John Cavanagh is a professional voice over artist and broadcaster with over 20 years experience in both fields.
In 2014, John Cavanagh's voice was heard by over 3 billion tv viewers worldwide, thanks to his role in the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies as English Language Announcer. Of these performances, Greg Fox, Headline Talent Producer at FiveCurrents, said: "I cannot begin to tell you how appreciative we are of your performances, both in the protracted rehearsals and in the live event... And one things that stands out in your performance is that fact that after receiving the initial notes of what we were looking for from you, we did not give you a single note once rehearsal started, you simply understood exactly what we were looking for and delivered it spot-on, every time. I am truly looking forward to working with you again in the near future."
Although Scottish, Cavanagh does not have a strong regional accent and can mimic many different voices to produce different character and dialect styles in rapid succession. With a three octave vocal range for singing, John Cavanagh's voice is readily able to encompass a wide age range in speech terms: from young, lively adult with a hard-sell style to elderly sounding voice parts.
Cavanagh is one of the few people to have broadcast for all five BBC UK radio networks, including presenting heavy rock music on Radio One to opera on Radio Three, along with World Service/BBC International, BBC Radio Scotland and much more.
For 17 years, John Cavanagh worked as a BBC continuity announcer and newsreader. His television voice-over work includes 14 seasons as the voice of the Classified Football Results on BBC1 tv in Scotland, which led to a collaboration with Turner Prize nominee Simon Patterson for the Tate Modern Gallery in London.
With an ability to mimic different voices, Cavanagh has performed in his own one-man stage show, where he interviewed imaginary guests, swapping from his own voice to theirs as questions and answers were exchanged. These performances ranged from female voice (Delia Derbyshire, creator of the original Doctor Who theme) to a strong Dundonian Scottish accent.
Other voices Cavanagh can handle easily range from accurately mimicking dj's such as John Peel and Alan Freeman to camp-voiced British stars like Kenneth Williams and the darker horror movie styles of Christopher Lee and John Hurt.
The first voice over John Cavanagh recorded was for a Sony Records tv campaign back in 1991, advertising a punk compilation cd album called Sound of the Suburbs. Since them his voice over and narration work has ranged from hard edged tv and radio commercials to narrating documentaries on sensitive subjects such as war and even the work of a mortuary service.
In between these extremes lie a wealth of projects including audiobook narrations, corporate videos, computer games character voices, trailers for tv & radio, awards ceremonies and stage presentations including introducing Bon Jovi at Wembley Stadium and Metallica from the Monsters of Rock Festival at Castle Donnington.
John Cavanagh's other work includes making music, both solo under the name Phosphene and as part of the duo Electroscope, producing albums by the likes of Rab Noakes, Lol Coxhill, Family Elan, Trembling Bells and many more to writing a book on Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd and the emergent counterculture of 1960s London.
In the past, Cavanagh ran an antique shop; in the present he continues his broadcast and voice-over work, whilst enjoying hosting public events and discussions with the likes of Andrew Loog Oldham, Barry Miles, Jenny Fabian, Joe Boyd etc. and conducting discussions with film directors at events in the Glasgow Film Festival and Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
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