Some of you will have seen this already on my socials, (apologies for duplication) - but it’s a recent video showing how I’m spending any spare hours these days- a long-term, time-consuming and technically challenging reconstruction of the HUNTING OF THE SNARK show.
There is of course the original 1984 LSO concept album starring Art Garfunkel, Sir Johns Gielgud and Hurt, Roger Daltrey and many more - and I’m very proud of it. It’s available on Dramatico via ADA/Warner distribution as we speak. BUT! There is a whole 2 hour “unrecorded”, show which we presented very successfully at Sydney’s The State Theatre in 1990 and less successfully in London at The Prince Edward Theatre in 1991. Anyway - there was never any real audio recording of the full-length show (which contains some of the best songs, with differing casts, both led by triple Olivier-award-winning Philip Quast) - but in the case of the Sydney and London productions, I later received anonymous “bootleg’ recordings of both shows,- on cassettes! Not good enough technical quality to release. But they made me think.
And NOW, years later, using AI - unbelievably, I have been able to isolate the voices and bring them back to top Hifi condition. It’s crazy. But I can’t possibly use the best vocal performances from Sydney and London (obviously with permission of the singers) and still leave myself having to pay to buy out BOTH of the 50 piece orchestras (yes, we had 50 in the on-stage orchestra!) - and the quality of the orchestra bootleg isn’t really good enough anyway. So I’m using this brilliant technique - see the video above, - just using samples from the Berlin Orchestra - recorded by a German company called Orchestral Tools, and as you can see in the video, triggered from my orchestral score. The Berlin orchestra has been fully paid for recording the superb samples, and I had to pay handsomely to acquire them. I’ll almost certainly add a small ensemble of real-live UK players on afterwards, too, to make it sound more ‘real”. So that’s what I’m doing in my spare (haha) time!
Next year is 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s original “SNARK” poem.
One of the reasons I’m making sure I finish this all off soon is that next year is the 150th anniversary of publication of the original poem. It came out -not accidentally - on April 1st, 1876. I would very much like to tour this in 2026 as a costumed concert, - a bit like the one we did at the Royal Albert Hall in 1987:
…but I’ll need to find someone to underwrite it financially - or ideally a promoter. I told my publicist I would use a “small” orchestra of “only 28” and she laughed so much she spat her coffee out! What I am definitely going to do in 2026 is issue a really beautiful SUPERFAN Snark-anthology collection of the new double album (the one 'I’m making) plus the original concept album, with lovely artwork - and the full length poem read by Sir John Gielgud, which I recorded in 1984 but have never released. Also we’ll be releasing the score and parts for schools, amateur performances and pro orchestra performances. So, expect a big Snark-Fest next year! You won’t be able to move for Snark-stuff. It would actually make a good BBC prom, wouldn’t it! I wonder…
I’m sure you know this - but the story of the SNARK to date is told in my autobiography, “The Closest Thing To Crazy” recently published by Bonnier Books.
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