Alan Hawkshaw (1937 – 2021) was a British composer and musician, particularly of library music, working extensively for the KPM production music company in the 1950s to the 1970s, composing such songs as “Grange Hill”.

With the studio group Love De-Luxe he scored a number 1 single on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart with “Here Comes That Sound Again” in 1979.

In the 1970s, he worked for Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg as a musical director, arranger and pianist, including on L’homme à tête de chou (1976).

One of his best-known compositions is “Blarney’s Stoned” which was used as the theme tune for Dave Allen’s television shows.

In 1977, he composed “New Earth Parts 1 & 2” for Hank Marvin’s Guitar Syndicate (1977) LP project.

This was subsequently sampled over 30 years later by Jay-Z for his song “Pray”.

Also, during the late 1970s, music by Hawkshaw appeared in several films by Radley Metzger, including Barbara Broadcast (1977) and Maraschino Cherry (1978).