Department S / Jason King

[MarcMorris]

Are there any Department S / Jason King fans around here? I grew up watching these on TV. Classic, camp and essential viewing ;)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MDbPAC6iL._SL500_AA240_.jpg (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0015B04I6/ref=nosim?tag=mondoerotico05) http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XYzB5cGML._SL500_AA240_.jpg (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0015B04PO/ref=nosim?tag=mondoerotico05)

[Timmy Lea]

Well you know me dear boy- there's nothing I love more than a bit of Wyngo. The man's a genuine hero of mine, and he made a great album too...

[MarcMorris]

When Sex Leers Its Inquisitive Head is quite unlike anything else - particularly that outrageous "Rape" track!

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51T6FDHQ1DL._SL500_AA240_.jpg (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000024C1V/ref=nosim?tag=mondoerotico05)

[tobiaswragg]

It was originally going to be reissued on Rev-Ola, a subsidary of Creation records, but apparently Alan McGhee took exception to the, admittedly quite jawdroppingly tasteless, 'Rape' track and decided not to put it out.

[Timmy Lea]

And this from the man responsible for inflicting the jaw-droppingly tasteless Oasis upon the world.

By the way, Rev-Ola is a subsidiary of Cherry Red, not Creation...I should know, I used to work for an online retailer of rare music (www.freakemporium.com, sadly now closed) and I had to upload their entire catalogue for sale. It was actually re-released in the end by RPM, another Cherry Red subsidiary, whose webiste I am (purely by coincidence) viewing now as we speak!!!

[tobiaswragg]

Rev-Ola started in 1992 and was initailly through Creation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rev-Ola_Records). The label was the brainchild of Joe Foster, an associate and occasional bandmate of McGee, who described the Rev-Ola fanbase as 'loonies'. This was a couple of years before the Oasis loot started rolling in BTW.

website: Rev-Ola (http://www.revola.co.uk/) | View Rev-Ola CDs at amazon.co.uk (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search?ie=UTF8&keywords=Rev-Ola&tag=mondoerotico05&index=music&linkCode=ur2&camp=1634&creative=6738&sort=-releasedate)

[Dr.Starr]

I have the old Australian Umbrella box sets of both Department S and Jason King but feel obliged to get the Network releases - if I can get them at a good price.

I notice that Network also have a 3 CD set of the Department S soundtrack (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001DHC6KQ/ref=nosim?tag=mondoerotico05), anyone gone for this?

And anyone wishing to check out Peter Wyngarde circa 1962 without the trademark tash should investigate Optimum's entertaining Night of the Eagle (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000L42MTW/ref=nosim?tag=mondoerotico05) dvd! :D

[LoungeLizard]

I have an original vinyl copy of the Wyngarde album (on RCA), complete with gatefold sleeve and a photo of him piddling up the wall on the back cover. It'll never be mistaken for an Andy Williams easy listening album that's for sure. http://www.cultmovieforums.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

Fans of the tash-less Wyngarde years will also spot him sharing whipping sessions with a faintingly deliciously clad Diana Rigg in the Avengers episode A Touch Of Brimstone.

[Paul Moran]

Back in the early 70s, when there were only three TV channels, which rarely continued after 2 a.m., my local ITV station used to show late night re-runs of “Department S” and “Man in a Suitcase”. And I watched both of them, every week!

I recently bought the Network edition of “Man in a Suitcase”, and enjoyed watching it again. But I’m not likely to get “Department S”.

[Timmy Lea]

Rev-Ola started in 1992 and was initailly through Creation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rev-Ola_Records). The label was the brainchild of Joe Foster, an associate and occasional bandmate of McGee, who described the Rev-Ola fanbase as 'loonies'. This was a couple of years before the Oasis loot started rolling in BTW.

website: Rev-Ola (http://www.revola.co.uk/) | View Rev-Ola CDs at amazon.co.uk (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search?ie=UTF8&keywords=Rev-Ola&tag=mondoerotico05&index=music&linkCode=ur2&camp=1634&creative=6738&sort=-releasedate)

I'm still pretty sure that by the time they considered reissuing the album, Cheery Red had taken over. Foster sold out to them nearly a whole decade ago.

[tobiaswragg]

True, however McGee, for moral resons apparently, had stopped Foster from putting it out earlier, this therefore would have been when Rev-Ola was a Creation imprint. I always remember me and my exotica-loving friends being amused and bemused at McGee's rather starnge decision to veto the release, as he was someone who usually courted controversy.

[Timmy Lea]

Fair enough. I just couldn't have imagined Joe Foster (who I have actually spoken to on the phone on one occasion, and who sounded like a VERY forthright individual) taking any crap from McGee, old bandmate or not (my mate Phil, who was also in Biff Bang Pow! certainly never did) nor could I envisage McGee actually being compas mentis enough to know what was going on with Rev-Ola, coked out of his brain as he was at the time!!

Of course, this may have been why his empire crumbled (twice) and why Foster was keen to sell out to Ian McNay, a man who does know his onions when it comes out to great music. McGee, although he may have been a Creation fan (hence why he named his label after them and his band after one of their songs) is a complete numbnut who knows bugger all. He had the greatest and most psychedelic band of the last 20 years on his books (Super Furry Animals) and put practically no time and energy into them just so he could bankroll that Godawful, knuckledragging Mancunian pustule of filth that was O*s*s.

I honestly hadn't been aware of any plans to reissue "When Sex...." in the 90s though (although what you have explained could well be the reason why), mind you I only heard of the album myself around 1998/99, which was when the real explosion in the CD reissue market took place due to the prevalence of the internet.

Of course, Ace and Bam Caruso had been reissuing stuff since the 80s, and See For Miles (who were absorbed into BGO) had been at it for a fair old while, but the market was smaller and far less adventurous in terms of what people thought would sell even among collectors. The only true adventurers in terms of kitsch pop/exotica were El, Rev-Ola and RPM: and thank god for Mark Stratford of the latter label, who FINALLY had the gumption to put out the Wyngarde album in all its glory- and the first ever DVD of Barney Platts-Mills' BRONCO BULLFROG....

Thank God for Cherry Red themselves too, who now own all three of the above labels, and thanks to being largely bankrolled by the inherited money of one of its directors, look set to continue through the dreadful slump that has befallen the music biz. Freak Emporium, the company I worked for, bit the dust last Christmas (although I left long before that) and now it's happening to DVD labels like Tartan- and possibly even Anchor Bay, hence the relocation of this very website.

However, all this has VERY little to do with the original question, which concerned.....Department S and Jason King. What I want to know is, what ever became of the plans mooted in the 90s to film 'Son Of Jason King', a followup series which would have featured weekly cameos from the great man himself?

[christats]

I will admit I have the Umbrella Australian release of Department S and I have watched and enjoyed most of it.

No need for me to double dip.It will do me.

I have a German set of Jason King and apart from the picture being very grainy,this series is a bit flat.

If the Network release is any better quality maybe it will be more enjoyable,but I tend to watch Jason King to see who crops up.

[Timmy Lea]

I think I prefer the JASON KING era stuff, purely because he had grown his hair to full prog length by that point and was indulging in some fantastic kaftan wearing. Plus, free from the shackles of working for the Department, he could more or less roam the world and get up to whatever shenanigans he wanted, with a bevy of beautiful laydees at his disposal. Something I aspire to even to this day....