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Music
The Star Fleet CD is now out, so the information below is now happily out of date, and here you can listen to two clips from the full release. I have to say I grinned like an idiot when the CD started playing - more feedback on the forum of course. The packaging is also top notch - brilliant work by all concerned.
Dai-X goes to work
The original closing theme
Off the back of the DVD release Paul Bliss is remastering his original score for the series. Ordering information below, followed by a little more detail on Paul's plans:
Dear Sir,
We are happy to announce the forthcoming CD release of the orginal soundtrack recording from 'Star Fleet'. Paul Bliss of 'The Moody Blues' is busy remastering his superb synth incidental music featuring many of the catchy sub themes including the closing song titles with original vocal performance by Andy Brown. The CD will be a limited release available in the first quarter of 2009 - to make sure you don't miss out pre-register for your copy at this address. No advance payment is required, an email will be sent advising of availability and ordering details. Price and final track listing TBA. Regular updates will be supplied!
All the very best
THE STAR FLEET CD TEAM
Indeed the CD is a reality and Paul is already underway with the work. All the material is intact (the first nine or so episodes were scored and from then on most the cues were re-used or edited again, since most of the sub themes had been established by this point). Anyway, these original reels were baked and then transferred digitally, where Paul is now sorting out suites, we can give you a clearer idea of the track listing as it takes shape. We are running it as a mail order for the moment, as this allows us a higher production budget for a release of this type and to really produce something special. Once Paul is happy with the content, the final recording is off to Italy for a final EQ'ing by a top production engineer (those old analogue synths still sound glorious!). We are tentatively looking towards a release date of March '09. If you could thank your members for their orders thus far, and re-assure them that we will be shipping worldwide with this. Paul will be be happy to add an update once he's made some serious headway on it, in the meantime I'd like to thank all of you for your support - it's truly appreciated! More updates soon!
In a curious knock-on effect from having an incorrect link, Jen from Brianmay.com got in touch with Brian May In February 2004 and he commented about Star Fleet and SFXB as follows (reproduced with his permission) - read on for fuller details of his Star Fleet connection:
AH! How amazing there's a site for this!
Yes, Jimmy and I used to get up incredibly early every Saturday morning and go down to watch the next episode of "Star Fleet" on TV, when he was very young. We loved it!! One of those "Father-Son bonding things!!" It was Jimmy's great idea for me to play the song. Since I had a will to get an impromptu session together with Edward (van Halen) I combined the two threads. It was one of the most exctiting days of my life - the session in the studio - I'll never forget it.
Must look at star Fleet again ...
Many Thanks to Andy for keeping this out there...
Cheers
brian
In December 2002 Dave Surridge was listening to Radio One here in the UK when he heard a very familiar voice on a track John Peel was playing. It turns out that a drum and bass group called Bad Company has used samples of Captain Carter's voice on a track called Torpedo, released on their Shot Down on Safari album. The album is available to buy at Amazon.
As part of my research into Star Fleet in the early days I inevitably ran into Brian May's Star Fleet Project. I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that it's a misnoma to call Star Fleet the series which had the music by Brian May. As my investigation revealed, Brian May only covered the Star Fleet theme, rather than actually writing it. This was reiterated by the man himself on 1 June 2002, at 10.35pm on Channel 4 during the airing of the Killer Queen! documentary. The small piece about Brian's solo work was also accompanied by parts of the Star Fleet Project video - the first time in almost 20 years that Star Fleet has appeared on terrestrial TV! You can watch a Windows Mediaplayer Video format clip of that part of the documentary by selecting these words.
It was actually Paul Bliss, a newcomer (see the Louis Elman interview), who was responsible for the Star Fleet themes. You can download mp3s of the themes from F Zero One's multimedia section.
The confusion over the soundtrack's origins may well come from the fact that Brian May's track has virtually identical lyrics to the original, which went like this:
Send a message out across the sky
Alien raiders just past Gemini
Who will come and save us now?
Who can defend us from their power?
CHORUS
Star Fleet, Star Fleet
Star Fleet, Star Fleet
Tell the people back at Earth Control
Send Star Fleet legions to save our souls
Always daring and courageous
Oooh, only they can save us
CHORUS
Star Fleet, Star Fleet
Star Fleet, Star Fleet
You can find out more from Mr May himself by following the links provided in the relevant links page. Basically he used to watch the show with his son and in the course of a jamming session with Eddie Van Halen decided to explore the show's tune. The contents of that session were released as part of the Star Fleet Project album and as a single. I've found or been pointed to a couple of clips of the single's video and the album tracks; the material can be found in the multimedia section. The associated artwork can be found in the gallery.
The French Connection also crops up here. A French group called Apollo provided a very different soundtrack for the French version of the series - having received a CD of their work, I can safely say that it resembles neither Paul Bliss' nor Brian May's work! The insert confirms that the show was Bomber X (pronounced Bomb-bear Eex) in France, shown by TF1 in 1980. It also mentions Saban, who's connected with Power Ranger style shows... You can see the front cover artwork in the gallery and the foreign links page will also give you some additional information. The Japanese soundtrack was provided by Bow Wow.
Last updated 14 December 2013
