Pinball And Other Stories

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In 2002 Protheroe played the role of Gower in Adrian Noble's production of Pericles, Prince of Tyre. In 2007 he was cast as Saruman in the original stage musical version of The Lord of the Rings. Performances began at London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 21 June 2007. Protheroe played his final performance at the end of his year contract in June 2008. There’s lots of forums on the internet where angry middle aged men with beer bellies and living in their Mum’s spare rooms spend all day arguing with strangers on the internet about what is or isn’t progressive, this finale is what I would call progressive. With a career spanning music and acting, Brian Protheroe has left an indelible mark on both stages. Renowned for his classic hit ‘Pinball’ and a run of acclaimed albums in the mid-70s, Brian now invites us to delve into the heart of his classic hit. The Sad Song lyric is about my first serious girlfriend dumping me and marrying her ex-partner. But it’s also about how songwriters plunder painful relationship traumas in search of a good song.”

In 1982 he was cast in the BBC Two play Spider's Web by Agatha Christie, and in the following year played the role of Edward IV in the BBC Television Shakespeare productions of Henry VI, Part 2, Henry VI, Part 3 and Richard III. In 1984 he played in the West End musical Pump Boys and Dinettes on piano and vocals and percussion.Brian’s new album Desert Road is something of a pot pourri. “It’s a collection of songs I’ve been working on with Julian Littman over the last 10 years or so” he explains. “There’s also a live version of a song called Monkey from the first album and some old demos – the original demo of Pinball I mentioned earlier and one from even earlier than that, a song called Sail. I’m really pleased with the collection. A feeling of sweet melancholy goes through the whole album. Julian and I are working on another single for the new year with a similar lyric to Scobo Queen, funnily enough. It’s based around sort of ’30s/’40s jazz shorthand. I’m working more than ever!” Brian has continued making music over the years, notably as part of the Albion Band when they became the house band for the National Theatre in the 1980s and continues to perform sporadically with Steeleye Span multi-instrumentalist Julian Littman. I always thought Enjoy It should have been a big hit in the 70s. It should have been my second single but Chrysalis were afraid because it was so utterly different to Pinball. I was determined to have another look at it, and it worked. It turned out really well. I was really pleased with what we did with it and it was relatively successful. I think I actually made money on it – almost no one makes much money from streaming!” Why do you think that relationship has endured and been so successful from a songwriting perspective?

Chrysalis and Protheroe parted ways after 1976, and he returned to acting full-time. He had an appearance in Richard Donner's 1978 Superman film but, for the most part, Protheroe was a mainstay of BBC productions and British stage. From this point on, he acted steadily, doing anything from Shakespeare to spy thrillers.Better known today as the voice of First Dates and First Dates Hotel, Brian is a well-established actor who’s graced both stage and screen since 1968 when he moved to Lincoln and made his debut in rep. Pinball" is a 1974 song by the actor and musician Brian Protheroe. An autobiographical song written whilst Protheroe was living in a friend's flat in Covent Garden, it was released as his first single after he was signed by Chrysalis on the strength of a song he wrote and performed in a play. Upon release, it gave Protheroe his only hit, reaching a peak position of 22 on the UK Singles Chart in September 1974. It was later included on his debut album of the same title.

In 1997, there started to be signs of a resurgence of interest in his '70s music, as the Basta label put out a set called Brian's Big Box. In 2005, Protheroe assembled unheard material, including new songs, for the CitySong collection. The next year saw the release of Pinball and Other Stories, a compilation of his '70s material that also had a handful of unheard '80s originals to round out the disc. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine HOMETOWN Salisbury, England Litvinenko cast revealed for new ITV1 drama with David Tennant". tellymix. 19 June 2023 . Retrieved 20 July 2023. It’s quite remarkable how you’ve had sort of two parallel careers, in acting as well as music. I’ve read that it was a play that led you ultimately to get signed by Chrysalis Records, is that right?

Notes

The whole narrative driven attitude of these albums brings to mind the American dream stories that Jim Steinman and Meatloaf brought to life, however this is a very English narrative, and is full of story songs that have as much an emotional impact, but which tug at the English heartstrings, in a contemporary folk song attitude. I was living behind the Cambridge Theatre in Covent Garden having recently broken up with a girlfriend. The lyric is an extended diary entry of my experiences at the time. Loneliness and feelings of not being in control like a silver ball being flipped around in a pinball machine. It didn’t remotely cross my mind that the song would still be around 46 years later.” Since 2013, Brian’s authoritative voice has been heard by millions as narrator of the Channel 4 reality show First Dates. How does he find being the voice of one of the most successful British television shows of recent years? “What a fantastic job, it’s like having another pension!” he enthuses. “It’s a proper dating service, they do genuinely try to match people up. It works really well. I’ve done a couple of other First Dates– Australia, Canada, Ireland – but I think the British one works particularly well because of the variety. There are gay and lesbian couples, there’s old and young and they really try and match them properly.” I tell Brian I couldn’t believe it was him when I found out. “Isn’t it a bizarre combination, that I should be doing that as well as making those records? It’s extraordinary. But I love that.” Eclecticism is still what drives Brian Protheroe.