Blog — Historical Perspectives

We're honoured that the mighty Paul Norman not only allowed us to do his stuff for orchestra, but came all the way from the US to see the concert in Hull and meet the fans. A true legend! What's not that well known is that he also gets around in his helicopter, rescuing characters from his games: (illustration by Steph Abbott from the forthcoming 8-Bit Symphony: Second Half CD booklet - support the Kickstarter!) Here's Paul critiquing your helicopter flying: Full soundtrack: Chris Abbott 2 · Super Huey - 8-Bit Symphony Pro: Second Half demo render     So, let's look at...

We did a Q&A about the book with Dr. Kenny McAlpine, our main musicologist and first named author on the "Rob Hubbard - The Official Reference" book. Hope you enjoy it! 1. You’re the UK’s foremost academic expert on chipmusic: how did that come about? Is it still difficult getting other musical academics to recognise that’s even a thing?  Ha! That’s unduly flattering, I think, but thank you.  If it’s true, then it’s almost certainly by dint of the fact that there aren’t all that many other academics who are working in that space, so I've ended up being a leading...

Early Days The Story of 8-Bit Symphony starts with... nothing. Specifically, nothing on the TV in the 1970s. I lived through a period in the 1970s when sometimes the only thing on TV was a static graphic (called a "Testcard") and some light music. You can imagine a questing young mind listening to and processing that music. Filing it away. It was a great variety of music, from classical tracks done properly, to classical tracks done in a different style, to pop, and... to early synth music made purely on synthesizers of the time. It made quite an impression to hear...

There are a lot of stories in Project Hubbard. This one is about one of Rob's favourite pieces that never got out to play: Task Force. The story begins at the Opera. In 1982, Rob worked in the studio with a musician called Steve Daggett. (From the Lindesfarne Wikipedia page): "During the second half of the 1980s they played annual Christmas tours and released Dance Your Life Away (1986) and C'mon Everybody (1987) – the latter made up of covers of old rock and roll standards and reworkings of some of the band's most popular songs. Keyboardist Steve Daggett, formerly of new wave band Stiletto,...