Peter Skellern: Hard Times

Peter Skellern was born on the 14th of March 1947 in Bury, Lancashire. He attended Derby Grammar School (now Derby High School) and studied piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He later joined a couple of pop groups ('Harlem' and 'March Hare') whilst playing the organ at St Michael's Church, Bolton. Having signed to Decca records, the first (and biggest) of his hit songs "You're a Lady" (featuring choir-rockers the English Congregation, who had recorded their own hit "Softly Whispering I Love You") was duly issued and became a great success.

Peter followed this three years later with "Hold On to Love" which reached number 14 in the UK chart, also singing the theme song to the musical Billy Liar. For some years in the seventies he worked on BBC Radio 4's Stop the Week, writing topical songs. A non-charting single, "Too Much I'm In Love" also received much radio play. Peter signed with Island records in 1975 and the "Hard Times" single and album were released - to critical acclaim but not many sales.
Again, despite much radio airplay, Hard Times failed as a single and the LP slipped into decades of obscurity.
As a result of this commercial failure Peter Skellern switched record companies again, signing this time with Phonogram, under their Mercury subsidiary, immediately enjoying a minor hit with a cover of "Love is the Sweetest Thing."

His album "Astaire" is regarded by many as a minor classic.

In 1981 he wrote, composed and performed in a series of musical playlets for the BBC called Happy Endings, two years later hosting the Private Lives television chat show.
Peter wrote the lyrics for the song "One More Kiss, Dear", from the 1982 film Blade Runner, and in 1984 performed the theme song for the London Weekend Television programme Me and My Girl. That same year our hero formed a group called Oasis (yes, your eyes aren't fooling you) with cellist Julian Lloyd Webber and Mary Hopkin. They released a self-titled album in 1984 on Warner Brothers records (which earned a silver disc) and performed live on television, but a planned concert tour was cancelled when Mary Hopkin became ill.

In 1987, Peter wrote and performed the theme music and song for the Yorkshire Television series Flying Lady and later provided the voice of Carter Brandon in the BBC Radio adaptations of Peter Tinniswood's Uncle Mort's North Country. Peter has collaborated with Richard Stilgoe in cabaret and in musical comedy with comic songs such as "Joyce the Librarian". They have released three live albums; A Quiet Night Out, By the Wey and Who Plays Wins, which made an unexpected entry in the midweek top five album charts in February 2011.

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