John Barry

[Geoffers]

Originally Posted by Merton Park Still love the theme from The Ipcress File. Does anybody remember The John Barry 7 on Six Five Special? By the way, BBC4 are showing one of the programmes very soon together with Juke Box Jury and various other "pop" shows.

I'm old enough to remember Six Five Special, but don't recall the JB7 on it, though to be fair they didn't make that many appearances. I do know they were originally turned down by Jack Good's assistant (I've seen the letter) and after they finally appeared (and also in the film version) they failed a BBC radio audition!

The programme I could have seen was Drumbeat in 1959, on which they were resident, along with Adam Faith, before he was famous. Alas I have absolutely no memory of the programme and as it mostly went out "live" I don't imagine any tapes still exist.

My site John Barry - The Man With The Midas Touch has a lot of detail of the series and it's interesting to note that the JB7 played the original Juke Box Jury theme, "Juke Box Fury", before Barry wrote "Hit & Miss" which replaced it.

[mariocki]

OHMSS is my favourite Bond theme but I think his theme from The Adventurer is his finest hour. The same can't be said about the 'star' of the show, Gene Barry.

[smudge]

Originally Posted by mariocki OHMSS is my favourite Bond theme but I think his theme from The Adventurer is his finest hour. The same can't be said about the 'star' of the show, Gene Barry.

Or the show itself for that matter...

Mind you I suppose the contributions from the other players simply reflected the poor attitude of GB.

Smudge

[Freddy]

Originally Posted by Geoffers In 2008 Barry will celebrate his 75th birthday. I'm hoping the BFI will agree to a season of Barry films at the NFT, perhaps using the opportunity to show a couple of rare TV documentaries: Elizabeth Taylor in London & Sophia Loren in Rome. They should also arrange for him to be interviewed. They have at least agreed to discuss this at their next meeting. I've also organized a "Knighthood" petition at Petition to: award John Barry a Knighthood. - I know these things probably don't do much good, but if you get 200 sigs they have to officially consider it and respond. I would like JB to get the nod whilst he is still alive to enjoy the moment. We are only a handful short!

Good luck with both those projects, have signed the petition. Very easy to do.
Let's hope it helps.

Freddy

[batman]

I've always thought that the JBs theme music for The Adventurer was very similar to his them for Orson Welles Great Mysteries and also The Persuaders. Or am I simply mis-remembering them?

Bats.

[rskershaw]

Originally Posted by christoph404 I really like the music on " Deadfall" The film has its moments and Eric Portman is good in what I think might be his last film role, but the music is great and Barry himself makes a cameo appearance in the film as....an orchestra conductor, what else!

He also appeared as an orchestra conductor in The Living Daylights. Ironic, as it was because of Ah-a's (or whatever they were called) behaviour as fellow "musicians" that Barry refused to do a Bond soundtrack again.

Suppose that gave Dave Arnold his break.

Also love "Born Free", "Day of The Locust" and "Out of Africa".

[mariocki]

Originally Posted by batman I've always thought that the JBs theme music for The Adventurer was very similar to his them for Orson Welles Great Mysteries and also The Persuaders. Or am I simply mis-remembering them? Bats.

I'm not familiar with the Orson Welles one but it is similar to The Persuaders! although much better IMHO. I've never been able to get a copy of the original on CD though.

[Matthew Hopkins]

I've signed up to the petition

It's sad how so many people who enrich the lives of others through their work get ignored until its often too late.

Hard to single out one non-Bond score from JB that I prefer, but main themes or incidental music that I like include:

Walkabout
Somewhere In Time
Out Of Africa
The Betsy
King Kong
Body Heat
Midnight Cowboy

A wide variety of styles there...

[Lord Brett]

Originally Posted by Freddy Good luck with both those projects, have signed the petition. Very easy to do. Let's hope it helps. Freddy

Great idea. I've just added my signature. Two more needed to reach 200 - come on folks!

[christoph404]

Originally Posted by rskershaw He also appeared as an orchestra conductor in The Living Daylights. Ironic, as it was because of Ah-a's (or whatever they were called) behaviour as fellow "musicians" that Barry refused to do a Bond soundtrack again. Suppose that gave Dave Arnold his break. Also love "Born Free", "Day of The Locust" and "Out of Africa".

I heard a similar story but it was based on Barry having a bad experience collaborating with "Duran Duran" Did he really refuse to have anything more to do with Bond just because of a bad experience with "Aha"? Seems bizarre to me that a musician of Barry's clout and stature would let some flash in the pan popsters bother him that much. The success of Bond owes a lot to the music of Barry and owes zero to the "talents" of both Duran Duran and Aha, Im sure Barry is perfectly aware of that as are the Bond producers.

[Geoffers]

Originally Posted by christoph404 Originally Posted by rskershaw He also appeared as an orchestra conductor in The Living Daylights. Ironic, as it was because of Ah-a's (or whatever they were called) behaviour as fellow "musicians" that Barry refused to do a Bond soundtrack again. Suppose that gave Dave Arnold his break. Also love "Born Free", "Day of The Locust" and "Out of Africa". I heard a similar story but it was based on Barry having a bad experience collaborating with "Duran Duran" Did he really refuse to have anything more to do with Bond just because of a bad experience with "Aha"? Seems bizarre to me that a musician of Barry's clout and stature would let some flash in the pan popsters bother him that much. The success of Bond owes a lot to the music of Barry and owes zero to the "talents" of both Duran Duran and Aha, Im sure Barry is perfectly aware of that as are the Bond producers.

JB told me a few years ago that he was asked back to score Tomorrow Never Dies. However, they did not want him to write the theme song. He said "haven't I always written the best songs?" "I told them to stuff it".

[PaulPlowman]

Barry never had any problem with Duran Duran! I saw an interview with him in which he said that the only theme song co-writers he didn't enjoy writing with were (switches to Alan Partridge voice) A-Ha!

Has everyone heard A-Ha's mix of the theme? It's on one of their albums and is basically the theme as you know it, but with none of the orchestral accompaniments, and it would be charity to call it "poor".

In fact it's so bad that when A-Ha released their best-of album (Headlines and Deadlines), they used Barry's mix, not their own!

[christoph404]

Originally Posted by PaulPlowman Barry never had any problem with Duran Duran! I saw an interview with him in which he said that the only theme song co-writers he didn't enjoy writing with were (switches to Alan Partridge voice) A-Ha! Has everyone heard A-Ha's mix of the theme? It's on one of their albums and is basically the theme as you know it, but with none of the orchestral accompaniments, and it would be charity to call it "poor". In fact it's so bad that when A-Ha released their best-of album (Headlines and Deadlines), they used Barry's mix, not their own!

I stand corrected,and apologies to Duran for casting them as baddies!, looks like I got the story confused with his bad experience with Aha, a truly dreadful band. It would seem Barry wrote very contemporary title songs in the sixties for Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones, shame the Bond producers didn't seem to have faith in him to produce the goods for more recent Bond films. I believe the Duran Duran title song is the only Bond title theme to reach number 1 in the charts, (in the US at least)

[Geoffers]

I watched the second part of Pop Britannia last night, on BBC4. I wasn't expecting Barry to be included since his pop music days were more-or-less behind him after '63. However, the BBC made up for his absence by "scoring" the documentary with music from The Ipcress File!

I think there is somebody there with a fondness for JB, since his music often turns up in documentaries or programmes like Holiday & Top Gear. The other night I saw a filmed feature in the latter about Jaguars, I think. They managed to include music from Raise the Titanic, Body Heat & The Girl with the Sun in Her Hair (Barry's Sunsilk advert) all in a few minutes.

[Harbottle]

Signed I'm surprised not more have done so though I suspect most probably think these things make no difference.

Very fond of JB's work, in fact his haunting music for the film Four in the Morning (1965) was really the only thing that kept me watching!