Simon John Fisher Turner (born 21 November 1954) is an English musician, songwriter, composer, producer and actor. After portraying Ned East in the 1971 BBC TV adaptation of '' Tom Brown's Schooldays'' and roles in films such as '' The Big Sleep'' (1978), Turner rose to fame as a teenage star in Britain when his mentor, Jonathan King, released Turner's eponymous first album on UK Records in 1973. For a period of two years Turner was a member of The Gadget and also joined The The. He has used several names as a recording artist, including Simon Fisher Turner, The King of Luxembourg, Deux Filles and Simon Turner. He continues to record albums for Mute Records as Simon Fisher Turner. Turner was also a member of The Portsmouth Sinfonia Orchestra, and plays clarinet on the orchestra's only live album recorded at The Albert Hall, London.

Career

In the 1980s, Turner released several singles on the él record label as the King of Luxembourg, many of them having been given airplay by BBC Radio DJ John Peel. In 1990 he released a solo album on Creation Records. Turner also recorded several film soundtracks for Derek Jarman, including ''

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (also Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi da Caravaggio; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the fina ...

'' (1986), '' The Last of England'' (1988), '' The Garden'' (1990), and Jarman's final film ''

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

'' (1993). He also composed the complete score for '' William Eggleston in the Real World'' (2005) and the David Lynch-produced film, '' Nadja'' (1994), as well as Mike Hodges' last two films, '' Croupier'' (1998) and '' I'll Sleep When I'm Dead'' (2003). Many of his soundtracks are released on CD, mainly on Mute Records, on which he issued three solo albums. In 2002, Turner was a visiting professor at

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( ; from Low German , local dialect: ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

School of Art in Germany. In 2009, he joined Tilda Swinton on a new film essay shot in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

for '' The Invisible Frame'' (2009) directed by Cynthia Beatt. In the same year he produced

Polly Scattergood Polly Scattergood (born 18 October 1986) is an English singer and songwriter. She has been described as wikt:ethereal, ethereal, dark, intense and quirky, while her musical style has been described as "early 21st century electropop, electro-dan ...

's self-titled debut album, ''

''. Turner completed music for sculptor, Alyson Shotz, at the Nasher Sculpture Centre,

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

. In 2010 he composed the music for ''The Great White Silence'', a film by Herbert Ponting. It was restored by the British Film Institute, and released on Blu-ray/DVD. The soundtrack is available from Soleilmoon Recordings. In 2011, Turner released a triple CD, ''Soundtracks for Derek'', on Optical Sound. It is music composed for an exhibition, "Super 8", by Jarman at the Julia Stoschek Foundation. Mute Records released an album made with the sounds supplied by Espen J. Jorgensen. Also in that year, "Music for Films you should have seen" was released by Optical Sound. This includes music for the only film Jean Genet made, ''Un Chant D'amour''. Turner continued to make music for commercials for water, supermarkets and cancer research. In 2012, Turner worked with Shiro Takatani, artistic director of dumb type in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

, the BFI in the UK and prepared new sounds. He played concerts in Europe performing both ''Blue'' and ''The Great White Silence'', live with the Elysian Quartet. During 2013, Turner provided the score for '' The Epic of Everest'', a film made in 1924 by Captain John Noel, restored by The British Film Institute and released on Blu-ray. A soundtrack album released on Mute Records won him an

Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the Welsh entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and Musical composition, composing. They have been presented annually in London by the The Ivors Academy, Ivors Academy, formerly called the Britis ...

. Simon Turner lives with his wife and two children in London.

Actor

Television

* ''Tom's Midnight Garden'' (3 episodes, 1968) - (as Tom) * '' Tom Brown's Schooldays'' (1971 TV serial) * ''The Intruder'' (1972) TV series * ''The Long Chase'' (13 episodes, 1972) * '' The Adventures of Black Beauty'' (1972) * ''Tom's Midnight Garden'' (3 episodes, 1974) - (as Barty) * '' Who Killed Lamb?'' (1974) (TV) * ''Village Hall'' (1974) TV series * '' Kim & Co.'' (1975) TV series * ''Lillie'' (1978) TV serial * '' Stay with Me Till Morning'' (1981, TV series) * ''Neptune's Children'' (1985) TV series

Films

* '' The Big Sleep'' (1978) * ''

'' (1986) * ''The Party: Nature Morte'' (1991) * ''The 90 Days (Japan)'' (1992) * '' Loaded'' (1994) * '' Claire Dolan'' (1998) * '' Croupier'' (1999) * '' The End of the Affair'' (1999) *'' Hana wo tsumu shôjo to mushi wo korosu shôjo'' (2000)

Discography

As Simon Turner

Singles

* "Shoeshine Boy" / "17" ( UK Records, 1972) * "Baby (I Gotta Go)" / "Love Around" (UK Records, 1972) * "Baby (I Gotta Go)" / "I Wanna Love My Life Away" (UK Records, 1972) * "The Prettiest Star" / "Love Around" (UK Records, 1973) * "California Revisited" / "Simon Talk" (UK Records, 1973) * "She Was Just a Young Girl (No Way)" / "I'll Take Your Hand" (UK Records, 1974) * "Sex Appeal" / "Little Lady" (UK Records, 1974) * "I've Been a Bad Bad Boy" / "Little Lady" (UK Records, 1974) * "New York" / "Hello I Am Your Heart" (1975) * "Could It Really Be" (Ariola Records, 1977)

Albums

* '' Simon Turner'' ( UK Records, 1973) * ''Simon Turner'' ( Creation Records, 1990) * ''Sex Appeal'' (1992) * ''The Many Moods of Simon Turner'' (1993) * ''Revox'' (1993)

As Deux Filles

* ''Silence & Wisdom'' (1982) * ''Double Happiness'' (1983) * ''Space & Time'' (2016) * ''Shadow Farming'' (2021)

As the King of Luxembourg

* ''Royal Bastard'' (1987) * ''Sir'' (1988) * ''Sex Appeal'' (1992) * ''Sweets of Japan'' ( Felicite Records) (2003)

As Loveletter

* ''Beethoven Chopin Kitchen Fraud'' (1999)

As Simon Fisher Turner

* ''The Bone of Desire'' (1985) * ''Caravaggio Original Soundtrack'' (1986–1995) * ''The Last of England'' Original Soundtrack (1987) * ''Melancholia'' Soundtrack (1989) * ''Edward II'' Original Soundtrack (1991) * ''The Garden'' Original Soundtrack (1991) * ''I've Heard the Ammonite Murmur'' (1992) * ''

'' (1993) * ''Live Blue Roma (The Archaeology of Sound)'' (1995) * '' Nadja'' (1995) * ''Shwarma'' (1996) * ''Loaded'' Original Soundtrack (1996) * ''Still, Moving, Light'' (1999) * ''Oh Venus'' (1999) * ''Eyes Open'' (1999) * ''Travelcard'' (2000) * ''Riviera Faithful'' (2002) * ''Swift'' (2002) * ''Lana Lara Lata'' (2007) * ''Music From Films You Should Have Seen'' (2009) * ''Soundtracks for Derek'' (2011) * ''The Great White Silence'' Original Soundtrack (2011) * ''Berlin'' Soundscape recording made during the shooting days of the film ''The Invisible Frame'' (2012) * ''Soundescapes'' (2012) by SFT and Espen J jorgenson * ''The Epic of Everest'' Original Soundtrack (2014) * ''Giraffe '' ( Editions Mego, 2017) * ''Care'' (an album with Klara Lewis in Edition Mego, 2018) * ''Instability Of The Signal'' (2024)

Film music not released on CD (selection)

* '' I'll Sleep When I'm Dead'' * '' William Eggleston in the Real World''

References

External links

SFT siteiMDB: SFTDiscogs: SFTMute: SFT
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Simon Fisher 1954 births English film score composers English male film score composers Georges Delerue Award winners English male film actors English pop guitarists English male guitarists English male singer-songwriters English male television actors Living people Mute Records artists Actors from Dover, Kent The The members Musicians from Kent Male actors from Kent Soleilmoon artists