Robert Kirby

Published on Wednesday 7 October 2009 21:13

Composer-arranger, musician and conductor

Born: 16 April, 1948, in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire.

Died: 3 October, 2009, in London, aged 60.

MUSICAL careers can often be overshadowed by early success. The success Robert Bruce Kirby enjoyed began with a succs d'estime. His early career breakthrough was writing arrangements for the cult English singer-songwriter Nick Drake's Five Leaves Left (1969) and Bryter Layter (1970). His subsequent career was peppered with milestones such as work with Elton John (Madman Across The Water, 1971), John Cale (Helen of Troy, 1975), Roger McGough (Summer With Monika, 1978), Elvis Costello (Almost Blue, 1982, and sundry rarities), The London Symphony Orchestra (Screen Classics, Vol. 7, 1994), Paul Weller (Heliocentric, 2000), The Magic Numbers (Those the Brokes, 2006) and Linda Thompson (Versatile Heart, 2007).

While at Caius College, Cambridge, Kirby, who died during surgery at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, fell in with several circles of friends. One of these led to his appearance on Simon Dee's Christmas 1967 edition of Dee Time, singing with the swingin' chorister act The Gentle Power of Song, to whose album Peace (1967) he contributed arrangements. He also met the Fitzwilliam student Nicholas "Nick" Drake and they performed together at the Caius May Ball.

In autumn 1968 Ashley Hutchings of folk-rock band Fairport Convention tipped off their producer, Joe Boyd, about Drake, a singer-songwriter he had seen at London's Roundhouse. Boyd followed up the recommendation, contacted the unknown Cambridge drop-out and got him to drop off a reel-to-reel tape of his material. It led to Five Leaves Left – an album that made relatively little impression at the time but which has since had a huge influence.

Boyd had an idea for novel string arrangements – in part inspired by John Simon's subtle arrangements on Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967). An initial recommendation led Boyd to Richard Hewson. However, Drake suggested his Cambridge friend do the job. Kirby's arrangements fitted the mood of the songs superbly, adding sophistication yet simplicity.

Perhaps the finest of those arrangements – and Kirby's favourite – was the one for Fruit Tree.

Kirby gave many interviews demystifying Drake and debunking rumours that grew up after Drake overdosed on the anti-depressant Tryptizol in November 1974. He concentrated on their everyday activities such as going to the pub and how easy Drake was to work with. He also added some of the most telling insights into his friend's art and their collaborative process. Like Joni Mitchell, Drake used unorthodox guitar tunings. Kirby would painstakingly note how he played each chord to create arrangements that captured the abandonment in Drake's playing style.

Those arrangements became Kirby's calling-cards. Even though, at the time, sales of the albums never exceeded five figures, musicians especially paid heed, particularly those on the wider folk scene including Vashti Bunyan, Shelagh McDonald, Ralph McTell, Keith Christmas, Tim Hart and Maddy Prior and Andy Roberts, all of whom Kirby collaborated with on recordings. One of the first acts to employ his skills outside folk or Boyd circles was Bernie Taupin, for his self-titled 1970 album. Elton John also hired Kirby for his multi-platinum best-seller Madman Across The Water.

Kirby was not solely a composer-arranger. One of his finest projects, for example, was as conductor on the US songwriter David Ackles' masterpiece American Gothic (1972), culminating in the sprawling Coplandesque Montana Song. He also joined forces with the Strawbs during the late 1970s as a keyboard player, and later arranged and composed for them.

Throughout his career, links across the generations and leaps across genres connect the people who gave him commissions.

One of his least-known yet most fragrant commissions was for Shining Bright – The Songs of Lal and Mike Waterson (2002), for which he scored string quintet arrangements for Martin Carthy's rendition of Never the Same and Helen Watson and Heather Greenbank's Shine.

His success can be measured variously. The calibre and profile of those who commissioned him is testimony to his arranging and conducting reputation. The span of the years says a great deal, too. On the day he died, unaware he was gravely ill in hospital, a record company e-mailed him to sound him out about a project.

When all is said and done, however, it was his personality that landed him so much of his success. Big-bearded and unassuming, he was one of the most self-effacing and ego-free fellows it was possible to meet. As the Scots exile Linda Thompson described him, Robert Kirby was "arranger and gentleman extraordinaire".

He is survived by his ex-wife, Helen, and their children, Constance and Henry.