Matt Berry offers his take on British TV theme music

Toast Of London and The IT Crowd actor and musician Matt Berry salutes his favourite TV tunes.

Here's the scoop...
"It's a covers album, just an appreciation of a time when the signature tune and title sequence were both important elements within the overall theme, atmosphere and tone of a television show. I've always loved these now lost, rare and in some cases forgotten themes so, as with everything I do artistically, I set out to please myself and capture these gems as best as I could and make them available on vinyl, some possibly for the first time?"

BAFTA award winning actor Matt Berry returns with a new album, cleverly titled Television Themes released on October 5th. Inspired by his youth, it’s a collection of TV theme tunes that have not only influenced Berry but undergone a fascinating and unique metamorphosis under his musical stewardship.

Television Themes was recorded on his own and with his regular band The Maypoles in his newly built studio. It includes favourites from the 60s, 70s, and 80s such as Are You Being Served? and Rainbow alongside lesser known themes from Picture Box and Wildtrak amidst those that transcend the decades, Doctor Who and Top Of The Pops…

Combining his love of music production and his passion for the 'signature tune',  Television Themes sees Berry enhance his musical reputation following the success of  his previous releases encapsulating  Berry’s formative years as a viewer and  paired with  his boundless appetite for music -  be it  psych-folk, electronica, jazz or Prog. Genre-defying, mixed with a love of nostalgia, Matt Berry once again finds a home at the small but perfectly formed London-based independent label Acid Jazz Records. Pre-order a signed copy of the vinyl version right here. Check out Matt's versions of Sorry! and Are You Being Served? following the track listing.



Track-listing for Television Themes:
Are You Being Served? (1972-1985)
The Good Life (1975-1978)
LWT (1968 – 1972)
Blankety Blank (1979 – 1990)
Top Of The Pops (1963 - 20050
Picture Box (1966-1990)
The Liver Birds (1969 – 1979)
Thames Television (1968 – 1992)
Rainbow (1972-1997)
Doctor Who (1963- present)
Wildtrak (1979-1984)
World In Action (1963-1998)
Sorry! (1981 – 1988)
Open University

Whaddya mean you don't know Solid Space

Check out "New Statue" off Solid Space's Space Museum cassette from 1982 recently reissued by Dark Entries.

From the Dark Entries site...
Dark Entries is honored to finally present the first ever official vinyl reissue of Space Museum by Solid Space. Solid Space was the British duo of Dan Goldstein (keyboards, vocals) and Matthew ‘Maf’ Vosburgh (guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals) formed in 1980. Dan and Matthew met at the age of 11 while attending school in north London. In late 1978 at at the age of 14, they formed Exhibit ‘A’ with Paul “Platypus” and Andrew “Lunchbox” Bynghall. They recorded two EPs in 1979 and 1980, self-released on Irrelevant Wombat Records and appeared on The Thing From The Crypt compilation.

After the dissolution of the group, Mathew started taking his guitar over to Dan’s house where he’d play his Casio MT-30 and they would record songs. Eventually a second hand drum machine and Wasp synthesizer were acquired from classified ads in Melody Maker and the Solid Space sound was born. By this time they were just turning 18 and finally found the freedom to make the music they’d had in their heads.

Over the course of the next two years the band assembled eleven bedroom recordings that would become one of the most cherished DIY obscurities of its kind. Their debut album Space Museum was released in 1982 on cassette by In Phaze Records. All of the songs were mixed by label boss Pat Bermingham on 8-track tape at The Shed, in Ilford, which was literally a garden shed. The band’s music and lyrics were heavily indebted to science fiction, in particular the 1960s television series Doctor Who.

Space Museum is an unveiling of atmospheric, minimalist post punk supported by bright melodies. The music combines drum machines and synths with acoustic guitar and toy drums whilst also experimenting with samples between tracks. Lyrics deal with space travel and a general sense of dejection. Representing a bubbling spirit within the underground, they foreshadowed an entire world of independent music which would emerge across the 80’s and well into the 90’s.

For this reissue we’ve included two bonus tracks from the band’s archive, “Platform 6” originally released on the B-side of the second single by Exhibit ‘A’, this song features only Dan and Matthew and is the first Solid Space track ever recorded. “Tutti Lo Sanno” is a cover of In Phaze label mates Marine Girls, though the lyrics have been changed to suit the gender of the new singer.
Each song has been carefully remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The record is sleeved in a replica of the cassette artwork featuring the Cybermen and Zoe from the Doctor Who episode “The Wheel in Space”. Every copy includes a double sided 11×11 insert with lyrics, notes and never before seen photographs of the band taken by Maf as well as a postcard featuring an original advert for the cassette.