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23.08.13 MusicWeek 3


SCRIPTED SERIES DRAMATISES SEMINAL PINK FLOYD LP - WITH MORE POSSIBLY ON THE WAY


Classic albums causing drama on BBC Radio A


MEDIA n BY PAUL WILLIAMS


new radio play based on Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon could


become the first of a series of classic albums to be dramatised. Dark Side, penned by


acclaimed playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, will air on Bank Holiday Monday (August 26) on Radio 2 and has been written around Floyd’s legendary album, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Radio 2 head of music Jeff


Smith (pictured) said the work, featuring a cast list including Bill Nighy, Rufus Sewell and Adrian Scarborough, was the first result of BBC Radio Drama having made an approach several years ago about working with playwrights to create dramatic versions of iconic albums. “That was our starting point


so when Dark Side Of The Moon was raised it was a happy


circumstance that it was coming up for the 40th anniversary, but this has been two-odd years in development really to get to where we are,” he explained. “This is something we have set


in motion and if the opportunity arises we’d love to do more things with playwrights and people from that area doing their interpretations of classic albums.” In the case of the Floyd


project, Stoppard had actually been approached back in 1973 when the album came out about doing a play around it. According to Smith, his involvement 40 years later was crucial in winning the band’s support for the drama. “With any major artist, they


are going to want to protect their copyright, their projects,” Smith said. “Something like Dark Side Of The Moon, it’s such an album of cultural importance that you don’t want to get it wrong so first thing first I talked to management of all the guys as to what they thought, led by Paul


MARKET SHARES WEEK 33: TOP 75 SHARE BY CORPORATE GROUP


ARTIST SINGLES Universal 59.8% Sony 20.5% Warner 12.0% Others 7.7%


ARTIST ALBUMS Universal 35.8% Sony 30.2% Warner 19.5% Others 14.4%


YEAR TO DATE: TOTAL MARKET SHARES BY CORPORATE GROUP


SINGLES Universal 40.6% Sony 21.8% Warner 13.3% EMI 3.3% Others 13.60% Ministry - 1.8% Macklemore - 1.2% XL Beggars - 1.2% Nettwerk - 0.8% Demon - 0.4%


WEEK 33: TOP 75 SHARE BY RECORD COMPANY YEAR TO DATE: TOTAL MARKET SHARES BY RECORD COMPANY


ARTIST SINGLES Virgin/EMI 16.35% Polydor 28.90% RCA Label Group 11.75% Island 13.07% Atlantic 6.46% Columbia 6.58%


Others 14.97% Decca 0.36% Domino Recordings 4.13% Epic Label Group 2.17% Island Def Jam Inter... 0.34% Macklemore 1.15% Ministry Of Sound 0.42% Nettwerk 1.57% Parlophone 4.55% Rough Trade 0.39% Umtv 0.79% Warner Bros 1.27%


ARTIST ALBUMS Virgin/EMI 11.48% Polydor 13.02% RCA Label Group 11.18% Island 8.40% Atlantic 10.39% Columbia 7.50% Parlophone 3.97%


Others 33.84% 4ad 0.68% Decca 2.95% Delta 0.71% Domino Recordings 0.54% Dramatico 1.14% Epic Label Group 3.61% Ignition 1.61% Infectious Music 0.55% Macklemore 0.59% Matador 0.71%


Ministry Of Sound 1.37% Nettwerk 2.93% Pias Recordings 1.27% Rhino (Warners) 1.54% Sony Music Cg 7.91% Surfdog 1.10% Warner Bros 3.65% XL Recordings 1.21%


SINGLES RCA 13.0% Polydor 11.2% Island 10.4% Virgin/EMI 8.0%  Atlantic - 6.4% Columbia - 6% Warner Bros - 5.1% Mercury - 3.4% Parlophone - 2.6% Virgin - 2.3% Others - 31.6%


ALBUMS RCA Label Group - 9.5% Columbia - 8.8% Polydor - 7.5% Warner Bros - 6.1%  Island - 5.8% Virgin/EMI - 5.7% Atlantic - 5%  Decca - 4.1% Rhino - 3.5% Parlophone - 3.4% Others - 40.6%


ALBUMS Universal 34.2% Sony 20.7% Warner 16.5% EMI 4.6% Others 18.4% XL Beggars - 2.3% Demon - 0.9% Union Square - 0.8% Ignition - 0.6% Nettwerk - 0.6% PIAS - 0.5%


Loasby who manages David Gilmour. We had some really good constructive discussions. “Tom coming on board really


made the difference and they felt he was someone they could trust with their work to do it the right way.” Directed and produced by


James Robinson, the play includes in chronological order the album’s entire 43 minutes of music and runs in total for 54 minutes. One original consideration, said Smith, was to


do it as a stage production at The Roundhouse in north London with live music, but this did not fit with Stoppard’s vision. “The key thing that came


back from Tom was that he thought the work he’d done worked absolutely best with the original recording done by Pink Floyd and the band were of the same view so that’s why it’s gone this way, but it wouldn’t mean in future we couldn’t do it a different way but this is how it’s evolved,” he added.


The broadcast will be trailed


by a three-minute animation from Aardman Animations, best known for Wallace and Gromit, which will go up on the likes of YouTube. Smith told Music Week that he hoped the play would lead to further, similar interpretations of classic albums becoming “a nice little addition to the cultural calendar”. “This is a great kick-off and it


certainly sets our stall out that we’d welcome working with artists and their classic albums - and with writers to try to do further interpretations in the future,” he said.


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