ATOMIC THEORY

An interview with Ron Geesin, producer of Atom Heart Mother. By Matt Johns

So how did the 38th anniversary of AHM come to be celebrated (in June this year) at the Chelsea Festival?

A friend of mine knew a millionaire who is on the committee, or the Board of Trustees of the Chelsea Festival and the millionaire said to a friend of mine last June, ‘Can you think of anything high profile that might work for next year?’ This chap said, ‘Well, there’s Ron, and Atom Heart Mother, and he might be able to get a Floyd along, or two of Floyd along, or something...’ He invited me out for a pint a couple of weeks after that. He sort of slided this thing in: ‘What are you doing these days? How about’... We identified a conductor (Mark Forkgen), who just happened to have a choir which was perfect because we were wondering whether to have a children’s choir.

How did it come about that you used the Italian band, Mun Floyd?

It just happened that I was in Florence about two or three years ago, and they were in that area doing a gig, and they played the non-orchestral version of AHM and they sounded good, they sounded pretty tight, and knew the piece. The Festival just said ‘Yes, fine, we’ll get them over’.

The Brass Ensemble were top end Royal College of Music students, and they were all coming up for exams as well, as it happens, but …

by Matt Johns
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