Donovan
Donovan
(Donovan Phillips Leitch, born 10 May 1946, in Maryhill, Glasgow) is a
British singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British
folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended
folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music. Donovan came to fame in
the United Kingdom in early 1965 with a series of live performances on
the pop TV
series, Ready Steady Go! and his popularity spread to the US and
other countries. After signing with the British label, Pye Records in
1965, he recorded a handful of singles and two albums in the folk music
vein. After extricating himself from his original management contract,
he began a long and successful collaboration with leading independent
record producer Mickie Most, scoring a string of hits in the UK, the
US, Australia and other countries, including several British and
American #1 hit and million-selling records. Donovan was the first
artist to be signed to CBS/Epic Records by then-new Administrative Vice
President Clive Davis, who later became head of the CBS Record Empire.
In November 2003, Donovan was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of
Letters from the University of Hertfordshire. He was nominated by Sara
Loveridge (who was a student at the University and had interviewed and
reviewed Donovan for the University paper in 2001-2002), Andrew
Morris, Sara's partner and Donovan researcher/writer and co-nominated
by Mac MacLeod.
A new album, Beat Café, was released on Appleseed
Records in 2004. It marked a return to the jazzy sound of some of
his 1960s recordings and featured bassist Danny Thompson and drummer
Jim Keltner, with production by John Chelew (Blind Boys Of Alabama).In
May 2004, Donovan played "Sunshine
Superman" at the pre-wedding concert for the Crown Prince and
Crown Princess of Denmark. Donovan has released his early demo tapes,
Sixty Four, and a re-recording of the Brother Sun, Sister Moon
soundtrack on iTunes.
Donovan is at work on a new album tentatively titled "Ritual Groove".
He has mentioned this album in a few interviews. In a 2 June interview
for The Desert Sun of Palm Springs he described "Ritual Groove" as a
multi-media album that is waiting for videos to be applied to it. He
called the album a soundtrack to a movie not yet made and claimed that
many directors have expressed interest in doing scenes.
