Bruce Woolley

Bruce Woolley
Woolley with a theremin, London, 2014
Background information
Born	(1953-11-11) 11 November 1953 (age 63)
Origin	Shepshed, England
Genres	New wave
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter, record producer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, theremin
Years active	1974–present
Labels	Epic Records, Island Records, Gramophone Records
Associated acts	The Buggles, The Camera Club, Radio Science Orchestra
Website	www.brucewoolleyhq.com

Bruce Woolley (born 11 November 1953) is an English writer, performer, record producer and composer.

Bruce Woolley was born in Loughborough, England on 11 November 1953 and was educated at Loughborough Grammar School, where he learned electric guitar and began to write songs and where he met his future wife, Tessa. He lived in Shepshed, playing the UK pub and club circuit extensively for some years, before landing his first professional engagement in 1974 with Ivor Kenney’s Dance Band at Leicester Palais. After a transfer to Derby Tiffany’s, Bruce left Ivor and the Mecca circuit for London in 1976 to pursue a career in songwriting, after being offered a publishing contract with Everblue Music in Piccadilly.

10 years' writing finally paid off with his first hit "Dancing With Dr Bop" for Australian group the Studs – a number one record. After a short tour of the Orient as guitarist for Tina Charles, this was followed by his first English hit "Baby Blue" for Dusty Springfield, co-written with Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, and soon after that in 1979 he had his first international hit, the Ivor Novello Award-nominated "Video Killed The Radio Star" – also co-written with Horn and Downes, who later became The Buggles. Although Woolley owns a 50% writing share of the song and the trio wrote the band’s third single "Clean Clean," Woolley was never a member of The Buggles. He was, in his own words, merely "on the design team."

Around that time he established the new wave music outfit The Camera Club with a young Thomas Dolby on keyboards, Matthew Seligman on bass, Dave Birch on guitar and the late Rod Johnson on drums. Seligman at the same time joined The Soft Boys, and was consequently replaced by Nigel Ross-Scott (later to join Re-Flex). The Camera Club released their debut album English Garden in 1979 and toured England, America and Canada. They disbanded after two years largely spent on the road and following disagreements with CBS Records, who refused to release their second album.