Career
He got his start as the pianist/arranger for the Len Turner Band based in London, in the 1950s. He also composed all the music for the 1975 series, The Hanged Manitoba, some of which was used as incidental music for The Two Ronnies, The Sweeney, the 2009 Blaxploitation spoof Black Dynamite, and would eventually become the introductory music for the American television series, The People"s Court. That same track, entitled "The Big One", was used in an episode of the British detective show Van der Valk.
Tew also led his own orchestra, The Alan Tew Orchestra, and collaborated with Cat Stevens.
During his career, Tew made a number of orchestral albums with highly imaginative arrangements for the Columbia Broadcasting System label, though none of them has been reissued on Civil Defense. In particular, Tew"s album The Magnificent Westerns (1969) is very highly regarded.
