The Media Executive are:

Mark Ayres
Simon Darlow
Mark Fishlock (Chair/Director)
Richard Jacques
Cliff Jones
Andrew Kremer
Simon Lambros
David Lowe
Alan Parker (Director)
Chris Smith (Director)
Martyn Swain
Marc Sylvan

Mark Ayres
www.markayres.co.uk

As a composer and arranger/performer I have been active in the media music business for nigh on twenty years, my credits including episodes of "Doctor Who" and the feature film, "The Innocent Sleep". I have sat on the Media Music Committee for around half that time. The pressures on media writers to work to ever decreasing fees and give away their copyrights have never been greater, not just in the UK but also within Europe. I hope to be able to continue the work we are doing in promoting and protecting the rights and future income of music writers after being re-elected in 2008.

Simon Darlow

For many years I have been fortunate enough to make my living in several genres as a songwriter, composer, musician, producer and arranger. I have written and co-written hits for Grace Jones, Toyah, Dollar, Elkie Brooks, Sir Cliff Richard, Dame Shirley Bassey, Leo Sayer, Martine McCutcheon; played with and arranged for Musical Youth, Wham, Buggles, Divinyls, Bucks Fizz, Right Said Fred and recorded 2 albums as an artist for Magnet Records. I have composed and produced over 70 TV theme tunes and scores including "Supermarket Sweep", "Hole InThe Wall", "BBC Outtake TV" and "Guilty Pleasures" for ITV with David Lowe. I am currently working on The BBC Entertainment channels idents and reworking "Going For Gold"! I have also just finished Producing and co writing the new Toyah album "In The Court Of The Crimson Queen" I'm lucky to be able to count many composers and writers as friends and am very aware of the many issues that currently threaten our livelihoods. BASCA provides a unique home for writers to address these issues. It is important to stem the gradual reduction of our worth and the erosion of the value of our copyright. Having been elected to the Media Executive in 2008, I am looking forward to the opportunity to contribute my knowledge and experience to BASCA to help communicate these issues and encourage more writers to become members so their voices are heard. Simon is also on the MCPS Board.

Mark Fishlock

Mark became a professional composer in 1985. He started out playing guitar and writing songs for various bands, before working as a sound engineer at Dick James Music Studios in Holborn. For 10 years he composed soundtracks for a variety of television, video and audio productions, but in recent years has mainly been writing children's songs for the international English Language Teaching market. He has chaired the Media Executive since it was formed and has also been a director of the lobbying organisation British Music Rights. He has enjoyed being closely involved with the Ivor Novello Awards and has helped improve the judging process for the film and TV categories. Mark has also worked as a journalist, scriptwriter, producer and voiceover artist. Mark is the Chair of the Media Executive and is on the BASCA Board.

Richard Jacques
www.richardjacques.com

Richard Jacques is an award-winning composer of music for video games, film and television. He is internationally recognized as one of the A-list composers in the video games industry, described by PLAY Magazine (US) as “One of the truly distinctive composers in the industry today". Richard Jacques has received numerous awards and accolades for his music including Best Original Music Awards from GameSpot and GameSpy and the Game Audio Network Guild Recognition Award and multiple nominations for Music of the Year, Best Original Instrumental Song, Best Live Performance Recording and Best Original Soundtrack Album. As a media composer he regularly works within the TV / Film and Music industries, but a great deal of his work over the past 15 years has been in the Video Game industry, where he has worked on over 80 high profile titles. He has seen many transitions of the way music is composed, recorded and implemented into games. This has led to the games industry dealing with issues such as publishing and performance rights, hiring live musicians, performing music live on the concert platform and other areas of expansion. As a classically trained musician he has been incredibly passionate, and some would say a driving force within the games industry for recording live music, and educating the industry about the business of music.

Cliff Jones

Cliff is best known for his time as frontman and guitarist for Gay Dad but prior to that he studied Music under the legendary tutorage of Dr. Peter Manning at Durham University before writing for various publications such as The Face, International Musician and Guitarist Magazine. After Gay Dad split, Cliff turned his hand to Producing, and quickly realised that through Producing he could access many different styles and voices of music rarely afforded to a publicly ‘owned’ musician. Cliff has lent his expertise to a range of eclectic and contemporary artists including Young Heart Attack, Golden Virgins and Zero 7. Cliff's recently been back in the studio with Electro-Rockers Performance recording new tracks and continues to try and have a solo career. Cliff also teaches at BIMM Bristol rock and pop school.

Andrew Kremer
www.andrewkremer.com

I started out my career as a session bass player and was signed as an artist by Miles Copeland in 2000. I produced two albums under the name Zohar, and this soon led to work as a media composer, which has been my main area of work for the last five years. I am an Associate Lecturer at Surrey University and I also work as a consultant for Groves Sound Communication in Hamburg. I have been on the committee for the Producers and Composers of Applied Music (PCAM) for the last two years and it is my experience gained from the battles that we have fought in the world of advertising, which I hope to bring to the Media Executive. It seems now more than ever, we are having to justify our craft and the way in which we earn our living!

Simon Lambros

Simon’s work has encompassed feature films such as, The Agent, Summer Scars [2 BAFTAs], Puritan and The Last Horror Movie [5 Best Feature Film Awards] to mention a few, as well as drama and documentaries for TV. He has also written classical music (a recording of his Violin Concerto is available through iTunes for example). www.hellfiremusic.co.uk. Having been on the executive for a year, I now feel that I am ‘getting into my stride’. I am keen to drive forward the BASCA’s aims to make our “employers” more aware of the valuable contribution our music makes to their programs. If we can engage with program makers and commissioners then we can make them our allies which will help in our struggle to earn a living.

David Lowe
www.davidlowemusic.com

David Lowe is best known for his music for Television. He has been commissioned to write for over 200 programmes series and commercials, notably the current distinctive music for all BBC News output, but also for Grand Designs on Channel 4, The BAFTA Film awards, East Enders, The Ivor Novello Awards, David Attenborough, Jeremy Clarkson, British Airways, Hagen Dazs and many more. He has had three albums commercially released, two under the name Dreamcatcher, which he has performed at major events and festivals such as Womad (World Music and Dance) in Singapore and Grand Canarias, and at the Eden project in Cornwall. Under the name Touch and Go he had a top 3 hit in the UK and Europe in 1998/99 with his single “Would You…?” The accompanying album “I Find You Very Attractive” spawned more hit singles in Eastern Europe and Russia. “Straight To Number One” was chosen by Apple to launch the itunes site in the USA, where every track has been used in films, television and commercials. He is currently working on more songwriting, and the creation of a new musical identity for the BBC World Service.

Alan Parker

Alan is a guitarist and composer, best known for his work is the band Blue Mink. Alan trained under Julian Bream at London’s Royal Academy of Music and went on to become one of the UK’s busiest session guitarists. Much of Parker's session work has gone uncredited, but recently he has been named as the electric guitarist on Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man and He also played on The Walker Brothers's “No Regrets”. He was Jerry Goldsmith’s orchestrator for many years, and also worked with Howard Shore on the “Lord of the Rings” soundtrack. As a film and television composer, his credits include ITN's “News At Ten”, “Van Der Valk”, “Rhodes” and “Coast” for the BBC. His many film scores include “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” (1993), “Up on the Roof” (1997) and “Stormbreaker” (2006). Alan has worked with Donovan, Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra, Elton John, Dusty Springfield, Tony Bennett, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and others. Alan stood for the PRS board in 2008 and feels more committed than ever to fight for composers rights, in light of the increasing problems in the media market. Alan contributes his impressive expertise and knowledge to the Media Executive and he is also a BASCA Board Director.

Chris Smith
www.finaltouch.co.uk

Chris is a media composer and producer. He read English Literature at Oxford University and completed his first short film score in 1985 for then-fledgling director and old friend, Iain Softley (Backbeat, Wings of the Dove). The film was never completed, but the die was cast. Chris set up Final Touch Productions in 1988 as a creative umbrella to cover his wide range of musical interests. Since then, the company has written original award-winning music for over 400 hours of broadcast TV, theatrical productions, four films, a dozen albums, numerous large scale interactive multimedia projects and in excess of 600 television and radio commercials. Chris is Head of Industry Relations for the Society for Producers & Composers of Applied Music (PCAM) and sits on the committee of the Creators’ Rights Alliance (CRA). For the past 3 years he has sat on BASCA’s Media Executive and acted as its representative to the Federation of Film & Audio-Visual Composers of Europe (FFACE). Chris’s credits range from national, pan-European and global advertising work (including Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Expedia, Philips, Renault), through national and international theatrical productions, drama & documentary films to the theme for an animated stick man. His album, ‘Wake Up Tomorrow’ was recently released by KPM. Chris was elected to the Academy Board in 2008.

Martyn Swain
www.smatalent.com/composers

Martyn Swain was voted on to the Media Executive in 2007 and re-elected in 2008, with the specific intent of fighting the coercion of composers at all levels. Having started his career as a rock musician, he is now an Emmy/Fipa D’Or award winning freelance Composer, Producer and session musician, writing mainly for TV Dramas and Films.

Marc Sylvan
www.marcsylvanmusic.co.uk

Marc Sylvan is a successful composer and award winning sound designer whose television work can regularly be heard across the major UK channels as well as on video games, films, station idents and commercials around the world. Recent credits include the prime-time Saturday night BBC1 shows, ‘The Kids Are All Right’, ‘National Lottery: Come & Have A Go’ and the hit ITV1 show ‘Golden Balls’. His wide-ranging experience at the sharp-end of the industry in conjunction with being in his late 20s make him ideally placed to report back from the frontline and help battle worrying trends, with an eye to the long-term future survival of the media composer.