Biography : Al Steele

Al Steele was born in Australia in 1959, and moved to the United Kingdom in 1971. As a teenager he worked with some of the American rock ‘n roll stars, such as Johnny and The Hurricanes, and the now sadly departed Del Shannon.

In the 80’s, Al was a staff-writer at Southern Music, and he also began composing music for television.

He has written many T.V. themes, including sports themes for HTV, plus most of their promotional music from 86-87.

In recent years he has been a featured guitarist on a whole range of T.V. shows, including. “A Night Out With Money”, “Just Up Your Street”, “Money In The Bank”, “Peter Karrie Unmasked”, “Sian Cothi”, and “Voice Of A Nation”.

In the early 90’s, he was touring with The Korgis (“Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime”), and he also became Musical Director of the legendary R&B outfit, The Divas.

Also since ’93, Al has been the Arranger/Musical Director for The Sounds Of The Supremes, in ’98 taking them to Banff, Canada. There they worked alongside Vince Falcone (Frank Sinatra’s M.D.), where Al conducted the “All Stars Big Band”, and was invited to sit in on Vince’s set.

In a bit of a departure from his normal work, in May 2000, he took part in a rare performance of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass”. The concert, which was broadcast live on Radio 2, featured the National Orchestra of Wales as part of a cast of over 800 musicians and singers… and Al got to play the first chord by himself!

Also in 2000, he toured with “Music To Watch Girls Go By”, featuring Gary Wilmot, and played for Jane McDonald on her “Summer Spectacular” in Bournmouth.

As for film work, in ’97 Al composed a full orchestral score for the Dave Daggers movie, “Dance On A Volcano”, and was Vocal Arranger/Vocalist on the Oscar nominated animation, “Famous Fred”.

He also actively supports young musicians, and has recently completed a Millennium Commission project, giving song writing master classes in schools, to both teachers and pupils.

In ’99, in collaboration with Nigel Hart, Al opened a digital recording complex, “Shabbey Road Studios”.

Studio projects that Al has been directly involved with are:

· Sequencing ballet music for Elvis Costello

· Composing, orchestrating and recording numerous TV themes for both BBC and ITV

· Orchestrating and recording CD’s for sopranos Holly Holyoakes and James Rhys Lawrence

· Arranging and recording CD’s for guitar soloist Zoe McCulloch.
Al also arranged all Zoe’s band parts with which she has toured Germany and America

Ongoing projects include:

q A full orchestral score and songs for an American live action/animation feature film, “The Big Wish” (Cher has been offered one of the leads).

q A period orchestral score for the feature film “Cinderella; The True Story”.

q A solo album entitled “Coming Up From Down Under”.

Artistes Al has worked with include:

q Bonnie Tyler

q David Soul

q Iris Williams

q Elvis Costello

q Jane McDonald

q The Korgis

q Sacha Distel

q Johnny and the Hurricanes

q Del Shannon

q Peter Karrie

q Gary Wilmot

q National Orchestra of Wales

q Joe Pasquale

Instruments played:

q Guitars- acoustic and electric

q Bass guitar

q Banjo

q Keyboards

Vocals

q Lead

q Backing vocals