John Metcalfe is a classically trained composer and violinist whose intriguing and eclectic career has taken him from studying viola at the Royal Northern College of Music and later at the prestigious Hochschule in Berlin, to being a founder member of the Durutti Column, to acting as the catalyst for the record label Factory Classical, an offshoot of Tony Wilson’s Factory Records, to writing string arrangements for various popular artists, including Morrissey, Simple Minds and The Pretenders. Since 2010, John has worked extensively with Peter Gabriel, writing arrangements for his album, Scratch My Back, and for the accompanying tour and, in 2011, he co-produced the New Blood album with Gabriel, arranging and orchestrating versions of songs from his back catalogue.
In 2001, John released an album of his own music, The Inner Line, to positive reviews. In 2004, another album, Scorching Bay, was released, and in 2008 A Darker Sunset, about which The Word remarked; “It’s a gloriously schizophrenic collection, one minute lazily teasing out notes amid floaty atmospherics, then jack-knifing into a 60′s spy thriller set piece, heavy on brass and scratching.”
A new John Metcalfe album, The Appearance of Colour was released April 2013 as part of Bowers and Wilkins Society of Sound subscription series.
