The Sun Makers
Doctor Who – The Sun Makers, produced by Mark Ayres, archivist of BBC Radiophonic Workshop, will be released, together with the score for Doctor Who – The Visitation on 1st May, 2020.
Tracklisting
Music by Dudley Simpson
1. Doctor Who Opening Title Theme
2. Death and Taxes
3. Mahogany
4. One Thousand Metres
5. Six Suns
6. The Others
7. Subway 13
8. Subway 13 (Continued)
9. A Heart as Big as your Mouth
10. A Little Hop
11. Jelly Babies
12. Something in the Air
13. K9, Bite! 14. Humbug
15. The P45 Return Route
16. The P45 Return Route (Reprise)
17. Morton’s Fork
18. I’ve Heard That One, Too
19. The Rebellion Begins
20. Static Loop
21. The Steaming
22. The Steaming Continued
23. Gentlemen, Good Luck
24. Nobody Works Today
25. The Gatherer Excised
26. Doctor Who Closing Title Theme (53″ Version)
The Sun Makers is the first commercial release of Dudley Simpson’s distinctive Doctor Who score, to be made available in physical, digital and vinyl formats.
Famously, the Christian conservative campaigner Mary Whitehouse misunderstood Doctor Who to be a children’s programme and thanks to her relentless fight, the BBC was forced to replace the programme’s original production team. The new team was underorders to curb the violence and replace it with a more playful and comedic fantasy tone. The result was The Sun Makers, featuring Tom Baker as the fourth Doctor and Louie Jameson as his assistant Leela. Robert Holmes’s story was a clever and amusing spo of of bureaucracy and the tax system, played out on a low budget set of Pluto, which was, in fact, a factory ro of in Bristol. The composer was Dudley Simpson and the series was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 26th November to 17th December 1977.
Dudley Simpson was a classically trained Australian composer, well known for his work on Doctor Who, Blake 7 and Tomorrow’s People. Dudley scored The Sun Makers for six musicians – two clarinettists, 2 French Horns, one percussionist playing timpani, vibraphone, xylophone, marimba, cymbals, tambourine and more and Yamaha organ. The organ provided additional woodwind and brass textures (particularly tuba), faux strings, sustains and additional percussion, and tremolo effects (the lovely Yamaha “repeat” effect). Dudley tended to arrange his sessions around the availability of percussionist Tristan Fry and organ player Leslie Pearson. The scores were recorded “as live”, with minimal retakes and overdubs were rare. The end result turned out to be a brilliantly playful, idiosyncratic score with wonderful use of instrumental colour and memorable leitmotifs.
Doctor Who – The Sun Makers, produced by Mark Ayres, archivist of BBC Radiophonic Workshop, will be released, together with the score for Doctor Who – The Visitation on 1st May, 2020.
coming soon
