Oh, I’ve not done one of these for a while. It just so happened to coincide with my latest “digital music” purchase in a way that simply hasn’t happened before. Did any of you watch that “Unforgettable Jeremy Beadle” thing that was on ITV tonight? No? Anyone find it odd that the obituary programme was shown at roughly the same time slot as many of his programmes? No again? Well, I’m going to continue anyway.

Chris was round tonight, so a night of vegetation in front of the telly was in order. The afore mentioned programme sparked enough interest in the room to warrant its watching. On the other hand (ho ho), there wasn’t much else on.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable look back at the man’s life, with clips from shows I didn’t even think existed anymore. The end theme, however, made me shout of with amazement.

Let me take you back to 1992, 1993ish. My record collection was still at a minimal level. Few singles, fewer albums. This was boosted by an old relative clearing out her cupboards, and a stack of mainly uninteresting LPs were given to me. Out of all of the albums played, two tracks stood out. One of them featured on a scratchy old Telstar compilation album named “More Green Velvet”, and was entitled “The Lonesome Boatman” by The Fureys + Davey Arthur. It was a short, flutey, instrumental with a great guitar track and very 80s sounding seagull samples.

Now, thanks to the tinternet, I was able to find many different recordings of this, but not the one featured on the More Green Velvet album. The online stores only stocked the same CDs which had a different version. Even Spotify didn’t have it. Thankfully, I managed to find a version of it on youtube. It was longer than my vinyl version, though it would appear that the disc it came from was long out of print, and therefore went for an absolute fortune on ebay. Sigh. This was the only time I’d heard it coming from a source other than my own record collection.

Years pass, and on Friday, I’m awoken with the tune in my head, and the realisation I’d not tried any of the digital download sites. Within minutes, I was 69p lighter, and downloading “The Lonesome Boatman” My long search was over! In fact, I tweeted about it…

Finally got a digital version of “The Lonesome Boatman” by The Fureys for 69p… had it on vinyl, given to me by a long dead relative. 11:45 AM Aug 13th via web

All was not right, however, when I played it through headphones for the first time…

Ugh. Disregard my earlier “Lonesome Boatman” tweet. Awful analogue tape damage on this version all the way through. 69p wasted. Grrrrr. 1:48 AM Aug 14th via web

If you’re listening through speakers, it’s not too bad, but on headphones, the right channel is terrible! This version is taken from a “greatest hits”, so I’m hoping for a better version out there somewhere.

Er, anyway, back to the telly theme link…. two days after purchasing it, the very same version was used as the closing credits for the Jeremy Beadle thing. I find it really a bit spooky and coincidental that I would buy this tune almost immediately after waking up thinking about it, and two days later, for the first time in ~18 years, actually hear it broadcast on TV. It’s just weird, and a little too concidental.

Oh, and, to end this posting with yet another “death” announcement, according to the UKGameshows mailing list, Jack Parnell, one of the two composers of the original “Family Fortunes” theme (Bob Monkhouse / Max Bygraves era), has died. The other composer, Dave Lindup, died in 1992. Lindup’s son, Mark, is the keyboard player from Level 42.

Just click play.

It’s called ‘The Golden Age of Video’ by Ricardo Autobahn. It’s a copyright minefield, so I’m surprised it’s not been deleted yet. I’m so glad it hasn’t.

I got out of bed at 5:50 just to play it because I woke up with it going around my head. Anything that has Short Circuit, Rainbow, The Fast Show, Anchorman, Naked Gun, South Park, and Family Guy in the same video, with a recurring chorus featuring Ghostbusters and Freaks MUST be good… and this is brilliant.

EDIT: fixed formatting.

The 80s music on the Drench advert, where a goldfish picks out the location of a ball in a cup, is called “Push it To the Limit”, by Paul Engemann. Although the advert is only a few seconds long, you may recognise it from the soundtrack of Scarface, and of course, GTA 3, as part of Flashback FM. In fact, all of the Flashback FM tracks are from Scarface.

I do like the Scarface soundtrack, and it’s so long since I’ve played it. On it goes.

In other news, at 16:29 today, the Revo Dalek which had been salvaged from Lancaster Road, received its first power in its new home, with help from a gear tray supplied by Andy The Iridium Fan. This is also the first time in my entire life that I’d lit a SOX (low pressure sodium) lantern. I took a photo at the immediate time of switch-on, but the floor in the living room was a mess so none of you will ever get to see it. To me, however, it was a groundbreaking moment.

Ah yes, it’s the Great North Run today, and no doubt there’s going to be a few people wondering what the theme music is that the BBC use on their transmissions. Of course, it’s “Going Home (Theme of the Local Hero)” by Mark Knopfler. One of my favourite pieces of music.

Andy the Iridium Fan will be photographig the event.

… but I have finally, finally managed to get the Auf Weidersehen Pet soundtrack on LP. Now, settle down, my friends, as I shall tell you a tale of wonderment, surprise, mystery and intrigue. And I’m not even drunk… yet.

It all started back in 1983, possibly 1984. Too young to remember. An hour-long television show named “Auf Wiedersehen Pet” made its way onto our television screens. In 1986, a second series was aired. In 1988, both series were repeated, albeit in half-hour chunks. At this point, I was old enough to recognise and enjoy its distinctive theme tunes, and I would often sit next to the TV with a cassette recorder, recording the theme tunes.

In the summer of 1988, just before I headed off on my holibobs to Sandy Bay, one of my friends, a lad called Darren, announced that he had the full soundtrack. Yes, it had actually been released on LP, around the time the second series had aired, and that if I gave Darren a cassette, he’d record it for me.

A few days later, (if I remember correctly, it was a Friday, the night before we went away) I was presented with a freshly recorded tape, laden with 18 minutes and 29 seconds of music. Hurrah!

That tape went everywhere with me. Every time we went on holiday, so did this tape, and I’d play it in the car, whenever we went anywhere, much to the annoyance of my parents who must have been sick to death of hearing it.

My love for the soundtrack never really went away, and as each repetition of Auf Weidersehen Pet came on TV, I would once again dig out the tape and play it. Obviously, at some point, I went through and picked up vinyl copies of the singles, though the condition of them wasn’t terribly good.

In roughly 2003, I found that the soundtrack had been released on CD, through a company named “Prestige”. To my slight disappointment, when I played it, the tracks weren’t totally original… “That’s Livin’ Alright” had every second vocal line re-recorded, “Breaking Away”, “Get It Right”, and “The Seven Again”, all faded out early, “Tonight’s The Night” was cut to shreds, knocking an entire verse out of the song, and a minute off its overall running time. The only track to survive intact was “Back With The Boys Again”.

So, it was clear that the only way to get what I wanted, was to find a copy of the 1986 LP. Unsurprisingly, this version has not been issued on CD. Ebay was the site of choice, when it comes to finding it, though it seemed to go for silly money.

Since then, that Auf Weidersehen tape has never really “gone missing”. Although I haven’t played a tape in years, it’s always seemed to have been “about”, if you know what I mean.

Chris came over the other night, and we were discussing when we were kids, and some of the old recordings I had of me as a kid. Though, 22 years on, they’re incredibly embarrassing, I still played them, and let him have a listen to what I sounded like when I was 8. Naturally, this tape was one of the ones I’d played, as the B side consists entirely of me shouting stuff into the tape recorder, you know, as kids do.

This got me itching to hear the soundtrack as it was meant to be played. I flipped the tape over, and played a few seconds. All of those memories of past summers and childish laughter came rushing back. Over the years, the tape has degraded, and although it still plays, the sound quality was hardly up to scratch. It may also have had something to do with the hi-fi I was playing it on. Either way, I wanted to listen to it properly.

Off to the afore-metioned auction site, where I picked up the following…

Yes, a gleaming copy of the LP. I didn’t know what to expect when I got it. I actually dreamt that I received it, and it was in appaling condition. Thankfully, this wasn’t the case, and it is in perfect condition. Needless to say, I have recorded it, and it’ll soon be part of my MP3 collection to treasure for another 20 years.