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Lawrence Reginald Ward (‘Laurie’) Johnson (born February 17, 1927, in Hampstead, England) is a British film and television composer, and bandleader.|Johnson’s film scores include The Moonraker, No Trees In The Street, Tiger Bay, I Aim At The Stars, Spare The Rod, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, First Men In The Moon, East Of Sudan, The Beauty Jungle, Hot Millions, And Soon the Darkness, The Belstone Fox, Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter and Diagnosis: Murder. Among his other works was the music for the television movie Mister Jerico, which involved many of the original Avengers team, including Patrick Macnee.|Johnson made several recordings on the Unicorn-Kanchana label. These included his own Symphony: Synthesis for a large ensemble comprising a jazz orchestra and symphony orchestra. The recording fearured several famous jazz names including Tubby Hayes, Don Lusher, Joe Harriott, Kenny Wheeler and Stan Tracey as well as the forces of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He also recorded music from The Avengers, The New Avengers and The Professionals and a re-recording of Bernard Herrmann’s suite for North by Northwest. |Since 1997 Johnson has toured with the band he formed, The London Big Band. |
