Courtney, David

Multi-award-winning composer and producer born David Cohen who fashioned himself a career in the music business and in the business of music.

After struggling as a musician in the early ’60s, Courtney’s ship finally came in when he discovered a talent by the name of Gerry Sayer in 1972. He suggested the stage name Leo, and the two of them went on to co-write all of the songs on Sayer’s first two albums, Silverbird and Just A Boy, both released in 1974, and both of which Courtney produced. His production credits barely start there. In that same year, he produced and played piano on Adam Faith’s I Survive LP. He had done the same on Daltrey a year earlier, and went on to produce Roger Daltrey’s Best Bits and One of the Boys.

He also launched his solo career in 1974 with First Day, an album he co-produced with Andrew Powell, featuring David Gilmour on guitar. A couple of years later, he recorded Midsummer Madness at the Honky Chateau studio in France and practically had Argent backing him up: Robert Henrit, Jim Rodfordand John Verity all performed on the album. Other artists he has worked with include Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Chapman, Eric Clapton, Steve Cropper, and Sir Paul McCartney.

In 1989 a new phase of his career began: David Courtney the businessman. One of Great Britain’s top financial groups hired him as CEO of their Entertainment Division, overseeing Artist Management, Entertainment Related Corporate Finance, and Project Development. It was Courtney who negotiated the deal between HBO and world boxing champ Lennox Lewis. Around this same time, he was commissioned to arrange and produce an album commemorating the centennial anniversary of the Savoy Hotel in London, England.

Five years later, he embarked on another music-related business career, as the COO of Cashbox Magazine’s U.K. office, overseeing new product reviews, trade news, and weekly U.K. chart returns. Five years after that, he switched jobs again, this time working for Parkridge Developments Ltd. in the capacities of events management and public relations for the Brighton Marina. Somewhere in there he found time to produce Area 51, a weekly cable and Internet programme that highlighted new artists. Perhaps this inspired him to launch The White Room in 2004, a company designed to develop and market rising young music talent. This resulted in a radio programme co-hosted by Mike Mendoza on talkSPORT, and the release of four more albums, Here’s One I Made Earlier, Men in White, Sex with a Stranger, and Shooting Star.

He also founded The Brighton Walk of Fame, which pays tribute to an eclectic mix of groups and people who have in some positive way impacted the city of Brighton, including ABBA, Lord Richard Attenborough, Sir Winston Churchill, Adam Faith, Nigel Kennedy, Lord Laurence Olivier, and The Who. David Courtney has been an active member of The British Academy of Songwriters, Authors & Composers, The Musicians Union, The Performing Rights Society, The National Union of Journalists, and Sussex Enterprise.

In 2016 he became the first British composer to be awarded the Russian Tsarskoselskaya Artistic Premium for the album Matinee, where he worked in collaboration with the singer Marina Kapuro.

Leo Sayer recordings
In My Life (David Courtney/Leo Sayer)
Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance) (David Courtney/Leo Sayer)

Sources:

Courtney, David

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