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| 'Music Time' (1979, REC362) |
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More BBC Schools TV stuff here,
and its pretty terrible! The accent is firmly on 'world music'
and musical crimes of great atrocity are committed in the name
of education. But, if late-70's angular white-boy funk in a Talking
Heads stylee is your thang, then check out the choppy instrumental
'Strawberry Fair' for a very odd surprise indeed! |
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| 'Top BBC Themes Vol. 2' (1979,
REH365) |
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Barrel scraping time!
With barely enough interesting TV themes around at the time to
fill the first volume, a really rather lame attempt at wringing
some more cash out of the public was made with this album. One
solitary interesting moment: the ever-reliable Denton & Cook giving
us some more of their quirky synth pop with 'The Great Egg Race'.
Yeah…nice! But then, here we go; 'Blake's 7', 'All Creatures Great
& Small', 'Mastermind'…Rubbish!!!!!!! Bah! |
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| Norrie Paramor 'Thank You For
The Music' (1979, REB370) |
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It seems that the beeb were not
averse to the odd bit of cashing in on the deceased, as poor Norrie
had only popped his clogs a matter of months before this LP emerged.
The prognosis is one of death by disco as the orchestra blasts
through 'I Will Survive' and far too many Abba tunes for comfort.
Even more remarkable is just how excellent his bash at Barry Manilow's
'Copacabana' is. No, really! Interested in extended rattling drum
breaks sir? Step this way... |
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| 'The Bumper Fun Album' (1979,
REC376) |
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This compilation of tracks from
other kiddies albums unfortunately overlooks the genuine groovers,
but 'The Party Is About To Begin' from the 'Play Away' LP isn't
so bad, and why not have another bash at 'Standing On One Leg'
after a couple of sherries... |
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'BBC Detective Themes'
(1980, REH378)
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Yowza! Here's the good stuff! You
can't often go far wrong with a good old-fashioned 70's cop show
theme, and the proof is indeed in the eating of this very rich
plum duff of an album. The John Gregory take on 'Kojak' from his
'The Detectives' LP; the Denton & Cook version of the groovy staple
'Quiller'; a belting crack at the chase theme from 'Starsky &
Hutch' by Laurie Holloway and to top it all Alan Tew's 'The Detectives'
copped straight from the original Themes library LP. Yes indeed,
we have much more to thank Ronnie Barker for than Porridge and
Open All Hours, as this tune was of course made most popular on
The Two Ronnies' mini series "Stop, You're Killing Me"
way back in the days when Saturday night was bath night… |
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Richard Denton &
Martin Cook 'Hong Kong Beat' (1980, REH385)
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At the dog-end of the 70's this
pair were the kings of quirky synth-funk TV themes, as this album
testifies, being a collection of their 7" releases thus far for
the Beeb. The high point is definitely 'Quiller', with much Moog
and cop-show clavinet; the rest are all, in their own way, ever
so slightly dodgy, but still interesting in that early 80's Bruton
library way. The TV themes you will recognise from 'The Great
Egg Race' and Tomorrow's World' are both here, along with the
Floyd-lite of the title track. Worth it for 'Quiller' alone really,
as the rest tries gamely, but is just not smooth enough to pass
muster. |
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'BBC Comedy Themes'
(1980, REH387)
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The theme from 'M.A.S.H' making
it to the top of the charts (Noel Edmonds is gonna have to make
a few damn good excuses when he gets to the pearly gates) provided
the perfect excuse for the release of this collection. Lots
of real rubbish here unfortunately, but some quirky, if not
cool moments nonetheless. Ronnie Hazlehurst gives us 'Some Mothers
Do 'Ave 'Em' and 'The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin', both
of which have some interesting jazzy stylings, if little by
way of a groove; Spike Milligan's 'Q8 Theme' is very odd, but
sort of entertaining, as can probably be said for 'The Goodies
Theme', but not the sort of thing of any use to DJ's.
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| However,
who would have thought that 'On A Mountain Stands A Lady' by The
Scaffold, the theme of the awful Scouse non-comedy 'The Liver
Birds' would contain one unholy mother of a drum break!!! Oh yes!
A true gift to samplers everywhere! Find it! |
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'Top BBC TV Themes
Vol. 3' (1980, REH391)
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A bit of a mixed bag here, with
offal like 'Dallas' and 'Knots Landing' battling it out with Gordon
Giltrap's 'Holiday' theme for the most emetic moment on offer.
A couple of current themes give some consolation, with Denton
& Cook's reworking of 'Tomorrow's World' and the rather funky
'The Enigma Files'...no, me neither. But, that's not all by a
long chalk...brush straight by all of those and you will be in
raptures for Harry Stoneham's full-length 'Parkinson'; flat out
Hammond jazz in all its glory...yesssss! |
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'Space Invaded' (1982,
REH412)
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If nothing else, this
album proves that the golden age of BBC sci-fi on the cheap was
well and truly over for the post-Star Wars audience. The proliferation
of colour TV sets across the country meant that everyone could
now see the join on those cardboard sets. Time to re-model a few
things then, and that includes the theme tunes. So here we have
the slick but unmoving Peter Howell remake of the 'Dr. Who' theme,
with some poor incidental music and the God-awful 'K-9 & Co' thrown
in for good measure. Bad! Overloaded with too much Vangelis style
cosmic mood pieces, this LP is only really salvaged by the clunky-but-interesting
theme to 'The Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy' and the new Denton
& Cook penned 'Tomorrow's World' theme. Hmmm, definitely the end
of an era… |
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| 'Top BBC TV Themes Vol 4' (1981,
REC424) |
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The well is running seriously dry
at we move onto the fourth BBC themes best of. Half of this is
light classical nonsense and the war-crime to the ears that is
the 'Hi-De-Hi' theme is only slightly offset by Harry South's
rather excellently moody 'Chinese Detective'; a track that harks
back to what feels like an entirely different era of TV theme
values from the dross which surrounds it... |
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| 'Hello!' (1981, REC425) |
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Goodbye! This is awful, awful kiddie
crap, and again with big session names like Clem Cattini and Dave
Richmond partaking of the horrors. In fact it is only salvaged
by the presence of Lucy Skeaping, the actress who plays Lizzy
Archer on the radio, and who was more than a small incentive for
tuning into ITV kids telly show 'Freetime' at an impressionable
age... |
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| 'On The Air' (1982, REF454) |
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We are talking heavy nostalgia here,
as the albums subtitle '60 Years Of BBC Theme Music' gives away
all too clearly. Way too many tunes to bring a tear to grannies
eye rather than a tap to your tootsies, but the odd moment does
the business. Brian Fahey's 'At The Sign Of The Swinging Cymbal'
will always be worth having and the same goes for 'The Good Word'
by the Scottmen and Johnnie Dankworth's early 'Tomorrow's World'
theme. Amongst all the usual garbage it is quite surprising to
recall that, for the 80's anyway, the 'Juliet Bravo' theme wasn't
all that bad really…hmmm, perhaps not… |
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| '20 BBC Drama Themes' (1983, REH464) |
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A good many of these tracks have
already been dished up over various 'Top BBC TV Themes' LP's,
and a sorry bunch they are too. Mostly of the light classical
variety from epic serials and period dramas, there isn't much
joy to be had here at all apart from 'The Chinese Detective' saving
the day once more... |
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| 'The Thorn Birds' (1984, REH524) |
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Oh dear. There really isn't much
on here worth even pence! Perhaps you could say that the Radiophonic
Workshop track used as the theme for 'The Living Planet' has some
merit…but not much. Apart from that we are treated to crap like
Paul Nicholas singing the 'Just Good Friends' theme (c'mon…who
still has a soft spot for Jan Francis then?), and various other
trash ranging from Andean pan pipe overload (Flight Of The Condor)
to stodgy blues rock (The History Man). Terrible, terrible rubbish.
Avoid! |
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| A mighty three cheers to The
Big Cheese for providing a good deal of helpful information on all things
Beeb-orientated! |
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