Road dreams programme 1
Road Dreams is a series of six television programmes, each of approximately 25 minutes duration, last shown on British terrestrial television in the early 1990s on Channel 4. A DVD with 13 short films using the Road Dreams footage is available from the producer's website - www.retroroadtrips.com - and all six original episodes can be viewed on YouTube.
Contents
The programmes were created by Elliott Bristow, being a compilation of Super 8 mm film footage filmed by Bristow during an extended stay in the United States. Each programme opens with the following text: "In 1968 Elliott Bristow went to New York for a two week holiday. In 1980, after twelve years and 500,000 miles on the road in America he returned to England with three trunks containing 75 hours of silent Super 8 film - his diary of this 'holiday'!"
The programmes depict Bristow's journeys across the USA. Many pieces were filmed whilst driving; others show Bristow's friends and locations he visited. Because of the source material, the technical quality of the programme suffers; some may consider this to be part of the charm of the work.
The footage is accompanied by occasional explanatory comments from Bristow, readings by Mark Murphy (mainly from the works of Jack Kerouac and Thomas Wolfe) and music tracks. The music is mainly but not exclusively instrumental classical and new-age music.
A book titled "Home in October: Twenty-one Years of Road Dreams" by Elliot Bristow was published in a hardcover edition of 192 pages by Mainstream Publishing in September 1991, ISBN 1-85158-334-3. According to Bristow, this book never made it past the proposal stage, and was erroneously publicised by an over-enthusiastic publisher.
An ebook "Road Dreams an American Adventure" (containing road stories, 330 still images & 19 short films and film clips) for the iPad is on sale in the iTunes Bookstore from 31 July 2013 - ISBN 978-0-9575498-1-4.
In early 2006 rumours circulated of a second series of Road Dreams being in production but these may have been a hoax. According to his website, Bristow is working on a new version of Road Dreams called Codachrome.
Items And Music
The following is a listing of the items and music tracks featured in each programme. The artist names and track titles are as listed at the end of each programme. The names in brackets are those of commercially available albums which contain the associated track. In many cases tracks many also be available on other albums. Some of the music used in Road Dreams does not appear to be available commercially.
Programme One
Items:
Music
Programme Two
Items:
Music:
Programme Three
Items:
Music:
Programme Four
Items:
Music:
Programme Five
Items:
Music:
Programme Six
Items:
Music:
An alternative version of the song "L.A. Freeway", sung by Roger Creager, is available commercially.
The track "Dandelion Dreams" appears on Rick Wakeman's "Country Airs" album. The name "Dandelion Airs" listed in Road Dreams may have been an error or possibly a working title.
According to some sources the artist name "Rick Loveridge" can also be spelt "Rik Loveridge". The spelling "Rick" is used in the captions in Road Dreams.
The track "Tracy's Big Moment" is written by the guitarist Adrian Legg. "Tracy's Big Moment" is on his 1990 album "Guitars & Other Cathedrals" and is an electric guitar version of the acoustic track used in Road Dreams. This version is played by François Godefroy.