[IainJohnston]

If I may return a “recent topic” that perhaps “lost its way” at little, back more towards what JM does best…

From a “variety of sources”, may I offer a very small scratch of the surface of the classic instrumental radio production work of David Arnold. A Master of his craft. “BIG Sound” yet in all kinds of textures and tempos.

Various UK station logos from a different and perhaps gentler radio era than today will “ring a bell” or two, from Essex (!) to the West Country.
The “appropriate lyrics” and station names can be added/sung within the privacy of your own heads

All material Acknowledged Copyright (c) David Arnold Music & associates.
[Please Note – The audio has also be purposely degraded by me to help protect the interests of the Owner/Publisher]

Embedded at home.recnet.com/soundcloud

[ratnobMember]

Thanks for posting this. Much of it new to me.

[IainJohnston]

As someone who in that era only “explored south of the Border” on rare occasions, much of the David Arnold work from that period I only heard “on air” during such visits and only discovered the origins of much of it over a period of time (all pre-internet).

I know several JMers from “southern counties” seem to have much better access to dubs of DA sung material than I have, so I would hope that a selection or two of vocal versions might be encouraged to appear under this Thread?

[IanF]

Thanks for uploading that montage Iain. Not many jingle producers evoke such emotion into their work with strings and brass.

If anyone could upload examples of Radio 210 1988 top-up package (not the main theme) and Moray Firth Radio, that would be lovely

[IainJohnston]

David Arnold did MFR stuff ?!?!??!!? Are you absolutely sure

(The “Radio West For You” DA custom in good quality is STILL outstanding on my Grails List… – daft lyricing, but the damn-good (and original?) punchy 6-note logo was clearly intended as promoting his sound as something that could “work” for clients “used” to USA “Wxxx” style logo melodies).

[IanF]

Here’s what I’ve found on my hard-drive regarding MFR. The female singer sounds very much like one of DA’s vocal group to me.

I’ll see what I can do about Radio West BTW

https://soundcloud.com/ian-flamboyant-ferneyhough/david-arnold-music-moray-firth-radio

[Spoons]

Ah – fantastic! That GWR morning jingle (third jingle in) is an absolute BELTER.

Simon James and Hill used to use the instrumental circa 1997 to end their show on Hallam FM each weekday. I’d not realised it had become CPM library music by then. That’s where he must have got it from I assume.

[Spoons]

Got to say IanF – those MFR jingles sound nothing like a David Arnold production. They sound loosely like LBS or Phoenix… but I’m not even sure they’re from those two companies. Happy to be corrected though.

[IanF]

Got to say IanF – those MFR jingles sound nothing like a David Arnold production. They sound loosely like LBS or Phoenix… but I’m not even sure they’re from those two companies. Happy to be corrected though.

Don’t think they’re LBS and definately not Pheonix. It’s that female singer! She sounds like one of David Arnold’s. Having heard so much of his work you recognise singers. I also did hear that DA did some jingles for MFR. However, I’d like to be corrected too….The bet’s on

[IainJohnston]

I’ve heard those MFR cuts on air years ago – and I’m not convinced that MFR stuff is DA either.

The whole “heuchter-teuchter” style was very …um… (Mods please note – I’m not being “negative” – fellow Scots JMers will KNOW exactly what I mean!). And the “production values” are not DA.

Highland Studios / David Balfe / Soundhouse did much of MFR’s stuff when they were still “independant” before SRH took them over.

Sometimes in the “pre-internet era”, the further a UK station was from the “influences” of others that could overlap into their TSAs, the more …er… “unsophisticated” lets say … the programming & production could become.

[simon_t123Member]

It’s not impossible that DA did the cuts above for MFR, he did the original 1986 launch for BBC Essex and those featured the same singers/styles … I’m sure I also heard some original Radio Cumbria cuts sung/styled the same way … The vocal group in the mid 80’s had a kind of ‘acidic’ tone to it, not unpleasant but more pleasant than the Alfasound vocal group at the time in most cases … David also had a hand in one of my favourite packages for BBC Essex in 1991, and sung packages for Ocean Sound and many other BBC locals in the early 90’s, Nottingham, Cornwall, Guernsey etc albeit using a Dallas vocal group by that time …

re : the female vocalist/style I think I’ve also heard that on a Mercia Sound cut ?

BBC Essex 1986 – David Arnold

Embedded at home.recnet.com/soundcloud

BBC Essex 1991 – David Arnold / TM Century

Embedded at home.recnet.com/soundcloud

[simon_t123Member]

In my small collection of David Arnold ‘stuff’ I also have the following which I can post (but won’t have time right now !) BBC Hereford & Worcester instrumental montage (from jinglemad.com), BBC Radio Cleveland sung montage, BBC Radio Derby sung montage, BBC Radio Sheffield sung montage, BBC Radio York – Hits & Headlines US sung montage, BBC Radio York – More Hits More Headlines, Radio Broadland UK sung montage, Radio Broadland US sung montage, BBC Radio Nottingham 1991 sung montage, BBC Music Live sung montage and quite a bit more ‘sung’ from DA

But have to agree, Davids instrumental radio work is fantastic !

[professor1036]

Here’s what I’ve found on my hard-drive regarding MFR. The female singer sounds very much like one of DA’s vocal group to me.

I’ll see what I can do about Radio West BTW

https://soundcloud.com/ian-flamboyant-ferneyhough/david-arnold-music-moray-firth-radio

The DA female singer has appeared on a few packages for other producers…for instance Swansea Sound for Alfasound and Red Dragon Radio for Standard Sound, plus if my hearing is correct – TM Century.

[IainJohnston]

Never ceases to amaze me when a JM thread starts to wander off (positively!) into unknown (to me) territory, and I find out all sorts of stuff I hadn’t known before! Fascinating history gentlemen!

THIS…is particularly for Spoons…and anyone who heard the “evolving” of the jingle packages for the original Wiltshire Radio as it “influenced” then absorbed Radio West and became “GWR” (which later… well, we won’t go into that here…).

And yes, the “first cut” is a full THREE MINUTES, 180 seconds, of huge sounding, huge production instrumental that deserves to played out at high volume – and probably one of the “biggest sounding” station instrumentals ever created for an ILR, with possibly only the Alfasound “633 Squadron” for County Sound being the nearest runner. (IMPO).

PS – for those in today’s “mmmeeedddyaa” who think a “sonic logo” is a 3-note bland thud with no melody and no sound definition – note how the entire production audio-wise BELTS out WHO “Wilt-shire Radio, Double-yoo-R” are into the listeners’ ears

Embedded at home.recnet.com/soundcloud

[mbMember]

David Arnold was a much more “southern based” company. I thought other than the York package the furthest north they got was Marcher! Something which I also think gets overlooked is the quality of the DA singers. The Mercury Package has what I think are some of the most amazing vocals on a jingle package.
I am also a big fan of the upbeat Southern sound jingles as well as the more orchestral cuts. But so many of the packages are very strong memorable logos.

[IanMember]

I know several JMers from “southern counties” seem to have much better access to dubs of DA sung material than I have, so I would hope that a selection or two of vocal versions might be encouraged to appear under this Thread?

Here you go Iain, from the 1981 Essex Radio package

Embedded at home.recnet.com/soundcloud

[star tetley]

In my small collection of David Arnold ‘stuff’ I also have the following which I can post (but won’t have time right now !) BBC Hereford & Worcester instrumental montage (from jinglemad.com), BBC Radio Cleveland sung montage, BBC Radio Derby sung montage, BBC Radio Sheffield sung montage, BBC Radio York – Hits & Headlines US sung montage, BBC Radio York – More Hits More Headlines, Radio Broadland UK sung montage, Radio Broadland US sung montage, BBC Radio Nottingham 1991 sung montage, BBC Music Live sung montage and quite a bit more ‘sung’ from DA

But have to agree, Davids instrumental radio work is fantastic !

Please post when you can, I would love to hear more DA stuff.

[IainJohnston]

ACD – the WR vinyl – an intriquing find – and we all HAVE to ask…what was on the B-side!

Ian – thanks for posting the Essex Radio – there’s clearly a lot of classic DA things “out there” that quite a few collectors may not have heard before or not realised the producer.

Just seeing (and recognising) a few items being posted which I think were N&pst*r era MP3s, was there some specific year or timing where DA began to work with C/21 then TM/C on co-production rather than 100% UK production, then eventually (apparently) everything seemingly being Dallas-recorded?

[IanF]

Something which I also think gets overlooked is the quality of the DA singers. The Mercury Package has what I think are some of the most amazing vocals on a jingle package.

Thanks for pointing that out MB! Radio Mercury 84 was a totally balanced harmony and deep with it. Cracking singing on that package. In fact, when I first heard GWR, Radio 210 and Hereward Radio in 1986/87 I thought the singers were American. I was surprised to hear they were British. Sometimes they didn’t hit the mark but more often they did. DA also knew how to do inventive accapellas too
However, I do wonder what Wise Buddah or Ignite could come up with if asked to do a 6/7 voice style….

[thisisgarjoMember]

Spoons;c-62294 wrote:

Ah – fantastic! That GWR morning jingle (third jingle in) is an absolute BELTER.

Simon James and Hill used to use the instrumental circa 1997 to end their show on Hallam FM each weekday. I’d not realised it had become CPM library music by then. That’s where he must have got it from I assume.

I’m so pleased that someone has mentioned this! That was hellfire!

Are there any instrumental versions of this kicking around at all? I think I’d happily listen to it for several hours!

[IainJohnston]

I started this (dormant) thread quite a while back!
The original server links are long gone.

So I’ve re-posted my original montage on S/c now;-

[thisisgarjoMember]

I started this (dormant) thread quite a while back!

The original server links are long gone.

So I’ve re-posted my original montage on S/c now;-

width=”100%”
height=”166″
scrolling=”no”
frameborder=”no”
src=”https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//soundcloud.com/allthebestjingles03/ij-davidarnold-classicinstrumentalexcellence-2014?si=da18381fc33f49359a22f8ea13764e37&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false”
>

Wow! What a beautiful collection! That brings back many memories! Thank you!

[IainJohnston]

Happy to help :^)

Here’s the variants/mixouts of the WR “Breakfast” cut – apologies for the audio quality.
https://soundcloud.com/allthebestjingles03/vyk7e3ckcyra?si=bb6424241d974adabade3c7764bb97f2

[amigoMember]

Ah, David Arnold. I would love for him to release his packages for collectors again. I would like full Dubs of his GWR packages from launch to the ones before Red Hot Radio. Also GB Radio would be good Radio 210. I only have lower quality cuts from both.

Amigo

[IainJohnston]

Would indeed be nice if those DAnnold packages could appear via e.g. MPF some day.

A lot of excellent DArnold instrumental cuts from those various packages do appear on
the (legally available) Carlin 188 music library CD

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