Sensible Soccer - The Music
So that’s the Sensible Soccer game well and truly covered, so all we can do now is wait with our appetites whetted for some code to play. Let’s have a look at the music which is being crafted by none other than long-time Sensible impresario, Richard Joseph.
Richard Joseph has been involved in making music for over 30 years and his list of game music credits is longer than an orang-utan’s arm.
Starting in the mid 80s, Richard’s credits include such notable games as the Bitmap’s Chaos Engine, Sensible’s Cannon Fodder, Speedball 2 and James Pond. A regular face around the Sensible Software offices and nearly always doing the music for their games, Richard was the guy behind the superb ‘Goalscoringsuperstarhero’ as well as “War has never been so much fun” for Cannon Fodder.
Richard worked with the Sensible Software team so often that he was awarded Sensible’s own accolade of a nickname, R.J., but he’s keeping quiet on whether he treasures that more than his BAFTA award for the sound in Theme Park World.
HEXUS: Ok, so the music has always been a pretty big feature of the Sensible games, certainly Cannon Fodder made a lot of it and the same with Sensi.
Richard: That’s right… with this version of Sensible Soccer we’re doing a re-make of the original ‘Goalscoringsuperhero’, bringing it up to date to fit in with today’s modern music… Jon hasn’t heard the latest version yet (so he probably won’t like it) but it’s sounding almost like a club anthem at the minute.
HEXUS: So we’ve got another ‘Three Lions’ on our hands do you reckon?
Jon: Oh gawd, they’re not rolling that out again are they?
Richard: Actually, the chap who played violin on the ‘Come On England’ single does a load of video game music recording… I’ve worked with him on a few Sensible games as well as others.
HEXUS: So it's going to be a speed-garage-chill-out r’n’b version then?
Richard: Hmmm no… not really. We’re re-recording the vocals for ‘Goalscoringsuperhero’ next week and we’ve managed to get hold of the original vocalist, Jackie Read. We’ve also uncovered an up and coming young guitar hero to add some licks to the mix and even written some extra lyrics too… so we’ll see how it goes. But the idea is to get music that suits the game and the style of the game… Which we think ‘Goalscoringsuperhero’ does perfectly.
HEXUS: So after Sensible Soccer, what’s next?
Jon: I could tell you that but then I would have to kill you... and then pay for the lunch.
Richard: Oh yes, it’s so top secret, even we don’t know...
HEXUS: Ok, well thanks very much for your time gentleman.
Jon: Cheers for the beer!
Richard: Yes, cheers!
