Hi everyone, thanks so much for coming to visit the Website. I hope you will find it fun and interesting.
This Website showcases some of the things I have been doing in my media career since 1991.
Over those years I have been known as Stephen Deakin, Stephen Deakin-Davies, Geoff Parnell, and Stephen Dark.
I can pretty much guarantee you have heard some of my music at some stage. Ever heard a popular song played on panpipes? – yeah that’s me. Ever heard a song in the supermarket that was pretty much the greatest hits of Tina Turner? – yeah that’s me too.
I did grow up though and did 4 albums with EMI and you can check one of them out on the site in the Now Playing section.
Geoff Parnell:
“Cheesy Easy Listening – the Britpop Years”
I did various works for Polygram, including the award nominated “Girl Force”, which was a training tape to teach young girls how to write songs and become Spice Girls. A track from that tape by the girl band created by me for the tape “Blush” went on to get a number 10 in the dance charts “Feel my Vibe”.
Corporate product launch, sales and exhibition music
I did a lot of work writing music for corporate sales launches and product launches, which were a huge load of fun. It is easier to write music when you get given instructions like this:
15 seconds big ass attention getting
30 seconds mood setting
1 min gentle
15 seconds attention getting
30 seconds build up to climax
2 mins gentle background music
Or the more fun ones, outro music to play at the end of the presentation as people mill about.
You can hear some music for companies here.
“Space Marines Warhammer” Music
The most fun I ever had with corporate music was writing stuff for “Warhammer”, my first foray into heavy metal. It was used in a promotion video taken of a big event called the “Golden Demon” at Birmingham arena, and the other recording was played at Warhammer (Games workshop) HQ in Nottingham.
“Spiderplant Man”
We move on and I find myself producing radio drama for the BBC and a company of mine doing the digital special effects for “Spiderplant Man” for Comic relief, starring Rowan Atkinson and Jim Broadbent, directed by Ed Bye of “Red Dwarf” fame.
“Dracula”
Then it was time for me to embrace my inner Andrew Lloyd Webber and I wrote a west end musical Dracula for a Danish production company and you can get an idea of it here.
I did work for Flextech television, who became owned by NTL, then Virgin Media who then became SKY who is owned by Liberty media.
“Most Haunted”
Most Haunted was a massive cable TV show around 2003-2005 broadcast on the Living TV channel and later on SKY.
The original theme music was written by Alan Clark of Dire Straits. I was commissioned to make a CD for sale via Living TV’s webshops, supported by TV advertising, using Alan Clark’s theme music and voice samples from the TV show, Derek Acorah and Yvette Fielding. It was one of my most successful albums, selling over 25,000 copies.
You can hear the spooky music here.
“Pied Piper”
Over the past few years I have been concentrating on my musical Pied Piper and you can find out more about it here.
“Busy Busy”
Weirdly I had never written a gospel choir work, and I was motivated to do that after seeing a local choir here in Lichfield. I wrote it in the style of African guitarists I first heard on the Paul Simon album “Gracelands”.
It’s called “Busy Busy”… It has taken on a bit of a life of its own with the media school at Staffordshire University choosing it to make a pop video. I am a consultant in media at the Uni and I was also a consultant at the media school at the University of Hertfordshire.
A 30 second version is up for choice to be in an advert, AND 2 prestigious big ass choirs, one in Birmingham, are looking to perform it live this autumn. Fingers crossed. You can hear it… errr… here.
“DeMMa” (Deakin Musical Matrix Algorithm)
DeMMa is a way of converting physics formulae, words and phrases into music using serial music rules. You can find out more here.
DeMMa is ever evolving and I am working with a super programmer called Deon Bonthuys to create a phone APP in 2025.
Eva Lazarus
Eva Lazarus came to work with me when I talent spotted her, she was 13! and already a most amazing singer. She is also a globetrotter.
Lyndsey Ollard
I produced various pop singers including Lyndsey who has travelled the world as a live artist.
Anna Williamson
I talent spotted Anna Williamson aged 16 who has gone on to have a super career as a TV presenter, writer and mental health advocate.
What 2025 holds for me:
Goodness, I have a busy 2025 as I will be doing development work on:
• The “Little Prince” book, as my next mini-musical.
• “1984”, an electronic (mainly) music concept album with actors. Think of it as a depressing “War of the Worlds” type album.
So, that’s where and what I am up to in early 2025.