Through most of 1980, a very good friend of mine, Murray Grigor, directed a series of four documentaries for Granada Television called ‘Edge of Britain’. These were themed around the early days in the life of the historian A. J. P. Taylor where he revisited the Lancashire coast, the area of his upbringing. He was born in Birkdale, near Southport.
The four programmes, Southport, Blackpool, Morecambe and Preston, were first transmitted on consecutive Thursdays starting on the 18th September 1980. Later, a one hour compilation was eventually networked on ITV on the 21st January 1981
You might have worked out by now that I made all the music for this series and, judging by this 38-minute Suite that I have completely remixed from the original 8-track components, I identified with, brought out and enlarged some of Taylor’s idiosyncratic observations.
All this work was made during my Oberheim 8-Voice synthesiser period, so many of the sounds are from that rich but synthetic multitonal monster, intermingled with my usual manual capabilities on piano, banjo, acoustic, electric and bass guitars and percussion. Actually, the hands were also responsible for adjusting long delays on tape between two machines and all those complicated synthesiser knobs. I have also made some creative use of stereo when all the original sound for the films had to be monophonic.
Southport
| 1. | Photo Scroll | 0’54” |
| 2. | Lord Street Stroll | 1’15" |
| 3. | Stony Victoriana | 2’21” |
| 4. | Lives Of Stone | 2’11” |
| 5. | Brittle Reflection | 2’14” |
| 6. | Gutter Waltz | 1’06” |
| 7. | Pierhead Contraptions | 1’37” |
| 8. | Draining The Gutter | 1’10” |
Blackpool
| 9. | Blank Ballroom | 0'53" |
| 10. | Blackpool Calling | 1'07" |
| 11. | Striding The Promenade | 1'15" |
| 12. | Dodging The Trams | 0'38" |
| 13. | Promenade Skate | 1'22" |
| 14. | Helter-Bloody-Skelter | 1'25" |
| 15. | Peaceful Seat | 0'16" |
| 16. | Grandest Parade | 1'32" |
Morecambe
| 17. | Sweet Vikings | 2'50" |
| 18. | Spiral Climb | 1'30" |
| 19. | Spiralling On | 0'50" |
| 20. | Spiral Summit | 1'00" |
| 21. | Spiralling Down | 0'48" |
| 22. | Under The Waves | 0'38" |
| 23. | Muddy Creep | 1'18" |
| 24. | Muddy Glide | 1'20" |
| 25. | Gentle Sail | 2'36" |
Preston
| 26. | Abandoned March | 1'29" |
| 27. | Walk Along A Wall | 0'29" |
| 28. | Colossal Statues | 0'30" |
| 29. | Canal Edge Tiptoe | 0'36" |
| 30. | Rest On, Preston | 0'28" |
