Anthony Newley Part 1: Meet the Artful Dodger
- Place – De Lane Lea/CTS Wembley England
- Time – 1974
- Artist – Anthony Newley
- The Movie – Mister Quilp
Anthony Newley was a major international celebrity. His career spanned more than 50 years.
Landing his first major film role as The Artful Dodger in the David Lean’s 1948 film Oliver twist.
Newley went from being a child star actor, to rock ‘n’ roll idol, songwriter extraordinaire, author, to a West End actor, and director.
He was one of Broadway’s greatest leading men building a truely international following.
Newley’s vocal style has been recognized as a major influence on that of David Bowie, most notably in his song The Laughing Gnome
He wrote for many years together with Leslie Bricusse, spanning theatrical works and a number of musical film scores including the wonderful 1971 Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.
They also composed one of the most successful James Bond movie Themes ever, Goldfinger.
Such was their influence that in 1987 he and Bricusse were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Previously, the only other British writers to be honoured in this way were Noel Coward, John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Meeting Anthony Newley
I first met Anthony Newley whilst he was recording the music for the movie, Quilp at De Lane Lea/CTS Wembley England.
I had long been a fan of Newley’s and considered him a true giant of the entertainment Industry.
During the recording I only managed to work on a few of the minor overdub sessions on the movie, but this did allow me the privilege of working with yet another person I had admired for such a long time.
The title song Quilp I thought would become a musical classic, sadly the movie bombed and the music along with it.
It would be seventeen years before I would meet Tony again.
I owned a recording studio in Chiswick in West London and Newley had booked a couple of days to record a few piano and vocal demos.
When he arrived I reminded him that we had met at Wembley back in the seventies.
He of course had no recollection of this at all however we spent two fabulous days recording.
Tony being very pleased with the outcome continued to rebook the studio over the next few months.
During this time we recorded an album together and remained great friends until his passing in 1999.
The PolyGram TV & Record Deal Offer
Tony received an offer to record an album for the PolyGram TV label.
He was very unhappy and concerned that the people negotiating the deal were from the film industry and did not really understand the music business so he asked me if I could talk to PolyGram on his behalf.
I explained to him that this was impossible for me to do as the deal was already underway.
Several weeks later Tony informed me that the deal was cancelled due to PolyGram signing the actor Ian McShane instead.
We knew McShane couldn’t write a song or sing but we both agreed that he had a higher TV profile.
I offered to cover all the costs and produce the album with Tony at my own studio.
My son Nathan was working for me at this time and I gave him the job of driving Tony to and from the studio.
On the first day of recording I took Nathan to Newley’s house to introduce him to Tony.
We sat drinking tea while Tony was reading his horoscope to both of us from his daily paper.
The horoscope read, “The project you are about to embark on will be difficult and demanding and only with luck, will it be successful.”
Looking up from his newspaper he said,
“Well what shall we do”?
Nathan immediately replied,
“Buy another newspaper.”
Newley roared with laughter and from that moment Tony and Nathan’s friendship was sealed forever.
Newley was very at ease with Nathan, his age allowed him to be unaware of Tony’s unbelievable career which made Nathan a friend of Tony’s not an admirer of Newley’s.
Tony would often refer to Nathan as his adopted son, he could make Newley laugh in a second and they both enjoyed each other’s company very much.
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