Biography
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Born
6 December 1943 (age 80)
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Born In
Dagenham, Barking and Dagenham, London, England, United Kingdom
Keith West (born 6 December 1943 in Dagenham, Essex, England as Keith Alan Hopkins) was the lead singer of Tomorrow, a 1960s psychedelic rock band. West composed most of the band's songs (duly credited to Keith Hopkins). Despite critical acclaim and support from DJ John Peel, who featured them on his "Perfumed Garden" Radio London show, the band was not a great financial success.
In 1964 West became lead singer of "In Crowd" a rock band from London, which was renamed to "Tomorrow" later. One of the members of the band was the guitarist Steve Howe (later "Yes"). In 1967 he became acquainted with Mark Wirtz, a producer who had already created the instrumental title "A Touch of Velvet, a Sting of Brass" (1965). Later on the melody became theme song for the German music TV show "Beat-Club" and "Musikladen".
West himself is perhaps better known as a participant of Mark Wirtz's A Teenage Opera, completed in 2002. He was the singer of "Excerpt from "A Teenage Opera"", also known as "Grocer Jack", which reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart in 1967. He also performed "Sam", which reached the bottom end of the Top 40 the same year.
In 1968 he released the single "On A Saturday" on Parlophone. Other musicians who appeared on the single were guitarist Steve Howe, bassist Ron Wood, and drummer Aynsley Dunbar. An excellent piece of pop-psychedelia, the record was a modest UK hit. It has since been re-issued on the CD of the self titled debut by Tomorrow.
In 1971 he released a solo L.P. "Wherever My Love Goes" on the German progressive rock-label Kuckuck. It features his songwriting-partner Ken Burgess and steel guitarist Glenn Campbell (ex-The Misunderstood). Two tracks of it were produced by Andrew Loog Oldham.
In the mid-1970s he was singer for Moonrider.
West continues to produce and record music, which is used primarily within the advertising industry.
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