Peter Sinfield

Later in his career, he adapted his songwriting to better suit pop music, and wrote a number of successful songs for artists such as Celine Dion, Cher, Cliff Richard, Leo Sayer, Five Star, and Bucks Fizz.

[6] He wrote poetry beginning in the mid 1960s and made a living on market stalls selling handmade kites, lampshades, paintings and customised clothing.

[9] Fripp became involved with other projects (most notably the Centipede orchestra), which left Sinfield with much of the responsibility for the final version and design of the album, including the uniquely ornate jacket.

On their fourth album, Islands, Sinfield began exploring new lyrical territory, with more sexual imagery juxtaposed with the languidly surreal title track.

Already having a fear of the stage which he had little time to overcome due to writing demands, his solo career was put on hold and he worked with ELP for the next few years.

[13] After overestimating his wealth and underestimating his percentage of royalties from ELP, he moved to Ibiza to live as a tax exile, and enjoyed his first interruption from continual work in the music industry.

There he met a circle of artists, actors, painters, and members of the Chelsea Arts Club such as Peter Unsworth and Barry Flanagan, and eventually parted from his first wife.

[14] In 1978 he also narrated Robert Sheckley's In a Land of Clear Colours, an audio sci-fi story released the following year on a limited edition of 1000 vinyl records.

By the time he returned to London in 1980, with his new Spanish wife (a model and runner-up for Miss Spain), he discovered that progressive rock music was no longer in demand, and that punk had emerged in the UK.

Sinfield also wrote the lyrics, in 1978–1980, for the English versions of Alla fiera dell'est (Highdown Fair) and La pulce d'acqua (Fables and Fantasies), by Italian singer-songwriter Angelo Branduardi and, in 1981–1983, for "It's Your Dream" (Nikka Costa), "My First Love", "I Believe in Fairy Tales", and "Trick or Treat" (Fairy Tales), by the American child singer Nikka Costa.

While re-educating himself to adapt to the pop music industry with the help of Hill, he returned to Spain, where he was already established in the communities within Ibiza and Barcelona, and as his career progressed, moved into a house in Majorca.

At this time, he appeared on Spanish television programme Musical Express, where he was interviewed and performed a set with Boz Burrell, Tim Hinkley, Michael Giles, Bobby Tench, Mel Collins, and Gary Brooker.

In the United Kingdom, he continued to release hits with Hill, including "I Hear Talk" by Bucks Fizz and "Have You Ever Been in Love" by Leo Sayer (which they wrote with John Danter).

[15] After divorcing his wife and leaving Majorca, he returned to the UK around 1990 to a flat in Holland Park and continued to write lyrics for popular music.

In the same year, he and Hill released "Think Twice" by Celine Dion, which went on to become a massive hit and won an Ivor Novello Award for "Best Song Musically and Lyrically".

There had been rumours of a second solo album, and Sinfield worked on it for a couple of years with vibraphone player and programmer Poli Palmer, formerly of Family.

[18] Sinfield claimed that A Poet's Notebook by Edith Sitwell[19] had an important influence on his writing, as well as the works of Arthur Rimbaud,[9] Paul Verlaine,[9] William Blake,[19] Kahlil Gibran, and [19] Shakespeare.