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Dave Stewart
T h e A l c h e m i s t s O f S o u n d ( 2 0 0 3 )
Between 1981 and 2009 Dave occasionally wrote TV and film music, much of it for Victor Lewis-Smith's A.R.T.V. production company. Dave explains: "Victor (who sadly died in 2022) was a close friend and a great supporter of our music. He first approached us via a letter asking permission to use some Stewart/Gaskin songs in his 1992 BBC Radio 1 series, casually adding that he intended to register himself as the composer with P.R.S. I didn't appreciate this off-key remark and almost told him to f*** off, but I soon came to know it was typical of his subversive humour.
On listening to Victor's show, Barb and I realised he was a brilliantly funny satirist and radio performer. His programmes were technical masterpieces, combining virtuoso tape editing, multi-layered sound and hilarious musical pastiche with a babel of funny voices. He also had a wicked sideline in hoax phone calls, which occasionally got him into trouble: a colleague remarked there was hardly a single BBC rule which Victor didn't break, but he avoided censure by delivering his finished programmes at the last minute, leaving no time for editing."
Victor Lewis-Smith
Dave continues, "Victor was particularly fond of our song Henry & James, loved Barbara's voice and appreciated my sense of harmony. Having got to know him and longstanding co-writer Paul Sparks via meetings in Soho drinking establishments, he invited me to compose a theme tune for his 1993 TV series Inside Victor Lewis-Smith. This led to a fruitful and hugely enjoyable collaboration stretching over 15 years. Victor always involved his entire production team in the creative process, to the point where I was sometimes able to attend filming and, with the help of technical wizard and editor John Warburton, design visual sequences to accompany my music. I consider the featured 'Alchemists of Sound' title music (composed for a documentary on the BBC Radiophonic Workshop) to be some of our best work for Victor: filmed at BBC Maida Vale Studios, it features Barbara enacting the hands of legendary Workshop composer Delia Derbyshire, intercut with brief archive clips of Delia herself, Radiophonic Workshop co-founder Desmond Briscoe and composer John Baker."
Delia Derbyshire (1965)
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