Grant Kirkhope

Infobox musical artist
Name=Grant Kirkhope


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Birth_name= Grant Kirkhope
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Born=flagicon|United Kingdom United Kingdom
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Genre= Video games
Occupation=Musician, composer
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Grant Kirkhope is a British video game music composer, known has writing the soundtracks for numerous games by Rare, such as "Banjo Kazooie" and "Perfect Dark". Before joining Rare in October 1995, he played for two bands called Syar and Maineeaxe where he played guitar, and already knew Robin Beanland. Grant's music featuring an electric guitar is played on a Ernie Ball/Musicman EVH given to him by Cleo Laine.

On July 14th, 2008, Grant Kirkhope stated in a MySpace blog that he was resigning from Rare. He will join developer Big Huge Games as Audio Manager. [http://www.music4games.net/News_Display.aspx?id=992]

Grant's nickname at Rare was 'Chimpos', sometimes used affectionately, sometimes not. It's origins come from Grant's pre-Rare career when someone noted his likeness to 'Urko' the Gorilla Thug, famous for brutal treatment of humans in 'The Planet of the Apes'.

On August 18th, 2008, Grant Kirkhope was interviewed by Rare-Extreme covering his time at Rare and his future with Big Huge Games [http://www.rare-extreme.com/?section=editorials&page=grantkirkhope.html]

Known works

* "Donkey Kong Land 2" (1996)
* "GoldenEye 007" (With Graeme Norgate) (1997)
* "Banjo-Kazooie" (1998)
* "Donkey Kong 64" (1999)
* "Banjo-Tooie" (2000)
* "Perfect Dark" (With David Clynick, 2000)
* "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" (2003)
* "Viva Piñata" (2006)
* "" (2008)
* "" (With Robin Beanland, 2008)

External links

* [http://www.myspace.com/grantkirkhope Grant Kirkhope's] MySpace page
* [http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,55624/ Profile] at MobyGames
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* [http://www.ocremix.org/composer/id/21/grant-kirkhope/ Composer profile] at OverClocked ReMix
* [http://www.vgmrush.com/artists-details.php?id=48 Comprehensive Grant Kirkhope Profile at VGM Rush]
* [http://vibrationsofdoom.com/test/Syar.html Syar's Homepage]
* [http://www.rare-extreme.com/?section=editorials&page=vpinatainterview.html Interview with Grant Kirkhope]
* [http://www.rare-extreme.com/?section=editorials&page=grantkirkhope.html Interview With Grant after Rare]