Apologies in advance – this is a bit self indulgent.
The backgound;
In 1989, I was growing up in Ashbourne, Derbyshire – I had just staring listening to the radio. Although at a young age I should have been listening to “Trent” or “Radio 1” I did enjoy GEM AM. I was fascinated by their jingles. There was one jingle that caught my attention. It was called (by me) “The GEM AM song.” I have since learned the story behind this jingle.
In 1988 GEM AM went to UK jingle company “Alfasound” for its jingles. One of the jingles was a re-creation of a station song produced by PAMs for Solid Rock in the US. Sadly, at the time the music or backing track couldn’t be found in the archives. So Alfasound re-produced a similar backing track in the UK – which sounded a little more modern, this was then made into the jingle/station song heard on GEM AM!
Fast forward 30 years – last year I asked Simon at S2Blue about getting this jingle re-made for me. Purely as an anorak project. He has been amazing, and his team too. Over the last few months this has been a bit of a passion project, which has involved a few people to bring it together. Firstly, my friend – Steve England, went through his archive and found the Alfasound backing track from his archives. Sadly, no sheet music existed for the singing parts of the newer GEM AM version. Jingle singing legend and top musician Steve Butler listened to both versions (the Solid Rock and GEM AM Songs) and determined that the GEM AM version had some complex vocal harmonies and embellishments over and above the original. He then sat for hours unpicking the vocals on the GEM AM version (as that was my favourite) and re-created each vocal part and each harmony for singing note by note.
I chatted with Steve Butler a few times about how it should sound (I’m sure he got fed up with me). Everything from delivery of the male vocal parts to the choice of female singer – which had to be my friend and singer Sarah Doggett.
So; into the original Alfasound studios last week where S2Blue now operate and the whole thing was sung by Steve Butler, Sarah Doggett and produced by Mike Dentith – with an objective to be as true to the GEM AM version as possible.
I love the result, the 11-year-old me would never have believed this song would have been re-made for him! It’ll probably never be played on air – as these station songs are so unfashionable now, however, doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyed!
https://soundcloud.com/tony-mullins-1/tony-mullins-song-solid-rock-s2blue-alfasound
Tony Mullins
IainJohnston
PK
martinlester
mb
jonno
rak
IainJohnston
PK
martinlester
jonno
rak