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Received my copy today - a very nice tribute to the ITC music I think, but rather depressing to be informed in the booklet that much of the music from various series is missing: ie Gideon's Way, The Baron, the b+w episodes of The Saint, and - unfortunately - much of The Persuaders! apparently.
The booklet also notes that nothing is left of the incidental music for The Adventurer, and "...what remains of the music to The Zoo Gang is an assortment of unlabelled and mainly unidentifiable cues" (though the short suite here has been remixed into stereo, which is rather nice.....)
The Return of The Saint cues are, as I expected, solely Brian Dee/Irving Martin compositions which aren't really that good (apart from the theme) and the not-very-good theme by the De Angelis brothers. Nothing of John Scott's superlative work - and interestingly the booklet doesn't even mention his name, or his library music which, after all, formed the bulk of the incidentals in the series. I understand that Network probably couldn't licence all the Bruton library stuff that was used, but you'd think that they'd at least have mentioned it.
While disappointing in the scale of material which has been lost over the years (and the CD inevitably does suffer a little because of this), this is still an excellent compilation and comes with a very nice booklet too.
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Received my copy today - a very nice tribute to the ITC music I think, but rather depressing to be informed in the booklet that much of the music from various series is missing: ie Gideon's Way, The Baron, the b+w episodes of The Saint, and - unfortunately - much of The Persuaders! apparently.
The booklet also notes that nothing is left of the incidental music for The Adventurer, and "...what remains of the music to The Zoo Gang is an assortment of unlabelled and mainly unidentifiable cues" (though the short suite here has been remixed into stereo, which is rather nice.....)
The Return of The Saint cues are, as I expected, solely Brian Dee/Irving Martin compositions which aren't really that good (apart from the theme) and the not-very-good theme by the De Angelis brothers. Nothing of John Scott's superlative work - and interestingly the booklet doesn't even mention his name, or his library music which, after all, formed the bulk of the incidentals in the series. I understand that Network probably couldn't licence all the Bruton library stuff that was used, but you'd think that they'd at least have mentioned it.
While disappointing in the scale of material which has been lost over the years (and the CD inevitably does suffer a little because of this), this is still an excellent compilation and comes with a very nice booklet too.
Do they include the main themes from "Randall and Hopkirk Deceased", "Department S", "Strange Report" from the original master tapes unlike the previous separate releases?
What you just published about those ITC scores is terrible news. A goddam nightmare!
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Do they include the main themes from "Randall and Hopkirk Deceased", "Department S", "Strange Report" from the original master tapes unlike the previous separate releases?
What you just published about those ITC scores is terrible news. A goddam nightmare!
As far as I can tell, they've used the same sources as previously. 'Randall and Hopkirk' never sounded too bad, but regretfully 'Strange Report' and 'Department S' sounded pretty terrible and they still do here.
But what can anyone do if the original tapes are lost?
The theme to 'The Baron' is taken from the episode soundtrack I think as it has the gunshots and car horn effects etc. Nearly all the incidental music is lost apart from what is on this disc. Nothing of the 'Gideon's Way' incidental music is thought to exist (I imagine the titles here are drawn from the episodes themselves...). We already know that there was quite a chunk of music from 'Strange Report' missing; that was evident from the soundtrack set for that show.
The exact wording with regards to The 'Persuaders' is: "Despite being one of the most loved ITC series, a lot of the music...is believed to be lost in it's original format". Make of that what you will. I suppose it depends what you mean by "a lot" of the music.....
The incidental scores for 'The Adventurer' are lost apparently (I haven't listened to the title cues yet so I don't know what the source is), and it looks like 'The Zoo Gang' score by Ken Thorne exists in part at least, but is a bit of a mess.
The small print at the back of the booklet makes clear that the original tapes or multi tracks (in the case of 'The Zoo Gang') have been used wherever possible but where no other material exists, then episode soundtracks have been used. They don't note which cues use the latter, but on close listening some do sound like they haven't come from session tapes.
A bit disappointing really, but seeing as nobody ever thought that this material would ever get an airing outside of the transmitted episodes (in many cases 40+ years ago), I think Network have done the best they can.
And it does at least look as if the scores for the colour episodes of 'The Saint' are reasonably plentiful, so there is some reason to be cheerful 
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Do they include the main themes from "Randall and Hopkirk Deceased", "Department S", "Strange Report" from the original master tapes unlike the previous separate releases?
What you just published about those ITC scores is terrible news. A goddam nightmare!
As far as I can tell, they've used the same sources as previously. 'Randall and Hopkirk' never sounded too bad, but regretfully 'Strange Report' and 'Department S' sounded pretty terrible and they still do here.
But what can anyone do if the original tapes are lost?
The theme to 'The Baron' is taken from the episode soundtrack I think as it has the gunshots and car horn effects etc. Nearly all the incidental music is lost apart from what is on this disc. Nothing of the 'Gideon's Way' incidental music is thought to exist (I imagine the titles here are drawn from the episodes themselves...). We already know that there was quite a chunk of music from 'Strange Report' missing; that was evident from the soundtrack set for that show.
The exact wording with regards to The 'Persuaders' is: "Despite being one of the most loved ITC series, a lot of the music...is believed to be lost in it's original format". Make of that what you will. I suppose it depends what you mean by "a lot" of the music.....
The incidental scores for 'The Adventurer' are lost apparently (I haven't listened to the title cues yet so I don't know what the source is), and it looks like 'The Zoo Gang' score by Ken Thorne exists in part at least, but is a bit of a mess.
The small print at the back of the booklet makes clear that the original tapes or multi tracks (in the case of 'The Zoo Gang') have been used wherever possible but where no other material exists, then episode soundtracks have been used. They don't note which cues use the latter, but on close listening some do sound like they haven't come from session tapes.
A bit disappointing really, but seeing as nobody ever thought that this material would ever get an airing outside of the transmitted episodes (in many cases 40+ years ago), I think Network have done the best they can.
And it does at least look as if the scores for the colour episodes of 'The Saint' are reasonably plentiful, so there is some reason to be cheerful
If we have "The Saint", that will be heaven! Too bad for the rest but at least we will get a clean "Saint".
I wonder if they plan to release some Gerry Anderson materials?
***Templar Out***
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If we have "The Saint", that will be heaven! Too bad for the rest but at least we will get a clean "Saint".
I wonder if they plan to release some Gerry Anderson materials?
I wouldn't be surprised; I also would imagine they'll be able to do something with The Persuaders! and The Zoo Gang if enough music still survives I hope so anyway; although the cues represented on this CD for The Persuaders! aren't plentiful, it would be nice to think they're holding the rest back for a CD release.
(At least, I'd rather think that, than think they haven't got much more material to release  )
A Persuaders!/Zoo Gang two-fer, for instance - covering the available material - might be quite good.
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If we have "The Saint", that will be heaven! Too bad for the rest but at least we will get a clean "Saint".
I wonder if they plan to release some Gerry Anderson materials?
I wouldn't be surprised; I also would imagine they'll be able to do something with The Persuaders! and The Zoo Gang if enough music still survives I hope so anyway; although the cues represented on this CD for The Persuaders! aren't plentiful, it would be nice to think they're holding the rest back for a CD release.
(At least, I'd rather think that, than think they haven't got much more material to release )
A Persuaders!/Zoo Gang two-fer, for instance - covering the available material - might be quite good.
Now the question that comes to mind is: is Network going to release a multi-set before the end of 2009 (it remains roughly 2 months)?
I gave up the idea of a six full releases for 2009. From the old blog published in the first term of 2009, "The Saint" was implied to see the light.
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I'm listening to mine on the way into work now. I think a little bit of mastering has gone on as the tracks appear a bit more 'even' than on their previous releases, but as Simon points out the material that was particularly bad on previous releases hasn't really improved. Its nice to hear all the various SAINT main titles and some incedental music as well as some of Ken Thorne's THE PERSUADERS at last and if we had never had a Network music release before I would have been over the moon to get hold of this. A great compilation and a fair stab by Network to make these scores slightly 'more commercial'.
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The remixing of the suite from The Zoo Gang into stereo sounds great in particular, and shows what Network could do if they only had better source material. I hope a fuller CD release of what is left of this score remains a possibility.
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Is there a slight chance that Mr. Thorne has dubs from "The Persuaders"?
No - he has nothing at all, apparently.
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Posted: |
Nov 4, 2009 - 11:50 AM
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By: |
Oldsmith
(Member)
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I think Network have done the best they can.
I hate "grammar police," particularly on the internet when most language mix-ups are really carelessness, keypunch errors and culture differences. However, this one keeps popping up here and it always stops me cold when I'm reading. Unless the UK has some totally different rules, the correct phrase should be "Network has done the best it can."
See, we humanize businesses with "they" because we are referring to the people doing the work within the company. Then we wind up with incorrect phrases like "Network has done the best they can." Oy!
Use "has" with he, she, & it. Use "have" for I, you, we & they.
Anyway, I don't mean to be a douche. . .just kinda happens.
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Anyway, I don't mean to be a douche. . .just kinda happens.
Further comment on that point would be superfluous. Any comments on this CD though?
I mean, if you want to go through all the posts on this entire board for things like you mention, by all means carry on - and we'll see you again in 2020.
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Anyone care to take a crack at this?
Apologies - meant to answer this much earlier.
Apart from the title music, there is the 'Gotta Get Away' vocal from 'Overture'. Then there are two incidental cues. The first is a light hearted arrangement of 'Gotta Get Away' and it accompanies the scene in 'Overture' where Danny Wilde is attempting to get into Maria's handbag to steal the keys to her room - while Brett enjoys himself with Maria (and diverts her attention from the hapless Danny).
The other cue appears plenty of times through the episodes - take a look at 'Someone Like Me' for example at about the 31 minute mark and there is a fight scene between Brett and Danny. This music scores that scene.
Having listened to these cues a few times, I'm not convinced they come from master tapes. The title music isn't that brilliant in quality (good job we have Barry's commercial recording),and the 'Gotta Get Away' vocal merely sounds ok. The instrumental arrangement of the song in the next cue sounds like it might have come from the tapes. The last cue...I don't know, I've listened carefully and I think it might come from an episode soundtrack as there are hints of noise (like traffic or something).
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