The Stage

Robert Kirby

Published Tuesday 8 December 2009 at 11:50 by Nick Awde

Robert Kirby arranged and played on more than 100 albums, particularly for singer-songwriters such as Nick Drake and Paul Weller.

He was born on April 16, 1948 in Bishop’s Stortford, the son of a master cabinet-maker, who built Mosquito combat planes during the Second World War.

Kirby went to Bishop’s Stortford College, before going to Cambridge in 1967 to read music, where he met Drake at an unsuccessful audition for the Footlights.

In 1968 Drake recorded his own debut album Five Leaves Left and, unhappy with his arranger, brought in Kirby for this and subsequent albums. After Drake died of an overdose in 1974, Kirby arranged for singer-songwriters such as Ralph McTell, Vashti Bunyan, Chris de Burgh, Elton John, Bernie Taupin’s first solo album, Richard and Linda Thompson, John Cale and Dave Cousins’ Strawbs, even joining as a band member for a few years. He produced Lynsey de Paul’s 1972 hit Sugar Me.

With the new synthesizers replacing arrangers and a young family to support, he took a job in market research - he was proud that he stayed with the same company, Ipsos/Mori, and became a director.

New generations of musicians continued to seek his skills - most notably, in 1982, he conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for Elvis Costello at the Royal Albert Hall. By the nineties, a resurgence of interest in Drake’s music meant that work increased and in 2005, Kirby conducted an orchestra in New York’s Central Park for a concert of his friend’s songs. He had recently retired to concentrate on music full-time again.

Kirby died in London at the age of 61 on October 3, after emergency heart surgery. He is survived by his ex-wife Helen, daughter Constance and son Henry, also a musician.