Mike Batt is probably best known as the singer/songwriter/producer of The Wombles music, having written the theme tune plus eight hit singles and four gold albums. Mike moved on to work with various artists as a songwriter and producer, most successfully with Steeleye Span and their most successful single and album All Around My Hat in 1975. He wrote the song "Bright Eyes" for the film Watership Down, sung by Art Garfunkel, which reached number 1 in the UK Singles Chart and five other countries. Mike wrote and produced three more UK Top Ten hits, "Please Don't Fall in Love" (for Cliff Richard), "A Winter's Tale" (for David Essex, with lyrics co-written by Tim Rice) and "I Feel Like Buddy Holly" (for Alvin Stardust). Mike composed and produced the four million-selling album, The Violin Player, which launched classical violinist Vanessa-Mae, and he discovered Katie Melua in 2002. Her album Call Off The Search (containing six of Mike’s songs including "The Closest Thing to Crazy") was released in November 2003. It spent six weeks at number one in the UK Albums Chart, sold over 1.8 million copies, in the UK and three million copies in total, making Melua the biggest selling UK female artist of 2004. Mike now has an autobiography called The Closest Thing to Crazy, My Life of Musical Adventures, available in all bookshops or from here! .

Mike Batt is our guest in episode 453 of My Time Capsule and chats to Michael Fenton Stevens about the five things he'd like to put in a time capsule; four he’d like to preserve and one he’d like to bury and never have to think about again .

Buy Mike Batt’s autobiography, The Closest Thing to Crazy is available here - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Closest-Thing-Crazy-Musical-Adventures/dp/1785120840 .

For everything else Mike Batt, visit - https://www.mikebatt.com .

Follow Mike Batt on Twitter @Mike_Batt .

Follow My Time Capsule on Instagram: @mytimecapsulepodcast & Twitter & Facebook: @MyTCpod .

Follow Michael Fenton Stevens on Twitter: @fentonstevens & Instagram @mikefentonstevens .

Produced and edited by John Fenton-Stevens for Cast Off Productions .

Music by Pass The Peas Music .

Artwork by matthewboxall.com .

This podcast is proud to be associated with the charity Viva! Providing theatrical opportunities for hundreds of young people .

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