Alan Parker

One Summer

Image of Alan Parker - One Summer
Record Label
Finders Keepers

About this item

Previously unreleased schizo post-punk / Moogy folk score to 1983 British TV Scouse-ploitation drama ‘One Summer’ from the vault of Kate Bush, Serge Gainsbourg and David Bowie’s bestkept secret session man, Alan Parker.

From the one-man studio vault of the guitarist who adorned 'Histoire De Melody Nelson', 'The Kick Inside' AND 'Diamond Dogs' comes a post-punk, 80’s TV soundtrack that aims to restore the unforgettable names of Billy and Icky in your nostalgic consciousness while liberating lost music of a significant unsung UK composer.

Bringing back fractured memories of Scouse teenage rebellion, sports casual weekend wear, chip shop violence and escape missions to the Welsh Valleys (where baby birds are fed Mars Bars and shoplifting is the local currency), the series One Summer made an indelible impression of gritty realism, tragic heartbreak and woeful hope in the hearts of a dumbstruck generation in 1983.

Inducing abject fear in protective parents and a street smart swagger amongst clued-up youths, this adaptation of a coming of age pastoral thriller by a reluctant Willy Russell broke new boundaries pinpointing a cultural teenage void between post punk activism and the acid house years while arguably giving Thatcherite telly addicts a tiny kick up the arse.

Scored by legendary KPM / De Wolfe library musician Alan Parker, a renowned session player for Serge Gainsbourg, Kate Bush and Bowie (amongst many more) this score retains a genre defying personality, pinpointing the stylistic essence of the era while successfully switching from barren Rumble Fish funk, pastoral Moog noodlings, Pentangular folk, 80’s post-punk rhythms with hints of dubby melodica/harmonica. Composed to cue for the short five-part series (that TV commissioners were too scared to revisit), Parkers bursts of self-propelled small screen scoring came in one to two minute spells allowing Finders Keepers to comfortably fit the entire soundtrack on one neat eleven track limited 7” EP thirty-three years down the train line.

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