John Marcangelo (born 1950,

Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and civil parish in the Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. It is a port on the north-west coast, and lies outside the Lake District National parks of England and Wales, National Park. ...

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

, England) is an English pianist, drummer and composer of

folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and American folk music. It arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music re ...

Early life

He comes from The Valley in

. He went to St Begh's Catholic School, (now a junior school) on Coach Road, Whitehaven. He is the son of an Italian barber. He started his life in music with a band called The Invaders, in Cumbria, after leaving school, when earlier intending to go to Carlisle Art College. He later went to

Leeds College of Music Leeds Conservatoire (formerly known as The Leeds Music Centre, the City of Leeds College of Music, and Leeds College of Music) is a higher education music conservatoire based in the Quarry Hill district of Leeds, England. It was founded in 19 ...

and trained as a classical musician (pianist and percussionist) where he met the violinist

Mik Kaminski Michael Kaminski (born 2 September 1951) is an English musician. He played violin in the rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) between 1973 and 1980 and toured with the band from 1981 to 1986. He was a member of Electric Light Orchestra Pa ...

Musical composition

After leaving college in Leeds, he went to London with Kaminski and drummer John Hodgson with their band called Cow, where Marcangelo played keyboard. He worked as a session musician and also in orchestra pits for musicals such as ''

Hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and ...

''. Kaminski then joined

ELO Elo or ELO may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Electric Light Orchestra, a British rock music group ** ''The Electric Light Orchestra'' (album), the group's debut album * ''Elo'', a member magazine for the Tuglas Society Biology * Very-long-c ...

in 1973. Marcangelo found a new musical partner in the composer

Cornelius Cardew Cornelius Cardew (7 May 193613 December 1981) was an English experimental music composer, and founder (with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons) of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected experimental mu ...

in their band called People's Liberation Music, with Vicky Silva as singer, Laurie Scott Baker on bass, and others. Together they worked with the opera singer

Jane Manning Jane Marian Manning OBE (20 September 193831 March 2021) was an English concert and opera soprano, writer on music, and visiting professor at Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Royal College of Music. A specialist in contemporary classi ...

and toured the world, recording the first music concert for the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

in communist

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Cardew was killed in a

hit and run In traffic laws, a hit and run or a hit-and-run is the criminal act of causing a traffic collision and not stopping afterwards. It is considered a supplemental crime in most jurisdictions. Additional obligation In many jurisdictions, there ma ...

accident in 1981. Marcangelo was asked by Kaminski to record an album with

Violinski Violinski was a rock band formed in 1977 by Electric Light Orchestra violinist Mik Kaminski with former member Mike de Albuquerque on guitar and vocals. In March 1979 the band become a one-hit wonder with their instrumental " Clog Dance" ...

, and got another Cumbrian musician, Barry Dunnery a guitarist from

Egremont, Cumbria Egremont is a market town and civil parish in the Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. It is situated just outside the Lake District National Park, south of Whitehaven and on the River Ehen. The parish also ...

, to join them. From the album ''No Cause for Alarm'', recorded at the

Musicland Studios Musicland Studios was a recording studio located in Munich, Germany established by Italy, Italian record producer, songwriter and musician Giorgio Moroder in the early 1970s. The studios were known for their work with artists such as Donna Summer, ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, came Marcangelo's most well known composition, "Clog Dance" reaching number 17 in the UK Singles Chart in March 1979. Marcangelo then went on a European tour with Violinski and also contributed to their second and final album, ''Stop Cloning About''. Marcangelo has worked on cruise ships, first on the '' QE2'' as a drummer with the

Ronnie Carroll Ronnie Carroll (born Ronald Cleghorn; 18 August 1934 – 13 April 2015) was a Northern Irish singer, entertainer and political candidate. Music career Carroll was born Ronald Cleghorn in 116 Roslyn Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1934, th ...

Orchestra, and has since performed on many cruises with his wife Cathy as the Celeste Trio with keyboard player Dave Taylor from

Distington Distington () is a large village and civil parish in Cumbria, England, south of Workington and north of Whitehaven. Historically a part of Cumberland, the civil parish includes the nearby settlements of Common End, Cumbria, Common End, Gilgar ...

. After which he arranged all the orchestral arrangements for his wife’s (Celeste Francis aka Catherine Marcangelo) Headline Show and travelled as her music director playing piano accompaniment on the world’s major cruise lines. In 2007 “Clog Dance the Musical” by John Marcangelo, was performed at Whitehaven Civic Hall to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the William Pit disaster, repeated in 2017 for the 70th Anniversary. The composition has also been arranged by Bill Charleson and Bill Bailey for

brass band A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting primarily of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands (particularl ...

. His Big Band arrangements are used when Catherine Marcangelo performs with renowned Fatchops Big Band based in the Midlands.

References

Video clips

Top of the Pops

Information on Clog Dance at Bayern 3 radio

External links

*
''Whitehaven News'' January 2007 article

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marcangelo, John 1950 births People from Whitehaven English composers English keyboardists English people of Italian descent Living people Alumni of Leeds Conservatoire