Matt Berry - Television Themes

As a nice follow up to the previous Rainbow post, here's the multitalented overactor* and musician Matt Berry with an offering reminiscent of those 'cover version' TV theme records of years gone by. As is usually the case with those old records, there are several tweaks here and it all works rather well!

With the first track 'Are You Being Served?' we're treated to a particularly loungey but faithful presentation, 'Blankety Blank' has a nice improvised addition and Dr Who gets a glam rock makeover which reminds me of KLF's 'The Timelords - Doctorin' the Tardis'.

The theme from Ronny Corbett's 'Sorry!' is overhauled with a reggae flavour and there are several TV ident jingles sprinkled amongst it all for good measure.

 

 Matt Berry - Television Themes 260kbps VBR

 

*With the term 'overactor', I am giving a compliment as he does it so well and to great cominc effect as seen in this clip from 'The IT Crowd':

 

Telltale - Songs From The Thames Television Children's Programme Rainbow

 This has to be one of my slower rips, as this one has languished on my hard drive since 2009! In the meantime I lost the record and found it again recently, so now I can take a decent picture of the front and back covers for your perusal.

 

This record is nearly 50 years old believe it or not, and comes from a time when rainbows were merely white light which has been refracted, rather than symbols of subversive social movements. Indeed, this Rainbow would never have considered dressing in drag in order to entertain children, although one costume in particular is very suspect here.

This release is from before my Rainbow viewership began and some of the puppets appear to be a bit strange; I'm not sure what those hand puppets are or what might have happened to them. Perhaps Zippy ate them in the green room, or Bungle sat on them.

Whilst looking around at Rainbow-related matters, I was appalled to find that Geoffrey Hayes had died back in 2018, so rest in peace Geoffrey - I hate to think of the state of the place now that you've gone.

Despite the cover there are no appearances by George, Zippy et al. but the record is filled out by the show's resident workshy layabouts of that time - Telltale. They are responsible for the show's famous theme tune which is first up, but don't stop there as some of the tracks have some decent hooks and they're pretty competently put together.

There's 'Autumn's really here' which characterises that season by the proclivity of some birds to congregate on telephone wires. What about the groovy 'Bookworm Song' which lays down some fine nursery rhymes and there's 'Everything in the Garden Smells Sweet' which on occasion sounds suspiciously like 'Everything in the Garden Smells of Weed'. Bloody hippies.

Telltale - Songs From The Thames Television Children's Programme Rainbow 260kbps VBR

Christian Bruhn - Captain Future

After another extended absence, more fine items are to be added to this blog in a manner of fits and starts, fitting and starting with Christian Bruhn's excellent Captain Future soundtrack.

Due to the worldwide flu rebranding which the last couple of years has brought us, the author of this blog died - but was reborn after benefitting from a special experimental suppository produced by Pfizer and installed by CEO Albert Bourla himself.

The results were so spectacular that Albert's mind was briefly distracted from his stinky fingers.

Please do remember to take precautions however and squirt sanitiser into both ears before listening.

This is one of those soundtracks which I love but I've never watched the thing and don't intend to. After watching Stridulum (or The Visitor) which is a film accompanied by another soundtrack I love, I've learned not to push my luck.

This upload is of the soundtrack made (I presume) for a German audience, but as a special extra, I've added a single of the theme from the Italian redub. The B side is amazing!

 

Christian Bruhn - Captain Future

 

Micronauti - Capitan Futuro

Credit to original ripper 260kbpsVBR

Gil Melle - The Andromeda Strain OST

With half the world in lockdown whilst hiding from a contagious illness, what better to accompany the sight of empty streets and fights over toilet paper than one of the creepiest soundtracks out there?

From the 1971 film (not the 2008 mini series), we have some quite radiophonic-sounding atmospheric stuff here. Perfect for a trip to the supermarket, or come to that, any old venture out of a secret underground facility.

Gil Melle - The Andromeda Strain


Credit to original ripper 320kbps

Lenny Dee - Dee-lirious

We're back on the great keyboardists of yesteryear, and 1956 was obviously a goodun.

The title reminds me of when I was delirious as a kid. My bedroom wallpaper featured racing cars and motorbikes and they kept on revving their engines. I attacked them with a rolled-up comic but they still wouldn't stop.

Ah, great days!

I think it would also take more than a rolled-up comic to make Lenny Dee desist. He gives an energetic performance, and judging by the way he stabs those keys he will probably counter with a mean jab or two.

Lenny Dee - Dee-lirious

Ripped and encoded by Slothy@320kbps

By the way, you can find more Lenny here!

The Great British Experience

To commemorate the UK leaving the clutches of the EU, here's a re-up of one of XYZ Cosmonaut's great rips, because it's got the word 'British' in the title.

As well as that though, it has some cracking old tunes from times when the word wireless had a completely different meaning, and when a previous referendum regarding a united Europe took place.  (World War II)

The Great British Experience

Ripped and Encoded by XYZ Cosmonaut@192kbps

The New Goodies LP

 Happy new year everybody! Now that Pigeonshit is into its third decade (technically true), here's a dusty old reupload from the days when I'd contribute to the great X-Y-Z Cosmonaut's Cosmoblog..

Among all-male comedy trio shows on BBC1 in the 70s, The Goodies is the best and I was a big fan. Mind you, comedy tends to be funnier when you're very young indeed.

A friend tipped me off about this LP being in a local charity shop, so I went there post-haste and claimed my prize! I was very lucky, and so was The British Heart Foundation.



Some fine examples of Bill Oddie's musical talent are here, and I'll admit to being as much of a fan of Bill's as he is (he's avid birdwatcher so likes bills/never mind) - there's some great tunes here, my favourite being 'Cricklewood Shakedown'. It also includes the critically acclaimed song Funky Gibbon which got all the way to number 4 in the UK charts in 1975. After exposure by Dr Demento, it even got to number 79 in the Billboard Hot 100 in the US! Wow!

Do..Do..Do.. enjoy The New Goodies LP
Ripped and Encoded by Slothy@256kbps