Football and Music

Our next stop off this beaten path looking at various producers, DJ’s, mixers, etc. who have merged football into their music is a name not as familiar as the previous two [Weatherall, Sherwood], but like the other you will have heard much of his and his label’s output.

The producer under the spotlight today is Jonathan Saul Kane:

Wikipedia has a very short entry about him:

“Jonathan Saul Kane is an English DJ, producer and musician – releasing material since 1988 as Depth Charge, Octagon Man and Eon. He is also the owner of the record labels Vinyl Solution, DC Recordings and Electron Industries.

He is well known for his pioneering use of samples, particularly from cult films in the martial arts, spaghetti western, and prOnographic genres. Jonathan Saul Kane is often credited for inventing “trip-hop” and “big beat”; he used kung-fu film samples before Wu-Tang Clan. His other aliases are Octagon Man, Alexanders Dark Band, T.E.T and Grimm Death.

…but luckily this website has a more in depth bio of the man also known as J. Saul Kane.

– This particular output was done under the Depth Charge name is chock full of footballing samples. The crowd as well as the commentators – and this is where it gets interesting…

A little bit of a story now:

Remember Channel 4 and their Football Italia ?

Of course you do.

Saturday near-lunchtimes in the 90’s would not be complete without James Richardson popping in to see his best mate Paul Ince and them sharing some iced tea with Gazza out on the balcony of the villa that overlooked the Mediterranean sea.

You will also remember well the theme tune for the programme, which sampled a commentator exclaiming: “Golaccio !“

That shout/sample came from a former Brazilian footballer, turned Serie A commentator José Altafini.

The song, redone for the show is called “I’m Stronger Now” [YouTube] and was performed by Definitive Two and released on the Deconstruction label in 1992. The track was written by Ben Chapman and Steve Duberry.

As it says above the song is a version done by Ben Chapman & Steve (no relation to Michael) Duberry. Nothing further can be found about Ben Chapman, but Steve Duberry has composed other well known telly theme tunes such as Channel 4 Racing The Morning Line amongst others. » Additional football connection: He also did the FA Cup title music which is seen worldwide.

But getting back to Football Italia and that theme. Specifically the José Altafini “Golaccio!” sample at the end:
» Channel 4 Football Italia Theme

In 2005 a query about the sample was answered by the Guardian’s Knowledge section and if I may draw your attention to this bit:

…”Programme makers Chrysalis reveal that the man who wrote the theme music, Steve Duberry, ‘sort of imagined it from a phantom Brazilian/Italian memory’ and recorded it as part of the music.

Duberry didn’t imagine it. He must have heard it in the song below, released by Depth Charge in 1990 which was 2 years before the Definitive Two single and Football Italia theme.

UPDATE: A snippet from 24th August 24th 2009 Guardian Football Weekly podcast where Sean Ingle asks AC Jimbo about that “Goal-atzzo” :

Enough with this. Go and listen to the tracks:

» Depth Charge – Goal (First Half, Yellow Card

» More images here

Talking of death…
Bonus songs:

» You can find more on Depth Charge over on Acid Ted.

» A feature article on J.Saul Kane and DC Recordings.