World In Action - Jam For World In Action-Mick Weaver & Shawn Phillips- Instrumental Only

[@tyreburster]

Every time I hear this tune I remember Monday nights after Coronation Street and being convinced the world was about to end. And I was all of nine years old. How tragic. Such is the power of this music.

[@andrewpert3681]

so true brilliant comment.

[@ackoyeb3195]

Perfect, I was gonna say that

[@larr9095]

This used to freak me out as a child and still does, one of the most amazing and nostalgic pieces of music I've heard, a masterpiece !

[@salvadormarley]

You said it mate.

[@nbp10000]

Lawrence McDade with you on that mate

[@IanP1963]

All mates together then mate !!!!

[@brycepilkingtonstone5934]

they were only messing around 1 afternoon at granda tv studios after driving around manchester and smoking cannabis. it was never meant to be at all.

[@sim5847]

one of the most frightening disturbing pieces of music I've ever heard as a kid. I associate it with violence and it haunts me to this day

[@garyparkinson8060]

What an absolute belter of of tune.The don’t make TV like they used to back in the day.Watched world in action as a kid with me dad as often as i could growing up,loved it!!!

[@antonhoward9027]

I've just acquired a stunning Hammond organ and this is the first piece in learning on it. This sound petrified me as a child but it sure feels good to play, not difficult technically but it jumps all over the place so it keeps you on your toes. Mick Weaver should get the recognition he deserves for creating this.

[@michaelwest6238]

Scared me to

[@pk-honestly]

World in Action Monday night 8pm Granada. I was 9 years old. What nightmares are truly made of.

[@Psmith-ek5hq]

World in Action, or being 9?

[@Ravedaze.]

This tune reminded me of the IRA, thatcher, Rioting and going to bed late at night

[@christopherkirkkirk308]

Ravedaze it was the music to my bedtime!

[@barbaraannecortina7899]

world in action wasn't just about the IRA and thatcher, you blinkered fuckwit...it was a current affairs programme! Personally, I think you should avoid watching anything investigative like this if THAT'S how fucking sensitive you are.

[@peterpotter5841]

@@barbaraannecortina7899 He said that this tune reminds him of specific things and didn't say that's all the programme was about. And you have the audacity to throw insults about? It's got bugger all to do with being too sensitive to watch it either. Judging by his comment, he was a child when this theme tune was used and it evokes certain memories. Ye daft twat.

[@1220b]

@@peterpotter5841 well said. I always think of Ulster, cold war and strikes when I hear this tune.. I was a 70s/ early 80s kid. I loved world in action and even though I understood very little of what I saw. It gave me a grounding in current affairs which has grown with me. Some people are just nasty mean spirts on KZbin.

[@peterc3785]

I'm with you

[@TheMoisesgooner]

Loved this programme as a kid. Music evoked fear in me back then. Sad loss for this show in a dummed down world.

[@ianharrison6597]

Granada’s ‘World in Action’ being axed together with the Rediffusion/Thames current affairs programme ‘This Week’ also feeling the cold steel, marked the beginning of the once proud ITV network’s end and were as you say, part of the dumbing down that continues. How sorry can you feel for kids being born now?

[@TheHorsebox2]

Yes, I remember World in Action covering the rabies scare in the 70s. The music made it ten times scarier to a then eight year old. Great piece of music though.

[@moraymac2922]

Moises Baeza. No more journalists left. Not on MSM anyway.

[@leestevens8975]

So true.

[@stephenholmes1036]

Correct

[@traffic71]

I love the sound this keyboard makes. Absolutely love it. Takes me straight back to the mid to late 70’s. I only ever got to watch the opening credits then it was bed time!

[@hoppinonabronzeleg]

I want this playing as the outtro to my funeral!!

[@anorakus8272]

Everyone would be in tears 😭

[@666ICF]

Hell yes, that's perfect

[@LarryOneZeroSix]

One of the most amazing pieces of music i've heard. This used to haunt me as a child and it still does now! so so good! thank you!

[@cuddlybear47]

This is truely one of the best intro and outro tunes ever and yes completely suited the hard hitting nature of what was a really groud breaking no holds barred programme. Thanks for posting it.

[@ollybeat]

Brings back memories of the current affairs programme such as Weekend World with the Nantucket Sleighride theme. Well found, brilliant!!

[@nigelprettyc3]

Hammond organ with a Leslie an amazing magical thing to play as a kid I wanted one now I got one 🎶😎

[@Maynews]

i wrote to the programe makers when it was on air and asked about the theme only to be told it was a piece written for the programme and not available to purchase. its fab to hear it after all these years thanx

[@nsggood]

Wow, what a story. RESPECT to Shawn Phillips for his music. Like many others have said, your music has entered and remained in us for 40 odd years. A true shame you got shafted.

[@cbv8]

Absolutely haunting tune as many have said and takes me right back to my childhood i am now 59 years old it still haunts me! I remember my Mom and late Dad watching World In Action all those years ago thank you fivestring for posting this ;-)

[@fivestring]

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I really do think you have made a pertinent point there.... if i ask my girls, who are in their 20s, anything about what is happening in the world today, they invariably reply with "i don't know". They obtain what ever information they need from social Media Sites or the web... that's if they are aware of an issue in the first place. I think TV has ceased to be an educational and informative medium, negating the need to think whilst watching.

[@dermot51]

The news is all spin now most of it lies and half truths, thats Murdoch for you

[@Factory051]

@fivestring You need to watch 'Bitter Lake' by Adam Curtis.

[@pintofkimberley]

From an age when ITV had intelligent programmes and better than anyone else. Damned good sound track that went with it, thanks Shawn. Good memories.

[@pinball1970]

One of the most hauntingly beautiful pieces of music of the 70s and my child hood The intro scared me a little and outro made want to cry a little. Just for a TV theme! They did things a lot better in those days

[@salvadormarley]

I agree Pinball. When things were done well back then, they had a sort of artistic magnificence to them. Everything seems so plastic and artificial these days. Even the fucking fivers are plastic now. This is one of the themes to my childhood and when I hear it, I'm reminded of something now lost. Lost to a world of smart watches, crap music and vacuous comedy.

[@pinball1970]

You can find some good things in 2017- we can look for cool 1970s stuff on the internet! I think the series "house" was amazing and I am getting into CSI, the only other thing I would say is any good is "Jim Jeffries" Check him out.

[@salvadormarley]

Jim Jeffries - If it's the same one you reference (shit Australian comedian)fucking hell, that snowflake Libtard? I'll pass on that. He's the sort of establishment figure who foolishly says that Trump is the next Hitler etc etc etc. He works from a script, he's a cultural Marxist. Concerning House - I've seen a few and enjoyed them. Hugh Laurie was fantastic in Blackadder and of course his superlative work with Stephen Fry. Never seen CSI.

[@pinball1970]

JJ did a great sketch on Trump before he was elected. Liberal?? You heard what he says about women?

[@janwong9437]

One of my favourite music compositions

[@FitzNugly]

I absolutely love this. Both pieces are beautiful. They moved me as kid and they still do now.

[@Fontsman-14]

An adaptation of the beginning of Toccata. Brilliant and evocative.

[@mauriceludmer2629]

Instantly takes 40 years away 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@redqueento]

god !!! I have hunted for this for YEARS ! dont know why .. but to hear it again means so much !!! thanks for putting it up here. Red

[@wossisname4540]

It re-vitalises the tear ducts! and that's a lovely feeling.

[@red00eye]

The first 25 seconds of this song are hardwired into my brain, I have not heard it for at least 20 year but i have to keep repeating it over and over again. I cant explain, it is like audio morphine, another hit, another hit, another hit....

[@richardkellett8608]

a beautifully haunting piece of work it never fails to move me and transports me back to monday nights in the 80s

[@leonjay9]

Heard this at age 12 ...wanted play Hammond organ after hearing it in the 70’s, still play Hammond even today...

[@NealR2000]

Brilliant music. I remember how this music would kick in right after the final scene of the show and I would just sit there wide-eyed and transfixed by the moving subject matter.

[@jamietucknutt]

Thanks to rebel vodka for telling us about the dvds, they are a must see for anyone not old enough to remember fantastic, thoughtful programmes such as this. And many thanks to fivestring for posting the music. It never fails to send a shiver down my spine and takes me back to childhood watching this amazing programme and feeling a burning desire to try to do the right thing in the world. This was British TV at its finest.

[@fivestring]

I'm glad people are still enjoying it....

[@onomatopoeia99]

Just signed up to say thank you for posting this, have been playing it over and over since I found it. It's a fab piece of music and along with the theme music to Weekend World and the London Programme (both also excellent) brings back childhood / teenage memories, not least of a time when ITV current affairs programmes were actually worth watching! Just wish it was possible to buy a copy.

[@parttroll1]

Now we have World Inaction

[@adefordham7489]

This is one of the few theme tunes that I shall never forget

[@totaltwit]

+Ade Fordham Yeh me too, I was there at the time and when this came on it was just superb. It's one of those defining Hammond pieces we try and emulate today.

[@aleshawakely2550]

just the best tv theme of all time. huge reminder of all that is the 70's. my childhood, 3 day week, rubbish on the streets, political dramas unfolding almost daily. an iconic soundtrack to the 70's.

[@blade0954]

this is arguably the greatest piece of music ever produced,for those over 40 anyway,powerful,seductive,reminicient,its that good!!!!

[@EdwardPCampbell]

A true piece of late 1970's early '80's Zeitgeist music. When you heard this tune on the TV you knew you were in for an intimate, warts-and-all, in-depth news report which was often too hot or uncomfortable, for the mainstream stutios to handle. Thanks for posting this great piece of TV history. Awesome..

[@magselloff]

I loved this music when I first heard it as a kid and having heard it again today I can appreciate it all the more now. Amazing combination of great composition and that Hammond organ. Thankyou.

[@garryharvey3782]

I will always remember that haunting theme music at the end of World kin Action.

[@barrydenyer5876]

One of the best instrumentals ever

[@Paul02111960]

Absolutely brilliant track and the best investigative journalistic series ever, bar none. Why aren't there programs like this any more. The people running the world wouldn't be allowed to do the things they do without being held to account. Thanks for the upload, and like a lot of others I too have been looking for this particular track. I'm glad to have seen most of this series first hand. A+++

[@IanP1963]

So many memories of the 1970's - wow !!!!!

[@StephenGrew]

A brilliant pieceif music, as great as anything! It's kind of foreboding, melancholic and mournful at the same time, classic descrnding chromatic circular theme.

[@brycepilkingtonstone5934]

unrest in ulster. inflation and the nations ambulance crisis. all mixed in with fishcakes and arctic roll.

[@fivestring]

"It's a rare treat ye eat".... i remember the ad. :-)

[@betaman7988]

fivestring “gimmeanotherdollopothat”

[@garryaldridge4655]

Great analysis

[@mcmaul]

Simply stunning, it evokes things I had long forgotten, thank you for sharing, man!!

[@MrPINKFLOYDUK]

Love it , Love it, Love it. Played more than my own tunes, driving the family mad with it!!

[@Stu-SB]

Damn fingers !! When i was growing up i used ro hear the names. Pnom phen. Saigon. Then loads about the troubles. Watching this on ITV tonight was utter nostalgia What a theme tune. Right up there with the sweeney.

[@killingholme_clay]

Thanks fivestring. Thirty odd years ago, I phoned Granada and asked them for a copy of the record. They told me it wasnt available. I just cant stop playing it...my god it's good. Thanks again..

[@rtruscott]

Oh yeah! Such urgency, momentousness & significance rendered in Hammond organ music!

[@graemeirvine6943]

Loved this music when I was young, plus it was on tv on a Thursday night, which meant it was Friday the next day!

[@Ashfaq1999]

Along with the weekend world, these programs and their themes are timeless.

[@gary637]

Which was Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride.

[@Ashfaq1999]

Thanks gary !! Nantucket sleighride by mountain was the weekend world theme 😊

[@JaneDoe-zk4uk]

So otherworldly! Such a beautiful sound x

[@Wolfspiderxl]

A truly brilliant piece of Music. Hope the true composers get the accolade that they richly deserve.

[@MacrossMike]

Such powerful chords,thanks for uploading

[@RebelVoDKa]

13 World in Action episodes came out on DVD yesterday. The earliest is from 1963; the latest from 1996, the year before it was cancelled in favour of the dreadful Tonight. I've watched five of them and they are stunning. British TV died in 1996 or at least it totally disengaged with the real world and became obsessed with trivia to amuse the affluent classes. It's a sad loss.

[@peterc3785]

Such a moving and powerful tune, this rocks

[@keithwellens]

This programme was great I love the theme music such a shame this programme ended it was replaced by The Tonight Programme and moved from Manchester to London.

[@tyreburster]

Splendid tune. I thought for years it was Rod Argent - sounds just like the sort of thing he'd do. It's haunting, sombre and thought-provoking stuff.

[@davidbrooks187]

This track is a Masterpiece 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

[@fivestring]

The sweeney had four different theme tunes on the album that where tried out, including the closing "slow version". The guy who wrote them was called Harry South. Just a bit of useless info :-)

[@bretttempleman5373]

The bluesy slowed version you allude to is a blumming masterpiece

[@tommo903]

Great piece of music...I remember as a teenager in the seventies it was the title music that attracted me to watching the programme rather than the contents of the programme itself.

[@wullie2800]

one of the greatest themes of all time,this programme should still be on itv

[@Stratoszero]

Thanks so much for posting this up, and to Mr Phillips for being a true human being and letting it remain here.

[@geraberl]

Sir you have just made my night!!! Been waiting for months in the hope someone would post this!! I'd also like to throw in Brian Eno's 'Another Green World' used in the opening titles of Arena as another all-time TV classic. Thanks once again!

[@161Pebbles]

OMG i use to remember this as a kid, I've been trying to find this track for years thanks for posting it awesome :)x

[@kevinprobin555]

Christ this makes me feel really homesick for the seventies 😢

[@spank1master]

Thank you soooo much for posting this! i have been trawling the tinternet for about 2 years looking for it. love the remix too

[@OKOGroup]

The image at 1.09 is the great Brian Auger, one of the Hammond Heroes and still gigging with his band Oblivion Express.

[@martianmusic1]

I wrote to Granada years ago and got the usual answer."just written for thje show,not available" So, thinking it sounded like it has a certain KEITH EMERSON ring to it, I pulled the piece apart note by note and happily jam it with anyone who can play the decending guitar progession. Dead easy all in a minor key. D, C, B flat,, A, G, F, E, ,D. The riffs are endless and it can cause your head to explode. Just love it myself. GO ON! Have a go.

[@jonbates9386]

So 110% interesting - especially Mick Weaver's response on the second video [B side] of this. We've all been there with the "leave it with me - I'll get your money" shysters in the business. Just a thought - I'm sure the opening photo of this video is Brian Auger - another serious muso's muso.

[@gavinhendrie6652]

Absolutely right. Just come across it tonight (literally) for the first time in 20years.

[@carbiify]

This is track worth setting up a record label for.

[@Bestie007]

YES!!! Fivestring YOU BEAUTY!!!! So many memories!!!! Any full lenght versions ANYWHERE!! LOVE IT!!!

[@geraberl]

LOL! Ok then. it's more than enough of a treat to be able to hear this again. Thanks so much for the upload, it's made my weekend.

[@lee2217]

thanks for uploading this iconic piece of music pity we dont haVe programs like this any more on ITV

[@ollybeat]

Larry, it's like any memorable "where were you/how old etc" when you heard any track... music is a powerful medium. cant beat the nostalgia, and we can keep it forever (well almost!) !

[@paulmcallister7909]

Glad to see I'm not the only one. This music used to scare the living bejeezus out of me as a kid and still creeps me out 50 years later. It makes me think of the last sunset at the end of the world. Don't ask me why because I have no idea. It just terrifies me.

[@EricPollarrd]

Well it was ultimately made by the evil serpents that rule this realm, as was/is all tv ever produced.

[@51L0v3andcompassion]

Fantastic piece of music …. I wish it was available generally.

[@harrycoffeynield6941]

I’m sure this tune on TV meant it was bed time for me and my sisters. Sometimes I got lucky and stayed up later. Great tune.

[@Glenn1967ful]

ITV wouldn't know quality current affairs if it bit them on the nose. Their idea of a discussion programme is This Morning, where Phil Schofield discusses the important matters of the day such as last night's soaps and who has been evicted from the celebrity jungle. ITV is a televised Sun newspaper now.

[@TheMoisesgooner]

Thanks for posting Shawn. ☺

[@thedrownedinsound2]

Same old comments Fivestring. This haunting tune has stayed with me from childhood. Brilliant.!! Maybe i`m a morbid old bastard but it`s up there with Clair De lune. Ha,ha.!!

[@junior1138]

Shawn, thank you for this piece of genius, fivestring, thanx for finding this and uploading.

[@junior1138]

Jeebus, have I been listening to this for fifteen years????

[@StoppersREME]

Awesome piece of music, remember it as a kid watvhing World in Action and thinking the Adult World looks bad! Thanks for uploading!

[@fivestring]

Thank you, I appreciate your input Jonathan. Whatever happened all of those years ago is between yourself and Shawn.... i'm certainly not going to encourage debate on this post about what went on, what we did end up with though was a historic peice of music that still has the capacity to inspire thought after all of these years. I hope people continue to appreciate it as they have been doing so far.

[@leeorr9071]

We’re can I find this song world in Action it’s reminds me off a kid in the 80s

[@Kapricorn1]

Great, remember this when I was a wee nipper, and I always thought it was done by Traffic,lol thanks 4 posting

[@fivestring]

Thanks for taking the time to post, i'm glad you enjoyed the music.

[@jamesadcock5235]

U just knew it was serious adult stuff when this music came on at 8pm as a kid

[@railman01]

A superb piece of music, and i have to agree it was perfect for the program. Why oh why dont ITV commision investigative TV like WIA anymore ? It was up there with the likes of the brilliant Whicker's World. Brown, Blair and the rest of them would have been quaking in their boots at the thought of being sussed out by the WIA team. Thanks for posting, brings back great TV memories.

[@ellisbell7718]

Iconic theme tune written in an era when serious investigative journalism was consumed by the masses. A time when people took life seriously not themselves...

[@patmcc7758]

Memories flood back. Those times were very dark, not least with the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The Peace Process has been a huge achievement.

[@weasalpj]

Queue for the apocalypse now, some serious death and destruction coming your way. Nothing I can remember has that apocalypse feel like this simple melody. And the other word that might matter: "Thanks" both for posting and for letting me know.

[@terrycoburn125]

When this music starts it’s saying you will switch on and you wil listen!absolutely amazing sound!

[@colindevine3233]

A REAL BLAST FROM THE PAST , AMAZING PIECE OF MUSIC , LOVE IT !!! :)

[@KrisRamJ]

Gorgeous, I'd love for it to get a release somewhere...

[@blade0954]

thanks for the vids fivestring,and thankyou too for letting me know about the final version,best wishes

[@bestbass42]

Yes,this is THE one!!! Takes me back to when i was kid,the ending is what i remember most.NICE ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@MQsCues]

Wow, excellent summary! That's exactly how it was (in my case, in the 1980s)!

[@UnitedEffect]

Thanks for uploading this piece of music!

[@fivestring]

Thank you for taking the time to post, it is very much appreciated. I beleive you can still find the odd copy of the 80s version, but not this one.

[@pix046]

An incredibly haunting and yet compelling piece of music. I was oddly scared of it as a child but being older and wiser I can fully appreciate it's subtleties now.

[@fivestring]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. it's a pleasure.