Johnny Pearson - The 1980s and Later

The 1980s and Later

In late 1981, Johnny Pearson's tenure at BBC's Top Of The Pops came to an end, as the show had itself undergone a major reorganisation. By that time he had been associated with the programme for sixteen years. He was credited on the milestone 900th Top Of The Pops episode, in July 1981; his last credit with the show, was in late August 1981. After this, Pearson continued to work on independent projects and in 1982, released the instrumental album On Golden Pond through Larry Page's Page One Records.

In 1984, Pearson assembled another orchestra, the Johnny Pearson Studio Orchestra, and contributed to John Paul Jones' motion picture soundtrack, Scream For Help. Following this, during 1985, he worked on producing music for the BBC TV production drama Maelstrom. Notable on the recordings for Maelstrom is the track "Camellia Waltz", which was treated to sound like an old 78rpm record. Other tracks by Pearson for the series came from his work with KPM. In 1987, together with business partner Adrian Kerridge, Pearson negotiated the purchase of CTS Studios, in Wembley. In 1988, he returned to the KPM record label and the recording of two new library CDs for the radio and television industry. Both were recorded at CTS Studios in Wembley, with Adrian Kerridge.

After the 1980s, Pearson made occasional live appearances as part of a quartet. In 1996, he recorded a CD of library music, for the radio and television industry, titled Simply Piano. This was followed in 2005 by another CD, Simply Piano 2.