It's hard to believe now, but back in the ages when British TV channels didn't broadcast 24/7, there'd be a 'station signature tune' that played as a sort of overture before the stations opened up each morning or afternoon.
Each regional TV company (not the BBC) had its own logo, theme, etc..
This one was for UTV, the Ulster station, and was composed by an English composer, Wayne Hill. He's captured something, true enough. Suggestive of Celtic warriors etc.. Think Herrmann's 'Daniel Webster' or some historical TV score re the Middle Ages or something. It's called 'The Antrim Road' (a 17 mile road that leads from Belfast to Antrim through the countryside, via Templepatrick). Two distinct themes, each with it's own trio. I like the horn part at 1:27.
Does anyone know more about these ITV compositions? They weren't the usual cheap logo jingle, but real compositions. There are websites dedicated to this stuff!
My dad used to work for Westward and then for TSW right up until they lost their franchise in 1992. I don't know about the Westward music - that accompanied the model boat logo - but for TSW the ident music was newly commissioned from Wil Malone (of Death Line fame!). His full composition "That's Soul, Write" (geddit?) was then edited down to the logo.
TSW issued an LP early on, called Screen Tested, containing this track and other themes for their new shows mainly composed by Ed Welch. It also has a *fantastic* Ron Goodwin track called The Tin Miner's Ghost. Goodwin was of course born in Plymouth, the home of TSW. Luckily, dad had a copy of this LP in great condition so I've been able to transfer these tracks to computer and add them to my iPod.
EDIT: I keep trying to embed or link the short logo video on Youtube, but it just ain't doing it!
Probably better described as 'startup themes' than test card themes, I suppose. In the days when ITV was made up of lots of individual regional companies and there really was individuality and regional identity on the tv. Not the awful corporate look of ITV as it is now.
I grew up in the Midlands - or as it was better known, 'ATV land'. Me and my brothers and sisters all remember watching these startup sequences at the start of the days viewing (before 24 hr telly).
The first one was a vocal sung by Stephanie de Sykes and 'Rain', with a piece called Odyssey. This was accompanied by aerial images of places around the Midlands (note the frequent shots of tv transmitters). Sadly this sequence got nixed by the Independent Broadcasting Authority, who wanted instrumental-only startups:
The vocal piece then got replaced by a piece by Johnny Pearson and entitled Midland Montage which was pretty damned good too:
I see that the site William has linked to doesn't mention the STV piece which I remember. It's mentioned as being Geraldo's "Scotlandia" from 1957, but I clearly recall a lenghty piece which incorporated "Charlie is my Darling" and "A Hundred Pipers". From the Blackhill transmittor, serving central Scotland - my memory of this would be from about 1970 onwards...
I found one site where a chap was waxing elegaic and orgasming (to all intents and purposes) over this sort of material, 'can't find it just now though. He thinks it a decline in civilisation that such compositions aren't needed any more....!!!
