Eric Jupp

Eric Jupp (January 7, 1922 - January 2, 2003) was a British-born musician, composer, arranger and conductor who gained wide popularity in Australia after settling there in the 1960s, hosting a long-running light music TV show and composing for film and TV. He is best remembered for his theme music to the TV series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.

Related Topics:
January 7 - 1922 - January 2 - 2003 - British - Musician - Composer - Conductor - Australia - Skippy the Bush Kangaroo

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Eric Jupp was born in Brighton in 1922 and began to study piano at seven. He left school and started his musical career at fourteen, playing in nightclubs. He joined the R.A.F. at the outbreak of World War II. When the war ended, he went to London, where he soon became a prominent member of several leading big bands, working as a pianist, composer and arranger.

Related Topics:
Brighton - Piano - Nightclubs - R.A.F. - World War II - Big band

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Jupp worked as an arranger for both of Britain's top bandleaders of the period, Stanley Black and Ted Heath. Heath's all-star staff of arrangers included Jupp, John Dankworth, George Shearing and Wally Stott (later the musical director of The Goon Show). As pianist and arranger Jupp was also a long-serving member of the Oscar Rabin Band, one of Britain's most popular dance orchestras of that period.

Related Topics:
Stanley Black - Ted Heath - John Dankworth - George Shearing - Wally Stott - The Goon Show - Oscar Rabin Band

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In 1951 Eric formed his own orchestra at the request of the BBC and began making regular radio broadcasts and also appeared in the Hammer Films TV series Bands On Parade. He began writing music for films in Britain, beginning with the crime drama The Secret Place (1957). Jupp first visited Australia in 1960 under short-term contract to the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC), and during his visit he arranged the music for the single First Kiss / My Secret (July 1960) by pop duo The Allen Brothers, which included Peter Allen.

Related Topics:
BBC - Hammer Films - Australian Broadcasting Commission - The Allen Brothers - Peter Allen

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Jupp returned to England later in the year but in 1961 he was invited to join the ABC as musical director of its light entertainment department, based in Sydney. Soon after taking up his new post he formed the Eric Jupp Orchestra and launched his popular and long-running weekly ABC-TV series The Magic of Music, which was seen in 29 countries and ran from 1961 to 1974. The series featured mainly "orchestral pops" and light classicaI music, but it also included regular jazz segments featuring notable Australian performers such as Don Burrows and George Golla.

Related Topics:
Sydney - The Magic of Music - Don Burrows - George Golla

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The success of the series led to a contract with EMI's Columbia label and a string of popular "Magic of Music" LPs that continued to the mid-70s. The LPs (and the show) often featured vocalists Shirley McDonald, (whom Jupp married in the 1960s) and Neil Williams.

Related Topics:
EMI - Columbia label - Shirley McDonald

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Eric Jupp soon made a name for himself as a leading composer for film and TV in Australia. Undoubtedly his best-remembered composition is the theme for the hugely popular 1960s TV series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. In early 1968 Jupp moved to Norfolk Island, commuting by air to the mainland for his TV, radio and film work.

Related Topics:
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo - Norfolk Island

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Among his later film and TV credits, Eric was the music director for the 1971 Fauna Productions adventure series Barrier Reef. He composed music for the TV series Bailey's Bird (1977) and wrote the score for Michael Pate's 1979 film version of Colleen McCullough's first novel, Tim, starring the then unknown Mel Gibson. It was Jupp who convinced McCullough to settle on the island after she shot to fame with her second novel, The Thorn Birds.

Related Topics:
Fauna Productions - Barrier Reef - Colleen McCullough - Tim - Mel Gibson - The Thorn Birds

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His last major TV credit was the score for the early '90s remake of Skippy. In his retirement, Eric Jupp and his family moved to Launceston in Tasmania. He died there in January 2003, after battling illness for several months. Eric is survived by his wife Anita, his two daughters, six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

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