- Thu Dec 11, 2014 6:58 pm
#44148
Man, this was tough. But on balance, given all factors (obscurity, greatness, availability of wax) I settled on this:
Tomorrow Come Someday
Original Soundtrack by
Peter Howell & John Ferdinando
1969
Private Press on H&F Recordings
Reissue 2008 ACME - CD+DVD / Limited Vinyl x 500
The phrase "charming" is going to get bandied around a bit in the following write up, as it always is when people describe the almost-forgotten musical partnership of H&F. Stick with me and I'll take you on a little tour of the south of England, at the end of that crazy decade we now call The 60s....
A musical comedy shot on location in the Sussex village of Lurgashall, during August 1969.
That is how Tomorrow Come Someday (what a title!) announced itself to the world - a 50 minute long Super 8mm "home movie" shot by upcoming TV director Ian Hamilton, featuring lotsa locals kinda playing themselves it seems.
Although I say it's worth your time anyway, as a charming (there you go!) Village Green Preservation Society snapshot of a certain time in a certain place in England (that wasn't swinging it's ass off), what really makes TCS is the sublime musical accompaniment by Howell & Ferdinando. This soundtrack is brimful of great, memorable tunes, home-recording ambience, sun-and-straw-strewn brilliance all played with great accomplishment by two friends and their friends mainly in makeshift home studios, attics, barns, church halls, wicker men…..you can clearly hear the influence on H&F of what was swirling around them at that time in the world of folk-psych-pop, and just as clearly hear their influence on bands who no doubt discovered them in their formative years - Belle & Sebastian spring immediately to mind when I hear some of this stuff, but make your own family tree.
You can research H&F quite easily if you're smitten, and unravel their world at your own pace - or, like me, becoming really obsessive really quickly and attempt tracking down of their complete output - which adds up to a mere five privately pressed LPs, mostly in editions of only 50 made for family and friends, cataloguing their on-off partnership over a couple of decades. Until a few years ago, the originals were the only way to get these gems, but thankfully a few small labels each picked up the baton and made their whole output available in lovely facsimile editions of 500 - almost all of them still relatively easy and cheap to get hold of amazingly. (I've been pretty active in getting converts to the church of H&F - one of the very first Disco Handmades that I created was a bulging 5xCD set of their complete catalogue, with 16 page booklet!) I should just mention that Howell went on to continue his explorations in sound making and recording, becoming part of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and working on Doctor Who amongst other shows. His Through a Glass Darkly LP was reissued just this year.
If you buy the 2disc CD set of TCS, you'll get a DVD of the original film into the bargain - but here it is anyhow if you're curious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2vrbc-yf7g
And here's the full OST playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 471371E95E
I'm not going to breakdown every track on this record, much as I appreciate that others have done just that. I'll let you discover this music for yourselves and decide whether it's for you. But if you have any kind of taste for perfectly crafted reel-to-reel bedroom pop, an interest in outsider or private press oddness, or a love for between-the-gaps English folk-psych…. I'm sure this will hit a sweet spot for some of you. And remember - if you see any of the original LPs out there in the wild, please give your old buddy Disco a shout!!!
Sadly, it seems that H&Fs website is now defunkt - a real shame, as it was packed with info, sounds and images.
Grab a cold cider, clamp some straw between your teeth, picture that doll-pretty gypsy rose you've always lusted after from afar….and let Mr Howell and Mr Ferdinando transport you to a liquid-sun-bathed Field in England…..
Tomorrow Come Someday
Original Soundtrack by
Peter Howell & John Ferdinando
1969
Private Press on H&F Recordings
Reissue 2008 ACME - CD+DVD / Limited Vinyl x 500
The phrase "charming" is going to get bandied around a bit in the following write up, as it always is when people describe the almost-forgotten musical partnership of H&F. Stick with me and I'll take you on a little tour of the south of England, at the end of that crazy decade we now call The 60s....
A musical comedy shot on location in the Sussex village of Lurgashall, during August 1969.
That is how Tomorrow Come Someday (what a title!) announced itself to the world - a 50 minute long Super 8mm "home movie" shot by upcoming TV director Ian Hamilton, featuring lotsa locals kinda playing themselves it seems.
Although I say it's worth your time anyway, as a charming (there you go!) Village Green Preservation Society snapshot of a certain time in a certain place in England (that wasn't swinging it's ass off), what really makes TCS is the sublime musical accompaniment by Howell & Ferdinando. This soundtrack is brimful of great, memorable tunes, home-recording ambience, sun-and-straw-strewn brilliance all played with great accomplishment by two friends and their friends mainly in makeshift home studios, attics, barns, church halls, wicker men…..you can clearly hear the influence on H&F of what was swirling around them at that time in the world of folk-psych-pop, and just as clearly hear their influence on bands who no doubt discovered them in their formative years - Belle & Sebastian spring immediately to mind when I hear some of this stuff, but make your own family tree.
You can research H&F quite easily if you're smitten, and unravel their world at your own pace - or, like me, becoming really obsessive really quickly and attempt tracking down of their complete output - which adds up to a mere five privately pressed LPs, mostly in editions of only 50 made for family and friends, cataloguing their on-off partnership over a couple of decades. Until a few years ago, the originals were the only way to get these gems, but thankfully a few small labels each picked up the baton and made their whole output available in lovely facsimile editions of 500 - almost all of them still relatively easy and cheap to get hold of amazingly. (I've been pretty active in getting converts to the church of H&F - one of the very first Disco Handmades that I created was a bulging 5xCD set of their complete catalogue, with 16 page booklet!) I should just mention that Howell went on to continue his explorations in sound making and recording, becoming part of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and working on Doctor Who amongst other shows. His Through a Glass Darkly LP was reissued just this year.
If you buy the 2disc CD set of TCS, you'll get a DVD of the original film into the bargain - but here it is anyhow if you're curious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2vrbc-yf7g
And here's the full OST playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 471371E95E
I'm not going to breakdown every track on this record, much as I appreciate that others have done just that. I'll let you discover this music for yourselves and decide whether it's for you. But if you have any kind of taste for perfectly crafted reel-to-reel bedroom pop, an interest in outsider or private press oddness, or a love for between-the-gaps English folk-psych…. I'm sure this will hit a sweet spot for some of you. And remember - if you see any of the original LPs out there in the wild, please give your old buddy Disco a shout!!!
Sadly, it seems that H&Fs website is now defunkt - a real shame, as it was packed with info, sounds and images.
Grab a cold cider, clamp some straw between your teeth, picture that doll-pretty gypsy rose you've always lusted after from afar….and let Mr Howell and Mr Ferdinando transport you to a liquid-sun-bathed Field in England…..
