True Fairlight Pr0n
I’m not quite sure how I’d react if I opened up a box of Fairlight 8″ floppies, popped one in the drive and discovered that it contained original Pet Shop Boys samples and sequences. I think that after fainting, drooling and jizzing my pants, I’d be as giddy as fuck for a good number of hours!
Well, take a look at the following two videos from “DavidFairlight“. I’m not sure as the the background and circumstances on how he came into possession of these disks (in his post on the Yahoo Fairlight Users Group, David says these were the original disks from Derek Weaver aka Blue Weaver) , but I’d like to thank him for sharing these with us.
UPDATE: Fellow Fairlight nut & blogger David Vandenborn sheds some light on the origins of this material…
“These sequences are from the Pet Shop Boys song Opportunities and were used for their live performance on The BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test in 1986.
The PSB used 2 Series IIx Fairlights that were running in sync. So, both sequences below are supposed to be played simultaneously
Here’s a blog post from Blue Weaver about the live gig: link“
What we see/hear is “Opportunities (Let’s make lots of money)” by Pet Shop Boys. In the first clip, it’s almost the entire backing track and in clip two it’s all percussion.
I’m guessing this will only be of real interest to Fairlight geeks like me, but imagine unearthing original recordings of your favourite artist that you could replay/manipulate/examine at will in your own home. got that feeling? Yup, that 🙂
Enjoy!
And here is the finished version…
Awesome! Someone needs to find the disks for “Relax” next.
Funny you should say that. In my work for Fairlight, I have been in touch with the guy responsible for looking after the ZTT archives which contain many Fairlight floppies. Who knows what they contain, but your wish might just come true! 🙂
Speak to Hideaway Studio on VSE. I recall he came across FGTH disks in the past, I specifically recall one was for Two Tribes.
Thanks JMP. I know Dan from my work at Hollow Sun so will drop him a line 🙂
Hey JMP, well remembered… I did indeed experience the sheer amazement of loading up the complete bass line from Two Tribes on an ancient 5.25″ disk with T.T. scrawled across the label. It was so weird hearing that classic bass line in solo in such a raw form. It turned out the sampler was indeed previously owned by FGTH and I know where it still resides to this day but sadly now defunct as I tried to purchase it but frustratingly the current owner won’t part with it! 🙂
…. 5.25″ !!?? …. darn, that’s the EII, I meant a HUGE 8″ floppy – they look crazy now!!