v/a "Play Safe"

This is a compilation by Frank's APA pal "Paul". Interspersed among the tunes are snippets from public information films, while some of the tracks themselves seem to use samples from those relics of the 1970s. There are, sadly, no samples from Irish information films, so no "Oh me achin' back!" or "That’s' a sick way to live!" action, but it is great to hear the UK ones again. The Donald Pleasance one in which he is a malign spirit trying to trick children into drowning remains as creepy as ever, but the more comic ones are also entertaining (like the one about how if you polish your floors and put a rug on it then you are asking for trouble ("I'll just go put the kettle - Woaaaah!" ).

The music is mostly of the primitive electronic sort you got back in the 1970s – BBC Radiophonic Workshop stuff and people like Belbury Poly knocking them off. The title music to Children of the Stones gives Donald Pleasance a run for his money in the race for maximum creepiness, but a shiver of nostalgia went up my spine when I heard the music for Words & Pictures again. Maybe the next disc in this series will include some of the songs from this programme ("Chicken and chips! Chicken and chips! Everybody here loves chicken and chips. We eat it all day, never throw it away, we all love chicken and chips" etc.)

Incidentally, it you are interested in public information films, check out Staplerfahrer Klaus. It is a German public information film about forklift truck safety, but it carries a message we can all live by.