Neil Brand
| Neil Brand | |
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Neil Brand in 2004
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| Born |
18 March 1958 Burgess Hill, Sussex, England |
| Occupation | actor, dramatist, composer, author |
| Website | http://www.neilbrand.com |
Neil Brand (born 18 March 1958) is an English dramatist, composer and author. In addition to being regular silent film accompanist at London's National Film Theatre, Brand has composed new scores for two recently restored films from the 1920s, namely The Wrecker and Anthony Asquith's Underground. Brand has also acted and written plays for the BBC. His book, Dramatic Notes, focuses on the art of composing narrative music for the cinema, theatre, radio and television.
He was born in Burgess Hill, Sussex, England, and attended Junction Road Primary School in Burgess Hill. On passing his 11+ exam, he joined a small group of boys from rural areas of central Sussex making the multi-train commute past other schools in Brighton to Hove County Grammar School for Boys. He was often found entertaining other students in the school hall at lunchtime on the school's grand piano.
At the age of 18, he went to the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, to study Drama under John Edmunds. However, he had a talent for music, and it was at Aberystwyth that he began writing and playing music seriously for the first time. In 2013 he was made a Fellow of Aberystwyth University.
On television, he has appeared in Switch, a BBC drama for the hearing impaired, as Ted, a bullying businessman. In 2004 he appeared as an expert on cinema accompaniment in Who Do You Think You Are? which investigated the musical background of soprano Lesley Garrett.
Other work for the BBC has included musical compositions and radio plays. He also composed the score for Channel Four's three-part documentary series on the Crimean War in 1997. One of his plays, Stan, was broadcast as a radio-play in 2004 on BBC Radio 4 and then dramatised as a television-play first broadcast on BBC Four. It documents Stan Laurel's touching last moments with best friend and comedy partner Oliver Hardy, who lies bedridden after a stroke. Another play broadcast on Radio 4, in 2007 Seeing It Through, dealt with Charles Masterman and his efforts to coordinate writers and journalists for the British propaganda effort in World War I.
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