Bond And Beyond Listening Event: The John Barry Memorial Concert - This Friday, 1st July, 8pm, BBC Radio 2

Bond And Beyond Listening Event:
The John Barry Memorial Concert
This Friday, 1st July, 20:00-2200 on BBC Radio 2 (UK)

Quote :

Sir Michael Parkinson introduces a memorial concert to celebrate the life of composer John Barry, which was recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in June.

One of the most celebrated film composers of his generation, John Barry scored more than 125 films over the course of his career and won five Oscars. The concert will feature some of his best loved compositions, from Bond themes, to The Lion in Winter, Out of Africa and Dances with Wolves.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Nicholas Dodd with a programme assembled by John's wife Laurie Barry and composer David Arnold. There will be performances from Dame Shirley Bassey, Rumer and Wynne Evans, as well as tributes from Don Black, Sir Michael Caine, Timothy Dalton, Sir George Martin, and Sir Tim Rice

More here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0123zv5

We can make this concert a forum listening event on Bond And Beyond, with a thread opened on the night for running commentary from ourselves during the event.

All you have to do is visit BBC Radio 2's homepage on Friday night at 8pm (UK time), and click on "listen" in the top right hand corner to hear the concert:

Radio 2 homepage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/
Radio 2 live radio player console: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_two

Any takers for this?

This sounds pretty cool. Though I'll have to check out the time difference from Australia.

S***, why'd this have to be Friday night? I'm out at that time I'm afraid. Still, this sounds like a good idea to bring people here together to admire the genius of John Barry, so I hope it goes well.

Sounds brilliant. Count me in.

I'm also liable to be out so will be on iplayer alas. I'd say I'm a maybe, leaning on probable. :bounce:

Can anyone record the stream for us?

Shit. That starts at 3PM in my time zone. I'm working 11-7 that day.

It'll be 5.00am on a Saturday morning here. Damn.

With it being BBC Radio, I'd imagine there'll be a listen again option, as some of their shows have that option where the programme is available to listen to again for up to a week. That's what I'll be hoping to do, given that I'll miss the Friday evening broadcast.

Maybe we could arrange a second listening to accommodate those not able to listen on Friday night?

Don't think I'll be able to catch this, tomorrow's my only day off this week and I need to go out.

Damn. I missed this.

Was anyone able to catch it around here?

I hope they release a DVD of the concert.

I didn't catch it but it's on BBC iplayer, which I'd imagine has limitations to non-UK listeners. Unfortunately I don't have the means to capture the audio and put it up someplace.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0123zv5/Friday_Night_is_Music_Night_01_07_2011/

I finally got to give it a listen. The programme was part of Michael Parkinson's "Friday Night Music" so you get him giving an intro to almost every piece.

Naturally this little report is prefixed by "In My Opinion"...as well as the fact that I started writing after I started listening then caught up and it becomes more of a 'live' commentary. It's not Dickens but there we go.

I found the renditions of "Somewhere in Time" and "The John Dunbar Theme" quite powerful, they sounded different to how I've usually heard them and had extra resonance. These were interspersed by clips of John Barry talking about Lion in Winter and Dances With Wolves as well as Don Black recounting how Barry changed his life ("How would you like to write the words to Thunderball?", got me out of Hackney). Michael Caine recounted his Goldfinger story from afar ending emotionally. What seemed somewhat limp and it's cringeworthy to write that is the rendition of "We Have All the Time in the World" sung by Rumer. I've not heard Rumer before (and I understand she was invited by Barry's widow to sing at this event) but the version just sounded...lifeless. Maybe she tried giving it her own slant but it didn't sound right. But then, no one can ever top Armstrong.
There was a pause in the programme whilst we get interviews with people including David Arnold (I skipped this cutting in just to hear someone, Nicholas Dodd I think, say that Arnold was keeping the essence of Barry going against the backdrop of some Arnold stuff, something from TWINE I think). The interview with Dalton was good, Dalton talking about Lion in Winter (going so much as to do the music as you can...). Any excuse to hear Dalton, personally a self-described "musical imbecile", some of the interview was against "Ice Chase". Parkinson talking about his friendship with Barry mentioning about "Remembering Chet".

After this interval Parkinson sounds like he's on stage so I guess it moves back in and out. Recounts Barry meeting Armstrong for OHMSS before the music resumes with "Body Heat".
After "Remembering Chet" (that earns loud applause) we get an interview with Dickie Attenborough speaking about "Chaplin" followed by John Barry again speaking about how he came up with the theme (Attenborough said he wanted a romantic theme).
Following this, "Out of Africa" and a further interview with Barry in which he mentions his work process and the albums he did late on, Beyondness of Things and Eternal Echoes.
"It is a film score, I just don't have any film!"

Dalton does a reading of something that Barry had on his desk though Dalton is succeeded by Arnold on stage. Arnold goes on to play "Tick Off the days One by One"...actually, he sings and plays. I confess that when he says "thank you" he sounds Bluebottle from the Goon Show. This segues straight into a fantastic rendition of the Bond theme. This in turn segues into FRWL, Thunderball, the 007 Theme, YOLT, OHMSS (sounds different, a fair bit of tambourines/drums...probably the former) which again moves onto DAF where the Suite ends.

George Martin up speaking about LALD and Barry. He introduces Dame Shirley -curse the lack of video. Loud applause as she starts off into DAF. Still, what a voice...As if it's not enough, Goldfinger. I'll say this, the orchestra on both sounds jaunty... (all this might explain why my review of the Casino Royale OST got ditched by the uni paper). Thunderous applause followed by Barry's grandaughters coming on stage and concluding with the Bond theme (Arnold on guitar).

At times a moving listening experience. Chills on the usual pieces of music, I hoped to hear Raise the Titanic done by the orchestra but as it was the memorial was a fitting tribute I think. What's assured is that there'll ever only be one John Barry.

-


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClqSXOhtc8w&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Been doing a little audio noodling with the David Arnold solo from the concert - now with a few added orchestrals (just for fun - as you do):

http://www.fernyfilms.co.uk/TickTheDaysMixByAndyCarslaw.mp3

I know Sharky is just gonna love this! :roll:

Entire radio broadcast is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkdLK4UGV2Y