News & Events - Sabian Feed

I was due to join http://www.orleansonline.com/home.html">Orleans on a short tour of Germany and Holland in late September, so I made plans to visit my folks in the UK for a week prior to flying to Hamburg. One night in early September I was Instant Messaging with my old friend, Bond movie Composer David Arnold. I mentioned I was going to be in the UK in the 3rd week of September, and would he like to have lunch. He told me they were currently in the middle of the latest Bond movie score, and could I get over a few days early. Apparently they were planning to re-record the original Bond Theme tune (The Monty Norman penned "Twangy guitar" instrumental one) with a 71 piece orchestra), and he would love to have me on the session. Well, I could not pass by such an opportunity, so I changed my outward bound travel to arrive on the 12th. After picking up my rental car, I went straight to my lockup to fetch the drum kit I have there in storage (an Ermine-White Premier Genista). Back at my parents' place, I quickly assembled it to make sure I knew how (after 4 years)!

On the afternoon of Saturday 13th September, I made my way to AIR Lyndhurst studios, where the last day of recording for "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5354Y3x3-Us">A Quantum of Solace" was taking place. Apart from being a really fun thing to be doing it was also a chance to meet some session cats I had not seen for almost a decade. In fact the LAST time I was in AIR Studios was for Björk's "Dancer In The Dark" sound track. And a year before that, I was in the very same drum booth to record David Arnold's first Bond movie: " Tomorrow Never Dies!" David mentioned it was 11 years, almost to the DAY since we had last seen each other. Wow, time flies when you're having fun.....

I managed to get the drums in and set up in the mid-afternoon break. Then it was simply a matter of waiting until the evening session. While I was sitting in the cafe, I caught up with the lives of a number of the players who were coming and going. Our bass player for the evening, the incredible Steve Pearce arrived, and we swapped stories until we were called into our respective places. He is one of the busiest players in the UK, and has always been a tremendous pleasure to work with.

The moment arrived, and I found myself sitting in the booth (Steve Pearce next to me) looking through the windows into the main hall, where 71 musicians were poised to play. Our guitarist for the session was to be David Arnold himself (David is actually a keyboard player, but can certainly manage a decent guitar riff).

What can I say? There is nothing quite like "driving the band" when it's this big! It's probably akin to piloting a super-tanker. Once you get going, there's not much that will stop it, and when you do, it takes a while! All I can say is we completed it in 4 takes, and I was encouraged to "play out".... My kind of session.

Packing up afterwards was a blast. With the huge number of old friends suddenly noticing I was behind the kit, the booth became like a reunion party! It was over an hour before I had my kit back in its cases and ready to load into the car.

All I can say is: Thank you, Dave. I had a ball

Charlie Morgan