Born in Devizes, Wiltshire and a pupil of Dauntsey's School, May won a choral scholarship to Cambridge University, graduating with a degree in modern languages. While teaching languages and music at Kingston Grammar School, he co-wrote a musical named
Smike with a colleague, history teacher Clive Barnett and songwriting partner, Roger Holman. Following the publicity
Smike attracted, May was contacted by the BBC, who televised the play in 1973, starring Beryl Reid and Andrew Keir. It also featured DJ Neil Fox, a pupil at Kingston Grammar, as one of the schoolboys. The show has subsequently been staged many times by youth drama groups.
While working at ATV, he was asked to compose some music for
Crossroads. Stephanie de Sykes got to number 2 in the UK Singles Chart in 1974 with the subsequent "Born with a Smile on my Face", which was used within a storyline on the show. Almost a year later, her second single, "We'll Find Our Day" (from
Smike) got to #17. Kate Robbins performed another of May's songs for
Crossroads: "More than in Love," which was co-written by Barry Leng and got to number 2 in 1981.
May himself performed "Summer of my Life", which charting at #7 in October 1976. The song originally appeared in
Crossroads, in a scene between Meg and Hugh. It was one of the best selling singles of the year, and was one of few songs to spend three weeks in a row at Number Seven in the UK singles chart. His follow-up single, "We'll Gather Lilacs", flopped, reaching number 49 in May 1977. In 1986 he released an album called
Simon's Way, which included his themes to
EastEnders and
Howards' Way.
He worked on his first feature film in 1988 -
The Dawning. Music from the film, together with various other TV themes (including
The Olympic Track and
People like you) was released in 1989 on the Simon May Orchestra album
Themes.
He co-produced Amii Stewart's "Knock on Wood", which reached number one in the USA.
EastEnders
Tony Holland and Julia Smith commissioned May to write the theme to
EastEnders and being impressed by his work on spy-thriller
Cold Warrior. Don Black put lyrics to the popular theme, and Anita Dobson (who portrayed Angie Watts in the show) reached No. 4 in August 1986 with "Anyone Can Fall in Love". With Barry Rose, the theme was adapted into a hymn, "Glory be", which was performed on
Songs of Praise and released on single.
Another soap storyline gave May a hit in 1986. Nick Berry ("Wicksy") topped the charts with "Every Loser Wins", which he co-wrote after shamelessly plugging it in
EastEnders (a storyline which Holland openly hated). It won the Ivor Novello Award for best selling single of 1986.
In 1993 the theme itself was given an unpopular 'jazzy' update, and an updated version of the original was introduced in 1994. With Johnny Griggs, he wrote another set of lyrics for the
EastEnders theme. "I'll Always Believe in You" featured lead vocals by Sharon Benson. which was based around the extended version of the 1993 theme. In 2009 he was asked to revamp the EastEnders theme again, to update the one running from 1994, making it lighter in tone and bringing back elements of the original theme missing in the previous version. However it is worth noting that one major element of all the previous themes (bar the jazzy version) is missing - the bells, which are mainly replaced with the piano.
Simon has written "Peggy's Theme" for Barbara Windsor's exit episode from
EastEnders to be screened on 10th Sept 2010. The single will be released on iTunes on 4th September.
Post-EastEnders
Lyrics were also added to May's theme to
Howards' Way; Marti Webb reached number 13 with "Always There" in 1986. The theme was only used over the credits on some episodes of the show. The orchestral version (performed by the Simon May Orchestra) was used over the opening titles of the first season, with the energetic orchestral "Barracuda" over the closing credits.
He wrote lyrics for the final episode of
Eldorado. Performed by Johnny Griggs, "When You Go Away" encapsulated how many felt about the axing of the show:
- "It was over before it had begun
- And often love can go that way"
Mike Read wrote lyrics to May's
Trainer theme. "More to Life" was performed by Cliff Richard. The theme won May his third TRIC award for Best TV Theme, after previous success with
EastEnders and
Howards' Way.
In 1994,
The Best of Simon May, a compilation of some of May's work was released to coincide with his "A Night Away From The TV" UK tour. Unfortunately the tour wasn't a commercial success and some dates had to be cancelled. A
Pebble Mill special documentary was produced by the BBC around this time discussing his career and the tour.
He has reached number one in Belgium with "Fragile Not Broken", sung by Natalia.
He is currently a part of "Music on Screen", along with Simon Lockyer and John Brant, and also works part time as tutor at a special needs school in Surrey.
May has just finished recording his new album
The Simon May Collection with his two co-writers/co-producers Simon Lockyer and John Brant. The album is to be released on 13th Sept 2010. "Peggy's Theme" will be the lead track on the album.
