Player Team
The multi-faceted Steve Sidwell talks about his music and his craft, but also relays his fears for musicians’ livelihoods in the post-Covid environment Profile by Andrew Stewart
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When it comes to choosing a composer, arranger, music director or producer, it should be no surprise that Shirley Bassey, Robbie Williams and Paul Young can command the pick of the crop. They and many other A-listers can count on Steve Sidwell to fill one or all of these jobs. The Grammy Award winner’s work, hallmarked by its quality, versatility and creativity, reflects the best of British music-making. He enchanted the nation with his Honda Civic choir ad in the mid-noughties, conducted the London Symphony Orchestra at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, and bagged his Grammy for scoring Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Sidwell was orchestrator and conductor for Robbie Williams’ chart-topping Swings Both Ways and Swing When You’re Winning albums, while his all-round skills have graced everything from hit Broadway and West End shows to The Queen’s Birthday Party at the Royal Albert Hall two years ago. The Sidwell diary was full when lockdown conditions were imposed at the end of March. Although most of his work vanished overnight, he has since been part of the BBC’s VE Day commemoration at Buckingham Palace and has another BBC project cooking. Long lead times mean there’s also a new musical for Scandinavia and the music for an American theme park in the works.
“I want to play together with other musicians in the same room”
“I’m very lucky,” he says when we speak by phone. “But there has been a negative effect. I’m okay but I feel for younger colleagues, such as West End musicians, the casts of shows, and people just starting out learning their craft. Lockdown is a disaster for so many.” Life in lockdown Sidwell has been able to continue working from his Shoreditch studio. The lockdown experience, however, has made him more aware than ever that music is a team game. “I want to play together with other musicians in the same room. Remote recordings can be good, but lack the magic of people working together in the same space, feeling the air move at the same time.” That said, he cautions against rushing back to the studio or stage before the potentially deadly novel coronavirus has been tamed. “Musicians and performers can practise hard but probably won’t be match fit to play at the level you need for a session. When they go back to work, they’ll have to get their nerve back too. It’s fine if you’re playing solo lines every day in an orchestra, but what about after six months or longer away? It’s going to take musicians time to get fit again and feel at their best. As with every situation in life, you have to make the most of it. I found lockdown made it much easier for me to continue the health kick I started in January. I’ve also been busy in the studio and working hard, writing things for myself.” Strong heritage One of three musician brothers, Steve Sidwell belongs to a musical dynasty. His father, the jazz saxophonist Roy Sidwell, was a star of the
