Keith West

Keith West ( born December 6, 1943 as Keith Alan Hopkins in Dagenham, Essex, England) was a member of the 1960s - psychedelic rock band "Tomorrow". But he was mainly known through his participation in the project "A Teenage Opera " by Mark Wirtz, when he " Excerpt from a Teenage Opera " sang the song and thus a million seller and Evergreen created.

Life

In 1964, Keith West lead singer of London rock band " In Crowd ", later renamed to Tomorrow. Member of the band was guitarist Steve Howe among others, the (later Yes). In 1967 he met the producer Mark Wirtz know. This was under the name "Mood Mosaic" created the title of " A Touch of Velvet, a Sting of Brass" (1965 ), which should be the theme song of the German music show Musikladen later. Together, the pair wrote Excerpt from a Teenage Opera. The reviews ( commonly known as " Grocer Jack ") was a pan-European Top 10 hit and sold millions of copies. In Germany the song reached # 2 on the charts in 1967 in November. On the back of the single the Mark Wirtz Orchestra immortalized with " Theme from a Teenage Opera ". The follow-up single "Sam" was, however, granted no more success, and West withdrew frustrated from the music business.

Both " Excerpt from a Teenage Opera " ( " Grocer Jack ") and "Sam" were pre-release of the planned rock musicals Teenage Opera. The elaborate and expensive production of " Excerpt from a Teenage Opera ", however, was responsible for ensuring that the record company classified the project as too great a financial risk and stopped the further work on the album.

1973 Keith West launched a comeback and founded with former Animals guitarist John Weider, the band "Moon Rider". However, here also failed to materialize any success. Furthermore, the band released Nazareth 1975 song " My White Bicycle", a song that Keith West had already composed in 1966 for " Tomorrow".

Keith West was then still active as a producer and recording engineer, mainly in the advertising industry. His " Excerpt from a Teenage Opera" is now one of the classic one-hit Wondern.

In 1999, West and Howe took the Dylan - Lay Lady Lay titles from 1969 to new.