Marc Gordon Hendley Bell It was composed from lots of different bits & styles I thought initially would not work. The 'Quo' rhythm guitar with Damien's (very clean) solos on top. The twin lead vocals.... the 'that's chick' reminded me of Meatloaf. Then all the little production aspects, like bouncing in the party scene live from one DAT machine, while we recorded onto the 2nd one as we'd run out of tracks....
Magic Moments At Twilight Time Ah, great results though. I think the party scene really worked BECAUSE it was real. Heard a lot of very obvious fakes, but ours was a cracker. I've always told people it was a wrap party for "Creavolution" though... so I've been lying all these years!? ??
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell Of course the party scene was real..... I was there & 100% sober.
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell The re-master was tricky because of the 'low frequency' range of the lead vocals. It's much clearer in the new digital one, but much more fun in the analogue one. As they clashed with other instruments slightly in the original mix..... we didn't have a big digital desk back then.
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell Actually I think it was mixed on a Seck 18.8.2, not bad for it's day.
Magic Moments At Twilight Time Amazing how much technology has come on over the years. What would you say has been the key piece of progress that has made your functioning as a sound engineer that much better and more productive?
Magic Moments At Twilight Time Please come back, Marc, I'm starting to feel like a spare part here...
(*Don't even think about commenting, Julie Howell!!!)
Julie Howell :)
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell I'm still here...… I guess I answered comments on the other page??
Magic Moments At Twilight Time Well, Marc Gordon Hendley Bell appears to have gone walkabout with Julie White Hawk (she'll be my guest on Monday at 17:00 BST / UTC +1, I'm sure Marc will get his own back then). Oh, Marc's back! Right, let's go back to that question...
Amazing how much technology has come on over the years. What would you say has been the key piece of progress that has made your functioning as a sound engineer that much better and more productive?
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell You're right Mick the technology has moved on beyond what I could dream of back in 1994/5 (let alone from the 70's when I started out).
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell The DAT machine showed the way on to the future....
Magic Moments At Twilight Time And how are current developments influencing what you do?
Julie Howell I don't know what you're talking about, Mick. Neither of us has moved a muscle the entire time.
Magic Moments At Twilight Time Go away!
Julie Howell How can I go away, I've been sat at this computer for the past 90mins!
Magic Moments At Twilight Time Behave yourself then!
Magic Moments At Twilight Time I hope you're not going to be this unruly on Monday evening!
Julie Howell What do YOU think? I'm not sure I could hold a candle to Marc though, writing on the wrong page and you not noticing for 45 mins. Classic times.
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell But it wasn't til DAW's took off & computers big enough to run them you could start to match the creativity of analogue.
Magic Moments At Twilight Time And how are current developments influencing what you do?
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell We use PreSonus Studio One V4 (full Professional) now..... through a 32gig PC.
Magic Moments At Twilight Time What about an answer that normal people would understand?
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell Here we moved on and have a desk that is totally linked to the software with analogue insert & out put points..... you can't get anywhere near this on a home PC or lap-top. Hence we can 'fly in' any old FX, or analogue gear during recording or mix-down.
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell I'm here to answer, don't worry (I have 67 notifications sitting above me!)
Magic Moments At Twilight Time I'm jealous. So, let's take a little backward step here, back to kind of how this all began. It was when you invited me up to Brain Dead (first time we met, of course) to add some guitar, synth FX and backing vocals to the Thamesmead Rollers original of "Armegeddon Time". Let's have a listen to that one and give me a few minutes to compose myself again, and give you some time to get some excuses for writing it together...

Magic Moments At Twilight Time Great intro... ;)
Magic Moments At Twilight Time Were you chewing a cheese-grater at the time?
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell Current developments? The software is very fast to operate, so you can work much more quickly than with reel to reel machines. That analogue re-master took me almost all night using a Revox B77.
Magic Moments At Twilight Time We're on listening to the original "Armegeddon Time" now! :)
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell Yep, the version we hear here is the extended dance mix version. It was intended to be a piss take out of Mark Jenkins' original release of 'Creavolution'. This is the previously unheard 'Take 5'.... Derek didn't like it!
Magic Moments At Twilight Time No, I'm listening to the OLD Thamesmead Rollers one, thought it would be a clever link to TMR's Take 5. The best laid men of mice with plans, eh?
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell The original version of Armeggedon Time was the closing track on 'Too Old To Rock?' Which we invited Mick to contribute to once we'd laid down the backtrack & lead vocals.
Magic Moments At Twilight Time That's the one, I've finished listening to it now. Really sounds a lot better with the time buffer. What was that, '93?
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell I'd already done a guitar solo & Derek had some good keyboard parts, but we thought it needed something extra, that why I called in Mick for something different!
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell Plus he liked the studio of course!
Magic Moments At Twilight Time Well, that's pretty much how it all started, innit? I think it wasn't long after that that you offered to let us use the studio for "Creavolution" for free, for which you have our eternal gratitude. As I put on the inlay for your new remaster, without your help and support, I rather doubt the original CD would have happened, let alone the new one!
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell The version of 'Armeggedon Time' we're listening to here was re-worked the year after the TOTR release by me & Mike Westergaard (Whom I did the 'Ghosts' album with). It's the same thing but different I guess?

Magic Moments At Twilight Time Certainly, which leads us nicely to actually listening to that then. You're gonna love this, a 10+ minute epic dance track, deliberately full of errors as a tribute to the 'company' that

did the first (bodged) pressing of the original CD. Ladies and gentlemen, this is TMR - "Armegeddon Time (F.A.M.E. Mega-Mix (Take 5)", enjoy muchly. And if you don't like psyche-dance music, it's long enough to have a pee, make a brew, whatever... ;)

Magic Moments At Twilight Time Oh, shake that funky groove thang!
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell Cool. It was actually quite difficult to put together a mix like this with all these planned errors and still make it sound good. Derek over-ruled me on using this (which I thought was the best mix). He didn't like the long false start at the beginning or the 'rain' sample from Michael Chapman (Rain-Maker) at the end. Michael gave us his blessing when he heard it, which was fantastic!
Magic Moments At Twilight Time I love this track, fucking masterpiece. So how did you come to meet and work with Mike Westergaard?
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell This version is now also available on the 'Ghosts' (Expanded Edition as a bonus track).
Magic Moments At Twilight Time Plug plug, you're not on bloody Terry Wogan, you know!
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell Me & Mike met around 10 years previously (& we're still friends!). He was in The Blessing & had just been dropped by MCA records. He set up 'Studio 99' a couple of doors down the road from me. Back then he had the money & the gear I could only dream of...… now he's retired & I have a much better studio!
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell Terry Wogan is dead ain't he? I've plugged 'Creavolution' all day on Twitter...… well over 2500 hits with a 16.5 link rate to the albums! Beat that!
Magic Moments At Twilight Time Nice man. Ah, I enjoyed that (and had the opportunity for a pee, middle aged man thing). So, let's talk about "Ghosts" a bit. The Rollers were very much a kind of lo fi grungy rock band (with occasional softer moments, like the enchanting "Fly Way"), how did the idea and concept come about of turning so much of your music into the TMR dance mixes?
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell Plus all the direct marketing (no bulk mail-outs here).
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell You're younger than me! 'Ghosts' actually sprang from Derek's ideas. We had a few hours of studio time booked with Mike @ Studio 99 after completing the Candor Records single 'Too many Years'. Derek suggested doing some 'dub' mixes! Me & Debbie said FUCK OFF..... but we tried it.
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell They are also now available on the new 'Ghosts' release (Shameless plug!).
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell Mike said he could take it one step further & did some planning. It took a year to execute..... the longest we'd ever spent on a project. Derek & Debbie got pissed off as we were also recording our Candor Records debut at the same time.
Magic Moments At Twilight Time Good thing too! M&E fans may well remember the 1996 cassette album of "Ghosts", but may be surprised to know it's gone from strength to strength and has sold thousands SINCE the M&E days. I don't know how this link thing works with Nimbit, I've got the expanded version of "Ghosts" up and the URL still says "Creavolution Reborn"! Mad. So, tell us about "Ghosts" today, I understand a lot of stuff has been added in the way of bonus material?
Magic Moments At Twilight Time And you can put in the proper link if ya like!
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell Likewise I was a bit pissed off with Chris Dor's 'easy listening' production. But Both Ghosts & Kingdom Come turned out OK I guess.
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell OK shameless plug time here! A 24 track expanded version of 'Ghosts' is available on TMR Records (currently our 2nd best seller!). Inc; many un-heard & rare stuff, plus 2 recent 'dance' tracks at: (click on image)
Magic Moments At Twilight Time So what are the next plans for The Thamesmead Rollers / TMR / Marc Bell? I'm kind of enjoying a renaissance at 60 myself, making all sorts of plans, and you?
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell Firstly to re-issue the remaining original albums, 'Wasted Years' (Expanded) is ready to roll. Update the anthology, 'Full Circle'. Re-issue them all on CD from new re-masters.... not Chris's ones! Then to release a new album of previously un-heard new material. And I'm only 63....
Magic Moments At Twilight Time Bless ya. Well, I guess that more or less wraps things up for now, hope you'll come back and talk to us again at some point during the 7 weeks of our launch fiestatron, be nice to go through "Ghosts" in a bit more detail. How's the demand for downloads been going for "Creavolution Reborn" today?
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell Me & Mike did start a 2nd dance mix album in 1996, but were too busy to complete it. Finished tracks inc: 'Poltergeist'. But I'd love to do a new one totally from scratch!
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell Chris's fault too much live work at the time for Candor Records.
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell I also work with a lot of other acts these days, management & production..... plus do live sound & stage management. Here's another plug for a gig I'm doing the live sound for next week!
Magic Moments At Twilight Time Don't blame you (more dance stuff), it was such an interesting diversion from your usual output. Anyway, Sam is struggling to get Twizz to go to sleep next door coz she can hear me tapping away in here (plus I kind of fancy popping up the Spar for a beer meself, only coz it's your birthday, of course)! So, Marc, many thanks for all your belief and support over the years, all through the tough legal struggle to get the original album out, and for doing all the work on the new remasters, very much appreciated. Oh, and here's wishing you a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Magic Moments At Twilight Time And thanks for talking to us tonight, of course, it's been a truly interesting experience!
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell I've just noticed Sammy has downloaded 'Rock & Roll Lifestyle' (Analogue)…. it's up on split screen. 87 further downloads since we've been talking..... Twitter works wonders!!!!!!
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell Cool..... I've hope you've enjoyed the start of the PR for 'Creavolution Reborn' too!
Marc Gordon Hendley Bell Shite..... MP3 again.....
Magic Moments At Twilight Time If only Facebook did! Ladies and gentlemen, Marc Gordon Hendley Bell! I'll be back here tomorrow morning at 10:30 (BST/UTC +1) with the legendary Shona Moments, but I'm off for a beer or two now, I think I've earned it! If you'd like to know more about Marc's career, I interviewed him back in the May of 2014, which you can find on our website at...

http://www.mickmagic.net/Marc%20Bell.htm
THANK YOU, GOODNIGHT!