Lesser-known Andrew Lloyd Webber facts

Published Thursday 20 March 2008 at 17:05 by Alistair Smith

• He shares his birthday with the great American stage musical composer Stephen Sondheim.

• He secured his first magazine front cover at the age of three, appearing at on the cover of Nursery World.

• The first two records Lloyd Webber ever heard were Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite and Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock.

• Together with Tim Rice, he at one time produced a sixties British psychedelic band called Tales of Justine.

• Again with Rice, he wrote two songs for Elvis Presley - It’s Easy For You, which Elvis recorded at Gracelands in 1976 and was issued on his final album Moody Blues, and a song called Please Don’t Let Lorraine Come Down.

• He wrote his first stage musical in 1961. It was called Cinderella Up the Beanstalk and Most Everywhere Else.

• He is a supporter of Leyton Orient Football Club, and has been since his teens, despite growing up in West London. In fact, he attended Elton John’s 50th birthday party dressed as a Leyton Orient supporter. Madeleine Lloyd Webber was dressed as a bunny girl.

• In 1991, Andrew became the first and only composer to have six productions running in the West End at the same time.