The Omnibus interview took place shortly after MAM, (Tom Jones management at the time) had commissioned 1984 to become a musical using the music that Tim Rice and myself had written and released on the Charisma label. The album struggled into the top 30 but it was a bad time for concept albums and the media pretty much killed it stone dead, but Tony MacArthur at MAM really believed it would make a great musical and so work commenced on turning the music into a full scale production.
Then a major brick wall was hit at 100mph! The lawyers in Chicago who acted for the George Orwell trust in America, put the complete block on our plans and despite numerous meetings, discussions and attempts to reach some sort of deal, after almost a year, the plans were ditched. To say I was gutted would be to put it mildly. Even more upsetting was the fact that a year later a dreadful film version of 1984 appeared with Richard Burton and some awful 1980’s music that really didn’t do the work justice, and that was the end of my efforts to keep the concept album alive by taking it one step further.
At the end of the Omnibus interview with Barry Norman there is a very unique performance of Elgin Mansions, as it indeed was its premiere. It was shortened somewhat to fit in with the television timeslot, but it’s a rare find indeed.