March 27th, 2020
37 comments
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Doctor Who The Sunmakers Original Music Soundtrack CD
Available to order from www.amazon.co.uk
The Sun Makers is the first commercial release of Dudley Simpson’s distinctive Doctor Who score, to be made available in physical, digital and vinyl formats.
Famously, the Christian conservative campaigner Mary Whitehouse misunderstood Doctor Who to be a children’s programme and thanks to her relentless fight, the BBC was forced to replace the programme’s original production team. The new team was under orders to curb the violence and replace it with a more playful and comedic fantasy tone. The result was The Sun Makers, featuring Tom Baker as the fourth Doctor and Louie Jameson as his assistant Leela. Robert Holmes’s story was a clever and amusing spoof of bureaucracy and the tax system, played out on a low budget set of Pluto, which was, in fact, a factory roof in Bristol. The composer was Dudley Simpson and the series was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 26th November to 17th December 1977.
Dudley Simpson was a classically trained Australian composer, well known for his work on Doctor Who, Blake 7 and Tomorrow’s People. Dudley scored The Sun Makers for six musicians – two clarinettists, 2 French Horns, one percussionist playing timpani, vibraphone, xylophone, marimba, cymbals, tambourine and more and Yamaha organ. The organ provided additional woodwind and brass textures (particularly tuba), faux strings, sustains and additional percussion, and tremolo effects (the lovely Yamaha “repeat” effect). Dudley tended to arrange his sessions around the availability of percussionist Tristan Fry and organ player Leslie Pearson. The scores were recorded “as live”, with minimal retakes and overdubs were rare. The end result turned out to be a brilliantly playful, idiosyncratic score with wonderful use of instrumental colour and memorable leitmotifs.
Doctor Who – The Sun Makers, produced by Mark Ayres, archivist of BBC Radiophonic Workshop, will be released, together with the score for Doctor Who – The Visitation on 1st May, 2020.
Tracklisting:
- 1. Doctor Who Opening Title Theme
- 2. Death and Taxes
- 3. Mahogany
- 4. One Thousand Metres
- 5. Six Suns
- 6. The Others
- 7. Subway 13
- 8. Subway 13 (Continued)
- 9. A Heart as Big as your Mouth
- 10. A Little Hop
- 11. Jelly Babies
- 12. Something in the Air
- 13. K9, Bite!
- 14. Humbug
- 15. The P45 Return Route
- 16. The P45 Return Route (Reprise)
- 17. Morton’s Fork
- 18. I’ve Heard That One, Too
- 19. The Rebellion Begins
- 20. Static Loop
- 21. The Steaming
- 22. The Steaming Continued
- 23. Gentlemen, Good Luck
- 24. Nobody Works Today
- 25. The Gatherer Excised
- 26. Doctor Who Closing Title Theme (53″ Version)
Categorised under: CD, Music soundtracks
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I Cotterill
May 6th, 2020 - 9:13pmMy copy of ‘The Sun Makers’ CD arrived in the post today along with ‘The Visitation’. Great stuff! Hope they do some more classic soundtrack releases in the near future.
bryan
April 19th, 2020 - 4:57pmI got a dispatch email today, for This and the Visitation. Not even the 1st may, never mind, even getting
it. I thought it would be delayed again, due to the Further lockdow. Fantastic news,lovely surprise on MY BD.
(ORDERED FROM SILVA DIRECT.)
The Ergon
April 19th, 2020 - 6:57pmYes mine are both on their way as well through Silva Screen. I wonder if the Amazon Orders are this quick. I ,m glad i wasn,t so hasty to rush in with them and they charge more.
The Ergon
April 20th, 2020 - 9:33amJust had The sunmakers dropped through the letterbox. No visitation yet. Gonna put my feet up , close my eyes and soak up some classic incidental sounds for an hour.
The Ergon
April 15th, 2020 - 2:30pmOrdered this and The visitation cds from Silva screen@ greedbag.com , ‘The state 51 conspiracy’ for £22+. £4+ cheaper than amazon
The Evil Dalek
March 28th, 2020 - 4:45pmSurviving Classic Soundtracks:
. The Daleks – Tristram Cary
. The Edge of Destruction – Stock Music
. The Rescue – Tristram Cary (Reused)
. The Web Planet – Les Structures Sonores
. The Space Museum – Stock Music
. Galaxy 4 – Les Structures Sonores & Trevor Duncan
. Mission to the Unknown – Trevor Duncan
. The Daleks’ Master Plan – Tristram Cary
. The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve – Pierre Arvay
. The Ark – Tristram Cary (Reused) & Robert Farnon
. The Gunfighters – Tristram Cary, Donald Cotton & Rex Tucker
. The War Machines – Stock Music
. The Tenth Planet – Stock Music
. Power of the Daleks – Tristram Cary (Reused)
. The Highlanders – Library Music
. The Moonbase – Stock Music
. The Faceless Ones – Library Music
. Tomb of the Cybermen – Stock Music
. The Abominable Snowmen – BBC Sound Library
. Enemy of the World – Béla Bartók
. The Web of Fear – Stock Music
. Fury from the Deep – Dudley Simpson
. The Wheel in Space – Brian Hodgson
. The Dominators – Brian Hodgson
. The Mind Robber – Brian Hodgson & Anton Bruckner
. The Invasion – Don Harper & John Baker
. The Krotons – Brian Hodgson
. The Seeds of Death – Dudley Simpson
. The Silurians – Carey Blyton
. Inferno – Stock Music
. The Mind of Evil – Dudley Simpson
. The Sea Devils – Malcolm Clarke & John Baker
. The Mutants – Tristram Cary
. Death to the Daleks – Carey Blyton
. Revenge of the Cybermen – Carey Blyton & Peter Howell
. Terror of the Zygons – Geoffrey Burgon
. The Seeds of Doom – Geoffrey Burgon
. The Sun Makers – Dudley Simpson
. Shada – Mark Ayres & Keff McCulloch
. Every 80s Story
Soundtracks That Can Be Easily Re-recorded:
. The Time Meddler – Charles Botterill & Stock Music
. The Underwater Menace – Dudley Simpson
. The Macra Terror – Dudley Simpson & John Baker
. Terror of the Autons – Dudley Simpson
. The Claws of Axos – Dudley Simpson
. Colony in Space – Dudley Simpson
. The Dæmons – Dudley Simpson
. Day of the Daleks – Dudley Simpson
. The Curse of Peladon – Dudley Simpson
. The Time Monster – Dudley Simpson
Peterdalek
March 27th, 2020 - 12:46pmDoes anyone know when & where this will be available on vinyl?
booboo
March 27th, 2020 - 12:53pmhttp://www.zavvi.co.uk has them both up for order on Vinyl
jvm2701
March 20th, 2020 - 8:51amAny sign of a pre-order for this and the Visitation? Amazon currently says the Visitation one is unavailable and I can’t even find an entry for the Sunmakers. Doesn’t appear to be anything on the SilvaScreen Doctor Who Page either.
Dean Wells
March 14th, 2020 - 3:38pmI take it we can’t pre order these from anywhere just yet?
philip shaw
March 15th, 2020 - 11:18amProbably out after the (new) season 12 soundtrack…
Dean Wells
March 15th, 2020 - 4:19pmCool, I like to know I’ve got everything nice and tidily pre ordered lol.
Stanley Gleed
March 14th, 2020 - 8:44amDespite being Doctor Who’s longest incidental music composer, from 1964 to 1980, composing music for 294 episodes, over 62 stories, only 3 (maybe 4) full Dudley Simpson scores are known to exist
They are:
. Fury from the Deep (1968)
. The Seeds of Death (1969)
. The Sun Makers (1977)
The Mind of Evil (1971) also might exist as it says on Mark Ayres notes on the 50th Anniversary Soundtrack that a copy was retained by Brian Hodgson
Doug Who
March 13th, 2020 - 7:07pmCan’t wait for this release as I adore Dudley’s music. It so perfectly embodies 1970’s ‘Doctor Who’. This is one of my all time favourite stories and showed that the show could find new and imaginative approaches other than the much-lauded ‘Gothic horror’ style.
It may not be to everyone’s taste but I think some of it has a wonderfully surreal quality and neatly manages to juggle two intrinsically oppositional themes with real wit. Henry Woolfe’s Collector is a fantastic foil to the Fourth Doctor.
Such a shame the score for ‘City of Death’ isn’t around but this will nevertheless be a fantastic CD and very welcome.
Beautiful cover by Clayton Hickman too!
Stanley Gleed
January 19th, 2020 - 2:23pmOkay so recently I have been confused as before the announcement of “The Sun Makers Album,” I thought that the only fully surviving soundtrack by Dudley Simpson was “The Sun Makers.” But recently some people have been saying that “The Underwater Menace,” “The Ice Warriors,” “Fury from the Deep” and “The Seeds of Death” soundtracks have also survived which I did not know and it has made me really confused.
The only clean tracks I have heard from Dudley Simpson are:
. Music from “The Chase” (With sound effects by Brian Hodgson
. The Fish People from “The Underwater Menace”
. Chromophone Band from “The Macra Terror”
. Music Excerpt from “The Macra Terror”
. Episode 1 Title Music from “The Ice Warriors”
. Episode 2-6 Title Music from “The Ice Warriors”
. Mr Oak and Mr Quill from “Fury from the Deep”
. Title Music from “The Seeds of Death”
. Moon Control from “The Seeds of Death”
. Ice Warrior Music from “The Seeds of Death”
. War Chief Music from “The War Games”
. The Masters Theme from “The Mind of Evil”
. Hypnosis Theme from “The Mind of Evil”
. Dover Castle from “The Mind of Evil”
. Keller Machine Theme from “The Mind of Evil”
. The Axons Approach from “The Claws of Axos”
. “Carnival of Monsters” Episode 1
. “Frontier in Space” Episodes 1 & 2
. “Planet of the Spiders” Part 2
. Mysterious Robots from “Robot”
. “The Android Invasion” Parts 3 & 4
. Music from “The Sun Makers”
. “The Invasion of Time” Parts 3 & 4
Those are the only existing Dudley Simpson tracks that I know definitely exist because I have heard them personally.
Is there more and how do you know?
Bryan
January 15th, 2020 - 12:32pmIIRC The Ice Warriors music exists, as does Slipback (Radio 6th Dr story, with a superb score) & paradise of Death , I am sure It was mentioned on one of the forums (roobarbs i think)
To be honest ANY Soundtrack music would be welcome, and the taster of Visitation and Sunmakers on the 72 min Audio CD were lovely. So looking forward to Sunmakers, as its in my head (badly) already 🙂
Stanley Gleed
January 16th, 2020 - 5:16amWait, The Ice Warriors music exists as well. I’m confused, what Dudley Simpson soundtracks still exist? Obviously The Sun Makers exists as we are getting it but I thought that was the only fully existing one but recently I’ve had people saying to be that Fury from the Deep’s soundtrack exists and then The Seeds of Death soundtrack and now The Ice Warriors. Just which ones do exist?:
. Planet of Giants
. The Crusade
. The Chase
. The Celestial Toymaker
. The Underwater Menace
. The Macra Terror
. Evil of the Daleks
. The Ice Warriors
. Fury from the Deep
. The Seeds of Death
. The Space Pirates
. The War Games
. And practically every 70s story with a few exceptions
Just which ones do exist? Is it just The Sun Makers? Is it The Sun Makers and all the soundtracks made using the BBC Radiophonic Workshop? Is it that and also The Seeds of Death and The Ice Warriors? Which ones exist?!
DrWhoFanJ
January 16th, 2020 - 12:56pmThe following Dudley Simpson scores survive:
The Underwater Menace
Fury from the Deep
The Seeds of Death
The Sun Makers
Stanley Gleed
January 16th, 2020 - 7:18pmSo The Ice Warriors soundtrack doesn’t exist?
This is getting confusing. How do you know this? The only clean tracks I have heard from Dudley Simpson are:
. Music from “The Chase” (With sound effects but brian Hodgson
. The Fish People from “The Underwater Menace”
. Chromophone Band from “The Macra Terror”
. Music Excerpt from “The Macra Terror”
. Episode 1 Title Music from “The Ice Warriors”
. Episode 2-6 Title Music from “The Ice Warriors”
. Mr Oak and Mr Quill from “Fury from the Deep”
. Title Music from “The Seeds of Death”
. Moon Control from “The Seeds of Death”
. Ice Warrior Music from “The Seeds of Death”
. War Chief Music from “The War Games”
. The Masters Theme from “The Mind of Evil”
. Hypnosis Theme from “The Mind of Evil”
. Dover Castle from “The Mind of Evil”
. Keller Machine Theme from “The Mind of Evil”
. The Axons Approach from “The Claws of Axos”
. “Carnival of Monsters” Episode 1
. “Frontier in Space” Episodes 1 & 2
. Planet of the Spiders Part 2
. Mysterious Robots from “Robot”
. “The Android Invasion” Parts 3 & 4
. Music from “The Sun Makers”
. The Invasion of Time Parts 3 & 4
Those are the only existing Dudley Simpson tracks that I know definitely exist because I have heard them.
Is there more and how do you know?
DrWhoFanJ
January 20th, 2020 - 7:18pmIn order,
“The Chase” — is taken directly from the episodes, hence the sound effects.
“The Underwater Menace”, “The Macra Terror”, “The Ice Warriors”, “The Mind of Evil”, “The Claws of Axos” — all that survives from those scores has been released.
Chromophone Band, “The Macra Terror”; War Chief Music, “The War Games” — not Dudley Simpson
“Carnival of Monsters”, “Frontier in Space”, “Planet of the Spiders”, “The Android Invasion”, “The Invasion of Time” — only some episodes per story have surviving music, so all that is unreleased (that can be released) are some cues from those episodes.
Mysterious Robots, “Robot” — rerecording not original
DrWhoFanJ
January 20th, 2020 - 7:19pmP.S. I know from the booklet from the 11CD album released in 2013 (Mark Ayres made a complete list of all the surviving music)
Stanley Gleed
January 21st, 2020 - 4:42pmSo The Underwater Menace, Fury from the Deep and The Seeds of Death Soundtracks have survived.
If that is the case then I’m ecstatic that Fury and Seeds exist but slightly annoyed that out of all of Dudley’s work, Underwater Menace survived.
DrWhoFanJ
January 21st, 2020 - 6:26pmNo, The Underwater Menace only has the already-released track surviving.
Stanley Gleed
January 21st, 2020 - 8:05pmWait, I’m confused again, so The Underwater Menace doesn’t have its full soundtrack?
DrWhoFanJ
January 25th, 2020 - 12:32pmNo, unfortunately not. As far as we are aware, only “The Fish People” and the music used in the early temple-sacrifice scene survive (the latter from the DVD photo gallery)
Stanley Gleed
January 26th, 2020 - 4:21pmBut Fury from the Deep and The Seeds of Death do have their full soundtracks? If that is the case then I am very happy.
DrWhoFanJ
March 7th, 2020 - 6:18pmFrom Mark Ayres’ 11CD liner notes:
“The Underwater Menace” — incomplete copy retained
“The Macra Terror” — incomplete copy retained
“Fury from the Deep” — copy retained
“The Seeds of Death” — copy retained in RWS archive
“The Mind of Evil” — copy retained by Brian Hodgson
“The Claws of Axos” — only one cue survives
“Carnival of Monsters” — only episode 1 session tape (pre-synth-overdubs) survives
“Frontier in Space” — episodes 1 & 2 music on archived effects tape. Episodes 3—6 missing.
“Planet of the Spiders” — Part of episode 2 session tape (pre-synth-overdubs) found at the Imperial College Television Studio. Nothing else survives.
“The Android Invasion” — parts 3 & 4 survives. Parts 1 & 2 missing.
“The Sun Makers” — everything survives
“The Invasion of Time” — parts 3 & 4 on archived effects tape. Parts 1, 2, 5 & 6 missing.
Stanley Gleed
March 9th, 2020 - 4:14amFury’s music better be released soon, with the animation coming up. Some should be used for the photo gallery’s on the DVD
DrWhoFanJ
November 22nd, 2022 - 7:50pmI did a little bit more digging recently, and discovered that, where the first two 1960s entries say “incomplete copy retained”, what that means is that the music score survives, but the additional songs composed for the story (colony jingles/temple hymnals) have been lost.
Stanely Gleed
January 12th, 2020 - 1:01pmIt’s about time we had a Classic Doctor Who soundtrack released. There were none last year.
OK, recap on Classic Doctor Who Soundtrack releases from earliest existing:
. The Daleks – Tristram Cary (1963)
. The Invasion – Don Harper (1968)
. The Krotons – Brian Hodgson (1969)
. The Sun Makers – Dudley Simpson (1977)
. The Visitation – Paddy Kingsland (1982)
. The Five Doctors – Peter Howell (1983)
. The Caves of Androzani – Roger Limb (1984)
. Ghost Light – Mark Ayres (1989)
. Survival – Dominic Glynn (1989)
So for each Doctor we have:
Hartnell = 1
Troughton = 2
Pertwee = 0
T.Baker = 1
Davison = 3
C.Baker = 0
McCoy = 2
I’m surprised we have got another Davison soundtrack as we already had 2 released in 2013 and 2018. I thought this new run of Classic Doctor Who Soundtrack releases would have released a Soundtrack for each of the Classic Doctors before they would revisit a Doctor but that seems to be not the case. I was suspecting a Tom Baker soundtrack would be released next and it was kind of obvious that it would have been The Sun Makers as it is (as far as far as we know) the only fully surviving soundtrack by Dudley Simpson (Doctor Who’s longest running music composer 1964-1980).
So what would be next? Well not counting stories which use Stock Music as their soundtrack and music from the 80s (as it all exists) I see the following stories’ soundtracks being released:
. The Daleks’ Master Plan – Tristram Cary (1965)
. The Gunfighters – Tristram Cary, Donald Cotton and Rex Tucker (1966)
. The Wheel in Space – Brian Hodgson (1968)
. The Dominators – Brian Hodgson (1968)
. The Mind Robber – Brian Hodgson (1968)
. The Silurians – Carey Blyton (1970)
. The Sea Devils – Malcolm Clarke (1972)
. The Mutants – Tristram Cary (1972)
. Death to the Daleks – Carey Blyton (1974)
. Revenge of the Cybermen – Carey Blyton and Peter Howell (1975)
. Terror of the Zygons – Geoffrey Burgon (1975)
. The Seeds of Doom – Geoffrey Burgon (1976)
. Shada (1992 Version) – Keff McCulloch (1992)
. Shada (2017 Version) – Mark Ayres (2017)
. The T.V Movie – John Debney, Louis Serbe and John Sponsler (1996)
As for music from 80s Doctor Who, I see stories like Earthshock, Resurrection of the Daleks, The Two Doctors, Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks having their soundtracks released as they are all note worthy and more memorable then other 80s stories (however lets have a break from Davison).
I don’t see why the BBC don’t release soundtracks which use Stock Music for their stories. Is it because of Copyright? Most of the music used in early Doctor Who was made to be used in television for free and I think the people who own the music would like to see the music be more viewed and out to the public if released under the Doctor Who name:
. The Edge of Destruction (1964)
. The Web Planet – Les Structures Sonores (1965)
. The Space Museum (1965)
. The Time Meddler (1965)
. Galaxy 4 – Les Structures Sonores (1965)
. Mission to the Unknown – Trevor Duncan (1965)
. The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve – Pierre Arvay (1966)
. The War Machines (1966)
. The Tenth Planet (1966)
. The Highlanders (1966)
. The Moonbase (1967)
. The Faceless Ones (1967)
. Tomb of the Cybermen (1967)
. The Abominable Snowmen (1967)
. Enemy of the World – Béla Bartók (1967)
. The Web of Fear (1968)
. Inferno (1970)
Yea I know my Classic Music.
Their have been previous releases by other companies for Doctor Who stories which had Stock Music (Tomb of the Cybermen and The Tenth Planet) and some Stock Music was released on the 50th Anniversary Collection so I don’t see what the problem is.
Finally, it wouldn’t be hard to recreate music from Classic Doctor Who if the music tracks didn’t exist anymore. Classic Doctor Who always had a small budget so they could only spend so much for the incidental music (why do you think they sometimes used Stock Music) and certainly not orchestras to produce them like we have now with Modern Doctor Who. And as for stories which have an electronic sound to them, they would be even easier to recreate. Stories like The Underwater Menace, The Macra Terror, Fury from the Deep (WOULD LOVE TO SEE FURY’S SOUNDTRACK RELEASED) and practically every 70s story.
Anyway, it is nice to see Classic Who music still be released.
Nick D
January 13th, 2020 - 10:22amGreat post, thank you ☺︎ Great to see so much love for the brilliant Doctor Who scores.
Muz
December 24th, 2020 - 1:50amI would love to see some Keff McCulloch and Colin Baker soundtracks released. Wish they were released a bit more regularly because I would buy buy buy!
Philip Shaw
January 9th, 2020 - 9:11pmI suspected this was the Tom Baker release after hearing it was the only complete Dudley Simpson score that existed.
Ian Cotterill
January 9th, 2020 - 10:20pmI agree, though I had thought that were alternative choices of soundtrack for the Fourth Doctor, such as ‘Logopolis’ or the 1992 & 2017 score for ‘Shada’. But Dudley Simpson was definitely the obvious choice for this release.
MJS
January 12th, 2020 - 1:48pmPlease please please can we get a rerecorded a la Heathcliffe Blair, soundtrack to city of death. The music is sublime
Anonymous
January 16th, 2020 - 8:03amSpeaking of Dudley Simpson, Jess Jurkovic is doing piano recreations of his music on YouTube
Ian Cotterill
January 9th, 2020 - 6:30pmOh, I am so getting this release. Dudley Simpson was in my opinion the best composer for ‘Doctor Who’ and the chance to hear more of his music is really exciting.