Entertainment
The Wombles’ songwriter Mike Batt destroys master tapes ‘so people can’t f*** around with them’ after he’s gone-Robert Oliver-Entertainment – Metro
Leave those classics alone.
Mike Batt has destroyed the original tapes for all The Wombles big hits (Pictures: Getty)
The Wombles’ lead singer and songwriter Mike Batt has revealed he’s destroyed the master tapes of their big hits from the 1970s.
The band, which featured the fictional characters from the children’s TV show of the same name, released 11 singles between 1973 and 1976.
They achieved four top 10 hits, with the highest, Wombling Merry Christmas, reaching number two in January 1975.
Frontman Batt, 73, also discovered Georgian-British singer-songwriter Katie Melua and wrote Bright Eyes for Art Garfunkel.
Speaking about smashing up the master tapes, he said: ‘I’ve destroyed many of the original multi-track tapes for The Wombles and my solo albums so people can’t f*** around with them after I’m gone.’
Speaking to the ipaper, he continued: ‘I mixed them as I wanted them, not how some corporation or great grandchild might like to remix them when I’m not around.’
The Wombles scored four top 10 hits back in the 1970s (Picture: Samir Hussein/Getty)
His comments arrive after Giles Martin, the son of late Beatles producer George Martin, remixed and remastered a significant portion of the Fab Four’s albums.
Batt said: ‘The Wombles aren’t the Beatles. I might look back and say I could’ve done with a clearer bass guitar on that track or I could’ve mixed it differently.
‘But if I wanted to go back and change it I would. They aren’t perfection, but they are a faithful representation of what I offered to the world in 1974 and 1975.’
Batt asked whether the Eagles would want Hotel California to be remixed after they’re dead, questioning if there was anything wrong with the original recording.
So far, producer Martin has remixed and re-released top-selling albums including Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Abbey Road, and final album Let It Be.
Uncle Bulgaria, who “played violin” for the novelty pop rock group (Picture: HTV Ltd.)
Talking to NME about adding studio outtakes to the project, he said: ‘I think there’s beauty in the sketches. People can get inspired by realising there are raw ingredients to something they love.’
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The Wombles last hit as a chart act came in December 2000, when they teamed up with Wizzard frontman and ELO founder Roy Wood.
I Wish It Could Be A Wombling Christmas reached number 20, the year Bob the Builder topped the festive charts with Can We Fix It?
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