A new 'Prisoner' music release is something of a rarity, particularly one which doesn't depend almost entirely on sampled voices and effects from the Prisoner soundtrack. Carmel Morris, who hails from the improbably named town of Turramurra in Australia, has taken some basic elements of Ron Grainer's theme music and cleverly woven them into a fresh-sounding dance-track which features hard-driving piano contrasted with some extremely trippy synthesiser swirls. Called "Another Number", the instrumental is available on CD along with other tracks - visit Carmel for details via her website.  CLICK HERE  to visit Carmel's music website - also links to her 3D website which includes shots of Portmeirion.

A full track list from the "Another Number" CD:
1. another number 2. orange alert 3. a night in the village 4. first interlude 5. danse macabre 6. missing you 7. integer, the chase	8. the hammer 9. kosho 10. second interlude 11. i'll BCNU 12. falling out 13. illegal operation 14. hidden track	This is the cover pic, featuring a Portmeirion background, which adorns the front of the CD, while top left is an earlier idea for the front-of-box. I like that one better but, hey, what do I know?

Future Legend Records produced a 10-track Video in mid-2002 featuring Pop videos and songs influenced by The Prisoner T.V series. It included a pop promo made at Portmeirion ... 'Checkmate' by Box Office Poison. There was also the promo for 'Another Number' by Carmel Morris, taken from her Prisoner Tribute album of the same name, plus two more videos partly shot at The Village 'Falling Out' and 'I'll be seeing you'. The Video compilation includes The "FLR Prisoner Theme", featuring plenty of footage of the Village, plus The Prisoner-like anthem 'Think For yourself' By Box Office Poison (2 versions). The song echoes Patrick McGoohans sentiments but is not shot at the Village. The final track is exclusive footage of The Prisoner Convention at Portmerion. It was a limited edition of only 100 copies at the time and might, or might not, be still available. A CD-ROM version was also available for the same price. This didn't have the convention footage or alternative 'Think for yourself' video, but it included a bonus track 'You Only live Twice' by Eleanor Rigby instead. For more details (if any) check out the   FLR website

'Resigned' by Celestial

CD: Gangster Politics (LP, 1998)
Label: Moon Ska NYC, Stomp Records Canada
Credits: Produced & mixed by Vic Rice (The Articles, Mephiskapheles)

Artist description
Experimental hybrid of ska, jazz, rock and funk: respect for the roots and for twisted aural fashion.
Music style: Ska
Musical influences: The Police, Bob Marley, Specials, Phish, Primus

Group members:
Simon Angell: guitar, sugar Dave Bond: vocals, toasting, assorted percussion, baking / Liam Chapman: trombone, dispatcher / Tim Doyle: drums on album, ego / Jay Gray: neo-drummer, rap / Morgan Moore: bass, skin flute, GAP / Louis Nagy: trumpet, birdcalls / Pat Twatson: keys, medication, excuses

Instruments:
Guitar, bass, drums, percussion, keys, trumpet, trombone.

Dance Of The Dead Song Lyrics

Many thanks to Ronda F. ...sometimes known as 'Number404 file not found' (the Internet Villager) for spotting this item.

The Prisoner (Number Six Mix) by Bang Bang

This is from a CD called "Serialement Votre", released in 1997. It's a compilation by various artistes and all tracks are TV themes such as "The Avengers", Mission Impossible", "The Saint" and so on. Note though that they are dance tracks and it's truer to say that they areinspired by the themes, not straight renditions.

The Prisoner track does have a splash of Ron Grainer's familiar tune in it and there's a specially written lyric which, for once, isn't too cringe-worthy. It opens with some grinding guitar, reminiscent of the Albert Elms Prisoner incidental music, and swings into a medium paced, slightly jazzy flute/guitar improvisation, which includes a couple of snatches of Prisoner Theme melody, laid over a drum/bass dance beat. The middle section is taken up with Margeaux Lampley's "Number Six" vocal with another long flute/guitar duet taking it to the conclusion.

The Prisoner - Song Lyrics He stands in a black suit With his hard and steely glance While they try to break his spirit But he steadily holds fast Each day they try anew To make him understand A certain situation You're a number not a man. He's nuked the civil service Given notice that he's through So they take him to that Village Gonna give him what he's due Number Two wants information Wants to know who's side he's on But he never yields to passion Never gives them what they want He's Number Six Not a number but a free man With a spirit of his own Number Six

MAIN LINEUP: Flute: Chris Hayward Guitar: Patrick Woodcock Vocals: Margeaux Lampley Produced and mixed at Bang House by Xavier Jamaux Featured on the CD "Serialement Votre" Released on the Concrete label Indent: LC8280 74321 519312 To listen to an extract from "The Prisoner" by Bang Bang, go to the VILLAGE JUKEBOX  page.  TOP OF PAGE

This section is for the more esoteric prisoner connections. In other words, musicians who have taken inspiration, ideas and concepts from the Prisoner and woven them into their work without necessarily using explicit references, words or sampled sounds from the episodes.

John Thelin writes: "There is a track called "The Girl Who Was Death" on 60's soundtrack revivalistsCorduroy's album "Dad Man Cat" released on Acid Jazz records in the UK, and licensed through Hollywood Records here in the US. The US catalog number is AJ-68013-2. That the connection is to The Prisoner is quite clear, despite their lack of lyrics, since they flash their references in other titles such as "Harry Palmer" and "E-Type". The title "Six Plus One" may well be another Prisoner reference, albeit more obscure."

Howard Jones released a song called "The Prisoner" in 1989 on WEA - catalogue number HOW 14T (UK) and Elektra - catalogue number ED5385 (USA). The 12" maxi-single had three versions of the song including a 6 min 58 sec "Portmeirion Mix". Jones actually comes from Criccieth, a village just a few miles West of Portmeirion.

The Prisoners, a British group who specialised in recreating the sounds of the 60's which might explain their choice of name. One of their songs is called "Don't Burst My Bubble" which is a cover of a 'Small Faces' track, with no reference to the Prisoner at all. Still, nice little tie-in there. Apparently the band is still touring, albeit with their name now changed to theSolarflares.(update May 2002 by John McKellar.)

Philip Jap recorded a song called "Total Erasure" which, while Prisoner-esque, had nothing to do with The Prisoner directly. However the promotional video for it was filmed at Portmeirion (in freezing cold conditions) and used virtually every Prisoner prop available - Rover ballooons, Mini-moke, Human Chess Game, etc - and made excellent use of the location. The video for another song, "Death In A Tin Junk", used the Allouette 2 helicopter actually used in The Prisoner, plus footage of PJ and one of the band crashing through the Portmeirion woods in a sort of "Apocalypse Now" setpiece. Both videos were shown as part a Philip Jap BBC TV Special in 1983.

UB40 featured a track called "The Prisoner" on their albumUB44 (Dep International DEP 3) released in 1982.

German bandDokken released a CD called "Back In The Streets" which had a track called "Prisoner". It's on the Repertoire label catalogue RR-4005-CM.

The music video for "See Those Eyes" by Scottish groupAltered Images (fronted by Claire Grogan, the original Christine Kotchansky in Red Dwarf, now an MTV VJ) was filmed in Portmeirion and features Prisoner costumes, Rover and other Prisoner props, as does "I Should Coco" bySupergrass.

Fairport Convention's "Expletive Deleted" CD has an instrumental song entitled"Portmeirion".

Wishplants - 'Daddy Longlegs' contains lyrics with underlying themes doing homage to "The Prisoner". There are no direct references, however "The Prisoner" font is used on the album cover and the sleeve contains a montage of pictures of the band taken in costume at Portmeirion. The Wishplants are professed fans of the series.

ASiouxsie and the Banshees video clip for their cover of"Passenger" is entirely based on The Prisoner. This song also featured on a TV Special called "The Laughing Prisoner" in the UK. (This was an edition of "The Tube", a music programme, now defunct, which featured just-off-mainstream music and album track-type material. The host, Jules Holland, was a long-term Prisoner fan and they built a one-hour special round him being taken to The Village, meeting semi-famous people in Prisoner-type cameos and tripping over several musical acts performing vaguely prisoner-related songs.)

Also featured in "The Laughing Prisoner" were British PopstersXTC, recording their video for 'The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul'- from the albumSkylarking - in Portmeirion with full Prisoner regalia. The lyric of the song seems to be unrelated, though. A promo for their single "The Meeting Place" from the same album was also also shot in Portmeirion at the same time, but was shown separately on The Tube a few weeks before the "The Laughing Prisoner".(Thanks to Simon Coward/John Thelin for updates on this item.)

Even more tenuous is the link to the 1986 LP "Sixties Lost And Found Vol 2 1964-69" on See For Miles Records. The album, as it's title suggests, contains a good selection of 60's songs but the only Prisoner connection is a photo on the cover of Patrick McGoohan crouching down by the Lotus Seven outside Number One, Buckingham Place - his "London home" in the series.

Graham Anderson from Scotland, UK, writes ...

"I thought you might like to know about a new release here in Scotland"

"Actually if you heard it then you would be happy to know about it but never actually buy it.......it's a 12" only Happy Hardcore version byDJ Slippmatt ofThe Prisoner Theme supposedly, though quite why they hijacked the Prisoner name I do not know, it sounds nothing like it. it's quite the most dismal thing you'll ever hear......"

Dave Zachritz also writes: "I noticed a CD cover on my trip through the rap section of the music store where I'm employed. It is a photograph of a screaming face pressed against a sheet of white rubber. The band is"Rampage" and I have yet to crack it open and see if there are any other references, but the image is certainly a familiar one."

MIKE SIMMONS and "PORTMEIRION"

This CD/tape features music for which Mike is both the writer and performer. Pieces include 'Salutation', 'White Horses', 'The Pantheon', 'The Angel', 'Amis Reunis', 'The Campanile', 'Telford's Tower', 'Fountain', and 'The Woodlands'. These are, of course, some of the buildings or areas to be found in or around 'The Village'. "My music is a response to the environment in which I find myself. It's warm, textural music created with synthesisers and samplers. I build up layers of natural and artificial sounds to produce an atmospheric pattern of slowly interweaving textures. I use piano, flutes, strings, and other familiar sounds alongside the less familiar - sounds which can only be produced by electronic instruments. People use it for meditation, relaxation, massage, as background music, or simply to listen to. They do not, as far as intensive research can report, use it for dancing to!"

"Portmeirion has been a very special place to me for many years - I love it's humour and optimism. It would be impossible to talk about Portmeirion without at least mentioning The Prisoner, which must have been one of the most challenging programmes ever to appear on television. Portmeirion is a place of fascination. A lasting celebration of one man's dreams, it is a source of delight to all who visit it. This music was written for the village, and reflects it's enchantment." Track titles: Salutation/Yr Hen Goethws White Horses/Cesyg Gwynion The Pantheon/Y Gromen The Angel/Yr Angel, Amis Reunis The Campanile/Y Twr Clychau Telford's Tower/Twr Telford Fountain/Y Fynnon The Woodlands/Y Gwyllt"  VISIT MIKE'S WEBSITE  to listen to a sample of the album and/or perhaps place an order for it,  TOP OF PAGE

MICHAEL PENN and "RESIGNED"