Eric Jupp (January 7, 1922 - January 2, 2003) was a British-born musician, composer, arranger and conductor who gained wide popularity in Australia after settling there in the 1960s, hosting a long-running light music TV show and composing for film and TV. He is best remembered for his theme music to the TV series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. January 7 is the seventh day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... January 2 is the second day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A musician is a person who plays or composes music Musicians can be classified by their role in creating or performing music: A singer (or vocalist) uses his or her voice as an instrument. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... A conductor conducting a band at a ceremony A conductors score and batons Conducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. ... (DVD cover) Skippy the Bush Kangaroo was a popular Australian television series for children produced from 1966 to 1968. ...

Eric Jupp was born in Brighton in 1922 and began to study piano at seven. He left school and started his musical career at fourteen, playing in nightclubs. He joined the R.A.F. at the outbreak of World War II. When the war ended, he went to London, where he soon became a prominent member of several leading big bands, working as a pianist, composer and arranger. For other places with the same name, see Brighton (disambiguation). ... A short grand piano, with the top up. ... A nightclub (often dance club or club, particularly in the UK) is an entertainment venue which does its primary business after dark. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from 1935 until the late 1940s. ...

Jupp worked as an arranger for both of Britain's top bandleaders of the period, Stanley Black and Ted Heath. Heath's all-star staff of arrangers included Jupp, John Dankworth, George Shearing and Wally Stott (later the musical director of The Goon Show). As pianist and arranger Jupp was also a long-serving member of the Oscar Rabin Band, one of Britain's most popular dance orchestras of that period. Stanley Black Stanley Black (June 14, 1913 - November 26, 2002) was an English light music conductor, arranger and pianist. ... For other persons named Edward Heath, see Edward Heath (disambiguation). ... Sir John Dankworth CBE Born in London, England, in 1927, was brought up in a musical environment amongst a family of musicians. ... George Shearing George Shearing (born 13 August 1919 in London) is a well-known jazz pianist. ... Angela Morley (born March 10, 1924) is a composer and conductor who wrote the theme tune and incidental music for Hancocks Half Hour and also wrote and conducted music for The Goon Show. ... The Goon Show was a popular and influential British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC from 1951 to 1960 on the BBC Home Service. ...

In 1951 Eric formed his own orchestra at the request of the BBC and began making regular radio broadcasts and also appeared in the Hammer Films TV series Bands On Parade. He began writing music for films in Britain, beginning with the crime drama The Secret Place (1957). Jupp first visited Australia in 1960 under short-term contract to the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC), and during his visit he arranged the music for the single First Kiss / My Secret (July 1960) by pop duo The Allen Brothers, which included Peter Allen. The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion... Hammer horror refers to horror films produced in the late 1950s through the 1970s by the British film studio Hammer Films. ... The ABC or Australian Broadcasting Corporation is the national, Australia. ... The Allen Brothers were a musical group signed to a recording contract by entrepreneur Lee Gordon. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Jupp returned to England later in the year but in 1961 he was invited to join the ABC as musical director of its light entertainment department, based in Sydney. Soon after taking up his new post he formed the Eric Jupp Orchestra and launched his popular and long-running weekly ABC-TV series The Magic of Music, which was seen in 29 countries and ran from 1961 to 1974. The series featured mainly "orchestral pops" and light classicaI music, but it also included regular jazz segments featuring notable Australian performers such as Don Burrows and George Golla. The Sydney Opera House on Sydney Harbour Sydney (pronounced ) is the most populous city in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of over 4. ... Donald Vernon Burrows, AO, MBE (b. ... Golla, George (b Chorzów, POLAND, 10. ...

The success of the series led to a contract with EMI's Columbia label and a string of popular "Magic of Music" LPs that continued to the mid-70s. The LPs (and the show) often featured vocalists Shirley McDonald, (whom Jupp married in the 1960s) and Neil Williams. The EMI Group (LSE: EMI) is an English music company comprising the major record company, EMI Music which operates several labels, based in Brook Green in London, England, and EMI Music Publishing, based on Charing Cross Road, London. ...

Eric Jupp soon made a name for himself as a leading composer for film and TV in Australia. Undoubtedly his best-remembered composition is the theme for the hugely popular 1960s TV series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. The long version (the B side on the record) has lyrics by Ted Roberts. In early 1968 Jupp moved to Norfolk Island, commuting by air to the mainland for his TV, radio and film work. (DVD cover) Skippy the Bush Kangaroo was a popular Australian television series for children produced from 1966 to 1968. ... Ted Roberts is an Australian television scriptwriter and supervising producer. ...

Among his later film and TV credits, Eric was the music director for the 1971 Fauna Productions adventure series Barrier Reef. He composed music for the TV series Bailey's Bird (1977) and wrote the score for Michael Pate's 1979 film version of Colleen McCullough's first novel, Tim, starring the then unknown Mel Gibson. It was Jupp who convinced McCullough to settle on the island after she shot to fame with her second novel, The Thorn Birds. Colleen McCullough (born 1 June 1937) is an internationally acclaimed Australian author. ... Tim (1979) is an Australian romance movie between an older woman (played by Piper Laurie) and a younger, retarted man (played by Mel Gibson). ... Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson AO (born January 3, 1956) is an American born Australian actor, director, and producer. ... The Thorn Birds is a 1977 best-selling novel by Colleen McCullough, an Australian author. ...

His last major TV credit was the score for the early '90s remake of Skippy. In his retirement, Eric Jupp and his family moved to Launceston in Tasmania. He died there in January 2003, after battling illness for several months. Eric is survived by his thid wife Anita, his two daughters Linda & Catherine, six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Launceston is a city in the north of the state of Tasmania, Australia, population approximately 103,000, located at the juncture of the North Esk, South Esk, and Tamar rivers. ...

External link

• Eric Jupp at Find-A-Grave