New Horizons theme - Steve Richardson

(PROGRAM THEME) 00:06

New Horizons, it's up to you and me To shine a guiding light and lead the way United by our cause, we have the power To pursue what we believe We'll achieve the realisation of our dreams...

Speaker 1

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of New Horizons, thanks for joining us once again. I'm Vaughan Bennison. This week we go back to episode 439 of New Horizons and we talk about the New Horizons theme. This came out of a discussion that we held as part of the Blind Citizens Australia conversation last Thursday about the future of New Horizons, and somebody mentioned that it would be interesting to hear about how the theme came about. As I said, this is quite an old episode now, it was recorded in early 2016. 

Speaker 2

One of the other things we're doing is it's a little bit out of left field but I suppose once again you won't be surprised to hear this from me because it's about music. We have decided that we want a new song for New Horizons. 

Speaker 1

And that was Blind Citizens Australia president Emma Bennison speaking at last year's convention in Perth. Well, that competition has been held - and we're very privileged to speak to the winner, somebody who has been a great friend of mine and with whom I have worked on a number of projects over the last 20 years or so. Steve Richardson, welcome to the program. 

Speaker 3

Thanks for that Vaughan, good to be here. 

Speaker 1

We're going to hear your song at the end of the program - do you want to just tell us where you got the idea from? 

Speaker 3

Alright, well I've got to confess there was a competition at Blind Citizens Australia, we're running of course for a new theme song because the previous one had been running for quite a number of years and so the idea came up to have a song that was recorded, produced and performed by and written of course by blind or vision impaired people. So it was a statement that sort of says where we're doing, what we do... and I hadn't originally thought about it, and a couple of friends you know got a hold of me and said Well yeah, come on Richo put one in - so I did and I was, I just didn't really have much of an idea.

But I got into the pool one afternoon as I sometimes do when I want to get creative, and just walked around and then the melody and some lyrics just started popping into my head... and so I took that away, I said Here's a go guys, this is really rough at this stage but I'll give it to you, and if you like the idea get back to me and we can work on it. And yeah, I sent that off, and they said Yeah we like the idea, you're right it is rough, but we'll help you work on it. So that's that's kind of how it came about I guess.

Speaker 1 02:52

We're talking today to Steve Richardson, who wrote the new New Horizons theme. Steve, I thought we'd have a bit of a listen to some of the songs that have been used as New Horizons theme. From what I can gather, this is the very first theme used by Horizons when Neville Kerr used to produce it from 1984 to 2007. Have a listen. This program is presented by the National Federation of Blind Citizens of Australia. We, the NFBCA, are visually handicapped people of Australia, speaking for ourselves and acting for our mutual benefit.
Tell us how you went about producing the song. 

Speaker 3

Well, as I said, what I did firstly was I sent off a scratch track. So I got a guitar and I just played it roughly. Because I'm not that good a guitar player. I'm a better piano player and drummer, but the guitar was the first thing to hand. So I just roughly ran over the song as it was in my mind. And at the time, I didn't actually have a chorus for it. So it just was a verse and what we call a pre-chorus, which is kind of a lead-up to the chorus. And so we weren't quite sure. And then I sent it off to the guys, the people who were making the decision. 

And then we then had help, of course, from Ricky Chaplin, who came up. And once we got approvals to do it and everything like that, Ricky got in touch with me. And he volunteered to come and help produce the vocal and just work on some of the fine tuning of the song. So he did that. He added a few bits and pieces that were really quite that really fleshed it out and made it sound good, and he actually added a chorus to it. And we produced the song. We set up a date to come up to Steve Sparrow, who is a blind audio engineer here in Brisbane. He has a studio, Sparrow Sound Studios, or Steve Sparrow Sound Studios, and he is based at Birkdale.

So we all came up, got together on a weekend at the end of January, and we put the track together. So we had some guitar tracks and a bass track and a drum track and a keyboard track and then the vocal of course. And yeah, that's essentially how it was done. And then Steve obviously spent a great deal of time and effort afterwards getting the balance right so that it would sound just as we wanted to sound, fixing up, making sure the vocals were in balance with instrumentation and things like that. So that's roughly how it all... came together. 

Speaker 1

And you're the singer of the song, are you not? 

Speaker 3

Yes, I sing the song, yes. I don't... I didn't actually, while I could have played several of the instruments, I left it to the guys to do because they are probably, they are without doubt better session musicians than what I am. And it all had to be done fairly quickly, as you can imagine. Ricky was up for limited time from Melbourne, and we decided to just get it done over a weekend. So we wanted to get the bulk of the work done so that we could then just leave the task of, and Steve Sparrow added the harmony. I did one one vocal harmony and Steve added the other harmony, a really nice top harmony to go with it for the vocals. And Steve added various bits and pieces afterwards and then spent a good amount of time getting it all... together.

Speaker 1 06:45

Now, Steve, you're no stranger to BCA, having been for some time the presenter of Soundabout. What does BCA mean to you? 

Speaker 3

I think for BCA is really important in the blind and vision impaired community. It's a voice of advocacy. It's a voice of support. I guess a voice of cooperation and community for blind and vision impaired people. The song essentially says a lot of what it is. And I think one of the most important points I want to emphasise in the song was that we need to rely on each other. I think a lot of where the power comes from for BCA is in the fact that we unite and and through our union comes strength. But, and that if we are not all speaking with one voice, then we kind of we tend to falter or or fail, if you like.

So for me, I think it's it's it's as much about support and.... I think born advocacy is the other big strength of Blind Citizens Australia, because when we advocate, when we lobby government, when we approach those members in society who need to be educated about some of the issues that we might be facing, it's important to do that with one voice as well.
I think it's important to gain strength from having a unified voice. And BCA has a long history of being an advocate for blind and vision impaired people from all walks of life in Australia. And it's really important to remember that BCA had its inception in 1975 and last year celebrated its 40th birthday. So, you know, that's a pretty good innings for an organisation, which is continuing to go from strength to strength. 

Speaker 1

Steve, we're going to hear now the next. um theme that was used for New Horizons and I don't think this theme was used for very long, but I have to be honest this is one of my favourites.

(THEME)  09:06

On the RPH network and community stations across Australia it's time for Horizons from the National Federation of Blind Citizens of Australia. 

Speaker 1

So that was one of the later themes to be used in New Horizons and that was used maybe for a year or so. If memory serves correctly, that theme because in the very first instance I think the program was just called the NFBCA program and when that theme came about, if my memory serves me correctly, was when the name changed to Horizons. After it became Horizons, Steve, a few years later it became New Horizons when Neville Kerr stopped producing the program. He produced the program for around about 22 years. So in 2007 it became New Horizons and we all know the theme that was used. That song is actually called Future Road and it's written by The Seekers. 

We're talking today to Steve Richardson who wrote the song which is about to become the new theme for New Horizons in 2016. Steve, congratulations on winning the competition and thank you very much for joining us on the program this week.

Speaker 3 10:16

Yeah, thanks Vaughn. It's been a privilege to be part of this whole project, and we've had a lot of fun too in the studio working on it. We all had a lot of fun. It is interesting watching a song grow like when I played it on the guitar. I had it in my head. I could hear what was happening and it is really interesting when you actually get into the studio and you start hearing the different elements come together and build up and build up and you go, Hey, this was in my head and it's actually now coming to fruition. And it was really a lot of fun being a part of that. It was certainly a very rewarding thing to be involved with and the fact that I'm doing this and it's going to go out across the country week after week. 

Speaker 1

And Steve, we'll be talking to you in a couple of months when the new edition of Soundabout is about to come out just to find out what's going to be happening on Soundabout in the future. Now we're going to listen to Steve Richardson singing New Horizons. Thanks for joining us on the program. I'll see you next week. 

(THEME) 

We will find a way to better equity and equality. With a helping hand we will understand of where and power to be, who we want to be. We're heading for New Horizons. It's up to you and me to shine a guiding light and lead the way. United by our cause we have power to pursue what we believe. We'll achieve the realization of our dreams. We strive for excellence to serve. The blind community deserves a voice to advocate and listen. Together our voice will grow strong. If we divide then we go wrong. Come and join us on our mission. With BCA we can find a way to better equity and equality. With a helping hand we can understand of where and power to be, who we want to be. Who we wanna be We're heading for the new horizons It's up to you and me To shine a guiding light and lead the way United by our cause We have the power to pursue what we believe We'll achieve the realization of our dreams We're heading for the new horizons It's up to you and me To shine a guiding light and lead the way United by our cause We have the power to pursue what we believe We'll achieve the realisation of our dreams We'll achieve the realisation of our dreams Of our dreams...