In my previous post, I guessed that one of the string samples used in it was from a John Williams movie score. Well, I’m a good deal more confident in suggesting that, with a verbal sample lifted from Return of the Jedi, Dark Side by techno trance duo, Sublove, definitely features a Williams string sample, possibly from the final lightsaber battle between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.
John Peel was not much of a film buff, but the inclusion in this programme of Dark Side with its lift from Return of the Jedi may have held greater significance to him than simply liking the track. Arguably both the title track of the Underground 12-inch and She Moves could be said to be “better” pieces of music than Dark Side, but neither had the same personal hook that a track quoting Return of the Jedi may have had for him, especially as 1992 came to a close.
During the summer of 1992, Peel’s mother, Harriet Ravenscroft (nee Swainson) died at the age of 77. After divorcing Peel’s father , around 1955, she never remarried but did spend several years in a relationship with the actor, Sebastian Shaw. As he explained in his autobiography, Margrave of the Marshes, this relationship was somewhat unconventional:
Throughout their relationship, Sebastian had maintained a parallel relationship with another woman who was the very antithesis of Hat. Whereas my mother had never worked, was overweight, drank excessively and was content to live in what to the impartial observer might well be classed as squalor; the other woman had a highly responsible career in the twilight world of the opera, was trim, rarely drank and lived in some elegance. Nevertheless it must be said that the days she spent with Sebastian - the rota worked on a strict four-days-on, four-days-off basis - were for her, happy days. If they hadn’t travelled to Stratford-on-Avon...they were in London, and my arrival at Jameson Street in the small hours wasn’t always treated with the unrestrained glee for which I might have hoped. (P.117, Corgi Books)
Shaw was never a star but he worked extensively and frequently, including with The Royal Shakespeare Company. However, he gained movie immortality in 1983 when he was cast in Return of the Jedi as Anakin Skywalker, the man behind the mask of Darth Vader, who is briefly seen when making peace with his son, Luke Skywalker after sacrificing his own life to save him from the evil Emperor Palpatine at the end of the film. Although virtually unrecognisable under makeup in this emotional scene, he subsequently reappears as a ghost in the final shots of the film, looking on happily at Luke together with his fellow Jedi spirits, Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Being part of the Star Wars universe meant that Shaw’s action figure found itself in the toy collections of hundreds of thousands of children during 1983, including many of those who lived near Peel’s home in Great Finborough. It was a form of celebrity which he would occasionally get to witness at close quarters:
Sebastian/Darth did occasionally come with Hat to stay with Sheila and me and word would spread among William’s friends that The Dark Lord was in the house. The normally quiet lane that runs past our house before coming to a halt over the top of the hill, would fill with puzzled parents indulging normally epically indolent children who had, against all expectations expressed enthusiasm for a walk, one that would take them past the Ravenscrofts’ house. I expect these children, mainly boys, secretly hoped that as they dawdled past the house, Sebastian would leap through the front door brandishing his light sabre and challenge them. Instead an amiable old gent would invite them in, if the mood took him and would perform simple conjuring tricks for them - including the knocking - a - coin - through - a - table trick. Nowadays, such neighbourliness would be interpreted as ‘grooming’ and hordes of vigilantes would crowd into our narrow lane to burn crosses and grunt threats. For myself, I still don’t know how Sebastian did that coin-through-the-table business. (P118/19, Corgi Books)
Now, the pressure to entertain starstruck children with conjuring tricks has fallen on Hayden Christensen, who portrayed Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels of 1999-2005 and who was infamously CGI’d in place of Shaw when Return of the Jedi was released on Blu-Ray in 2011.
Video courtesy of secretsquizza
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