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Article - Prague - Raise The Titanic, Geoff Leonard
Over the last few years I have done a fair amount of work
for Silva Screen. Mainly on liner notes for their John Barry
and related albums, but also research. Very recently at the
request of James Fitzpatrick I spent some time going through
the first James Bond films, noting any notable music cues
which do not appear on the official albums. James’ idea was
to combine these cues with the best of the previously released
material into mini-suites. Nic Raine would have the rather
more exacting job of reconstructing the ‘new’ music and arranging
it.
For some years now, Silva have recorded much of their catalogue
in Prague, mainly due to the spiralling costs of London-based
musicians and studios. To make the best use of the time and
facilities over there, James always ensures there is a variety
of music to be recorded – certainly enough to last for a few
days. On this occasion, apart from the Bond album, he would
also be recording a tribute album to Gordon McCrae and Howard
Keel, using Welsh baritone Jason Howard with arrangements
by Paul Bateman; a Barbra Streisand film music album (for
another company) and, to my delight, Nic Raine’s reconstruction
of the entire score to 'Raise The Titanic'!
Recording in Prague was set to begin on the 9th June, lasting until the 14th, and I was surprised
and delighted to be asked along to the sessions. The journey
from Bristol to Prague went very smoothly. By coincidence,
a friend of mine was also going to spend some time in Prague,
and, living only a few miles away, we were able to journey
to Heathrow together.
This was the first time I had flown anywhere from Heathrow,
but I had precise directions from James as to where everything
was. Most of the rest of the party had already flown out earlier
in the day, either from Heathrow or Stanstead, but James told
me to look out for Jason, who, due to a late change of plan,
would be on my flight.
After an initial frustrating delay on the plane waiting for
our ‘slot’, the flight went very smoothly and lasted only
one hour twenty minutes. I had a rough description of Jason
but failed to spot him either on the plane or at the airport,
although there was one or two who looked as though they might
be him. I later discovered he thought he had seen me but was
put off because I appeared to be with someone rather than
on my own as he had been told. For my part, I have to say
James’ description of Jason wasn’t particularly accurate!
I’d heard one or two horror stories about Prague taxis, especially
their prices, but I was able to share a mini-bus with my friend
who had one booked and paid for as part of his package.
I knew recording was due to start at 5 p.m. and as I didn’t
get booked into the hotel until about 7.15, I decided it wasn’t
worth turning up for the last half-hour. Instead I met James
in the lobby about an hour later. He quickly introduced me
to Jason, who I was embarrassed to discover was one
of the people I’d been staring at at Prague airport a little
earlier! We were soon joined by the other members of the party,
John Timperley (Chief Engineer) Nic Raine (arranger/conductor)
and Paul Bateman (arranger/conductor).
James has spent so much time in Prague that he has a good
knowledge of the restaurants, and, in fact had already pre-booked
all the evening meals! Two of the choices were in walking
distance of our hotel and dinner followed a few minutes later
at one of these. The food was excellent, though not always
easy to digest due to much laughing as Nic Raine kept up a
relentless succession of jokes, puns and banter - much of
which was directed at John Timperley. Paul Bateman also had
a few good stories (and the local accents to go with them)
and Jason proved as unlikely an opera star as is imaginable,
with some truly awful limericks and the most disgusting jokes!
Incidentally, he revealed he spent six years in the fire-brigade
before embarking on a professional career as a singer. He
has a marvellous voice. Later on in the week I got to hear
stuff like 'Oklahoma', 'You'll Never Walk Alone' and 'If I
Loved You' - wonderful and very moving stuff.
Anyway, next morning we walked down the road to the studio
for the second session. Nic Raine was first up with Raise
The Titanic and James arranged a chair for me in the studio
so I could alternate between there and the control booth.
Being there for the recording of RTT was a never to be forgotten
occasion. I could hardly believe I was sitting just a yard
or so behind the violins during the live recordings - and
I managed not to cough!
There's not much more I can say about the music itself as
one will need to hear it to appreciate it. Suffice it to say
I considered it was brilliantly played and sounded so authentic. The string sound in Prague is remarkable, and the
woodwind pretty good, too, although the brass and especially
rhythm section is never completely at home with 'Western-style'
music. This later resulted in a few problems recording the
Bond music. But it was explained to me that they would overdub
any problem areas in London. Isn't technology wonderful?
During the afternoon, Nic finished off Raise The Titanic
and made a start on the first Bond suite. The evening session
was the first allocated to Paul Bateman & Jason Howard,
and they got through a fair amount, despite the fact that
Jason’s voice was a bit ‘gravelly’ – as he put it.
Friday was James Bond day. Having heard some of the ‘previously
unreleased’ music via video so often recently, it was wonderful
now hearing it played live in the studio. One has to remember
that although nearly all this music is very familiar to most
of us, as far as the Czech musicians are concerned, it is
all still very new. In the circumstances, and with considerable
assistance from Nic, they soon get into the swing of things.
I am very new to orchestral rehearsals in the studio and was
slightly taken aback by the tempo adopted by Nic Raine on
occasions. For example, ‘From Russia With Love’, particularly
the opening, was taken at a gallop, so much so that the rhythm
section was a good yard behind the strings! "Surely they
won’t be able to get that right?", I thought. But this
is just Nic’s way of warming them up and making room for even
more ‘takes’ per session, and after another couple of tries
they were almost perfect. It’s an odd thing, but on occasions
after an apparently successful take, I found myself wondering
if they couldn’t get the opening just a little more together,
when as if by magic Nic said as such to the orchestra! I should
point out that both Nic and Paul Bateman used an interpreter
for nearly all their instructions to the orchestra. The interpreter,
a violinist herself, was really good at her job and very little
time was lost because of this. Occasionally Nic would ask
for a retake but mostly the decision would be made by producer
James (following the music bar by bar) or by engineer John,
who might have heard a noise from the studio or be unhappy
with the miking of a particular instrument or section of the
orchestra.
As I mentioned earlier, there were some problems with the
rhythm section. The Prague studio isn’t especially big, and
although it easily coped with the 75 or so musicians, it isn’t
always possible to position the percussion and guitars to
the best advantage. The cymbal player was moved upstage and
backstage, the vibraphone player’s mike was moved closer,
the guitarist was completely re-sited – all until John was
satisfied. On one occasion the decision was made to ask the
electric guitar player to remain silent during his piece,
since he had brought the wrong guitar to the session! When
they played the ‘spider’ music from Dr. No, with its final
crash, crash crash, the orchestra fell about laughing! Must
remember to tell Monty Norman!
John Timperley is an amazing character. This is his fortieth
year in the business and he is now an independent engineer.
He started his career at Chappells in 1960 and was given his
first opportunity by legendary Robert Farnon. He also recalls
working with John Barry and Ron Grainer around that time,
‘King’s Breakfast’ was one of the latter’s earliest films.
He spent nine years at Chappells during which time he worked
with all the great artists, before moving to work in France
for several years. I was surprised to learn that Norman Newell
recorded several EMI acts at Chappells during the sixties.
I had assumed everything was done at Abbey Road. One year
in the late seventies, he spent one year recording rock groups
- a year which nearly finished him off, he claims! He and
Nic Raine were absolutely scathing in their opinion of the
musician’s union, in particularly holding Don Smith as being
responsible for losing musicians so much work in England.
Back in the studio, it was strange to see the acoustic guitarist,
Peter Binder, playing ‘Gypsy Camp’, the cue originally created
by Vic Flick back in 1963. He managed pretty well even though
he had to be asked to put on his headphones because his timing
was slightly out. Incidentally, Peter is one of the few Czech
musicians to have a smattering of English.
Geoff Leonard |
