Music by
Francis Monkman

SILVA SCREEN RECORDS PRESENTS
The Long Good Friday

On 1st September Silva Screen Records will reissue The Long Good Friday in digital format. Reissued originally on Silva Screen Records in 2016 as a 2 CD digipak, this digital reissue features the mono dialogue mixed in with original mono music tracks on request from composer Francis Monkman.

One of the truly great British gangster thrillers, The Long Good Friday rated as the 21st best British film of the 20th century in a BFI 1999 survey. The film, a British gangster piece starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren, was first shown in the UK at the London Film Festival in November 1980. Viewed today, 50+ years after its release, the film remains completely timeless. With its two outstanding leads, compelling direction by John Mackenzie and filmed against a background of London about to undergo massive change, this is a cinematic milestone.

Francis Monkman is perhaps best known for being a founding member of progressive rock band Curved Air and Sky. Monkman’s electronic synth score features seminal members of Sky – Herbie Flowers (Guitar), Tristan Fry (percussion) and Kevin Peek (guitar) as well as Ronnie Aspery and Stan Sulzmann on Saxes and helps to ground the film in the early 1980s. AV forum pins down the axis of the score – “seldom does a theme that can at once sound joyful and happy but contain undercurrents of violence and horror make such an impression and it rightly gets first place in the sound mix” whilst Mark Kermode of The Guardian describes the theme as “nail-bitingly catchy… Sheer brilliance.” The dramatic main title (aka “Harold’s Theme”) is a real hook. It makes a wonderful film’s opening sequence, and segments of it form a leitmotif throughout various ensuing tracks. From string- heavy tracks to moody synths and drums, haunting melodies and beautiful solo guitar, The Long Good Friday is possibly one of the most memorable soundtracks ever recorded. Simply superb.

Release date: 1st September 2023
Digital album: SILED1695

TRACKLIST
1. The Long Good Friday – Main Title
2. Overture
3. You need a million dollar computer to understand this
4. The Scene is Set
5. Harold, to keep it all incognito
6. At the Pool
7. Nothing unusual he says
8. Discovery
9. Come on downstairs
10. The Ice House
11. After what happened this morning
12. Talking to the Police
13. For more than ten years
14. Guitar Interludes (Sarabande in B Minor / Guitar Flamenco)
15. Realization
16. Fury
17. I’ll tell you something
18. Taken
19. Ladies and gentlemen I’m not a politician
20. The Long Good Friday – Main Title
21. Overture
22. The Scene is Set
23. At the Pool
24. Discovery
25. The Ice House
26. Talking to the Police
27. Guitar Interludes (Sarabande in B Minor / Guitar Flamenco)
28. Realization
29. Fury
30. Taken
31. The Long Good Friday – End Title