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The Music of the Avengers

Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2020 12:53 am
by John Johnson
I was wondering if the music tapes of The Avengers and The New Avengers exist?

I have the Laurie Johnson three volume set that was released in 2007.

Any information would be appreciated.

Re: The Music of the Avengers

Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2020 2:39 am
by mousemeat
John Johnson wrote:I was wondering if the music tapes of The Avengers and The New Avengers exist?

I have the Laurie Johnson three volume set that was released in 2007.

Any information would be appreciated.
GOOD QUESTION...the master tapes still exist..and I believe Studio-Canal is in charge of them..I know in the 6o's and 7o's vinyl albums of Johnson's music etc was issued...but not sure if some-if not all of his music, was released on CD....There are a few specialty labels that put out material like this...biggest draw backs is finding the master tapes in good shape, and the getting the right to put this stuff out...for a reasonable cost....

Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2020 4:05 pm
by darren
When Network releasing issued The Professionals and remastered the footage (and made it look better than it had ever looked on TV!) - they included the incidental music on separate audio tracks. I'm really hoping that they're going to be able to do the same for their upcoming New Avengers release. I'm especially keen to hear the clean music from episodes like Three-Handed Game, Dirtier by the Dozen, Trap, Unicorn and the Lion, Emily.

Since bits of the original series scores have been issued, i see no reason by the rest doesn't exist (optimistically speaking) - a comprehensive boxset with detailed booklet would be lovely. So many great scores and variations on the Avengers theme. Season boxsets maybe.

There was a bootleg CD of a few of Howard Blake's scores many years back that included the odd Johnson track - I'm thinking of 'Game'. The Episode Title is one reused from Death at Bargain Prices. That must have been sourced from somewhere (other than Blake's own library original).

Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2020 8:52 pm
by Allard
There's unpublished music left. I'd love a season four OST cd set.

Equally interesting are there still recordings of Johnny Dankworth's soundtrack? There more a set of que's, but still it was made especially for the Avengers and also for this I'd love to see a OST release, even a bootleg would satisfy me at this point.

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2020 6:53 am
by dissolute
There's a Dankworth CD of his television music https://www.discogs.com/Johnny-Dankwort ... se/7869813

Not sure about any other pieces of music from the early years, I don't even know is they were Dankworth originals or stock library music.

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2020 6:37 pm
by mousemeat
Allard wrote:There's unpublished music left. I'd love a season four OST cd set.

Equally interesting are there still recordings of Johnny Dankworth's soundtrack? There more a set of que's, but still it was made especially for the Avengers and also for this I'd love to see a OST release, even a bootleg would satisfy me at this point.
amen to the thought.....has anyone come across stuff on you tube, with misc tracks ?

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2020 8:45 am
by darren
Aside from the library of cues that Dankworth did for the series, they did use additional library music. One brassy library cue used in The Golden Eggs pops up in in the one off late 90's ITV spoof 'The Preventers' - at 22:22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbxa2Zr4NXs

Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 7:56 pm
by Hind24V
Thanks, thanks again for posting the soundtrack of the series, that's exactly what I needed! It's late, I've procrastinated all day and have to finish a report about the impact of the new program to get Spain citizenship https://tranio.com/spain/passport/ by tomorrow, that will be a perfect thing to play in the background to keep me going late in the night.

Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 9:09 pm
by Frankymole
Darren wrote: There was a bootleg CD of a few of Howard Blake's scores many years back that included the odd Johnson track - I'm thinking of 'Game'. The Episode Title is one reused from Death at Bargain Prices. That must have been sourced from somewhere (other than Blake's own library original).
Did it have stuff that wasn't on Howard Blake's legitimate CD release of his Avengers music?

Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2020 9:23 pm
by darren
Frankymole wrote:
Darren wrote: There was a bootleg CD of a few of Howard Blake's scores many years back that included the odd Johnson track - I'm thinking of 'Game'. The Episode Title is one reused from Death at Bargain Prices. That must have been sourced from somewhere (other than Blake's own library original).
Did it have stuff that wasn't on Howard Blake's legitimate CD release of his Avengers music?
Yes, it did.

There's a cue (frenetic harpsichord and snare drums as the Brigadier's car crashes into the tree) that wasn't included on the official Blake CD but was on the bootleg.

Actually thinking about it more, there were actually some of the earlier cues of people playing the games that was included missing from the official release.

The bootleg was only purchasable through a movie memorabilia shop off New Oxford Street (near Forbidden Planet), London - long since gone.