Blair Booth

For the past number of years Blair has been developing her interests in writing music for use in film, television and all things media. This has led to an interest also in creating graphic animations set to pre-existing work as well as bespoke.

It's been an incredible start to the year and learning so many new and exciting applications such as the Adobe CS5 Suite and in particular After Effects.

At present the Kids TV site is in development for the very purpose of exhibiting animated film to music which is a new and exciting venture. For the time being though, Blair's graphic animation can be seen in the video Ultra Modern Nursery Rhymes

More new ventures are set to follow. Big Girl Music is where to go if your looking for cutting edge new music. This includes Drum n Bass, Dubstep, Psycho-Dub, Glitch, IDM and more. New musical contributions are supplied by the greatly talented Danny Rugged and we look forward to having more in the near future.

New collaborations include writing and recording material for the Stereo Mc's new album due out in Spring 2011. Blair also keeps her hand in writing library and production music whilst keeping her extensive studio up to spec with all the latest gear.

On another note Blair and partner Danny Phillips were very fortunate to write and record Anubis with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Orlando Jopling conducted this epic piece which can be heard on the iPod. Also for a bit of fun and laughter check out the Paramount Comedy Channel ad on the Media page.

Ms Booth was brought up in a household full of music. Her father Dr RM Booth was a professor and an emeritus award winning musician-conductor and her mother a gifted artist. Blair was taught piano at age 7 and started performing piano recitals of Grieg and Chopin by the age of 12. At the age of 16 Blair began singing in the notorious gambling belt casinos of Reno, Nevada, USA. And at the age of 19 she set off to London to pursue her career as a recording artist.

During the early years in London she learned the art of production from working with renowned producers such as Pascal Gabriel, Trevor Horne's 'Sarm West and East Boy's, Julian Mendelsohn, Mark Stent, Bob Sargeant and Steve Levine to name a few!

AND SO THE STORY GOES:

Robert Plant-Johnny Thunders

Blair started out in London pretty much as a session singer. It was on one of these occasions she met a then unknown engineer/producer Pascal Gabriel. They recorded together a number of tracks and even appeared at the legendary 'Mr Trulocke's Alternative Top of The Pops' at the Camden Palace, alongside an equally unknown Pet Shop Boys and Curiosity Killed The Cat.

During this time Blair was fortunate enough to be asked to do some modeling for a contemporary magazine called i-D, which landed her the cover and some really great photos by Eamonn McCabe. Things seemed to be looking up, but Blair and Pascal went their separate ways and he did S-Express and Blair did? Well, The Rest is History!

They recorded some demos for CBS at a time when Virgin Publishing was scouting for songs for Robert Plant to cover. Robert took an interest in a track called 'Heaven Knows' that Blair sang. He recorded it and took in into the UK top 40 in January 1988 as part of his multi-platinum 'Now & Zen' album.

It's such a small circle the 'music business'! In later years Blair did some work for Robert's girlfriend and songstress Najma Akhtar and some collaborative media music with guitarist Doug Boyle who replaced Jimi Page during Now & Zen.

Blair met Swiss programmer Philipp Erb during a Rest is History session. In the 90's he and Blair would form Oui 3, but their first joint task was to contribute to an album by French band Uno. This album featured various guest vocalists of which Blair was one. Other singers included Jimmy Somerville and Billy MacKenzie of The Associates. Blair and Philipp eventually worked with Billy again.

Through Philipp, Blair had met producer Ken Thomas and she was asked to sing some BV's along side Chrissie Hynde and Jane County on the Johnny Thunders and Patti Palladin's Copy Cats album. Blair has always had a fascination with the 'Warhol set' and the American Punk generation of the New York Dolls.

Terry, Blair & Anouchka

In the late 80's a post Colourfield Terry Hall was in search of a female collaborator for his final lp for Chrysalis Records. He wanted to pursue a lighter sixties sound and Blair's talent for songwriter and arranging, plus her love of sixties music made her the ideal candidate.

This was a great period for Blair as she was taught 'pop sensibility' by one of the most revered British talents. Blair remember's her days in Reno performing with bands and seeing The Specials on TV performing Ghost Town, so you can imagine this was pretty amazing.

After a good few months of writing the time came to put a project together and start recording. Terry wanted another female in the group so Blair had the bright idea of asking her hairdresser if they new anyone that looked interesting and could at least hold a guitar! In comes Anouchka, who thought Terry Hall was Jerry Hall and so it took some persuading to get her to join! And so Terry, Blair & Anouchka were born.

After a faulty start recording with a producer (that shall not be named) the album Ultra Modern Nursery Rhymes was in production. Recordings took place at Tears for Fears studio in Bath, Somerset and much of the album was recorded at The Roundhouse and Air studios in London. Bob Sargeant produced the album which was released in 1988.

Two subsequent singles were taken from the album, Missing and Ultra Modern Nursery Rhymes. Although not big chart stoppers, Missing won Channel 4's Video vote and had hit success in other territories. The video of Ultra Modern Nursery Rhymes contained a guest appearance by comedian magician Jerry Sadowitz. Some 20 years later he complained about his appearance in the video. So a determined Blair learned Adobe After Effects, spent a small fortune and learned graphic animation to replace him. A lot of people have made mention they prefer him out of the film!

Billy MacKenzie-The Associates

Out of the blue, and old 'Associate'! By the name of Billy MacKenzie contacted both Blair and Philipp with a view to recording some demos to hopefully procure a record deal with CIRCA Records an off-shoot of Virgin who were indeed interested.

Billy, for those who may not know, had a voice to die for. Soaring, powerful and exuberant with a personality to match! Hits in the 80's included Party Fears Two and 18 Carat Love Affair.

Spending some time, now in their own home studios, working out the arrangements and musical content, Blair and Philipp were asked to record the demos in Dundee. However, they were told that they would be staying in Dundee and commuting? To Edinburgh?? After some negotiations over who stays where, the demos were recorded and Billy landed his deal with CIRCA Records.

The album was entitled Wild & Lonely. Julian Mendelsohn produced the album at Sarm West studios in London. Philipp and Blair also recorded, in part, Billy's second album Outernational.

Glasgow had become European City of The Year and so the Big Event took place and the Associates played to a wonderful audience. Blair, Philipp and Billy along with some new cohorts performed live on the ever popular Late Show.

Marc Almond, Grethe Svensen and Nick Heyward

Blair was asked by producer Bob Krausar to sing a duet with Marc Almond. Blair gladly accepted and sang Madame de la Luna on Marc's album Enchanted for EMI records. The brief from Marc was to sound like angels, and so Blair orchestrated a beautiful 6 part vocal arrangement off the top of her head with no prior knowledge of the song. Quite remarkable.

Bob Sargeant asked Blair if she would like to join a band with Nick Heyward. Blair met Nick at The Roundhouse in Camden and eventually hit it off after a visit to a near by pub.

Rehearsals were put in place in order to showcase and attract record company interest. Sony Columbia Division wanted to sign the band, although the band did not have a name, nor in fact did any of it's members wish to be signed to a record label except for Blair and Nick. You have to remember signing a record deal means you are owned and exclusive to that label, this spells bad news for session players who like to run their lives independently in order to get work.

So Nick and Blair signed to Sony. It was quite an oddball situation as Nick wanted to write and record pretty much all his own material and Blair found it difficult to contribute as a writer and an artist. Many days and hours, years even went past whiling away their time at Pete Townshend's studio Eel Pye, which is where Blair developed her new found culinary skills.

Eventually the entire album was scrapped over production differences. But what did come out of it, was a track Blair wrote called The Usual, which has since been covered by Grethe Svensen on her hit album Your Beauty BMG Records.

From Monday to Sunday was re-recorded and eventually released, but for Blair, bigger things were on the horizon.

OUI 3

Looking for a change, Blair wanted to be her own boss and start something new. She and Philipp had been working on ideas and new musical styles and concepts. Philipp had met an MC rapper by the name of Trevor Miles at Orinoco Studios and thought he had great potential. Sure enough upon Blair having a listen she felt the same. Blair had been working on the idea of juxtaposing music of the sixties with that of the nineties, remember Hendrix? If 60's Were 90's? But with a difference.

Hip Hop was fast becoming more and more popular, but what if you combined a great loop, a great female singer, include conscientious lyrics and a great rapper? Well you have a hit!

Blair had always loved Buffalo Springfield's For What it's Worth, which just so happens to be 96 bpm great for hip hop. This lended itself to the concept of an adaptation with ease and the glorious bridges and choruses showed off Blair's wonderfully strong and dynamic vocal beautifully. A 4 track demo was spawned in Blair's flat and gained immediate record company interest. After a very long stint of waiting for Blair to get out of her Sony deal with Nick Heyward, finally Oui 3 signed to MCA Records in 1992.

They recorded Oui Love You a top 40 hit album which spawned hit singles: For What It's Worth, Break From The Old Routine, Arms of Solitude and Fact of Life. An incredible time of touring occurred in Europe and Great Britain. They played all the summer festivals and Glastonbury twice. They did numerous radio 1 shows, appeared on Top of The Pops, The Word, BPM, The Beat and more. They had made the big time! Only to find out that MCA had a format error on the first single, For What It's Worth. The single entered the album charts, would you believe? At number 56. Charles and Eddie had a track out at the same time using the For What It's Worth loop, so their camp at EMI reported OUI 3 to the music biz authorities about exceeding the CD chart rules of format and the single was banned. Only cassette sales went towards the charts. Oui 3 lost 80% of their sales going towards the chart figures and yet they still stayed in the top 30. Basically folks, Oui 3 were robbed of one massive hit.

Licking their wounds they went on tour supporting Jamiroquai. During the summer, at a festival in Ostend, Belgium they got news that Break From The Old Routine was a hit and so they performed on the now legendary Top of The Pops. Oui 3 made many videos and two of them Break From The Old Routine and Arms of Solitude were made by award winning Richard Heslop. Oui 3 even supported Body Count. During a gig in Milan a riot erupted which was a truly frightening experience. However Ice T, unperturbed asked Oui 3 if they would like to join them on the rest of their European tour! Oui 3 declined, they had enough to do just supporting themselves!

Oui 3 recorded their second album THREEDOM which included singles: Crazy and Joy of Living. Universal records has since released Oui 3 The Collection which includes all the hits and 9 tracks from THREEDOM. For more info please visit Oui 3