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Some time ago we ran a poll about whether John Barry would finish The Incredibles and or Brighton Rock. It started with "If in good health, John Barry will finish..." and then the titles.

People have picked up this "in good health" bit and misinterpreted it as meaning something. No. Nothing at all. So, let's just forget about it.

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Sorry to say I just heard that Sid Margo died a Sunday November 23. The information came by way of Sheldon Hall, who is writing a book on the making of ZULU. He was given the news by Michael Firman, whose father, Alec, often led John Barry's orchestras. I have no further details.

Sid was a charming man, and for those who don't know, he 'fixed' John Barry's orchestra (and many others) for recordings for around 25 years. I met him only once when he spent a couple of hours describing in some detail how he worked with JB. He also told me how he once solved a problem for Michael J. Lewis when they were recording 'The Man Who Haunted Himself', by purchasing a number of bottles from a local Woolworth store and partly filling them with water. I'll leave it to the experts to decide what part of the score they appeared in and how they were played!!

Incidentally, Sheldon hopes to cover every aspect of the film's production, including of course the score, and has already interviewed John Barry about this.

Which is more than I have .....

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Tuesday, May 25, 2004, 8:00 PM

Crown Imperial: Music and the Movies

Sergei Prokofiev: Ivan the Terrible

John Barry: The Lion in Winter

in celebration of the composer's 70th birthday

Live music with film

7:00 PM Pre-concert conversation

An Interview with John Barry

The screening of two classic films will be accompanied by a live performance of the music for each: Prokofiev's elaborately scored music to Ivan Grozny (Ivan the Terrible), Sergei Eisenstein's spectacular final film of 1945; and, to celebrate his 70th birthday, John Barry's Oscar-winning score from James Goldman's 1968 film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Anthony Hopkins, and Timothy Dalton. Both films feature stunningly beautiful and vivid music for chorus.

More information here:

http://www.collegiatechorale.org/Schedule.htm

Mind you: "All Carnegie Hall concerts will be conducted by Music Director Robert Bass and feature The Orchestra of St. Luke's. "

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Following composer Michael Giacchino's announcement that he is scoring The Incredibles, John Barry's role has become unclear. When we have any official news we will add it.

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Please have a look here:

http://www.michaelgiacchino.com/EPMnews.html

It says: "November 24th, 2003 Upcoming Projects... Michael has been officially signed as the composer of PIXAR's next animated feature, The Incredibles, directed by Brad Bird (Iron Giant). The film is set to be released November 5th, 2004. "

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According to Film Score Monthly (forum), the expanded Dances With Wolves CD is expected in the first quarter of 2004.

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In October, Sony will re-release Dances with Wolves with additional music. The running time will be closer to 75 minutes, compared with the original of 53 minutes. The noted writer, Jon Burlingame, has written substantial liner notes to accompany it, approved by the composer.

Sony is also planning to re-release "The Chase", though no news is yet available as to whether this might have extra music or of a likely release date.

There is also breaking news of another, rather unexpected, John Barry CD release, but as yet we can say no more about this project. Let the speculation begin, but don't expect anything to be confirmed or denied by your web-site hosts!!

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John Barry is in the recording studios next week finishing off an un-named project. There is a good chance he will be conducting a suite of his music from 'The Lion In Winter' (with chorus) at a charity event in New York, later in the year.

He and Laurie are currently reading a copy of the book, 'John Barry - The Man With The Midas Touch' and will be making suggestions, answering questions and providing photographs from their personal collection.

Meanwhile, work on 'The Incredibles' and 'Brighton Rock' continues. The latter is likely to open next year at the Almeida Theatre, Islington, London, where Michael Attenborough (son of Richard) is artistic director. It is hoped that it will eventually transfer to the West End of London and then to Broadway.

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In a startling development, David 'Sherlock' Stoner at Silva Screen has tracked down the current ownership of the film of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'.

It is controlled by a London-based company known as London Films. That's the good news. The less good news is that it was among a package of films they leased out to another UK DVD company a few years ago, who, to date, have shown no sign of actually releasing it.

The slightly better news is that the lease will expire in a year or two and in the meantime London Films are trying to retrieve it on the grounds that if the company concerned aren't going to issue it, they could market it elsewhere.

So, watch this space for future developments.

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With more concrete news of Brighton Rock, the musical, we thought this was an appropriate time to create a page dedicated to John Barry's stage musicals. We hope this will prove both entertaining and informative.

Edit April 2015 for the new site: we later added our Special Brighton Rock page itself of course.