WHEN Harvey Summers was at school his only passion was music.

He used to skip classes and nip into the school music room to compose and practise.

At the age of 15 he took his involvement with the school production one step further by writing a full score on synthesiser to William Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Now 24, the former Bexhill High School pupil is composing scores for film, radio and TV and working with some of the hottest new talent in showbiz.

Eighteen months ago he set up his company, Medium Moose Records, based in a small industrial unit behind shops at London Road, Bexhill.

Before that he worked in a variety of jobs to pay for his music, which was then just a hobby.

This weekend Harvey is working with Doctor Who stars Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Peter Davison for a new audio production of the sci-fi classic, to be released on CD.

And later in the year he is travelling to Hungary to record one of his compositions with the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra for the first film release from British director Jamie Martin, one of the film editors on the forthcoming Star Wars film The Phantom Menace.

Harvey said: "Jamie is being tipped as the next George Lucas so it is great to be working with him. The film is called Ground Zero and stars Brian Blessed.

"Also involved will be Industrial Light and Magic and Jim Henson's Creature Workshop so I'm very excited about the project."

He has recently written and recorded the soundtrack to a forthcoming video release starring actress Louise Jameson, who plays Italian restaurant owner Rosa Di Marco in EastEnders as well as being a former Doctor Who sidekick.

Harvey has also written advert music for Vespa mopeds and the World Wildlife Fund.

And his talents do not end there - self-taught musician Harvey plays keyboards and guitar as well as writing for full orchestras.

He said: "I suppose as a teenager I could be described as quite precocious, as I never had any formal training. It just takes lots of practice and commitment.

"But it's something I've always wanted to do and I especially want to keep doing more film work."

He believes his mother Valerie's love of music has been a great influence.

He said: "She used to play bass guitar for a country band and went on tour in Europe.

"I've always been surrounded by music and I'm just so happy to be now making a living out of it."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.