From growing up on a Bradford council estate to performing on international stages with the likes of Britney Spears and Westlife, songwriter and musical director (MD) Simon Ellis’ career has taken multiple twists and turns over the years.
Among his many achievements is co-writing S Club 7’s Don’t Stop Movin’ with LA-based songwriter Shep Solomon, along with input from S Club themselves. Topping the UK singles chart 25 years ago this week, the track went on to go two-times platinum and win a BRIT Award for British Single.
‘I remember coming up with Don’t Stop Movin’’s vocoder line and sending it to [S Club founder and manager] Simon Fuller. He came back to me screaming, “This is an absolute smash!”’ Simon tells M with a laugh.
‘With both Don’t Stop Movin’ and S Club’s Never Had A Dream Come True [co-written by Simon and PRS Members’ Council member Cathy Dennis], I knew as soon as I’d made the demos that they were special. All the stars were aligned for both of those records. I look back fondly on their making, but also remember how important a role luck plays in everything so you avoid messing it up.’
'All the stars aligned for both of those S Club 7 records.'
As well as his long-standing love of pop music, Simon cites the likes of David Bowie, Slade and Roxy Music as early influences, before he later turned to the prog sounds of Genesis, Pink Floyd and Yes. These contrasting genres formed the pillars of his own creative process, which he began to hone after being gifted a piano when he was 15.
‘I had no idea how to play, but taught myself in six weeks,’ he recalls. ‘It was such an incredible period, and I took to the instrument naturally. Music was a passion, and I learned by playing along with my favourite records.’
After landing a job in graphic design in London, Simon began to forge new connections and creative bonds in the capital’s pubs and clubs: ‘I started hanging around with all these musicians, and it began to take over my life more than graphic design. There was a love of music that led me to hanging out with these people and I found myself joining this band, Pleasure and the Beast, in the early eighties. I ended up quitting my job and taking our post-punk, New Romantic sound on tour.’
While the band split shortly afterwards, Simon stayed in London, jobless but determined to remain in music: ‘I was sleeping on people’s sofas and couch surfing. I didn’t have anywhere to live really and, looking back, I’m not sure how I did it. But during this period, I met Nick Beggs and Austin Howard and we formed Ellis, Beggs & Howard. We wrote an album, signed this huge deal with RCA and, before we knew it, we were pop stars.’
'D:Ream asked me to go on tour with them as an MD. Two weeks later, Things Can Only Get Better went to number one!'
While the trio’s initial momentum fizzled out at the dawn of the nineties, Simon’s experience with the band proved to be the catalyst behind a change in his fortunes. Initially hired by actor and musician Max Beesley, then working as an MD, to be a keyboardist for Mica Paris, Simon was then approached by D:Ream singer Pete Cunnah in early 1994 with a big opportunity.
‘Pete asked me to go on tour with them as an MD. Two weeks later, Things Can Only Get Better went to number one!’ he recalls. ‘No one expected it to do so and, all of a sudden, D:Ream were a band in huge demand.’
Adding East 17 and Belinda Carlisle to his list of clients over the next couple of years, Simon then ‘got the call every musician and MD wanted in the mid-nineties’: ‘It was Simon Fuller, asking if I’d MD the Spice Girls tour. It was luck more than anything else, being in the right place at the right time.’
Rather than taking a much-needed break at the conclusion of that Spice Girls tour, Simon was asked to start writing for a new pop project.
‘I’d never written for anyone outside of Ellis, Beggs & Howard, but Simon Fuller put me in a room with Cathy Dennis,’ he recalls. ‘She was just starting out as a songwriter for other artists — we were both brand new to it, as luck would have it. The first song we wrote together was Two in a Million, which became this big hit for S Club 7 in 1999.
‘I thought — wrongly, of course — that writing pop hits was easy. Since then, I’ve found out that it really isn’t.’
'Lyrics are a science, and I’ve no idea where to start.'
After teaming up with Cathy again for 2000’s Never Had a Dream Come True (‘Our collaboration was very natural: she knew what she was good at as a top liner, lyricist and with melodies. I think lyrics are a science, and I’ve no idea where to start’), Simon was paired with songwriter Shep Solomon at the suggestion of their respective publishers.
‘We hit it off straight away,’ the former recalls about working with Shep (whose writing credits include songs by Britney Spears, One Direction and Enrique Iglesias) on what would become Don’t Stop Movin’.
‘I had this drumbeat called ‘Straight 8’ which I got from a free sample CD that was given away with Future Music magazine. Shep suggested we do an homage to Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean, so I started writing this pulsating bassline. I was doing the demo at my studio and had just bought this new keyboard sampler with a vocoder on it — which, as I said, Simon Fuller loved!’
Did he and Shep expect to conjure such award-winning magic for the group? ‘I didn’t really think about just how big these songs might become,’ Simon replies. ‘It was great fun. S Club were all lovely, down-to-earth people. Jo O’Meara is one of the finest singers this country has ever produced, so working and recording with her was a joy.’
'S Club's Jo O’Meara is one of the finest singers this country has ever produced.'
In more recent years, Simon’s songwriting has taken a back seat due to his work as an MD. His next big project is Westlife's upcoming 25th anniversary world tour, which has required months of preparation: ‘If you want to work in this world, it’s very important to be able to get on with people. Be nice, be friendly and create a positive environment when rehearsing so everyone is smiling. That’s always been my ethos: keep everyone happy.’
He learned much from working with Britney Spears on the singer's The Circus Starring Britney Spears and Femme Fatale tours, both of which proved to be a real test of his musical prowess: ‘I had to work with hundreds of files — Britney was adamant from day one that she wanted remixes of her songs, so the music for these tours needed to be refreshed. You need to be quick and come up with fresh ideas, but also look after your blood pressure.’
While his work as an MD is all-consuming, Simon remains keen to encourage the next generation of music creators. His key bit of songwriting advice? ‘If you can’t write the song within the first 30 minutes, move on and come back to it. But try and write something every day.'
Striking the right balance between staying humble and being confident in your own abilities is also crucial, he adds: 'The music industry can sometimes be dog-eat-dog, as well as a hell of a lot of fun. Thankfully I survived the madness… I think!’
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