Pete Atkin is a British singer-songwriter and radio producer notable for his 1970s musical collaborations with Clive James and for producing the BBC Radio 4 series This Sceptred Isle. Atkin made his first recording in 1967: a private pressing of 160 copies of While The Music Lasts. Next year he was taken to EMI with Julie Covington to record the most popular number from the 1967 Revue Show: the complex “Duet”, which had appeared on his first album. At six minutes, it was too long to be a single and has never received commercial release; the tape has since been lost. Atkin released another privately pressed album in 99 copies entitled The Party’s Moving On in 1969.
Essex Music funded the recording of fourteen tracks in 1969. The producer, Don Paul, was a friend of the disc jockey Kenny Everett, who played, amongst others, the song “Master of the Revels” which is the first track on his first album Beware of the Beautiful Stranger. The lyrics to this, and all but two of the other tracks on the album, by Atkin, were written by Clive James who met Atkin whilst they were both members of Footlights. Before the release of Beware of the Beautiful Stranger in 1970 Atkin, Covington and Dai Davies recorded a series of twelve 15-minute programmes edited by James for Londn Weekend Television. These shows, also called The Party’s Moving On, each featured three songs and were broadcast only in London late at night. They led to the commissioning of the larger revue format series What Are You Doing After The Show?
Atkin did, and still does, write his own lyrics, but it was the collaboration with Clive James that produced his most famous songs. Atkin and James recorded six albums in the 1970s, as well as writing an album for Covington, best known for her number one hit “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” in 1976. However, despite Atkin’s popularity on the college performance circuit the records did not sell in any great numbers. When singer Val Doonican recorded a cover version of the song “The Flowers and the Wine” the royalties from that alone exceeded the total from all album sales. For Atkin, touring provided a respectable but not luxurious income.
The release of the fourth album, The Road of Silk was accompanied by a promotional tour with a backing band featuring the guitarist Chris Spedding, in contrast to Atkin’s usual solo tours. Despite the investment this implied, Atkin and James became increasingly dissatisfied with their handling by their record label, RCA. After the release of the next album Secret Drinker they had no wish to continue the relationship, and to fill their contractual obligations they concocted the album Live Libel, a collection of humour pieces which Atkin had used over the years to lighten the mood in concerts. Paradoxically this album resulted in their most successful tour to date, as James joined Atkin on stage for an evening of song, satire and poetry. James read from the first of his epic poetic satires, The Fate of Felicity Fark in the Land of the Media while Atkin sang songs from the latest release and previous favourites.
To their dismay, the offers from other record labels did not flow in after the tour ended. Clive James returned to his blossoming career, while Atkin, after trying to make a living as a carpenter, responded to a ‘Situation Vacant’ notice from the BBC, and thus embarked on the next phase of his career.
After this James became a well-known television personality and Atkin became a radio producer. Their music catalogue went out of print until all six original albums were re-released on CD in the 1990s. Atkin moved to Bristol in 1989 to be Head of BBC Network Radio there. After four years in post, he became a freelance producer in 1993. His most notable freelance production is This Sceptred Isle – a 216-part specially commissioned history of Britain, written by historian Christopher Lee and read by Anna Massey, Paul Eddington, Peter Jeffrey, and others (including Atkin himself under a pseudonym), recorded and broadcast over 14 months in 1995 and 1996. It was re-edited for release on ten BBC double cassettes and won the 1996 Talkie Award for best non-fiction, best design, and Talkie of the Year.
In 2001, 2003 and 2005 Atkin and James undertook national tours of the UK talking about, reading and singing, their songs, poetry and prose. In 2003 the duo also toured Australia. Atkin has also performed occasional concerts in folk clubs. He was also invited Atkin headline a local folk festival he supported in Monyash, Derbyshire. On the strength of Atkin’s performance and the response to it, not to mention Atkin himself realising he still had an audience, this was repeated the following year, with accompanying performance CD releases by subscription. The second show also featured a tribute band, a varying cast of amateur players under the rubric of “The Beautiful Changers” whose performance was at least enthusiastic. Consensus among the Midnight Voices was that the shows should be an annual event.
