Richard Stilgoe

Richard Henry Simpson Stilgoe OBE (born 28 March 1943) is a British songwriter, lyricist and musician. He is noted for clever wordplay as much as for his music. Stilgoe was born in Camberley, Surrey but brought up in Liverpool—where as lead singer of a group calling itself 'Tony Snow and the Blizzards' he performed at the Cavern Club. He was educated at Monkton Combe School in Somerset and at Clare College, Cambridge where he was a member of the ... more

Richard Henry Simpson Stilgoe OBE (born 28 March 1943) is a British songwriter, lyricist and musician. He is noted for clever wordplay as much as for his music. Stilgoe was born in Camberley, Surrey but brought up in Liverpool—where as lead singer of a group calling itself 'Tony Snow and the Blizzards' he performed at the Cavern Club. He was educated at Monkton Combe School in Somerset and at Clare College, Cambridge where he was a member of the Cambridge University Footlights. In 1966 he played the role of Benjamin in the West End musical Jorrocks. He made his name on the BBC television teatime programme Nationwide, followed by Esther Rantzen's That's Life!, a light-hearted consumer affairs programme for which he wrote comic songs satirising various minor domestic misfortunes. His ability to write a song from almost any source material and at prodigious speed is part of his cabaret act, which includes such diverse gems as singing the instructions from a Swedish payphone; a pastiche... less