Miles Tredinnick

Miles Tredinnick is a comedy writer and lead singer in the British rock band 'London'. He was born in Warrington but grew up in the Cornish seaside town of Falmouth. Whilst training to be a photo-journalist in the Midlands he co-wrote the stage musical 'Doomsday Genesis' with composer Keith Kerslake. He then moved to London where he worked as a personal assistant to the movie mogul Robert Stigwood ('Tommy', 'Saturday Night Fever' and 'Grease'). In 1976, with drummer Jon Moss, bassist Steve Voice and guitarist Dave Wight, Miles formed the new wave band 'London' with himself as lead singer and chief songwriter. He also briefly adopted the name Riff Regan, (Riff from the character in West Side Story and Regan from John Thaw's character in The Sweeney). The band soon came to the notice of ex-Yardbirds and ex-Marc Bolan manager Simon Napier-Bell who secured them a record deal with MCA Records and a nationwide tour supporting The Stranglers throughout the summer of 1977. Their singles 'Everyone's A Winner', 'Summer Of Love' and 'Animal Games' and their one and only album 'Animal Games' were all produced by Napier-Bell at the IBC studios in London where The Who and The Kinks had recorded so many of their classics. Following a nationwide headlining tour 'London' broke up after a farewell gig at the Marquee Club in Wardour Street. Jon Moss joined The Damned and then formed Culture Club with Boy George; Colin Wight became a Lecturer in International Politics; Steve Voice formed The Original Vampires; Simon Napier-Bell went on to manage George Michael and Wham! and Miles was retained as a solo artist by MCA Records releasing four more singles 'All The Nice Boys And Girls In The World', 'Japanese Girls', 'You Call Me Lucky' and 'The Only One' before recording his final record 'Hard Hearts Don't Cry' on CBS Epic in 1981. In 1982 Miles co-wrote the song 'Hottest Woman In Town' with Andy Miller. Recorded at London's Trident recording studios by ex-Ozzy Osbourne and Ian Gillan lead guitarist Berni Torme, it was released as a single and featured on the 'Metal Killers' album. In the mid-80s Miles started writing comedy scripts. His first play 'Because Of Mr Darrow' was produced at the Finborough Theatre in London and this was followed by 'Laugh? I Nearly Went To Miami!' which had a successful London fringe run before being produced for the first Liverpool Festival of Comedy. Translated into many languages, 'Laugh? I Nearly Went To Miami!' has been performed all around the world including Vienna where as '...Und Morgen Fliegen Wir Nach Miami' it became one of the city's most popular stage plays. By this time Miles was writing stage and television material for the comic Frankie Howerd including the hour long special, 'Superfrank', for Channel 4. He also wrote an updated stage version of 'Up Pompeii!' Miles was also writing for the international Walt Disney Magazine creating cartoon stories for Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and other well known Disney characters. He then went on to create and write the BBC1 comedy series 'Wyatt's Watchdogs'. Produced and directed by Alan J.W. Bell, it starred Brian Wilde (from 'Porridge' and 'Last of the Summer Wine') and Trevor Bannister (Are You Being Served?) This led to an invitation to write for the Alomo/BBC TV hit show 'Birds Of A Feather'. His next stage comedy was 'It's Now Or Never!' Directed by Marina Calderone, it starred Tony Roper (from BBC TV's Rab C.Nesbitt), Peter Polycarpou (Birds of a Feather and Miss Saigon), Heather Alexander and Leyton Sommers as Elvis Presley. This was followed by 'Getting Away With Murder', directed by Stephen Warden, which had a successful run in Hampstead, London. Miles' theatrical comedy 'Topless' is a one-woman play set on an open-top London sightseeing bus. Following director Martin Bailey's original production in 1999, 'Topless' returned to the West End of London for a second season the following year. Produced by The Big Bus Company and directed by the author, this unique theatrical piece was performed on top of a sightseeing bus driving through the streets of London. This was followed by the publication of his first novel 'Fripp'. In 2008, Matador Books published his stage thriller 'Twist' and 'Topless in Philadelphia'. He has also reformed 'London' with bass player Steve Voice and they will be playing gigs throughout 2008.