Page 30 - Phil JamesBond program DIGITAL_Neat

Q. How did you get involved in this more than others, and then if you asked
project? me in an hour’s time, I’d have a different
A. We were doing this project about one, or if you asked me at a different
the Paralympics [Rising Phoenix, stage of life, it keeps changing.
a documentary which featured 12 So it’s hard, but if I have to pick one, I’d
athletes from 11 countries heading say “We Have All the Time in the World.“
to the 2021 Tokyo Games], which we Having said that, the first Bond film I
were shooting on and off for two years, ever saw in the cinema was “The Living
and one of the execs on that was a Daylights,” and I remember running out
producer named John Battsek. And he and buying the A-ha theme.
just said one day, “Do you fancy doing Is it boring to say “Diamonds Are
something on James Bond?” Forever” or “Goldfinger”? Those would
I was like, “Yeah!” Like most people on be the gold standards.
the planet, I love the Bond films, but Q. What does the music in each
then I just thought, what’s the angle? film say about the time of the film’s
And he suggested I just go in and meet release, and what was going on in
Barbara [Broccoli] and Michael [G. the world?
Wilson], the Bond producers. A. One of the things that’s unique to
So I met with them, and they’re lovely Bond, which I really love, is that it has
people. They had the 60th anniversary one foot in the present day and another
coming up, and they knew they did foot in the past and in the history of
not have a film to coincide with it, so Bond.
we started brainstorming, and of all
the ideas that we raised in the room Obviously, there’s a commercial aspect
that day, the one that stuck was doing to it. They try and find the biggest artists
something about the music, which in the world right now. So you have to
there had never been an official one make something of this time … but it
produced by Barbara and Michael. also has [to have] a kind of timeless
quality. It’s this really fascinating hybrid
Q. Do you have a favorite Bond of different elements that have to be
song? inside Bond.
A. It’s funny because any series that It’s got to be big enough to go from
runs for 60 years, there’s going to be lounge music and the swing bands at
films that you love more than others, the beginning, all the way through to
there’s going to be songs that you love rock and roll with Paul McCartney, and

PAGE 28 Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra