Francis Monkman

Francis Monkman
Birth name	Andrew Francis Kenneth Monkman
Born	9 June 1949 (1949-06-09)
Origin	Hampstead, North London
Genres	Progressive rock, classical music
Occupations	Songwriter, musician, film score composer
Instruments	Keyboards, guitar
Years active	1960s–present
Associated acts	Curved Air, Sky, 801, Al Stewart, Renaissance, The Shadows, Elton John.

Francis Monkman (born 9 June 1949, in Hampstead, North London, England) is an English rock, classical and film score composer, and a founding member of the progressive rock band Curved Air.

Career

He was a pupil at Westminster School where he studied organ and harpsichord, later studying at the Royal College of Music, winning the Raymond Rusel prize for virtuosity on the harpsichord and becoming a member of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

In the late 1960s he founded the rock band Sisyphus, which evolved into the pioneering band Curved Air. He played on their first three albums, leaving after the release of Phantasmagoria (1972) and returning briefly for the tour which resulted in the release of the album Live (1975).

He played Minimoog and harpsichord on Elton John's second album Elton John in 1970; he also contributed to the Renaissance album Prologue (1972), worked with Al Stewart including contributing to the album Past, Present and Future (1973) and toured with The Shadows on their 20 Golden Greats Tour (1977). Also in 1977, he collaborated with Brian Eno on the project 801. In 1978 he played all keyboards on Brian Bennett's solo album Voyage.

In the late 1970s he recorded music for television.

In 1978, together with guitarist and composer John Williams he founded the classical/rock music fusion band called Sky with whom he stayed until 1980.

In the 1980s he resumed classical performances and recordings. His work from this period onward includes the soundtrack to the British film, The Long Good Friday, and the memorable electronic Achievements Of Man taken from his album Energism, which was later used as a BBC theme. He also composed the piece "Current Affairs", used by Channel 4 as the introduction to their "Engineering Announcements" segment, provided by the IBA

Instruments (career)

Francis Monkman played guitar as well as keyboards in Curved Air, switching between them when playing live; he also played bass on their first album along with Rob Martin. According to the sleeve notes he also played guitar (referred to as' the old axe') on one of Sky's LP's.

Keyboards

• 1977-1978: (tour with The Shadows)

Piano

External links

• Francis Monkman's website
• 2006 Interview
• Francis Monkman on the Curved Air website
• Biographical information on the Sky website