Tot Taylor - Biography

Tot Taylor: composer, songwriter, producer and curator (b.Isle of Ely). Lives and works in London. Taylor has managed parallel careers within the worlds of music, art, film and literature since being signed by Chris Blackwell's Island Records with his band A Special Moment whilst still at school. A move to London saw him as rehearsal pianist at the Little Theatre in St.Martin's Lane and as session player on various recordings during the punk era.

He composed and produced hits for Mari Wilson and Swedish singer Virna Lindt released by his own Compact Organization label (1981-85). Attended Goldsmith's College in London in 1986 to study orchestration and composition (also privately with the composer John Gardner) which brought him into contact with the contemporary art world of the yBas at Goldsmiths.

As a composer his music and songs have featured in many film soundtracks including Absolute Beginners (d.Julien Temple 1986), Macbeth (d.Michael Bogdanov 1998), Buffalo Soldiers, (d.Gregor Jordan 2001). As a producer, he compiled and issued soundtracks including Dance With A Stranger (d.Mike Newell 1986), Alan Bleasdale's No Surrender (d.Peter Smith 1985), and Career Girls (d.Mike Leigh 1997). He composed the soundtrack for Toshiro Mifune's final film appearance, the cult classic Shatterer (d.Tonino Valeri, Jpn/It 1986) and the National Theatre's Platforms production of Brian McAvera's eight-hour suite of plays Picasso's Women (2000) starring Susannah York, Diana Quick, Jerry Hall, Cherie Lunghi, Josie Lawrence, Candida Benson (Tweed CD11) the music of which is representative of a more personal musical direction. Other theatre works include productions of The Tempest, AJTC Theatre company (2001) the album of which (Tweed CD13) features rare vocal performances by Stacey Kent and Simon Warner and Charles Thomas' political satire Blood Royal at the King's Head Theatre, London (2002)

From 1981 to 1988 he released a series of albums on independent labels, currently on re-issue via Sony & JVC Victor in Japan, from 1981's debut Playtime to 1988's Menswear. The instrumental albums Waterland (2000), Music for the Left-Handed (with Mick Bass) followed. His songwriting and production skills have also been used by Peter Kay and Steve Coogan (That Peter Kay Thing, Phoenix Nights) and drama scores for BBC TV during which times he composed and produced music the series Early Travellers in North America, promotional music films for the Proms season and clips for Michael Stipe and Paul McCartney. Other projects include improvised variations on themes by JS Bach on Bachology in 1995 (EMI) and a final group album PopFolkJazz (Tot Taylor and the In-Group, 2001).

In 2004, he and fellow director/curator Virginia Damtsa, founded the Riflemaker art space in London in an historic disused former gunmaker's workshop in Soho. Together they have curated an ambitious and innovative program featuring Jamie Shovlin, Martin Kippenberger, Marta Marcé, Gavin Turk, Jaime Gili, Andrey Bartenev and William Burroughs along with a rebirth of the seminal London gallery Indica (www.riflemaker.org).

For the past seven years he has been working on a debut novel The Story of John Nightly.

RIFLEMAKER

Tot Taylor is co-founder, with Virginia Damtsa, of Riflemaker in London. The gallery (opened 2004) has been praised for its innovative and adventurous program and for changing the format of art presentation in the capital via its five permanent and temporary spaces in the capital; the idea behind the venture being to open a gallery 'by collectors for collectors'.

Housed in an historic Grade 1 listed gunmaker's workshop off Regent Street (built 1712 - the oldest public building in the West End), Taylor and Damtsa have curated an ambitious program of 140 exhibitions featuring emerging artists such as Alice Anderson, Jamie Shovlin, Marta Marcé, Jaime Gili, Francesca Lowe, Julie Verhoeven and many others along with the debut London retrospective of Martin Kippenberger (in 2004), Gavin Turk's 'Warhol fright wig' exhibition Me as Him (2008), Andrey Bartenev's Venice Bienalle light machines (2008) and two groundbreaking exhibitions with the novelist William Burroughs. MIT guru John Maeda has his second 'live' exhibition in November this year (2010), upcoming exhibitions feature photographer Leah Gordon and painter Josephine King.

In 2006 the gallery stopped being Riflemaker and for six months turned itself into the seminal London gallery Indica (in business from November '65 - November '66), re-running Indica exhibitions and a series of live performances including a Bagism event by Yoko Ono.

www.riflemaker.org

'Riflemaker has changed the cultural landscape of the capital' (Time Out)
'Innovative exhibitions' (The Times)
'A consistently innovative gallery' (The Sunday Times)
'The coolest art space in London' (Vogue)