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DR. JIM & LEE BEE'S FESTIVE ZXMAS 7" SINGLE (in lieu of WOOT! 2024)
    Program & beeper music by Jim Waterman; AY music by Lee Bee
	     For all 128K Spectrum models - 24th December 2024
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Jim's waffle and bunk
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There was supposed to be a much, *much* longer musical extravaganza courtesy of the two of us. Could we make it if we tried, just the two of us, me and Lee? No. Not in the time frame available. But in lieu of the absent WOOT! 2024 program package *and* the much longer program we still intend to make (which should have *26* AY and beeper tunes), I made this as a small form of compensation. All will be revealed in due course as to why QChan is my Beepola engine of choice.

Instead, what you get is one of Lee's more Christmas-oriented AY tunes, albeit a short one, which the Spectrum Computing forum asked for - as they did for my first contribution. The other... let's say there aren't too many of them that could possibly have come up with it.

The AY track only plays once, because I couldn't find an acceptable way in BASIC to make it loop round to the start again while also allowing for pressing a key to interrupt it. When it's done, press any key to un-highlight the number 1 and pick another selection (or play it again). For the beeper tracks, press any key to interrupt them at any time; both will carry on playing until you do.


Notes on the music in this program
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(1) The Box of Delights - short TV theme (AY)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BxxdE9GvZc
I'd intended to put some TV theme tunes in my musical selection - they're short, we all know them, and they should be easy to arrange for our two trackers. The opening titles of the BBC's 1984 adaptation of "The Box Of Delights" is an excerpt from Victor Hely-Hutchinson's "Carol Symphony", and both "The Coventry Carol" and "The First Nowell" can be found in this work. This is the only AY tune - as Lee was running even shorter on time than I was, and runs at barely more than a minute. Those are the breaks...

(2) Steptoe & Son theme tune - "Old Ned" (QChan)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7ly_tp-9SY
This was requested on the Spectrum Computing forums. Steptoe & Son was first broadcast in 1962, five years before there was any colour TV in Britain, and the clip-clopping horse's hooves ("you're just hitting a couple of coconuts together!") were an excellent dry run for QChan's "drums", which are just a series of clicks at different pitch. This is the full version with two key changes... it took up a lot of space, and once I'd finished it, I realised it would leave me less room for my other contributions to the Upcoming Awesome Musical Program, so it was ripped out and offered on this "single" instead. See it as a B-side of sorts.

(3) Oh, Bollocks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE7CiT-rA7U
This merry tune by Dominic Frisby was very much *not* a request. I had the brief idea to include this just to wind a few people up who might object to the presence of a right-wing Brexit-supporting comedian, or to the title itself. Either way, it was a bit too modern for the Upcoming Awesome Musical Program, for which I'd set 1982 as the *latest* year of release for all my contributions, and this was released in 2021. But it certainly sums up my thoughts when I realised that I wasn't just going to miss the Christmas deadline for the Awesome Musical Program, but it'd be well into January, maybe even later, and a hasty re-think was needed. Unlike "Steptoe & Son", this is an endlessly-looping version of the verse and chorus, so you can play it for as long as you like.


Also, you may recognise the record in the top right of the screen from Auf Wiedersehen Monty. The holly in the top left corner was adapted from the rather less well known Gherkin's Christmas Carnage, released in The Year Without A Christmas.
