Pat Chapman

Patrick Lawrence Chapman (born 20 December 1940) is an English food writer, broadcaster and author, best known for founding The Curry Club.

Chapman was born in London during the Blitz. His grandfather had achieved senior rank in the British Indian Army; his father served in the wartime Merchant Navy and his mother was a former midwifery training sister at Queen Charlotte's Hospital London, before running her own maternity nursing home in Ealing. His primary education was dysfunctional, with him going to no fewer than four schools. As a chorister at a local church, he auditioned to join the Westminster Abbey Choir School but failed because he had been watching trams driving around Westminster on a very smoggy evening, which clogged up his voice. Had he passed, he would have sung at Queen Elizabeth II's coronation ceremony in June 1953. Instead, his secondary education was at Bedales School whose headmaster, Hector Jacks, said that he would never pass A-Level examinations, which turned out to be true. In the school holidays he obtained work as an electrical stage hand / light board operator in West End theatre land, obtaining a NATKE union card.

On leaving school, he worked full-time in the theatre, including stage management at the Belgrade Theatre Coventry, where from time to time he was required to play bit parts, and he actually 'trod the boards' with the likes of Ian McKellen, David Warner and Edina Ronay. He followed this by joining the Royal Air Force where he trained as a fast jet pilot. He then worked for six years on sales and marketing at Lesney Products, during which time he went to night school at Enfield Tech (latterly part of Middlesex University) obtaining an HNC in Business Studies and a Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Marketing. This led to his being accepted as a mature student at Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge reading economics. At the same time he started the stage lighting and sound company, Entec. In 1968 his company established itself by providing the lighting for Cambridge May Balls, as well as performing liquid light shows for BBC Television, including a six-month contract on Top of the Pops and a four-part Doctor Who story, Claws of Axos in 1970/1. Chapman was a pioneer in touring lighting for rock acts and festivals, introducing techniques which are in use to this day. Chapman and his crews provided lighting and sound systems for an eclectic mix of rock, heavy metal, pop and glam rock groups, including, to name some, The Carpenters, Bing Crosby, Black Sabbath, Ray Conniff, Dusty Springfield, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Mud, The New Seekers, Lou Reed, Status Quo, Rod Stewart, Sweet, Ike and Tina Turner and Wings. In 1979 Chapman’s investor, the Marquee Club’s Harold Pendleton, took over Chapman’s Entec interests. He moved to Haslemere, Surrey, where he still lives, and spent the next four years consulting to a number of major entertainment multiples the like of Mecca Leisure Group, Rank Ballrooms, Warner Bros. and Pontins, both in the UK and overseas, advising on the equipping and installation of lighting and sound systems.

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