..Of course I would’ve loved to have written the music for the infamous John Lewis Christmas commercial had they asked, however, you know, I’m not Elton John ‘n all that.
However, I was very pleased to be commissioned to write and perform the piano foley for the commercial. In the end you can just hear my rock n roll piano and glissando faintly behind the main track, helping to reinforce and tell the story of Elton playing in bars as a teenager. I also created and performed piano foley for the recital scene that follows of very young Elton - although you can’t really hear it in the mix, I suspect that as it was much gentler visual action, it wasn’t really a necessary part of the sound design and was pulled right down or chopped. Either way, it was both the best paid glissando I’ve ever done and a contemporary cultural honour to be a very small cog in the machine that has become the John Lewis Christmas Commercial! Here it is below if you haven’t seen it, though I don’t know how you could miss it, even by accident!
ROCK ‘N ROLL SECTION
RECITAL SECTION