She was born in Chatham,
Kent, England.She trained in the classical field
of music before moving on to become a session musician where she has worked
with groups including Frankie Goes to Hollywood and the Pet
Shop Boys and artists such as Paul
McCartney
.In 1983 she became a founding member
of the group The Art of Noise with Trevor Horne and Paul Morley, Gary
Langan and J.J. Jeczalik.They
were known for their electronic and computerized sound and their
ground-breaking songs including "Moments in Love" and
"Close (to the Edit)".She turned her compositional abilities to film and TV and her works
include the scores for TV series such as Jeeves and Wooster and The Inspector
Alleyn Mysteries, and for films such as Buster and The Crying Game.She met with success when she won the Academy Award for the Best
Original Score for The Full Monty
in 1998.The BBC
Concert Orchestra
awarded her the position of Composer-in-Association between
January 2002 and January 2005.
