Lambeth Fantastical April 2026

The Music of Melody 

Released on April 21st 1971, 'Melody', alternatively known as 'S.W.A.L.K' was filmed extensively around locations in Kennington. It was the first film produced by David Putnam and the first script written by Alan Parker, as well as the first foray onto the big screen for director Waris Hussain, who was better known at the time for his television work on Doctor Who and Edward and Mrs Simpson. The film reunited Jack Wild and Mark Lester for the first time since Oliver and made a star out of its lead actress 11 year old Tracy Hyde.

It was also the vehicle which saved the Bee Gees and provided the band with a launch pad for their hugely successful 70s and 80s career. The band had released their ambitious double album Odessa in 1969. Despite being at the height of their 60's iteration the album wasn't well recieved and a dispute over which track was to be released as a single led to Robin Gibb quiting the band. With their popularity on the wane and record sales dipping it seemed for a while that the Bee Gees were fated to end with the decade which had made them household names.

Their fate would change when David Putnam met Bee Gees manager Robert Stigwood and Barry Gibb at Stigwood's London office to talk about his fledgling film project. The meeting resulted in Putnam aquiring the film rights to six Bee Gees songs (three of them from the Odessa album) in exchange for the film becoming a showcase for their work. Word of this new development was enough to persuade Robin to rejoin the band.

Normally popular songs are selected to compliment particular scenes in a movie, but because Putnam and Parker were both from the advertising industry and had no previous experience of film making they took a topsy turvy approach with the songs themselves providing a template for Parker's script about puppy love and high school rebelion.

Composer and musician, Richard Hewson (who'd previously worked with The Beatles and James Taylor) was brought in to weave elements of the Bee Gees songs into the score, adding some of of his own compositions into the mix.

It was the job of Waris Hussain's and his production team to match the script and accompanying songs to locations in Lambeth and other parts of south London.

In the Morning (also known as The Morning of My Life)

This song was written while the Gibb brothers were still in Australia and released as a single there in 1966. It was also covered by Nina Simone in 1968.

It's the song that opens the film with ariel shots of the Thames at sunrise, panning in the Waterloo, Upper Marsh, and Kennington Lane before zooming in on Jack Wilde and Mark Lester who are part of a Boys Brigade procession heading towards St Mary's church in Battersea. The brigade leader is played by Roger Gorman, member of The Scaffold, who had huge hits with songs such as Lilly the Pink, and included Paul McCartney's brother, Mike, in their line up.

Melody Fair

This was one of the tracks originally on the Odessa album. It was also recorded by Lulu, who was married to Maurice Gibb at the time.

It is used to introduce the character Melody. The estate used as the location where Melody lives with her family was the Surrey Lodge Dwellings, orinally founded by Emma Cons in 1884. The estate was about to be demolished when it was chosen as a location.

Melody first appears looking out of her window as a rag and bone man is peddling his wares in the courtyard. In the background Hewson's orchestrated exerpt from Melody Fair is playing. Melody exhanges a coat for a goldfish in a jar and takes it for a walk along Lambeth Road, releasing it for a swim in the famous cattle trough as the full Bee Gees song fades in.

Spicks and Specks

This another song originally released in 1966 when the Gibb brothers were still based in Australia. It used a the background to the scene where the secondary school children are on break time. Archbishop Temple School was used to depict the school attended by the lead characters. Pupils from the Corona Academy of Theatre Arts, which both Jack Wild and Tracey Hyde had attened played support roles, but 300 pupils from Archbishop Temple were recruited as extras. The school's uniform became the uniform of the school in the film. The Bee Gees own recording of Spicks and Specks isn't used in the scene. On this occassion it's another Hewson orchestration, this time with a choir from the Corona Academy on vocals. Some of the filming for this scene took place at Arbishop Temple School and Arbishop's Park.

Give Your Best

This was first recorded by the Bee Gees in New York in 1968 as part of the Odessa project. It's used in a scene which starts with the pupils waiting at a bus stop outside the Pineapple pub on Hercules Road. Instead of going home Jack Wild and Mark Lester decide to take a detour to the west end. Albert Embankment also features as the route their bus takes before crossing over the river.

To Love Somebody

This is the best known Bee Gees song to feature in the film. It was originally written by Barry Gibb as a single for Otis Reading, who tragically died before he was able to record it. It was released by the Bee Gees in 1967. While it charted at 17 in the American Billboard 100, it only reached 43 in the UK charts. But covers by Janis Joplin and Nina Simone had established it as a classic by the time the film came out.

It provides the backdrop the the school sports day, again with scenes filmed at Archbishop's park.

First of May

The third song taken from Odessa. This was actually the song that broke the camel's back as far as Robin Gibb was concerned, leading to his temporary departure from the band. Robin had wanted his song 'Lamplight' also from the album to be the single, but he was over ruled by Barry Gibb and Robert Stigwood in favour of The First of May and left the band in protest.

The song is used in one of the film's most iconic scenes in an overgrown cemetery where Mark Lester's and Tracey Hydes characters discuss their growing affection for each other. In the film the cemetery is depicted as being in the vacinity of their school. In reality the scenes were filmed at Nunhead Cemetery. Waris Hussain was taken by the line in the song about being small when Christmas trees were tall and filmed the scene at a low angle to depict the world as seen through the eyes of two thrirteen year olds.

Working on it Night and Day

This is a Richard Hewson song. It's sung by Barry Howard who was the lead singer with ska band, The Aces, who also provided backing for Desmond Dekker.

At the time Melody was filmed Howard and The Aces were gigging regularly at the Ram Jam Club in Brixton, either on their own or as Dekker's backing band. Their 1967 recording with Dekker, 'The Face of Fu Manchu' references the super villian created by Sax Rohmer when he was a resident of Herne Hill.

A snippet of working on it Day and Night is first heard on the radio playing in the kitchen in one of the early scenes when Mark Lester's character is having breakfast with his ovetbearing mother (Sheila Steffal) and his dismissive father (Keith Barron).

It later takes centre stage at the school disco as the song being played when Lester's Daniel asks Melody to dance.

Seaside Banjos and Teacher's Chase

These are instrumental pieces composed by Hewson to accompany scenes where Daniel and Melody play truant and spend a day at the seaside in Weymouth and where the teachers engage in a frantic chase the twart the planned 'wedding' of the love besotten pupils.

Part of the filming for the seaside sequence took place in Weymouth. However, the fairground scenes were filmed at the funfair in Battersea Park. The teacher's chase starts of at the spiral staircase which can still be seen today from Archbishop's Park, to the rear of the former Archbishop Temple School.

Teach your Children Well 

This Crosby Stills and Nash song owes its appearance to Ron Kass, former head of The Beatle's Apple record company. Kass was a close friend of Putnam and was one of the associate producers of Melody. His own close association with Graham Nash led to the fim rights being granted for Teach Your Childen Well. It accompanies the climatic scene filmed in Vauxhall close to the area now redeveloped for the American Embassy. On what was then waste ground the pupils rebel against the teachers in an anarchistic near riot while Daniel and Melody, aided by Jack Wild's Ornshaw, make their escape along the railtracks on a handcart.

A Musical Legacy

The album of the film's soundtrack was a huge hit in Japan, where Melody is still considered a cult classic. The album reached number one and was the best selling album of 1971. Melody Fair, released as a single in Japan reached number three.

The Bee Gees and Stigwood continued their relationship with Saturday Night Fever, the song for Grease, and the less critically aclaimed Sgnt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band movie adaptation.

Alan Parker went on to write and direct Bugsy Malone and The Commitments.

Putnam egaged Greek electronics wizard Vangellis to compose the rousing theme for Chariots of Fire, a huge hit in its own right.

In the aftermath of Melody, Mark Lester released an album and a couple of singles.

Jack Wild appeared in a movie adaptation of The Pied Piper with folk rock legend Donovan in the title role. He released three albums in the early 70s and a decade after Melody was reunited with Tracy Hyde in a Polish musical version of Alice in Wonderland.

Tracey Hyde never veered into a pop career but Japanese indie rock band For Tracy Hyde were named after her, while Tracy Hide by Brian Wilson's touring band, The Wondermints, was also inspired by her performance in Melody.

The Crunch by Richard Hewson's RAH Band was a huge hit in 1977. Amongst other artist he produced Supetramp's best selling album 'Crime of the Century'.

As Al Barry & The Cimarons, Barry Howard had a number of underground dancehall hits during the skinhead reggae era of the early 70s (before the movement was hijacked by the far right). These included Morning Sun, Hold It, and Down We Go.

You can visit most of the locations mentioned in this blog, along with some others and hear more stories about the film and its fantastic supporting cast on my Melody 54th Anniversary Guided Walk, starting at 6pm from Lambeth North Tube station on the evening of 21st April.  

Details here.

Melody Guided Walk