Series 4 to the end
We missed working at Shepperton because it was a very sociable environment and we met a lot of interesting people. Although we scored two feature films there “That Summer Of White Roses” a wartime story and “October 32nd. A time travelling sci fi movie, but financially we needed more work to keep it all going. It was amazing working on feature length films and a million miles away from Thomas, but it was time to move on.
Series 4 was recorded at a private studio in Ascot called The White House and now goes under the name of Torch Studios Ascot.
Torch Studio Ascot (The Whie House)
A guy named Sean Lynch owned it and it was at the bottom of his beautiful garden. Great little studio with a 24-track machine and a huge desk. Although it was nice working there, we wanted our own studio again mainly for the convenience and we wanted to get more into a midi and a computer-based system, as this seemed to be the way things were going.
It was early days for this technology, but we used it on series 5 which was recorded at my house in Lightwater near Camberley. It was all a bit experimental, but it did the trick. We also recorded the songs relating to that series there namely.
1. Donald’s Duck
2. Percy’s Seaside trip
3. Snow Song
4. Accidents Will Happen
5. Sir Topham Hatt’s Song
6. Every cloud has a Silver Lining
7. Harold The Helicopter
8. Night Train
9. It’s Great to be an Engine
10. Come for the Ride
We didn’t have the space to record the children’s vocals there, so we used a London Studio for that and then mixed it back at my home set up.
I then moved to Cranleigh in 1999 and I decided to convert my garage into a studio which became Oakfield Studio. It was big enough to house a vocal booth which we used for all the guide vocals but again not big enough to record the children, so we recorded their vocals in London and then mixed everything back at my studio.
Oakfield Studio
It was a great set-up, and it couldn’t have been more convenient.
We recorded series 6 & 7 at Oakfield Studio including the following songs right up to the end of our involvement with Thomas in 2003.
1. James the Splendid Engine
2. Thomas’ Winter Wonderland
3. Little Engines
4. Boo Boo Choo Choo
5. Down by the Docks
6. Never Never Never Give Up
7. Troublesome Trucks
8. There Once Was an Engine who Ran Away
9. The Whistle Song
10. The Red Balloon
11. Salty
12. Five New Engines in The Shed
Things were rapidly changing at HIT and Thomas wasn’t the same anymore as the new team were taking over. They wanted to make big changes and eventually replaced all the key creative people including me and Junior, Dave Mitton and even Britt.
I never understood the thinking behind replacing the theme tune as it was such a famous and iconic piece of music, and they owned the rights to it.
It just didn’t make sense to me as I know they could have adapted it to fit the visuals, but apparently that’s progress??