And so after nearly 5 years of squonks, whistling on soundtracks, Cinzano times (other drinks are available), Ennio Morricone deep cuts, radio premiere plays, Triple Bills, dialogue on soundtracks and BRILLIANT listener requests, Mark Kermode’s Scala Radio show came to an end on Saturday 24th February 2024.
I’m currently on maternity leave but I took a brief respite from night feeds and tummy time to put together the running order with Mark. He sent me a list of his favourite film music discoveries since the show launched on International Women’s Day in 2019, and we received so many thoughtful listener emails and requests following the announcement about the show the week before, so there wasn’t much room for anything else, but I managed to squeeze in some of my stand-out cues.
Here’s the playlist for the show:
Anna Meredith – Nautilus – as used in Eighth Grade. A bold squonk to kick off proceedings!
Para One and Arthur Simonini – Main title – Portrait of a Lady of Fire. Still spine-tingling!
Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch – End Scene – Only You. Emilie’s one of the many composer discoveries we’ve made while the show’s been on air and Only You was the first score to bring her to Mark’s attention.
Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch – Come Back Soon – All of Us Strangers. Emilie’s latest score was requested by several listeners who fell in love with the ambient sparseness.
Eiko Ishibashi – We’ll Live Through the Long, long Days and Through the Long Nights – Drive My Car. Mark’s favourite film score of 2021.
Mel Brooks – Nothing Like the Coffee – The Automat. One of Mark’s favourite film songs from the past 5 years.
Jerry Goldsmith – The Victor – L.A Confidential. Listener Anne in Edinburgh requested this, giving us the perfect excuse to feature some Goldsmith in the final show!
Warren Ellis – Les Proies – Mustang. Mark’s a big fan of Ellis’ film scores, both those co-composed with fellow Bad Seed Nick Cave such as Blonde, and his solo work like This Train I Ride. This is a particularly beautiful cue from an often overlooked score.
Kathryn Bostic – Slow Train – Clemency. One of Mark’s favourite OSTs from 2019.
Tamar-Kali – Baby – Shirley. One of my picks! I love the inventive use of strings in this film; the music manages to be simultaneously beautiful and unsettling.
Carla Patullo – Main Title – Apotheke. Another of my picks, which was also requested by listener Alex in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne who told us “I must have listened to this at least a thousand times since you introduced it on your programme, and it does more in 4 minutes than most scores achieve in two hours. Without you I would have never known of its existence.”
Michael Abels – Anthem – US. A great opener for the second hour of the show, and a particular favourite of Mark’s for its echoes of Ave Satani from The Omen by Jerry Goldsmith.
Hildur Gudnadottir – Bathroom Dance – Joker. Mark’s favourite film score of 2019. We look forward to hearing where Hildur takes this musical soundworld with Folie a Deux which is out later this year.
Thomas Newman – Dead Already – American Beauty. As chosen by David in Nottingham and Judith in Argyll. For me, this is the best example of a ‘should have won the Oscar’ score because it was so inventive and influential.
Mike Kaplan – A Garden of Personal Mirrors – 2001: A Space Odyssey. This was written for Kubrick’s masterpiece but the director rejected it in favour of existing classical pieces. The song was released in December 2020 and Mark had the first radio play. It’s a – how shall I put this? – memorable piece of music, and various listeners asked to hear it again on the radio.
Rupert Gregson-Williams – Okinawa Battlefield – Hacksaw Ridge. Chosen by possibly the show’s most frequent emailer, David in Scunthorpe.
Tara Crème – Emotional Whiplash – Your Fat Friend. One of Mark’s favourite film scores of 2024 so far.
Jerskin Fendrix – Bella – Poor Things. Mark would love this score to win the Oscar but it looks like a dead cert for the (admittedly very good) Oppenheimer by Ludwig Goransson.
Paul Giovanni – Willow’s Song – The Wicker Man. As chosen by listener Sally in Leicestershire from a brilliant list of options including Pan’s Labyrinth and A Passage to India.
Mica Levi – Main Title – Monos. We love Mica Levi! Their scores are consistently refreshing, challenging and beautiful in equal measure. And yes, often squonky. I was particularly fond of their music for Zola, but we went with Monos for the sheer experimentation. It was great to re-visit this OST from 2019 – and I’d highly recommend the film if you haven’t seen it.
Oliver Coates and Queen – Last Dance – Aftersun. This was another of my choices. It’s a beautiful arrangement of Under Pressure using Freddie Mercury and David Bowie’s voices as instruments, weaving them in amongst strings, and it’s particularly poignant for its use in the film. Also, I chose it as the title nods to one of the show’s regular features, the Dance Around the Kitchen track.
Peter Schickele – Rejoice in the Sun – Silent Running. One of Mark’s all-time favourite film scores concluded the final show. We received some requests for it too, including from Stuart who wrote “And so it comes to the end. My Saturday afternoons will never be the same again.”
The keen-eared amongst you will have heard Mark mention at the end of the show that he and I are writing a book about film music so my free time (when not looking after a small human) will be spent working on that – although I can’t really call it ‘work’ because it’s such a fun project! Hopefully I’ll have more news to report on here soon.
