Kate St John (born October 2, 1957) is an English composer, arranger, producer and multi-instrumentalist.

Career

Classically trained on oboe, St. John's first band was The Ravishing Beauties with Virginia Astley and Nicky Holland. The trio joined The Teardrop Explodes in Liverpool during the winter of 1981 for a series of dates at small clubs and a UK tour in early 1982.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, she was a member of The Dream Academy with Nick Laird-Clowes and Gilbert Gabriel. In 1985 they had a worldwide hit with "Life In A Northern Town" and produced three albums: The Dream Academy (1985), Remembrance Days (1987) and A Different Kind Of Weather (1990).

In the 1990s, St. John was a member of Van Morrison's live band playing oboe and saxophone. She played on five Van Morrison albums. In 1994, she co-wrote and sang on 4 tracks with Roger Eno on the album The Familiar on the All Saints Label. This led to the formation of Channel Light Vessel, a band with Kate, Roger Eno, Bill Nelson, Laraaji and Mayumi Tachibana.

St John has released two solo albums: Indescribable Night (1995) and Second Sight (1997).

St John and her husband and writing partner, Neill MacColl, specialise in On Set music production in films, having worked on Far From The Madding Crowd (2015), Tulip Fever (2017), My Cousin Rachel (2017), and The Little Stranger (2018).^[1]