Barry Adamson, Moss Side Story
Speaking of scoring music for a film that doesn’t exist, I’m intrigued by the story of Barry Adamson, bassist for Magazine and Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds. Much like so many aspiring artists who made fake flyers for punk bands who didn’t exist, Adamson wanted to be a film composer, so:
After leaving the Bad Seeds in 1987, Adamson decided to follow the path of film composers like John Barry, Ennio Morricone, and Bernard Herrmann, whose work had intrigued him since childhood. His first full-length album, 1989’s Moss Side Story (he had released one previous EP in 1988), was a tour de force, blending post-punk, industrial, spy guitar, and various classic movie composer quotes into a seamless 54-minute soundtrack to an ominous film noir that didn’t exist. This recording led to Adamson’s work on soundtracks for actual films in the early ‘90s, including Delusion, Gas Food Lodging, and Shuttle Cock.
Here’s Adamson on the making of the album:
I had the desire to score music for a motion picture. I’d been around a while, and it was getting too late to wish I’d been classically trained or attended film school to achieve this. So I had to draw strength that my written contributions to the bands I’d been in were usually of a thematic nature anyway—thus keeping the wheels of my dream in motion.
Fake it 'til you make it. (Thanks, jndevereux!)
betzistar
