Maldwyn "Mal" Pope (born 18 May 1960) is a Welsh musician and composer, who is notable for his contribution to music theatre portraying Welsh national identities and themes. He lives in the village of

Mumbles Mumbles () is a headland sited on the western edge of Swansea Bay on the southern coast of Wales. Toponym Mumbles has been noted for its place names considered unusual, unusual place name. The headland is thought by some to have been named by ...

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

. He is known for singing both the Welsh and English language versions of the ''

Fireman Sam ''Fireman Sam'' () is a British animated children's television series about a fireman named Sam, his fellow firefighters, and other residents in the fictional Welsh rural village of Pontypandy (a portmanteau of two real towns, Pontypridd and T ...

'' theme.

Early life and career

Pope was born in Brynhyfryd, Swansea, Wales, into a family of teachers. He began learning to play the guitar aged seven and was soon writing songs. In the early 1970s Pope sent a tape of songs to

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

presenter

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...

, who invited Pope to perform at the BBC. The session resulted in a recording contract with

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

's record label named The Rocket Record Company. Whilst studying at

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

, he spent much of his holidays recording in London. After leaving Cambridge, Pope moved to London and signed to Harvey Goldsmith's management company AMP. In 1982 Pope started working for

BBC Radio Wales BBC Radio Wales is a Wales, Welsh national radio station owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It began broadcasting on 13 November 1978, replacing the Welsh opt-out service of BBC Radio 4. As of August 2022, the stat ...

in Cardiff as a researcher. He signed a record deal with

Larry Page Lawrence Edward Page (born March 26, 1973) is an American businessman, computer engineer and computer scientist best known for co-founding Google with Sergey Brin. Page was chief executive officer of Google from 1997 until August 2001 when ...

, wrote songs for

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British singer and actor. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and, as of 2012, was the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart histo ...

and The Hollies, duetted with Bonnie Tyler and Aled Jones, and toured with

Art Garfunkel Arthur Ira Garfunkel (born November 5, 1941) is an American singer, actor and poet who is best known for his partnership with Paul Simon in the folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. Born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, Garfunkel became acquainte ...

and

Belinda Carlisle Belinda Jo Carlisle ( ; born August 17, 1958) is an American singer and songwriter. She gained fame as the lead vocalist of the Go-Go's, one of the most successful all-female rock bands of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a sol ...

Radio and television

Pope presented the weekday early breakfast show on

, but the show was cancelled amid cuts by the station in 2019. Pope returned to hosting a daily show on the station in July 2020, presenting the late-night slot, from 22:00-01:00, following the death of Chris Needs. Eleri Siôn took over the slot from 11 January 2021. Pope hosted ''The Mal Pope Show'', a late-night music chat show for HTV, in the 1990s, with the show winning a Welsh

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

award in 1995. He went on to host a late-night talk show on HTV called ''Heaven's Sound'', which won an award at the New York Film and Television Awards in 2001. Pope sang the theme songs of the children's television shows ''

'' (1987), ''Satellite City'' (1988) and '' Joshua Jones'' (1991).

Choral and music-theatre career

Pope was the President of the Welsh male voice choir Gwalia Singers between 2005 and 2010. His 2005 musical ''Amazing Grace'', based on the 1904–1905 Welsh Revival, and directed by Michael Bogdanov, received acclaim in performances at the

Swansea Grand Theatre Swansea Grand Theatre is a performing arts venue in the centre of Swansea, Wales. The theatre stages plays, pantomimes and touring theatrical acts visiting Swansea. Swansea Grand Theatre was the base for the UK's only Russian ballet company, ...

, the Cardiff International Festival of Musical Theatre, at the

Sherman Theatre The Sherman Theatre () is a venue in the Cathays district of Cardiff. It was built as a twin-auditorium venue in 1973 with financial support from University College Cardiff (now Cardiff University). Sherman Cymru was the name of the Sherman Thea ...

, and at

Theatr Clwyd Theatr Clwyd () is a regional arts centre and producing theatre from Mold, Flintshire, in North East Wales. It opened as Theatr Clwyd in 1976, but was known between 1998 and 2015 as Clwyd Theatr Cymru, before reverting to its original name. His ...

Mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures that certain fungus, fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of Spore#Fungi, spores containing Secondary metabolite#Fungal secondary metabolites, fungal ...

. In 2006 it was performed to standing ovations at the Wales Millennium Centre, the first original Welsh musical to be presented there. In 2007 Pope wrote another musical ''Contender'', about the career of heavyweight boxing champion

Tommy Farr Thomas George Farr (12 March 1913 – 1 March 1986) was a Welsh boxer from Clydach Vale, Rhondda, nicknamed "The Tonypandy Terror". Prior to 1936, Farr boxed in the light heavyweight division, in which he was the Welsh champion. He became Br ...

. In a highlight scene set during 1937, the title character sings the Welsh national anthem "

Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau "" () is the unofficial national anthem of Wales. The title, taken from the first words of the song, means "The Old Land of My Fathers" in Welsh, usually rendered in English as simply "Land of My Fathers". The words were written by Evan Ja ...

" before his third-round knockout of the Nazi German opponent Walter Neusel, for whom " Deutschland über alles" has been played. ''Contender'' was premièred at the United Nations building in New York, followed by seasons at Swansea's Grand Theatre and the

Aberystwyth Arts Centre Aberystwyth Arts Centre ( Welsh: ''Canolfan y Celfyddydau Aberystwyth'') is an arts centre in Wales, located on Aberystwyth University's Penglais campus. One of the largest in Wales, it comprises a theatre (312 seats), concert hall (1,250 seats ...

. Pope has sung on religious albums composed by the musician, Phil Baggaley, including ''City of Gold'' in 1997. Pope has also been involved in other albums and concerts including ''Shipwrecks and Islands'', ''Road to the City'', ''Strands of Gold'' and, most recently, ''The Time Project''.

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pope, Mal Musicians from Swansea 1960 births Living people People educated at Dynevor School, Swansea Rocket Records artists BBC Radio Wales presenters Welsh Christians Welsh male songwriters Welsh male singers Welsh composers Welsh male composers British television composers Welsh musical theatre composers