I confess. I'm obsessed. Six months ago if anyone had mentioned KPM or Bruton to me I'd have wondered what on earth they were talking about. It's all because of 'The Sweeney' y'know. Having recently watched all fifty odd episodes on DVD, one of the things that I really enjoyed was the incidental music. Coincidental music, perhaps, because a friend of mine had watched the same series and then played me some very familiar cues he'd found and downloaded. And thus, I was introduced to library music.
KPM was, and still is, a provider of library music to the media industry. Back in the 70s, many television and film drama directors and producers regularly used their libraries to put temp tracks and permanent scores on the finished product. And many of the tracks were provided by some of the best composers and arrangers in the business at the time. Names like Brian Bennett, Johnny Pearson, Alan Hawkshaw and Nick Ingman are very familiar to library music lovers and they all regularly worked for libraries like KPM, Bruton, Chappell.
Many of the KPM albums are still commanding astonishing prices in the specialist second hand market but if you are up for a bit of research then you can often find some gems on various blogs related to library and other obscure music such as Italian film soundtracks and the albums of Max Bygraves. I kid you not.
Thanks then to independent label, Tummytouch, who have just re-released some of the jewels from the KPM vaults onto CD and vinyl, all spruced up and sounding magnificent.
'Afro Rock' as a title would look to the casual browser in their local music emporium as some sort of politically incorrect throwback to the early 70s - all afro hairdos and 'jungle' drums. Do not let that impression get the merest chance of forming in your mind.
The album is 15 tracks by composers Alan Parker and John Cameron. KPM describes the album as 'hard afro-pop featuring large percussive rhythm section and front line' but that doesn't prepare you for an album of hard funk and jazz, propelled by lots and lots of drums and tom-toms, wah-wah guitars, tremor-like hard bass-lines, some serious strumming on harps and dextrous keyboard work. I never knew harps could be so hot. Bung all that in with copious amounts of woodwind and you've got music that would more than suit that retro 70s night you were thinking of planning. Much of it will conjure up cars going full throttle through walls of cardboard boxes or Gene Hunt laying some heavy action on a recently captured nonce. Picture some heaving metropolis and the feverish activity of its population.
It's not all driving bass and pounding funkiness. There are two really cracking compositions by John Cameron - 'Heat Haze' where the aforementioned harps take centre stage in a track that summons up cityscapes at sundown sinking into waves of heat rising from the pavement; and - 'Sahara Sunrise' which is obviously suggesting sand dunes and nomadic tribes but with its prevailing use of woodwind reminds me of the sterling work Cameron did for Ken Loach's film 'Kes'. Very, very evocative.
And if you like this then Tummytouch have also served up two other volumes, aptly named 'The Big Beat'.
And 'The Big Beat' reviews are right here - The Big Beat Volumes 1 & 2 Go on, you know you want to....
KPM Music Recorded Library - Afro Rock (Tuch1130CD)
'Shaggy Dog' was presumed missing, believed wiped (that's archive parlance for 'they chucked it out') and it recently was discovered lurking in the archives when those lovely fellas at Kaleidoscope were researching one of their invaluable drama guides. It's now been released on DVD as part of a second volume of plays by the late, great Dennis Potter that were commisisoned by LWT.
The play is one of a series called 'Company Of Five' and heralds from 1968. It's a macabre, blackly comic look at management consultants, the cod pop psychology that infected British business practices in the late 60s and early 70s and the general social malaise that eventually brought us the three-day week.
Mr. Wilkes, played wonderfully by John Neville, attends an interview for a job in management at a hotel chain. He's not only going to be grilled by the personnel manager, Mr. James (the avuncular Cyril Luckham) but he's also going to get the third degree from a poncey looking management consultant Mr. Parker (Derek Godfrey) who believes that he'll find the right candidate by firing off questions about bed wetting and parental relationships. Needless to say, Mr. Wilkes is already suffering from some kind of depression and the interview is a tragic disaster.
It's not in the same league as 'The Singing Detective' or 'Pennies From Heaven' and if you come to this expecting something similar then you are in for a rude awakening. It's certainly a play that fits into Potter's attack on mass media and the leisure industries and the failure of industry in Britain. His obsessions with this subject matter can be found in plays as diverse as 'Paper Roses', 'Follow the 'Yellow Brick Road' and 'Only Make Believe' and the character of Wilkes is essentially his mouthpiece here in his vilification of the hotel chain's rise from a cluster of down at heel transport cafes. Wilkes obviously finds the words 'leisure industry' something bad tasting in the back of his mouth.
It's a bizarre play with an astute view of the faux-glamour of late 60s Britain as espoused by the dolly bird secretaries and the weird office with its over abundance of modern (for the time) suites filled with tropical plants. This is a Britain in decline with industry straining to paper over the cracks. Derek Godfrey is superb as the horrific Parker who decides to don a blonde wig throughout Wilkes' interview in a bid to unsettle him with questions about his mother and disorientate his view of the sexes which is a typical Potter trait. This comes over as cruel a piece of 'Monty Python' comedy of embarrassment as you'd ever want and much of the attack on consultants and business speak reminded me very much of the later and equally surreal 'Fall and Rise Of Reginald Perrin'.
Wilkes is recovering from a nervouse breakdown and his place in the narrative is to get to tell his 'shaggy dog' type bad joke which he's obviously been straining to get to the end of. Parker's insensitivity tips him literally over the edge. The fact that the punchline is both hilariously bad and leads to Wilkes emphasising it by throwing himself out of a window to his death is perhaps Potter viciously underlining the way the public and the private worlds do collapse into each other with horrific consequences for those sensitive souls who simply aren't able to navigate their way through an increasingly complex, media saturated work place.
There's an extract from a South Bank Show from 1978 which I watched straight after the play and in it Potter, as ever very erudite, uncannily predicts the ultimate descent of television drama into the 'soap by numbers' formula that holds sway today. It is clear that in the current climate it would be very unusual that such a unique voice as Potter's would now get airtime. Thankfully, we can get to see some of his work on this DVD and you'll find two other fascinating plays on this volume and a further South Bank Show extract from 1979.
Dennis Potter At London Weekend Television, Volume Two (Network DVD 7952421 Cert 12)
I 'discovered' Scott Walker...ooh, must have been about 1981. I'd probably heard other singers and songwriters mention him in an interview somewhere. Certainly, I blame Marc Almond! And simultaneously I heard about the legendary 'Fire Escape In The Sky' compilation issued by Julian Cope and I ordered myself a copy of 'Scott Sings Jacques Brel', which had been issued by Phillips, from a music club that I'd joined. I was well and truly dragged into the world of Walker and Brel. I feverishly started purchasing what I could although I knew next to nothing about The Walker Brothers or the solo Scott albums. His brilliant 'Climate Of Hunter' album came out in 1984 and I vividly remember a nervous interview with Scott on 'The Tube', Channel 4's legendary music show.
It wasn't until much later that I caught up with his back catalogue when they were first reissued by Fontana in the early 1990s. Until then I'd made do with a worn out tape of the Cope 'Fire Escape' compilation. Then the release of 'Tilt' in 1995 was a signal that Walker was on a trajectory that would finally put the 'crooner' out to grass and suggest that here was, in essence, a fine artist and composer prepared to follow his own creative line.
Stephen Kijak's documentary '30 Century Man' is obviously a labour of love from a genuine admirer. He traces Scott's career through a series of interviews, archive clips and photos and then manages what some would have thought impossible - he interviews the often reclusive man and reveals him to be a shy, sensitive but thoroughly determined artist with a passion for his own work.
Even though the interviews are revealing, the documentary still leaves Walker's iconic status intact. He still remains a fascinating figure and you get a sense of this from the comments in the other interviews with the likes of Gavin Friday, David Bowie and Alison Goldfrapp (whose summation of 'Tilt' I thought was spot on). There are many who don't like the later solo albums like 'Tilt' and the recently released 'The Drift'. But then anyone expecting to hear that gorgeous baritone over European influenced orchestrations in the later works is bound to be disappointed because his current work is a soundscape of the mind or composition of the psyche. I personally find 'The Drift' very hard to listen to.
Originally, I felt exactly the same about 'Tilt' but you have to give these compositions time and space for them to reveal their true beauty. 'Tilt' for me is late night, long walks home with my Walkman through November mists because that's how I listened to, and started to fully appreciate, the album. I have no doubt that I'll find an equally evocative method to finally come to terms with 'The Drift'. And I do so want Walker to keep challenging his listeners this way because as he himself points out in the film - all we hear these days are the sounds of dollars being made.
So, if you really want just to try and understand the fascination with Scott Walker then this film is your primer. He has an important place in what I like to think of as the music of 'European melancholy' which he shares with Morrissey, Marc Almond, Gavin Friday and Neil Hannon amongst others. It's strange because he's actually from Ohio and he's seeing Europe through the eyes of an outsider, not just in geographical or cultural terms but also in the very nature of 'being' an outsider and skirting on the edges of that darkness.
'Scott Walker: 30 Century Man' Verve Pictures DVD (VER7741 Cert 15)
A brief continuity announcement. A word of welcome to what I hope will be an entertaining trawl through my cultural habits. The origin for this blog can be found at www.gallifreyone.com where for some time I've been posting reviews of old and new 'Doctor Who' episodes. You'll get a chance to revisit those reviews here, all spruced up for a discerning readership, as well as random thoughts and ramblings on what I've been watching, reading and listening to each week. Feels like I'm inviting you into my living room? You betcha. Enjoy and feel free to comment, argue or just say hello. And play nice, now...
Just as a guide, you'll see waxings of the lyrical kind about old telly posted as OUT OF THE ARCHIVE; hot off the press...er keyboard...thoughts on 21st Century telly posted as NOW SURFING; films old and new reviewed at SUNDAY FOR SEVEN DAYS; books, magazines and other printed delights as A BOOK AT BEDTIME with music and other audio in the SOUND BOOTH. You'll get the drift. I'm new to all this blogging lark so be gentle whilst all this beds in.
Original TX: January 1976
Set on the planet Karn, this is the simple story of renegade Time Lord Morbius and his surgeon friend Mehendri Solon. Solon’s trying to piece Morbius back together because you see he’s just a brain sitting in a tank for the moment and he’s keen to get back out there and rule the galaxy.
Also on Karn are the Sisterhood, led by Maren, who was present at the trial of Morbius and saw him executed and believes him long dead. The Sisterhood also worship and maintain the sacred flame that produces an elixir of life, thus allowing them to be immortal. Then the Doctor and Sarah turn up…
Looking at the story from a 2007 perspective, it's holds up remarkably well and offers new and veteran viewers alike a rich palette of ideas and concepts.It's fascinating from a symbolic and psychological perspective as well as being an interesting story redolent with past influences.
To begin with, let's take a look at what I think is the core of the story the dichotomy between the head (masculine rationalism) and the heart (feminine emotion and intuition). Morbius is literally torn apart by the dispersal chamber at his execution and this is an apposite act by a society that was threatened by his disruption. His punishment cuts him off from an instinctive free relationship with nature and he becomes an irrational figure who has lost contact with the personal experience of life.
Solon’s after the perfect head in which to house Morbius’ brain, the Doctor becoming the preferred option. Solon’s obsession about having the perfect head is understandable. Morbius has effectively been castrated and left to his own torment in a dark Underworld devoid of senses. The head is symbolically regarded as the domain of the masculine with the heart being its feminine counterpoint. One can see that the Solon/Morbius relationship is concerned with the dominant male progressing in the world through the application of science. The Sisterhood are the feminine principle of the story, driven by intuition, forces of nature and relying on the mind and matter approach of magic and sorcery.
The Sisterhood fear Morbius and the Time Lords and have an aversion to progress through scientific rationalism. It takes the Doctor to demonstrate that science and magic can be one and the same thing. Hence, his firework aided chimney sweeping of the Sisterhood’s sacred flame, his instant analysis that the elixir could actually be synthesised and his cyanide solution to getting out of the laboratory to stop Morbius. And of course, he will eventually need the elixir himself if he is to survive the ordeal with Morbius.
Emotionally, there are also things to note. Solon is driven by his work and is obsessed to the point of madness in trying to give Morbius his freedom. His is a life absent of real joy. He only sees the material potential of the bodies around him with no concern for sentiment and feelings. He is all about the disintegration of the personality which leads to schizophrenia whilst he physically is attempting to stop the material disintegration of Morbius. As he feverishly sews up bits of bodies to re-integrate Morbius, he is, inside, shattering psychologically.
Sarah as an active, free feminine influence in the narrative is punished with blindness and isolation because of their fear. She’s the potential of what they could all be (progress) and Maren brings her down a peg or two for rescuing the (masculine) Doctor. In the end, the Sisterhood are as equally isolated as Morbius – they through their fear of the masculine penetration of science and he through the mis-application of science – Solon’s attempts to reanimate his body and the effects of the dispersal chamber. The Doctor is the figure that reconciles all of these elements – he uses a science/magic approach to vanquish Morbius and to hopefully bring progress to the Sisterhood.
Appropriate to this era's supposed use of the Gothic, the story has a number of very visceral and physical elements present within it. Condo's arm is highly symbolic of this. Condo experiences his body directly through pain and because he can see his own arm as an external object grafted onto the Morbius body. It is symbolic of Condo’s humanity and with it he would be a complete person again. It is also the only recognisably human part of the Morbius body, capable of vain gesticulation.
Condo’s also capable of feeling and emotion and appreciates Sarah’s feminine beauty and does not understand why it should be destroyed. He recognises the power of his emotions through seeing his promised physicality given to the Morbius creature and through his affection for Sarah but Solon ultimately punishes him for it. For that, it’s an astonishingly brutal story. One particular sequence in Part Three is rather notorious. As Solon prepares Morbius’ brain for the surgery, he faces an angry Condo (Condo has seen his arm on the creature). Solon shoots him, they fight and the brain falls on the floor.
It’s at once violent – Condo’s chest explodes very gorily in full frame – and blackly comic – the brain plops out onto the floor rather satisfyingly in a pool of slime. It is hilarious, repulsive and fascinating. It’s a sophisticated range of reactions produced in a short sequence and is highly typical of the Hinchcliffe/Holmes attitudes to overt violence and black homour in the series. Solon is attempting to further disintegrate Condo’s body and expunge the outpouring of feminine emotion and feeling into his isolated male prison of science.
Looking back at the story now, it is worth noting that it’s entirely studio bound, complete with sets representing the exteriors of Karn. Now, admittedly, the construction of those sets does affect our reception of the story. Wood is used to represent stone for the exteriors and you can clearly hear Lis Sladen’s feet clomping about. However, the production’s overt staginess actually doesn’t destroy the illusion but rather contributes to the feeling that this is an entirely closed environment, hermetically sealed. It reminds me of some of the BBC’s studio bound Shakespeare productions of the late 70’s and early 80’s.
Let’s also not forget that much of studio based television was still using theatrical modes of presentation at this time. The camera very rarely moves in this story, is fairly static and the lighting, flaring into the lens on occasion, often heightens the sheer theatricality of it e.g. the sun rise at the Doctor’s execution. Barry Newbery’s design is also a huge contribution to this ‘play’ and the sets in Solon’s castle are a bricolage of design styles and the almost Himalayan atmosphere these create is very similar to the pressure cooker environments of Powell and Pressburger’s ‘Black Narcisscus’. The combination of the ‘hippy Tibetan’ vibe of the Sisterhood’s costumes and make-up, the radiophonic wind chimes and other sound effects for the planet surface and the Nepalese flavour of the production design really build up that effect. There is also a nod to the Expressionist lab designs of umpteen Universal and Hammer horror films too.
As far as influences are concerned, this is ‘Frankenstein’, primarily. But there are also nods to ‘The Island Of Doctor Moreau’, Rider Haggard’s ‘She’, ‘Beauty And The Beast’, ‘The Hunchback Of Notre Dame’, 50’s B movies and 'Top Of The Pops' (the Sisterhood do a delirious Pan’s People number to capture the TARDIS and to sacrifice the Doctor)
Visual effects are on the whole pretty good. The vista of crashed ships is just about acceptable. The brain tank in the cellar with Morbius’ brain is a triumph of physical effects, especially the trembling bit of material that vibrates as Morbius’ voice rants on. One favourite effect is the blast from Maren’s ring directly into camera as Sarah escapes. That would still pass muster today. The ‘monster’ is so self-referentially ridiculed within the context of the story (‘pot pouri’ and ‘Chop Suey’) that there’s really no need to highlight how daft it looks now. The intentional and unintentional humour implied by the monster costume combine to offset some of the more visceral moments – the shooting and the brain on the floor for example as well as numerous strangulations and a burning at the stake.
Tom and Lis are at their best here. It’s a solid relationship of mutual respect and admiration. Sarah is a tad too much of victim here but who can forget that chill up the spine as she advances, blind, toward that big glowing brain and Michael Spice’s delicious, ranting performance as Morbius. Philip Madoc is superb as the twitchy Solon, desperately trying to rescue his own career as a surgeon whilst trapped in the dungeon of Morbius’ own mind.
'The Brain Of Morbius' BBC Video VHS (BBCV4388 Cert PG - now deleted)
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The Book(s) What I Wrote
"Merits attention from Doctor Who fans interested in the development of a script by going deep into the story’s genesis and shifts in tone, and the infamous production difficulties which plagued it. The glimpses of Steve Gallagher’s original scripts are fascinating, as are the changes made to them by seemingly everyone from directors to producers to cast members." We Are Cult. 17 June 2019.
"Whether you’re a fan of the show under Moffat or not, it offers an intriguing, insightful look at all aspects of the series" 7/10 - Starburst, January 2014
"A worthy addition to serious texts on Doctor Who" - Doctor Who Magazine 431, February 2011
"an impressive work, imbued with so much analytical love and passion, and is an absolute must-read for any fan" N. Blake - Amazon 4/5 stars
"...mixes the intellectual and the emotional very well...it's proper media criticism" 9/10 - The Medium Is Not Enough
"... an up-to-date guide that isn’t afraid to shy away from the more controversial aspects of the series" 8/10 - Total SciFi Online
"...well-informed new angles on familiar episodes... this is a great read from start to finish" - Bertie Fox - Amazon 4/5 stars
"Frank Collins has produced a book that is fiercely idiosyncratic, displays a wide-ranging intellect the size of a planet, but which is also endearingly open and inclusive in its desire to share its expansive knowledge..." 4/5 - Horrorview.com
"The book is great! It makes you think, it makes you work. It encourages you to go back and watch the series with a whole new perspective..." - G.R. Bundy's Blog: Telly Stuff And Things
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