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Garage band goes on the road
By David Williams, Evening Standard 16.04.08
Fine tuning: Musicians on Victoria Embankment with some of their instruments
Recycled: a former transmission case is now a cello
Hand picked: a clutch guitar
New model: a Focus like the one that was cannibalised for the TV advert.
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They give “garage music” a whole new meaning. The clue is in the names: these musicians are playing instruments with names like the clutch guitar, rear suspension spike fiddle, hatchback kick drum and handheld gear tambourine. There's even a fender bass.
Each instrument was fashioned from the component parts of a new Ford Focus that was stripped down almost as soon as it had rolled off the production line.
They were created by two musicians commissioned to reassemble the parts as finely-tuned musical instruments for the car giant's latest TV advertising campaign, which is proving a hit on YouTube.
Hollywood film composer Craig Richey and New York sound designer Bill Milbrodt managed to create 31 instruments, which they arranged to be played by an orchestra.
A hand-picked selection of the instruments will be on display in an exhibition, Focus Music On The Move, that opens in London tomorrow before moving to Glasgow and Liverpool.
At the end of the tour some of the instruments will be auctioned to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Musicians and celebrities who try out the instruments will be asked to sign them. Signatories already include Mike Rutherford of Genesis and Kenney Jones of The Who.
Focus Music On The Move is at The Hospital in Covent Garden from tomorrow until Saturday, from 11am to 7pm, with performances of the soundtrack to the television commercial at 1.15pm and 5.15 pm. Admission is free.
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