The international service was considered a voice of neutrality during times of war, first during World War II, followed by the decades of the Cold War and up to and including the first war in the Gulf in the early 1990s. What began as the Swiss Short Wave Service in 1935, would grow from broadcasting programmes in German, French, Italian and English to include other European languages and Arabic, and eventually change its name to Swiss Radio International. The first few decades of SRI’s existence were the heyday of shortwave – it was often the only way of getting news directly from other countries.Ī brief history of SRI, the predecessor of swissinfo.ch, helps explain why you hear what you do in the video above. It was previously unheard of until quite recently when Andy McCluskey was clearing out some material at his house and came across a tape dating to the Dazzle Ships period with the track on it.What did SWI swissinfo.ch sound like for the first seven decades of its existence? The short answer: a radio station.įrom the mid-1930s to 2004, Switzerland’s international service was Swiss Radio International (SRI). Not much is known about this track although it appears to be more of a musical sketch or backing track rather than a completed song. Like Radio Prague it featured the call sign of the radio station and was once referred to as “the ice cream song” by Mal Holmes due to its similarity to the melodies played by ice cream vans.Īnother track that was under consideration was titled Square Dance. Time Zones uses a collection of telephone ‘speaking clocks’ from around the world.Īnother track titled Swiss Radio International was recorded for the album. Radio Waves was considered as a possible single. The opening intro is actually a short wave radio digitally scanning radio frequencies. Radio Waves is a reworked version of an early song by The Id, hence the credit for former Id member John Floyd who wrote some of the lyrics. The song itself has nothing to do with the theme of the film but the band simply liked the title. The film dealt with a fleet of spaceships preserving the last remaining forests of Earth and deals with Bruce Dern’s actions when the order comes through to destroy them. It takes its title from the science fiction film Silent Running (1971) which starred Bruce Dern. Silent Running was originally called Walking On Air. Of All The Things We’ve Made was originally a B-Side on the 12″ release of the 1982 single Maid Of Orleans. The band considered this song – and also Of All The Things We’ve Made – as too good to leave as B-sides. The Romance Of The Telescope had originally been the B-side to the 1981 single Joan Of Arc and was also remixed for inclusion on this album. The break in the middle, punctuated by a lone bass sound is actually Andy saying “Blue” but the sound has been fed into an Emulator. Most of the sound effects of ships and submarines were taken from a company that specialises in film soundtracks. “I think that countries are a very inefficient way of organising the world” Andy once commented.ĭazzle Ships (Parts II, III and VII) was a sound collage designed to give the impression of ships in war. The opening radio intro is the only remnant of that original idea. The theme was to have reflected Andy’s distaste at the time for the stupid things done by different countries due to differing political attitudes. International was originally to have featured a lot more radio samples. This Is Helena uses a recorded broadcast by a presenter from Radio Prague. Telegraph was the second single released from the album but had originally been considered as the first release. The ‘ABC’ and ‘123’ are by Paul Humphreys. The theme was the use of robots in Czechoslovakian industry. Genetic Engineering was the first single released from the album.ĪBC Auto-Industry features a recording from Czechoslovakian radio (actually by a presenter called Vladimir) who presented a weekly economic talk on Radio Prague. Radio Prague is a radio recording of the call sign from the Czechoslovakian radio station of the same name.
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