He lived in Shepshed, playing the UK pub and club circuit extensively for some years, before landing his first professional engagement in 1974, with Ivor Kenney's Dance Band at Leicester Palais.

[4][5] In 1979, Woolley established the new wave music outfit the Camera Club, with Thomas Dolby on keyboards, Matthew Seligman on bass, Dave Birch on guitar and Rod Johnson on drums.

[12] During production of the music video for this track, Woolley spent time with Andy Warhol, Timothy Leary and also Keith Haring, who were collectively responsible for set design.

Woolley's songs have been covered by John Farnham ("Two Strong Hearts"),[14] Shirley Bassey ("Slave to the Rhythm" on 2007's Get the Party Started),[15] the Feeling, Divine, Cliff Richard, Tori Amos, Donna Summer, Tom Jones, Cher ("Love Is the Groove" on 1998's Believe album),[16] and Bebel Gilberto.

In 1994, Woolley, Chris Elliott and Andy Visser founded The Radio Science Orchestra (RSO), a theremin-led space age pop ensemble inspired by the birth of electronic music.

[17][18] The ensemble has recorded for film, television and radio, and provides bespoke arrangements and audio-visual performances combining live music, archive footage and narration.

[19] In 1997, together with Grace Jones, the RSO provided the title track "Storm" for The Avengers movie starring Sean Connery, Uma Thurman and Ralph Fiennes.

[23] The performances celebrated the anniversary of Apollo 11, and included reconstructed tracks for theremin and jazz band from Harry Revel and Les Baxter's 1947 record Music Out of the Moon, played from space by Neil Armstrong in 1969.

In 2006, Woolley wrote and co-produced tracks for Grace Jones's album Hurricane, together with Brian Eno, Ivor Guest (Bomb the Bass), Pamelia Kurstin, and Sly and Robbie.

[24] In 2004, Woolley performed for a Prince's Trust concert at Wembley Arena celebrating Horn's production career and 25 years of "Video Killed the Radio Star".