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1.011: What's the One World Orchestra? What does "The Magnificent" sound like then?

To aid the War-Child charity effort in Bosnia, a compilation album featuring original tracks by some of the best artists around was recorded, pressed and shipped in a mere six days (now the fastest recorded studio album ever), in September 1995. The musicians contributing tracks included Oasis, Blur, Stereo MCs, Stone Roses, and the One World Orchestra (Featuring The Massed Pipes And Drums of the Children's Free Revolutionary Volunteer Guards). Help! Album coverThis turned out to be a new moniker for Bill and Jimmy. (Further information on the album and samples of the song can be obtained from http://help.fma.com/)

The OWO track, entitled "The Magnificent", is a short but spicy drum'n'bass reworking of the orchestral theme from the film 'The Magnificent Seven', with samples from a Serb radio station. It is track number 15 on the CD.

Mark Hawker, K-F friend and operative (see 4.008, 4.009) made a film called "Zombie Town" about underground culture in Belgrade, which was first shown on Channel 4 in 1995 and again in July 1996. A lot of the film centres around Beograd 92, the Serb radio station and the "humans against killing...that's like junkies against dope" and "Radio B92" samples comes from Fleka, the blind DJ on B92. Bill and Jimmy wanted to get Robbie, who'd just split from Take That, on the record but he was on holiday with his mum.

In the months following the album, Bill tried to deny responsibility for the track, but this contrasts with earlier interviews where he talked about how and why they made it. In a Radio 1 interview (full transcript in ftp archive) Jimmy said "It's a novelty record. which is something we're good at.". It is possible that the OWO recorded more tracks (see 5.010). The thinking behind the name One World Orchestra in unknown.
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