115 - John Altman on Monty Python, Prince, Muddy Waters, Amy Winehouse & more

Altman

John’s Uncles Sid Phillips & Wolf Phillips were big band conductors at the London Palladium so John grew up around the likes of Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong & Jack Benny.

At a young age he played with the likes of Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green, John Martyn, Nick Drake, Bridget St. John & Kevin Ayers.

He joined Hot Chocolate & also found time to jam with Jimi Hendrix, have a laugh with Freddie Mercury & have Muddy Waters attend his 21st birthday party.

John also had a hand in the music of Monty Python playing a key role in the Life Of Brian spinoff hit Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life.

Beatles spoof The Rutles featured John’s work & we hear how he recreated the famous Beatles sound on record.

Moving into the world of cinema & John had a hand in the music of Pierce Brosnan’s first turn as James Bond in 1995’s Goldeneye & also in 1997’s Titanic which became the biggest movie of all time up to that point. We hear about a frantic phone call from James Cameron during the making of Titanic.

John has also played on an estimated 4000 TV adverts ranging from Sheila’s Wheels to You Can Do It If You B&Q It, working with the likes of John Frankenheimer, Ridley & Tony Scott, Alan Parker, Elliot Erwitt, David Bailey & Terance Donovan. He also worked with Salman Rushdie as a lyricist, but never knew he was also a writer.

Fans of Raymond Briggs’s The Snowman can hear about John’s work on Walking In The Air with Aled Jones.

In the late 90s, a club in London known as 10 Room was founded, at first it started slowly but picked up once Lionel Richie & Chakak Khan turned up & played. In the coming years it hosted the likes of Nas, Will Smith, Chris Tucker, Kanye West, John Legend, Backstreet Boys, Ja Rule, Wycliffe Jean, Joss Stone & Amy Winehouse.

We hear about proposed albums with Amy Winehouse & Dusty Springfield which do not come to fruition.

And if that isn’t enough John throws in stories about Prince, Bjork & working on George Michael’s Faith for good measure.

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