Adrian Snell -

Adrian Snell (born 1954) is an English singer/songwriter who released four albums on the Christian Dovetail/Dove Records label between 1975 and 1979, followed by albums on Kingsway, Marshall, and Myrrh during the subsequent 15-year period. Since the mid-1990s, he has released more than 15 titles on self-press Serious Music.

Background

Adrian Snell was born in 1954 in Northwood, Middlesex, the second of three children of Margaret and Geoffrey Stuart Snell. Geoffrey Snell, a former district commissioner in Kenya, left business for the Anglican ministry and received ordination in March 1962. Both parents played piano at home; his father also studied violin and continued to play piano by ear.

Snell began improvising on piano around age four and started formal lessons at six. He composed his first piano piece around the same age and entered “Nightwalk” in a competition at seven. The Snell family lived in Canterbury by his thirteenth year, and Snell attended St Edmund’s School in the city. He expanded his listening from classical music into modern jazz, pop, rock, soul, and progressive music and transcribed passages from television performances at the family piano.

In 1968, Snell formed Creation One with school friends. He subsequently played in Theophilly with his sister Julia and a drummer friend, and his early songs increasingly drew on Christian subjects. Snell entered Leeds College of Music in September 1972 on the Advanced Study of Jazz and Light Music course. His proficiency on double bass helped him through the entrance audition, though piano and composition remained his principal areas. He transferred to classical studies in 1974 and also took vocal instruction at Leeds.

A Canterbury composer directed Snell to Chappell, where the publisher signed him to a contract and requested material for Eurovision selection. Chappell considered him primarily as a songwriter, while Snell sought a career as a performer and recording artist. A Radio Leeds session in 1974 brought him into contact with Blair Thomson, who introduced Snell to his brother, Midlands poet Phil Thomson. Snell set Thomson’s lyrics to music, and the pair developed “My Soul Alive” among their first recorded collaborations.

In October 1974, Snell performed at Newcastle University on a double-bill with Malcolm & Alwyn, who told him about Musical Gospel Outreach and recommended MGO founder Geoff Shearn. Snell approached Shearn with a tape of original songs, and MGO offered him a recording contract.

While still enrolled at Leeds, Snell entered a Melody Maker competition with a set based around the crucifixion sequence “Gethsemane,” “Judas’ Song,” “Simon, Carry My Cross,” and “Golgotha.” The performance advanced through preliminary rounds at Leeds Polytechnic and prompted an approach from an American management company, but Snell retained the MGO agreement. In 1975, he graduated from the classical programme at Leeds College of Music. Snell began Fireflake sessions that summer at Grosvenor Studios in Birmingham under producer John Pantry.

Discography: