Q1. How did you come to work on Superman 2?

A. When it came about that Richard Lester was chosen to direct "SM2", he asked for me to score it for him. As far as I know I was his first choice. We had already worked together on many other projects including "A funny thing happened on the way to the forum," and "Royal Flash" (both of which were adaptation scores) so, as "SM2" was also to be mainly an adaptation of John Williams' music, it seemed the right way to go.

Q2. How much time did you have to write the S2 score?.
A. About six weeks.

Q3. Was the London Symphony Orchestra used?
A. No, it was a studio orchestra, but as I had worked with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra before, it would have contained quite a few of their principle players.

Q4. Did you think you could do the score justice with a smaller orchestra?
A. There are two points here:
The prime one was cost which decided both the size of the orchestra and the number of sessions available.
The other was the optimum number of players for the CTS studio (at Wembley, London) which I was using. John Richards was engineering for me and of course we discussed this matter.

Q5. Did John Williams come in to oversee the recordings?
A. No, I had no communication at all with John Williams.

Q6. Did you find it difficult to score the theme tune? I have heard many versions of the theme by other composers and they just don't compare to yours and Williams?
A. Let there be no mistake here! I had all of John Williams' cues from "Superman The Movie" to work with. The adjustments I made were those from triple to double wood wind etc. to fit my orchestra, and also the timing of the cue to fit the new length of the titles. Otherwise, apart from some editing, it was his work and not mine.

Q7. Was there any music left on the cutting room floor which you wished would of been left in?
A. No, I can safely say there was only one cue which I used that Richard didn't like, and I re-wrote it overnight so that it was played on the following session without further problems.

Q8. Who's choice was it to keep the theme tune the same?
A. It was a part of my brief that I was to use the John Williams' Superman theme. I too thought this was essential as it was so perfectly suited to the character. No one could have improved on it!

Q9. The opening themes to the films are very different for example I find Superman 2 to be alot more bassy and more uplifting, what was your approach to changing John's work for S2?
A. If you find the opening to "S2" more uplifting than "one", it maybe because I increased the tempo of the march a little. The key and orchestration remained the same. As for the sound quality difference that would be due to studio equipment and ambience, and also personal choice of course!

Q10. When Superman 2 was shown on TV in USA, the film was extended roughly by 25 minutes alot of the music sounded very different IE. cues reworked - Were you informed of these changes?.
A. I didn't know of this and haven't seen the result. I can't comment.

Q11. Have you ever performed your score in concert?
A. No, I never performed this music in concert.

Q12. When the soundtrack was released on vinyl and tape alot of music is missing like the amazing alley change at the beginning and when Superman rescues the kid from Niagara Falls. Were you annoyed that alot of music was left out from the release?
A. Yes, it was disappointing, but in the days of the LP, space was much more limited than today, so I guess I wasn't too surprised.

Q13. Did the Superman 2 soundtrack sell as well Superman The Movie?
A. The movie itself did very well at the box office (and is still showing) but I don't know how the soundtrack sales of "SM2" compare with "Superman The Movie."

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