Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Mike Batt - Six Days In Berlin (1981)


©1981 Epic EPC85149
320 Kbps
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For 40 years Mike Batt has been at the forefront of popular music, as a performer, producer, songwriter, conductor and now record company chairman. He invented the Wombles band, wrote big hits for Art Garfunkel, Alvin Stardust, Cliff Richards, Katie Melua, Bond, Vanessa Mea and for himself. He also is responsible for the soundtrack of the movies Caravans, A Merry War and the Dreamstone. Well, he did much, much more, too much to write it here but you could visit Mike's homepage.
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Now about the Six Days In Berlin. It is a strange album and, although it was a commercial low point in Mike's career, heavenly underrated. The music isn't classical nor pop or rock but all those elements are there. The Trans-Seberian Orchestra comes in mind but Six Days is more surprising. It's released in the highdays of punk music and in a way you could say this is a rebellion album but no way it's punk. On the album are some big names in music like Mel Collins, B.J. Cole and the Berlin Opera Orchestra.
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Part Three is one of the finest instrumentals I know with a good build up and great rythm. The titles are easy to remember :-)
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Tracks: 1. Part One / 2. Part Two / 3. Part Three / 4. Part Four / 5. Part Five / 6. Part Six
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much!!! My vinyl copy is trashed and I've wanted to have this on my ipod for years.

Anonymous said...

Hi, commercially vailable from amazon paired with waves

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much! I had it only on Vnyl and was seeking desperately for an MP3 or at least CD for years!

nenest56 said...

Thank you so much...

I just discover this great musical blog, and I am very happy to (re)discover some great artists!

Greetings from Nenest

Elwood Herring said...

Mike didn't invent the Wombles, that was Elizabeth Beresford. He did write all the Wombles' music though - and there are some underrated gems amongst them too, if can manage to look past the trite Womble characterisations. They show that Mike can turn his hand to any style of music with ease. Six Days in Berlin is exactly the sort of music I like; it doesn't fit easily into any category, and it shows that Mike can also handle a full orchestra.

n8w8 said...

Hi Elwood.
I wasn't referring to the wombles characters but to The Wombles band. Mike didn't just write the music, the whole band was the brainchild of Mike Batt.