Read about the series here.

Two 2001 Music Scores? Oneword’s Score Plays Them Both

I was listening to The Score, a programme about film music on Oneword Radio, a UK digital station.

On June 24 they played both scores for Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. I was unaware there were two scores but you may not be so ignorant. However if you are then it is a fact that Stanley Kubrick commissioned Alex North to write the score for his film 2001: A Space Odyssey, but decided against it in favour of the classics we know. North’s score is in two movements, reflecting the first and second chapters of the film.

Wikipedia states:

‘The 2001: A Space Odyssey score is an unused film score composed by Alex North for Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey.’

‘North, unaware that Kubrick had decided not to use the score in his film was “devastated” at the 1968 New York City premiere screening of 2001 not to hear his work, and later offered this account of his experience:

“Well, what can I say? It was a great, frustrating experience, and despite the mixed reaction to the music, I think the Victorian approach with mid-European overtones was just not in keeping with the brilliant concept of Clarke and Kubrick.”‘
Read the full story

Science Fiction / Fact Bled Into Popular Music

As the Soviet Union and United States battled to win the early 60s space space, one of the music vicors emerged from London’s Holloway Road. Named after the world’s first communications satellite (nod to Arthur C. Clarke) launched on 10 July 1962, Telstar made the Tornados the first British group in the pre-Beatles era to have a US chart-topping single as well as topping the charts in the UK.

It also confirmed Joe Meek, a former Royal Air Force technician and the man who penned and planned space-age sound, as one of the era’s most successful producers.

The group - Alan Caddy, Hienz Burt, Roger Jackson, George Bellamy and Clem Cattini - briefy rivalled the Shadows as Britains’s premier instrumental combo, scoring UK a Top 5 follow-up with Globetrotter and three lesser hits in 1963 including The Ice Cream Man. But having survived Hienz’s departure for a solo career they split in 1965 with vocal groups clearly in ascendancy; Cattini went on to become British’s top session drummer.

If you like a good beat, and some weird sounds - go for it, get the album; or go get the single Telstar.

It’s a shame they got wiped out by vocal bands, because they actually do have voices on some of their songs, but to me they are a bit short - they’re still wanting to do their future sounds of Telstar - they had much more in them. I kinda hark back to this time, I don’t remember the last time someone wrote a song actually based or named after technology.

It gets me into the mood of 60s scifi.

It could also bring me onto another subject: why aren’t the general public as enthused and excited about space flight as they were in the 50s and 60s?

The Future Was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim

Thunderbirds, War of the Worlds , Images of Sci-Fi. Artist Mike Trim Featured in NewBook Slated for July Release

“A book of Mike Trim’s design work is a thing to be treasured.” — Richard Taylor

Five-time Academy Award winner & Special Effects Director of Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World, and director of Weta Workshop.

In 1964, young Mike Trim answered a newspaper advertisement seeking model makers for a film production crew and embarked on an odyssey that would last for more than four decades. Beginning in the final days of Stingray, Trim went to work as a model maker and designer for Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s television series Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, The Secret Service and UFO - as well as their feature films: Thunderbirds Are GO, Thunderbird 6 and Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (aka Doppelganger).

Starting out in the model shop, Trim later became Special Effects Director Derek Meddings’ assistant in designing the fabulous futuristic architecture, vehicles, and distinctive look of the Andersons’ imaginative series. Eventually, he assumed responsibility for the majority of the design work for the series as Meddings (who won an Academy Award for his work on the 1978 film Superman) became more involved in feature films.

After contributing a single (unused) vehicle design and model to the series Space: 1999, Trim moved into freelance illustration, creating an iconic cover painting for one of the best-selling albums of all time, Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, in 1978.

The Art Of Mike Trim. Images Of SciFi.

Celebrating more than forty years as a designer, Trim has now collaborated with author Anthony Taylor to produce a full-color collection of his works. The Future Was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim is an in-depth review of the artist’s entire career as a sci-fi designer and illustrator. Featuring hundreds of full-color and black-and-white drawings, paintings, marker comps and photos, the book offers a one-of-a-kind, up-close-and-personal view of how the artist foretells the future at the end of a paintbrush. The illustrations are annotated by Trim via his anecdotes and insights as he worked with the Andersons, Meddings and the crew of Century 21 Films, as well as his experiences as a freelance artist and his account of how the instantly recognizable cover art for The War of the Worlds LP was created. Also chronicled: his techniques and influences, unproduced and upcoming projects, and more. With chapters covering his techniques and early influences, unproduced and upcoming projects and more, The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim is a fitting tribute to an artist whose work has permeated the pop culture landscape for more than forty years, and a meticulous archive of his seminal works in the field of sci-fi art and design.

The Art Of Mike Trim. Images Of SciFi.

AVAILABLE JULY 25, 2006
from Fabgearusa.com, Amazon.com, and book stores worldwide.

All Mike Trim Images Are Copyright.

# # #

The Future Was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim

By Anthony Taylor with Mike Trim

Forewords by Richard Taylor and David Tremont of Weta Workshop

Published by Hermes Press. 128 pages. Trade Paperback, 9×12 inches, $29.95

ISBN: 1932563822