Curly's Airships

[Vapymid]

Apologies for this slightly incoherent flood of words but I am not very good with romantic descriptions. I have discovered this thing just now and by pure accident, even though it was originally released in 2000. I have been deeply touched by this work on many levels, so much so that I felt compelled to make this post.

 

"Curly's Airships" is a rock-story about airships. Specifically, the British rigid airships program, from 1919 to 1930. A combination of chasing an impossible dream, political infighting, government meddling, ambitions and desire to fly. Ending, inevitably, in a fireball in the hills of France.

 

The whole story is told by the spirit of Curly McLeod (sung by Judge Smith), a fictional 3rd officer on the R.101 (the largest dirigible in the world at the time), summoned by a medium, but pretty much all other characters in the story are real historic personages. It may seem remote and hardly relevant but, like a Greek tragedy, it tells us about the part of human nature that is timeless and is going to stay with us while we remain human. Indeed, if you look at what happened to Apollo 1, Soyuz 1, Space Shuttle Challenger - so much of it is history repeating itself...

 

Judge Smith spent 6 years researching the material, writing the lyrics and music, organising finance, putting together the team etc. and the result is very special.

 

Production values are excellent - sound engineering and CD transfer are of the highest quality, which you rarely find even on large budget releases. This is what happens when creators put their souls into their creation, I guess...

 

Judge is supported by a cast of stellar musicians and performers with some of the recordings made on locations - in an airship shed at Cardington, in churches and cathedrals in places of historical importance to the story.

 

The singing is so clear that you can understand every word without ever needing to read the lyrics but the double CD album comes with two lush booklets including production notes, historical and technical reference with pictures of all airships mentioned in the story, a glossary and a full libretto (lyrics).

 

Listening to this is like watching a movie with your eyes closed - the lyrics are so vivid. And hearing Judge's narration, you would really think he was there and he really is Curly. And Curly is an opinionated and passionate chap, whose opinions can be quite scathing and forthright but he loves to fly...

 

The whole thing will not quite work if you never saw a picture of a large dirigible or the sheds they were built in, so here we are - meet His Majesty's airship R.33:

 

 

Enough of that, there is plenty of information on Curly's website, here is the music. The first 3 tracks from the piece to give you the idea of what it is:

OlwwF2ymCgw

vidZxOlksAI

IVO6QGxnFbo

 

There's not much else available on the internets, so if you want to hear the whole story you'll need to get the CD. You won't regret doing it, though - in this I feel pretty confident.

 

Regards

[BTGBullseye]

Probly belongs in the Soundtrack forum...

[Vapymid]

It didn't occur to me to think about it as a soundtrack as it is a fully self-contained work but if a mod will it appropriate and move this to Soundtracks - that's perfectly fine with me...

 

Regards

[Lord Sinister]

It didn't occur to me to think about it as a soundtrack as it is a fully self-contained work but if a mod will it appropriate and move this to Soundtracks - that's perfectly fine with me...

 

Regards

 

This sounds like you're talking about something that is more of an audio book (or perhaps a musical like Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds?), rather than a musical soundtrack to something else like a film, game or tv series? If so then it probably doesn't really warrant moving in my opinion.

[Vapymid]

War of the Worlds would be the closest analog, except that WotW is made of series of conventional songs connected to the underlying story in some way or another, whereas Curly's Airships is one continuous "songstory" split into chapters.

 

Curly's Airships uses "leitmotifs" - characteristic melodies that are associated with particular characters or airships or airplanes etc - and they follow each other and repeat with some variations as the narrative progresses.

 

I really recommend listening to the 3 Youtube clips above - trying to describe this in words will never do justice to that work, though it can talk in its own words, of course:

 

1919, on the flat fens of Norfolk,

A gigantic iron shed

Obscures the dark grey sky,

And there's something extraordinary

We keep inside;

Something I'd like you to see.

Leave your matches outside please

And your cigarette lighters.

You could say we're a trifle vulnerable to fire;

And rubber-soled shoes only please,

Can't risk sparks.

Just through this door,

Now what do you think of that?...

 

Regards

[Psychotic Ninja]

Apologies for this slightly incoherent flood of words but I am not very good with romantic descriptions. I have discovered this thing just now and by pure accident, even though it was originally released in 2000. I have been deeply touched by this work on many levels, so much so that I felt compelled to make this post.

 

"Curly's Airships" is a rock-story about airships. Specifically, the British rigid airships program, from 1919 to 1930. A combination of chasing an impossible dream, political infighting, government meddling, ambitions and desire to fly. Ending, inevitably, in a fireball in the hills of France.

 

The whole story is told by the spirit of Curly McLeod (sung by Judge Smith), a fictional 3rd officer on the R.101 (the largest dirigible in the world at the time), summoned by a medium, but pretty much all other characters in the story are real historic personages. It may seem remote and hardly relevant but, like a Greek tragedy, it tells us about the part of human nature that is timeless and is going to stay with us while we remain human. Indeed, if you look at what happened to Apollo 1, Soyuz 1, Space Shuttle Challenger - so much of it is history repeating itself...

 

Judge Smith spent 6 years researching the material, writing the lyrics and music, organising finance, putting together the team etc. and the result is very special.

 

Production values are excellent - sound engineering and CD transfer are of the highest quality, which you rarely find even on large budget releases. This is what happens when creators put their souls into their creation, I guess...

 

Judge is supported by a cast of stellar musicians and performers with some of the recordings made on locations - in an airship shed at Cardington, in churches and cathedrals in places of historical importance to the story.

 

The singing is so clear that you can understand every word without ever needing to read the lyrics but the double CD album comes with two lush booklets including production notes, historical and technical reference with pictures of all airships mentioned in the story, a glossary and a full libretto (lyrics).

 

Listening to this is like watching a movie with your eyes closed - the lyrics are so vivid. And hearing Judge's narration, you would really think he was there and he really is Curly. And Curly is an opinionated and passionate chap, whose opinions can be quite scathing and forthright but he loves to fly...

 

The whole thing will not quite work if you never saw a picture of a large dirigible or the sheds they were built in, so here we are - meet His Majesty's airship R.33:

 

 

Enough of that, there is plenty of information on Curly's website, here is the music. The first 3 tracks from the piece to give you the idea of what it is:

OlwwF2ymCgw

vidZxOlksAI

IVO6QGxnFbo

 

There's not much else available on the internets, so if you want to hear the whole story you'll need to get the CD. You won't regret doing it, though - in this I feel pretty confident.

 

Regards

 

 

j-EvW4bkAxc

[Vapymid]

D'you mean you can read? Blimey, that's a shock of my life...

 

Regards