Adrian Chivers

Adrian Chivers (aka AD Chivers ) is a British composer, producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his close association with Peter Gabriel’s Realworld and WOMAD that has resulted in numerous collaborations with a multitude of acclaimed worldwide Artists. Co-founder of Noise In Your Eye with band member and Co-Founder Daniel Pennie, Singer with Electro-Swing band SWINGERS
Early Years: Adrian's musical journey started as a young boy playing the Bb Cornet in Marshfield Town Brass Band, this is where he says he learnt the foundation of music theory, harmony, arrangement and ensemble. However, it was during an uninspiring Physics lesson that school friend, Daniel Pennie ( and life-time music collaborator) taught him the drum beat to Led Zeppelin's When The Levee Breaks that turned Adrian's head to the world of Rock & Roll. At the age of 16, Adrian bought a leopard patterned cheap and tasty drum kit, joined a school band, made a lot of noise in friend's garages, played his first gig to 5 people and never looked back. Adrian was drawn to singing, composition and recording. After buying a Yamaha keyboard and 4-Track recorder, he started writing pop songs, experimenting with harmonies, effects and listening to a wide range of musical styles. The next 10 Years saw him fronting pop acts and backing vocals for various bands, learning his trade.
1991 WOMAD and Realworld Studios Adrian has always been attracted to the idea of a work that is free from a specific cultural reference point, this is why when he was introduced to WOMAD and Realworld Studios, Adrian fell in love with 'WORLD MUSIC' It was at Realworld where Adrian met Geoffrey Oryema, this relationship developed into a lifetime friendship and collaboration, extensive worldwide touring for over 25 years as vocalist (producer and musical director for the WORDS album and tour).
In 1994 Adrian co-founded a ‘multi-media’ company called Telepathy with Nigel Milk and Sarah Street making interactive programs with clients such as BT, BBC, Channel 4, HTV. DfES, Aardman Animations, London Records, NESTA, Peter Gabriel, Post Office, Real World, WOMAD, Thomas Cook, Vh1. During this time Adrian and Nigel formed the band Telepathy, producing a pioneering CD-ROM/ 8 track CD entitled Out There, the band went on to be part of the WOMAD festival tour in Venice and Cáceres and Reading. In 1998 and 2000 Telepathy produced 2 award-winning interactive CD Roms for the BBC called Top Of The Pops Mix Factory 1 & 2. A loop based music and video program similar to what is now called ‘Garageband’
It was at Telepathy where Adrian met friend and collaborator, Midge Ure who was producing a band called Countermine signed to London Records, there friendship flourished, resulting in Adrian recording and touring with Midge on the Looped and Trigger Happy tour, primarily on drums, vocals, keyboards. They have been working together on numerous projects forever since, including working on the Band Aid 20 reunion, programming and recording the initial template.
In 2007, Adrian teamed up with award-winning British Jazz Singer and Radio 2 presenter, Clare Teal , they had met many years before, singing in the same band called The King Swingers. Adrian became a member of Clare Teal's band, touring and recording three albums, including a live record at Adrian's home and Studio, Ebenezer Chapel in Box, Wiltshire.
In 2009, Adrian was asked to produce a record for Children In Need. Recording at Abbey Road Studios and featuring Artists Bryan Ferry, Peter Gabriel, Bill Wyman, Brian May, Nick Mason, Paloma Faith, Heather Small, BOND Quartet, Beth Rowley, Cara Dillon, Midge Ure, Hugh Cornwell, Cerys Matthews, Sharon Corr, Lee Mead, Hayley Westenra, Clare Teal and of course Terry Wogan amongst others.
In 2009, whilst working on a life-time music project with school friend and Guitarist, Daniel Pennie, Adrian invited friend and drummer Michael Giles ( co-founder of King Crimson) who he had met at Realworld years before to play on some early recordings Adrian and Daniel had been working on for many years.. It was during one of the recording sessions at Adrian's home and Studio, Ebenezer Chapel that they decided to throw away the shackles of the normal recording process and set up a room full of found objects, dustbins, tool kits, kitchen sink as well as conventional drums and guitar. They decided to record an hour of free improvisation resulting in the MAD BAND being born ( Michael, Adrian, Daniel) The session was realised and a subsequent album was released entitled The Adventures of The Michael Giles MAD Band. A second record was recorded in 2011 entitled In The Moment featuring pianist and Jazz improvisor, Keith Tippett. Although these records were pure and honest in form, Adrian and Daniel had always intended to take the project to a more sophisticated level, using these sessions only as a basis of composition not the final version. Adrian and Daniel continued to work on these early musical sketches calling the project NOISE IN YOUR EYE, inviting musicians such as Keith Tippett, Nick Mason ( Pink Floyd) Caroline Dale (Principal ECO, Peter Gabriel, David Gilmore, Plant & Page) James Gardiner-Bateman - Saxes (Paloma Faith, Joss Stone) Brandon Allen - Saxes (Kyle Eastwood, Eric Clapton, Soweto Kinch, Guy Barker) Tiit Kikas - Violins (Terminaator) Arnie Somogyi - Double Bass (Amy Winehouse, Charlie Watts)Flash George P Gordon - Electric Bass (Lee Scratch Perry) Simon Little - Electric Bass (Divine Comedy, Nick Cave) Dan Reid - Trumpet (Chris Botti) Tanya Wells - Vocals (Nitin Sawhney, Anoushka Shankar) Finally in April 2020 ( just as the COVID-19 epidemic struck ) the self-entitled album was released.
LIVE WORK:
* Midge Ure (Sampled Looped and Trigger Happy UK Tour)
*
* Channel 4, documentary, feature programme
* Channel 5, Milkshake
* ITV, documentary, feature programme
* BBC1, documentary
* BBC 2, documentary, weekly culture show
* BBC4 . documentary
* Telepathy 'OUT THERE' Shu-de, Tuvan throat-singers.
* BMG, production music
* Zomba music production music.
* Qatar - Theatre Show (Milan)
* Ferrari (music composition)
* Funky Junkies ( Production/Library Music )
* Madband ( Michael Giles, Adrian Chivers, Daniel Pennie
* NOISE IN YOUR EYE 2020
Charity Work
* Children In Need. Recording at Abbey Road Studios and featuring Artists Bryan Ferry, Peter Gabriel, Bill Wyman, Brian May, Nick Mason, Paloma Faith, Heather Small, BOND Quartet, Beth Rowley, Cara Dillon, Midge Ure, Hugh Cornwell, Cerys Matthews, Sharon Corr, Lee Mead, Hayley Westenra, Clare Teal and of course Terry Wogan amongst others.
* Barnardo's Song writing contest recording at Grove Studios] with Nick Mason, Gary Tibbs. Simon Little, Caroline Dale, Ben Somers, Joe Auckland, Kate Robinson, Joe Hymas, Ian Watson, Marcus Bonfanti,
* SAVE THE CHILDREN 'Last Christmas'Bond Quartet & Misery Bear DECEMBER Amazon 2012
Programmer:
Band Aid 20 BBC Top Of The Pops: Mix Factory 1 & 2 BT, BBC, Channel 4, HTV. DfES, Aardman Animations, London Records, NESTA, Peter Gabriel, Post Office, Real World, WOMAD, Thomas Cook, Vh1
Presenter / Corporate work
* Westend Studios.
* Astellas
* Novartis
* Stryker
* Barclays Bank
* Thomas Cook
* BT
* Shire
* Pfizer
* Roche
* The Big Picture ( Brussels)
* Boscolo Exedra (ROME)
* One Voice (BASEL, SWITZERLAND)
* Big Picture, Budapest Astellas (Rhodes)
* THE WATER ORCHESTRA (Prague)
* Westend Studios (Barcelona)Team building with Chris Difford (SQUEEZE)
Engineer
* Caroline Dale
* Cathy Thompson
* Rupert Gregson-Williams
* Jamie Oliver
* Alexander Armstrong
* Heston Blumenthal
* Tom Holkenborg
* Children In Need
* Midge Ure
* Peter Gabriel
* Cerys Mathews
* Clare Teal
* Hugh Cornwell
* Brian May
* Anthony Head
* Gary Tibbs
* Ben Somers
* Joe Auckland
* Kate Robinson
* Joe Hymas
* Marcus Bonfanti
* Realworld Studios
* Michael Giles
* Keith Tippett
* Nick Mason
* BOND Quartet
* Telepathy
* NOISE IN YOUR EYE
Discography
*La Bottine Souriante (Realworld Records) 1991 ( engineer /producer)
*Geoffrey Oryema 'Beat The Border' 1993 (assistant engineer , )
*Shu-de Tuvan throat-singers 1993/1994 (Remixer, arranger, co-writer)
*Telepathy 'Out There' Interactive CD-Rom (composer, producer, musician)
*FRANCIS BEBEY ( Realworld Records ) (Producer, co-writer, engineer.) 1995
*Carnival of Venice (Telepathy) WOMAD (composer, Producer, engineer, musician) 1997
*BBC Top Of The Pops: Mix Factory Windows 95 CD-ROM (composer, Producer, engineer, musician) 1998
*BBC Top Of The Pops: Mix Factory 2 Windows 95 CD-ROM (composer, Producer, engineer, musician) 2000
* Whirl-Y-Waves Global Grooves 2000
*Peter Gabriel "Growing Up" CD. (vocals) 2002
*Midge Ure (Sampled Looped and Trigger Happy) 2002/2003
*Peter Gabriel 'Hit The Definitive CD Collection' CD. (vocals) 2003
*Band Aid 20 (Programmer) 2004
* WORDS Geoffrey Oryema (composer, Producer, engineer, musician) 2004
*Peter Gabriel 'Play the Videos'. (vocals) 2004
* GRAINES DE RENCONTRES Nadine Marchal / Stanislas Pierrel “”. (Producer, engineer, musician) 2007
*Clare Teal 'Paradisi Carousel' Sony Records (vocals) 2007
*Clare Teal 'Get Happy' Universal (engineer, musician)2008
*MAD BAND 'Adventures Of...' (composer, Producer, engineer, musician) 2009
*Clare Teal 'Live at Ebenezer Chapel' (composer, Producer, engineer, musician) 2009
*Children In Need Charity record @ Abbey Road Studios featuring Paloma Faith, Bill Wyman, Nick Mason, Bryan Ferry, Imelda May, Sharon Corr, Cara Dillon, Lee Mead, Hayley Westenra, London *Community Gospel Choir, Clare teal, Jason Rebello, Guy Barker, Pee Wee Ellis. (Producer, programmer, engineer) 2009
* Vocal Works Seven (producer, engineer) 2010
*MAD BAND 'In The Moment' (composer musician) 2011
*BOND and MISERY BEAR 'Last Christmas' for SAVE THE CHILDREN (Producer, engineer)2012
* Vocal Works Soulful Christmas (producer, engineer) 2014
*NOISE IN YOUR EYE (composer, Producer, engineer, musician) 2020
ARTWORK
CD Artwork (Daily Mail -. Peter Gabriel) 2007
Rubbish Sculptures: Band Sculptures commissioned by Peter Gabriel 'Growing Up' Tour.
'The Masons' commission by Nick Mason
'Lighting Man' commission by

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