When it comes to credits and boasting about what’s been done, it’s a tough balance between ‘Bigging oneself up’ and remaining quiet, humble and most of all, thankful.
The opportunity to look back and check out the list is something that is seldom done and not always encouraged. Living in the past being a relatively worthless endeavour and tiresome pursuit.
People however do like to know and will always ask “What have you done?” or “Is there something that we’ll recognise?” Invariably something can be mentioned either to impress or raise an eyebrow, or at worse, ‘Why did you bother?’. But recognising a piece of music, TV theme tune, a jingle or song is always something that can engage a small and lively conversation at a party or jolly gathering particularly when there’s a flagging moment and the vol-au-vents are starting to droop. I always said that it was possible to impress hugely, or bore tiresomely, a private audience at such a moment pretty much at the same time; depending on your group confidence, how you were feeling at the time and the amount of alcohol consumed, these things would generally help to make the words appear more impressive than they actually were.
So, with all that in mind, and with no particular preference or order, I can confidently say that I have written and been involved in the following ventures for TV, Film, Advertising, Radio and other commercial platforms. The ones initially recognisable would be the animation series Bananaman which ran on BBC TV for many years. Chucklevision also ran on BBC TV for a total of twenty-one years and picked up some great and esteemed awards. Then there were several movies featuring the Cabbage Patch Kids specially commissioned by the original founder Xavier Roberts and promoted on US TV by Rosie O’Donnell. Astrofarm, Molly’s Gang, Mister Men & Little Miss, Blue Peter, Rocky Kids were added to the Kid’s TV List when it seemed I did little else other than Kid’s TV. But there were movies and serious documentaries including Dennis Potter’s Lipstick on Your Collar, Wycliffe, The Morning Star and Tyndale – Period Drama Channel 4, Heart and Soul – BBC TV, The Good Book Guide – BBC TV, 101 Things Jesus Never Said – BBC TV, The Rock Gospel Show – BBC TV, Rock Gospel Royal Gala – BBC TV, The David Jason Experience – BBC Radio 4, Start The Week and Midweek – Radio 4, Scottish TV Corporate Ident – Scottish TV, Actuelt TV Corporate Ident – Actuelt TV, TV6 Ident – TV6, Film 94 and Film 95 – BBC TV, Chris Tarrant Capital Radio Idents and a stack of Radio and TV commercials including PC World, Evening Standard, Harrods, British Airways, Jammy Dodgers, Warner Brothers and EasyJet. And indeed many other documentaries, factual programmes, Films, music for education shows and a stack of animation. More details if you need them here.
Topline Music hadn’t been invented then. Despite the fact that I wanted to create a new library of work within Topline, I was able to use a small amount of the archives from previously untapped material and some relating to the list above.
However, Topline Music was never meant to be a showreel. Should you decide that this is what you actually want I could easily provide one whatever good that will do! Showreels, as most people know, are meant to be examples of past works and not examples from which you can decide what music you need for your next epic production.
Topline is a collection of music that demonstrates versatility not only with great compositions but with new and unique variations on all tracks. It provides an easy to find discovery for any and all media applications.
Since doing the podcast ‘The Home Service’ I have seen how important choosing the exact music track really is. It’s sometimes taken a few attempts to get the one that fits the conversation, the mood, the style and the general feel of the programme. But when you find the right one, it’s magic and adds a dimension that nothing else can. Someone said that if you hear the music above the overall production it’s gone horribly wrong. So, choose some great music for your production whatever it is. It may be a documentary, a film, a student project, a wedding video or even a train spotting collection. No matter, you will certainly find the right track in our Topline Library.
Go have a play and discover some original, fun, usable and ‘invisible’ tracks that will make your production shine and stand out. What have you got to lose except a few minutes of your valuable time, especially during these strange times when to discover is the best investment.
Topline Music-Making Music Sense.
