (1969)
• Red Gauntlet (1970)
• Shirley's World (1971)
• Jason King (1971)
• Thriller (1973)
• The New Avengers (1976)
• The Professionals (1977)
• W1A (2014) - same theme as Animal Magic

Library music

• "Blood in the Gutter" (from Two Cities Suite) KPM
• "Fashion Centre", KPMLPB-0010 (1960)
• "Fisticuffs" (fight music from "The Avengers") KPM
• "Gala Performance" (theme from "This Is Your Life") KPM
• "Happy Go Lively", KPM110 (1962)
• "Lonely Stranger" (from "The Avengers", Episode: "Joker") KPM
• "Paris Honeymoon", KPM086 (1961)
• "Shopping Spree", KPM

Concert music

• Concerto For Trumpet, Tenor Saxophone and Orchestra (1999)
• Overture to Irma La Goose
• Royal Tour Suite, for military band
• Symphony (Synthesis) (1969)
• Three Paintings by Lautrec, for military band
• The Wind In Willows (Tone Poem) (1985)