All good issues come to an finish, and after some 37 years Australia’s longest-running drama collection, Neighbours, is waving goodbye. The lives of the assorted occupants of six homes on a cul-de-sac in sunny suburban Melbourne have entertained generations because it was first broadcast in 1985 (1986 within the UK); even The Queen Mom was a fan.
Regardless of the comings and goings on Ramsay Avenue through the years, one factor has remained (nearly) the identical: the theme tune.
Who wrote the theme tune for ‘Neighbours’?
‘Neighbours’ was written by British composer Tony Hatch, with lyrics by his then spouse the late Jackie Trent. They’d moved to Australia within the Eighties after a high-profile profession within the UK, writing pop songs and the odd theme tune. Petula Clark’s hit ‘Downtown’ was written by Hatch, with Trent co-writing Clark’s hits ‘American Boys’ and ‘A Signal of the Occasions’, amongst many others.
Hatch was no stranger to writing for TV, or certainly cleaning soap opera, having written the themes for Sportsnight and each Emmerdale Farm (now simply Emmerdale) and Crossroads. For Neighbours, Trent and Hatch had been requested to put in writing one thing upbeat and sunny by the present’s creator Reg Watson. They didn’t dangle about, apparently turning the tune round in a day.
To present the piece a very Australian stamp, they requested one among nation’s best-known singers to tackle the vocals. Barry Crocker, who was interviewed not too long ago on BBC Radio 2, admitted it was a last-minute request and he merely ‘popped spherical to Tony and Jackie’s’ to provide it a go late one night. That demo went down so nicely with Watson it was used because the theme tune from the start, when Neighbours made its debut on Channel 9 (the present would really be axed in a matter of months, earlier than being picked up by Channel Ten the next 12 months).
Crocker’s model of the theme was freshened up later within the Eighties, then changed in 1992 with a model new association that includes lead vocals by Greg Hind. The change took a little bit of getting used to for many who had been watching from the beginning, however remained with the present till 1998. Since then an additional six variations have graced the opening and shutting titles; that features the present (and ultimate) model, which is sung by fomer forged member and recording artist Bonnie Anderson.
Anderson’s model made its debut in 2020 and was organized by the present’s composer and music supervisor Jamie Messenger. The temporary from producers was comparatively open, as he tells me.
‘All they needed was a recent, extra trendy model. The one factor they did specify was getting Bonnie concerned on the vocal, which was pretty as a result of she was a part of the present on the time. I suppose her voice guided me… I needed fairly a joyful, upbeat model, which is why I went with the texture of the observe, and it took fairly some time to work out what chords to place in. Clearly the melody is the melody, however you possibly can put totally different chords onto it to provide it a barely totally different flavour. I attempted numerous totally different combos of chord progressions beneath there. Additionally, it’s such an old-school sounding tune, the unique, and I didn’t need it to sound daggy! So so as to add that trendy aptitude, however hold that unique tune was a little bit of a problem, however I used to be actually pleased with the top end result.’
What in regards to the music that options within the episodes
Messenger has been engaged on Neighbours since 2018, composing all of the incidental music and deciding on/putting all of the supply music tracks you hear within the background of scenes. The present had a famously gruelling schedule, and it was a full on activity, as he explains.
‘I used to be employed for 50 hours every week. I acquired 5 episodes on Monday morning and by the top of the day on Friday they needed to be stuffed with music and able to be handed on for the following Monday. Every episode is about 23 minutes – while you take out the advertisements and all the pieces – and there’s generally about quarter-hour of music. That may embrace the background music, like in Harold’s café or The Waterhole. My rating is likely to be 5 or 6 minutes in some episodes, however others might need quarter-hour of rating. If it’s extra out on location, with huge drama and motion and stuff, that usually required much more rating.’
With a lot music to create in such a brief house of time, Messenger reveals he needed to be organised and have items he may draw on swiftly.
‘A very powerful factor for me was to construct up a library of tracks that I may reuse,’ he says. ‘I suppose the toughest factor was figuring out how I used to be going to classify them, and I really ended up with a numbering system of folders from one to 9 – one being all of the light-hearted comedy, easy-going tracks and 9 being the harrowing, loopy tracks. So the upper the quantity the extra intense the drama, and that gave a little bit of a normal concept of the place to discover a observe that may swimsuit a scene. I’ve acquired an entire bunch of folders… one among them is named ‘Private Ache, Grief, Inside Wrestle’ and one other one is ‘Disillusioned, Not Going to Plan, Harassed’.
The present’s ultimate ever episode airs within the UK and Australia on the finish of the month, and the second has been bittersweet for Messenger, who – once we spoke – was nonetheless engaged on ultimate changes for the finale.
‘It felt very unusual,’ he tells me, ‘usually each week we’ve acquired the present week’s episodes, plus the fix-ups from earlier weeks, after which we’re wanting on the subsequent week’s episodes and preparing. However within the final week it was simply the 5 episodes that wanted ending off and there was nothing extra coming. It was very unusual, and fairly unhappy.’
He wasn’t capable of give something away, however Messenger did have this to say of his work on the ultimate episodes of the present.
‘It was actually enjoyable. I feel there’s going to be some good surprises for followers of the present. I put a number of effort into the final couple of weeks of episodes, simply rigorously selecting every bit of music that went in. We simply needed it to be actually particular.’
The ultimate episode of Neighbours will air on Channel 5 within the UK on Friday 29 July, however might be accessible to look at for a month after on My5. Viewers in Australia can see the finale on Thursday 28 July on 10 and 10 Peach, or make amends for 10Play.
