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Wombling Songs
''Wombling Songs'' is the first album released by the Wombles. "The Wombling Song" was released as a single. The album was written, arranged and performed by Mike Batt, with vocals credited to "the younger Wombles, assisted by Mike Batt". History and reception According to Batt, the album is a simple compilation of character songs and background music for the television series. It has garnered a small cult following in the 21st century, with music journalist Bob Stanley calling it "something of a kid-rock masterpiece, a pre-teen '' Odessey and Oracle'', chock-full of woodwinds, harpsichords, and minor-key McCartney-esque melodies". Staff writers of ''The Scotsman'' noted the album's "glimpses of pop sophistication – the clarinet figure in the theme tune, the wistful pop of Orinoco's song "Dreaming In The Sun"...". In 2022, Batt revealed he destroyed the master tapes of ''Wombling Songs'' and the three subsequent Wombles albums, so "people can't fuck with them after I'm go ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Wombles (band)
The Wombles were a British novelty pop group, featuring musicians dressed as the characters from the children's TV show ''The Wombles'', which in turn was based on the children's book series by Elisabeth Beresford. Songwriter and record producer Mike Batt wrote and also performed many commercially successful singles and albums as 'The Wombles', including the TV series' theme tune. ''British Hit Singles & Albums'' jokingly referred to them as the "furriest (and possibly the tidiest) act... are natives of Wimbledon Common, London". In 2011, the band played at The Glastonbury Festival. History Filmfair acquired the television rights to ''The Wombles'' and commissioned Batt to write the theme song. He waived the flat fee for writing a single song and instead secured the rights to write songs under the name 'The Wombles'. The band released several albums and singles. All four studio albums went gold, and four of the singles reached the Top 10 in the UK Singles Chart. The Wombles we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Children's Music
Children's music or kids' music is music composed and performed for children. In European-influenced contexts this means music, usually songs, written specifically for a juvenile audience. The composers are usually adults. Children's music has historically held both entertainment and educational functions. Children's music is often designed to provide an entertaining means of teaching children about their culture, other cultures, good behavior, facts and skills. Many are folk songs, but there is a whole genre of educational music that has become increasingly popular. History Early published music The growth of the popular music publishing industry, associated with New York's Tin Pan Alley in the late 19th and early 20th centuries led to the creation of a number of songs aimed at children. These included 'Ten little fingers and ten little toes' by Ira Shuster and Edward G. Nelson and 'School Days (1907 song), School Days' (1907) by Gus Edwards and Will Cobb . Perhaps the best reme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bubblegum Pop
Bubblegum (also called bubblegum pop) is pop music in a catchy and upbeat style that is considered disposable, contrived, or marketed for children and adolescents. The term also refers to a rock and pop subgenre, originating in the United States in the late 1960s, that evolved from garage rock, novelty songs, and the Brill Building sound, and which was also defined by its target demographic of preteens and young teenagers. The Archies' 1969 hit "Sugar, Sugar" was a representative example that led to cartoon rock, a short-lived trend of Saturday-morning cartoon series that heavily featured pop rock songs in the bubblegum vein. Producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffry Katz claimed credit for coining "bubblegum", saying that when they discussed their target audience, they decided it was "teenagers, the young kids. And at the time we used to be chewing bubblegum, and my partner and I used to look at it and laugh and say, 'Ah, this is like bubblegum music'." The term was then popularized by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Scotsman
''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its parent company, JPIMedia, also publishes the ''Edinburgh Evening News''. It had an audited print circulation of 16,349 for July to December 2018. Its website, Scotsman.com, had an average of 138,000 unique visitors a day as of 2017. The title celebrated its bicentenary on 25 January 2017. History ''The Scotsman'' was launched in 1817 as a liberal weekly newspaper by lawyer William Ritchie and customs official Charles Maclaren in response to the "unblushing subservience" of competing newspapers to the Edinburgh establishment. The paper was pledged to "impartiality, firmness and independence". After the abolition of newspaper stamp tax in Scotland in 1855, ''The Scotsman'' was relaunched as a daily newspaper priced at 1d and a circul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Batt
Michael Philip Batt, LVO (born 6 February 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, record producer, director and conductor. He was formerly the Deputy Chairman of the British Phonographic Industry. Having achieved substantial international success as a solo artist, he is particularly known in the UK for creating The Wombles pop act, writing many hits including the chart-topping " Bright Eyes", and discovering Katie Melua. He has also conducted many of the world's great orchestras, including the London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony and Stuttgart Philharmonic in both classical and pop recordings and performances. Early life and career Michael Philip Batt was born on 6 February 1949, in Southampton, England. He attended Peter Symonds School, Winchester. His blog refers to his role as cadet Company Sergeant Major at the school. Batt began his career in pop music at the age of eighteen when he answered an advertisement plac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Remember You're A Womble
''Remember You're a Womble'' was the second album released by The Wombles. The songs were recorded by Mike Batt (vocals/keyboards) with session musicians Chris Spedding (guitars), Les Hurdle (bass), Clem Cattini (drums), Ray Cooper (percussion), Rex Morris (saxophone), Eddie Mordue (saxophone) and Jack Rothstein (violin). After the success of the first album, '' Wombling Songs'', Batt experimented with more character-based songs in a variety of musical styles. He described it as "really the first proper album for The Wombles as a group". The styles included pop, rock, calypso, classical (the music of "Minuetto Allegretto" was based on Mozart's Symphony No.41) and surf rock in the style of the Beach Boys. The songs also developed the Womble characters further, for example "Wellington Goes To Waterloo" described Wellington Womble taking a rare day off and visiting London Waterloo station for a bit of trainspotting. This was the first album with a cover showing the full-siz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cult Following
A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. A film, book, musical artist, television series, or video game, among other things, is said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fanbase. A common component of cult followings is the emotional attachment the fans have to the object of the cult following, often identifying themselves and other fans as members of a community. Cult followings are also commonly associated with niche markets. Cult media are often associated with underground culture, and are considered too eccentric or anti-establishment to be appreciated by the general public or to be widely commercially successful. Many cult fans express their devotion with a level of irony when describing entertainment that falls under this realm, in that something ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Stanley (musician)
Bob Stanley (born Robert Andrew Shukman; 25 December 1964) is a British musician, journalist, author, and film producer. He is a member of the indie pop group Saint Etienne and has had a parallel career as a music journalist, writing for ''NME'', ''Melody Maker'', ''Mojo'', ''The Guardian'' and ''The Times'', as well as writing three books on music and football. He also has a career as a DJ and as a producer of record labels, and has collaborated on a series of films about London. His second publication, ''Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Story of Modern Pop'', was published by Faber & Faber in 2013. His third publication ''Let's Do It: The Birth of Pop Music: A History'' was published by Pegasus in 2022. Saint Etienne Stanley is a member of the group Saint Etienne for which he co-writes songs and produces. Live on stage, he normally plays keyboards. Writing Journalism Stanley was educated at Whitgift School in Croydon, London. After leaving school, Stanley worked in various recor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odessey And Oracle
''Odessey and Oracle'' is the second studio album by English rock band the Zombies. It was originally released in the UK in April 1968 by CBS Records. The album was recorded primarily between June and August 1967. The sessions took place at EMI (now Abbey Road Studios) and Olympic Studios in London. The Zombies, having been dropped from Decca Records, financed these sessions independently. After signing with CBS, two singles and later the album itself were released to critical and commercial indifference, and the band quietly dissolved. A third single from the album, "Time of the Season", became a surprise hit in the United States in early 1969 after CBS staff producer Al Kooper recommended it be released on Date Records. The album gradually achieved critical praise and a cult following, and has since become one of the most acclaimed albums of the 1960s. It was ranked 100th on ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. When ''Rolling Stone'' revi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One of the most successful composers and performers of all time, McCartney is known for his melodic approach to bass-playing, versatile and wide tenor vocal range, and musical eclecticism, exploring styles ranging from pre–rock and roll pop to classical and electronica. His songwriting partnership with Lennon remains the most successful in history. Born in Liverpool, McCartney taught himself piano, guitar and songwriting as a teenager, having been influenced by his father, a jazz player, and rock and roll performers such as Little Richard and Buddy Holly. He began his career when he joined Lennon's skiffle group, the Quarrymen, in 1957, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Sometimes called "the cute Beatle", McCartney later invo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. Since 2018, the paper's main news ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mastering (audio)
Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via methods such as pressing, duplication or replication). In recent years digital masters have become usual, although analog masters—such as audio tapes—are still being used by the manufacturing industry, particularly by a few engineers who specialize in analog mastering. Mastering requires critical listening; however, software tools exist to facilitate the process. Results depend upon the intent of the engineer, the skills of the engineer, the accuracy of the speaker monitors, and the listening environment. Mastering engineers often apply equalization and dynamic range compression in order to optimize sound translation on all playback systems. It is standard practice to make a copy of a master recording—known as a safety copy—in case ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
