Electric Freedom

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Review by Gareth Davies-Morris from UK. Rated

Early Tony Banks solo work, recorded at the same time as The Fugitive and used as the OST to 1983 remake of The Wicked Lady. Not a hit, the film is best remembered for a faux-SM whipping duel between Faye Dunaway and a topless Marina Sirtis. Not a topic you’d associate with the classical genius behind the best Genesis material, but fans will very pleased if they can track down a copy of this score. It’s in two sections, really: the first 8 tracks are Tony’s piano/synth demos, lovely instrumentals that recall passages from A Curious Feeling (ie, Waters of Lethe, After the Lie) or Duke (ie, Heathaze, Duchess). Tunes like Caroline or Barbara pretty much sum up the complexity and effect Tony’s going for here, while the uptempo title track (the only one with Roland drums) was released a single (b/w the orchestral version). The second half is the actual film score by Christopher Palmer, who took Tony’s demos and arranged them for full orchestra. Syrupy in some places, breathtaking in others, and always lovely. In interviews Tony has spoken fondly of the project (unlike the failures of The Shout or 2010, for example) and you will too once hearing it. Sadly, it’s long out of print and never made the jump to CD, but used LPs and cassette copies can be found in shops & online. The US record had inferior artwork (a cheesy illustration of the male cast hiding under a bed!); it’s worth searching out the French/German pressing, which has better artwork (shown here) and pressing quality.

Useful tips: some enterprising chap has converted the cassette into MP3 and those tracks can be found with a web search too. In fact, you can find them here:

http://sharedmusic.net/tony_banks_-_the_wicked_lady_1983_.html