Shirlie Roden » About Me

EARLY YEARS

CRYSTAL SHIP 1970 (2)

CRYSTAL SHIP 1970

Born in London, Shirlie was brought up and educated in South Wales from the age of three. She studied piano and later classical singing with a member of the Welsh National Opera and at fifteen was playing in London folk clubs alongside the then unknown Paul Simon and Al Stewart. While at Warwick University (where she graduated with a BA (Hons) in English and European Literature) she formed the rock band Children with fellow-student and Flying Picket-to-be Rick Lloyd, releasing a single ‘Take Another Little Piece of My Heart’ on George Martin’s AIR studios label before turning professional.

THE SEVENTIES

The mid-seventies saw Shirlie touring America and Europe for three years with cult British rock band Ray Davies and The Kinks in their concept musicals ‘Preservation’, ‘A Soap Opera’ and ‘Schoolboys in Disgrace.’

KINKS 1976: SCHOOLGIRLS

She later joined the Gordon Giltrap Band, uniquely using her high vocal range as an instrument in amongst Giltrap’s classical/progressive rock music and sang on studio sessions with artists such as David Gilmore, Mike Oldfield, Ultravox, Ian Gillan, Suzi Quatro and Hot Chocolate, plus singing Mary Mother of Jesus on Adrian Snell’s ‘The Passion’ with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and ‘The Virgin’.

GORDON GILTRAP BAND 1978

MUSICAL THEATRE

New horizons beckoned in the eighties when she began to write for musical theatre, and British impresario Bill Kenwright commissioned and produced her original shows ‘Jeanne’ (Joan of Arc – the first rock opera to be staged at Sadlers Wells Theatre in London), ‘Tallulah Who?’ (co-written with Suzi Quatro and Willie Rushton), two children’s shows ‘Paddington Bear’s Magical Musical’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast’ plus the highly-successful ‘Roy Orbison Story’ on which she was co-writer with John Miller (nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Musical); while other works include music and lyrics for Sue Townsend’s play ‘Bazaar and Rummage’ ‘Counterpoint’ (The Gatehouse London), the Old Testament Musical ‘AD/BC’ (co-written with John Kane) at Lafayette University, Pennsylvania, and books, music and lyrics for Richard Llewellyn’s famous Welsh novel ‘How Green Was My Valley’ (as yet, unproduced).

Jeanne 04

SIOBHAN MCCARTHY IN ‘JEANNE’ BIRMINGHAM REP 1985

Shirlie’s theatre performances include Fruma Sarah in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ with Topol, Musetta in an international cast production of ‘La Boheme’ at the Kammer Oper in Vienna, on tour as the Narrator in ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’, Vashti in ‘Swan Esther and the King’, Prison Office Meg Jackson in ‘Prisoner Cell Block H’ and all six wives in ‘The Complete Wives of Henry VIII’ at the Edinburgh Festival.

SLOVENIA AND MORE

SHIRLIE, SOCA RIVER SLOVENIA 2007

In the nineteen nineties Shirlie made the decision to leave the world of theatre and rock music to dedicate her writing and singing to the healing arts. This new direction took her to the Republic of Slovenia where she has performed for over twenty years and is now well-known for the healing, uplifting power of her voice, her concerts and innovative sound workshops. She has written many songs inspired by this beautiful country, fourteen of which have now been arranged into the ‘Simply Slovenia Suite’ by British arranger Derek Barnes for concerts with symphony orchestra.

KARNAK TEMPLE LUXOR, EGYPT 2012

She has also led workshops in the United Kingdom, Poland, Russia, Australia, Malta, Austria, Sweden, Hungary, Italy, Croatia and Egypt and is delighted that she able to continue to write, travel, perform and sing wherever she is invited in the world.

CD’s & BOOKS

Shirlie has recorded 8 cds of her own material: Grateful, Angels of Sound, Endless Love, Simply Slovenia, The Vanishing Lake, The Path of Daring, Skydancer, The Child I Knew, and a 3-cd sound meditation set, Raising Your Vibration plus a double self-realisation cd ‘Free the Butterfly’ with Suzi Quatro (plus co-writing tracks with Suzi for her ‘Back to the Drive’ cd). Her book ‘Sound Healing’ has been translated into Slovene, Hungarian and Polish and her project with Slovene photographer Bogdan Kladnik ‘Simply Slovenia’ (Preprosto Slovenija) was hailed as ‘one of the best books on Slovenia in the past ten years.’ Other books include her Slovene autobiography ‘Singing Heart’ (Pojoce Srce) and ‘The Voice of Silence’ (Glas Tisine) and she is currently completing a new healing book ‘Angels of Sound’. She has also developed a Sound Healing Cards app for use on mobiles and tablets.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECTS

Educational and environmental projects Shirlie has worked on include The Read It Song for Leeds Education 2000, the racial awareness song Underneath the Skin for the Elmete InterSchools Project, Yorkshire:

UNDERNEATH THE SKIN

INSIDE EVERY ONE OF US,
UNDERNEATH THE SKIN
THERE’S A REAL PERSON
THAT’S WHERE WE BEGIN
I WILL LEARN TO LOVE MYSELF
I WILL LOVE YOU TOO
MAKES NO DIFFERENCE WHO WE ARE
OR EVEN WHAT WE DO

RICH OR POOR, BLACK OR WHITE
BIG OR SMALL AND THIN
EVERYONE IS LOVABLE UNDERNEATH THEIR SKIN

LOOKING ON THE INSIDE,
UNDERNEATH THE SKIN
I CAN SEE THE GIFTS I HAVE
I CAN ALWAYS WIN
DOESN’T MATTER HOW I LOOK OR SPEAK
OR HOW I’M DRESSED
INSIDE THERE’S THE REAL ME
I KNOW I AM THE BEST

RICH OR POOR, BLACK OR WHITE
BIG OR SMALL AND THIN
EVERYONE IS LOVABLE UNDERNEATH THEIR SKIN

PLEASE PLEASE SEE THE PERSON WHO IS ME
I WILL TOO SEE WHO’S INSIDE OF YOU

WHEN WE ARE TOGETHER
LOOKING IN YOUR EYES
I CAN SEE THE GOOD IN YOU
KIND AND STRONG AND WISE
IF WE JUST REMEMBER WHO WE REALLY ARE
UNDERNEATH THE SKIN YOU’LL FIND
EVERYONE’S A STAR

RICH OR POOR, BLACK OR WHITE
BIG OR SMALL AND THIN
EVERYONE IS LOVABLE UNDERNEATH THEIR SKIN

Music & Lyrics: Shirlie Roden
Copyright: The Singing Earth Music Company Ltd. London

Plus the Light a Candle peace song performed by Mount Gilbert Community College Belfast, Let Them Live theme song for Romanian orphans, performed by Maria Friedman at the London Palladium ‘Kids at Heart’, The Slovenian radio air play hit ‘Kako Lepo’ environmental song with children, ‘Please Save The Miracle of Trees’ sung as a duet with Martin Shaw and presented to The Woodland Trust, The Miracle of Trees poetry and narration stage presentation at Olympia 2000 Festival Earls Court with Brian Protheroe and Nicolas Clay (which was translated into Slovene and performed in Ljubljana for the President and Slovene Department of Environment), and The Ozone Rap Royal Family Rappers comedy song for Spitting Image. Most recently, ‘Kako Lepo’ has been arranged for symphony orchestra by UK arranger Derek Barnes as part of Shirlie’s proposed Simply Slovenia Suite.