AppleMark Wilson Munro

Gary Wilson teamed up with Caroline Munro on this scarce three-track CD single with high hopes of releasing a broader collection of songs. Ironically, both Wilson and Munro are veterans of the Numa Records label. In the studio, Gary Willson performed drums on Larry Loeber's "Shivers Up My Spine," and so is officially connected to the Numa label's humble beginnings.

Wilson's alliance with Caroline Munro, however, began with her lengendary film career. It was this same repertoire of vampish heroines in campy Hammer horrors and whimsical Harryhausen fantasies that first attracted Gary Numan to her in 1984 for his "Pump Me Up" single. And, like Numan, Wilson sought the role of producer for Munro and others whose cult following had demonstrated as yet untapped potential.

AppleMark Back in 1998, on Halloween night, Gary Wilson released a highly anticipated soundtrack album of music from Hammer horror films--an album which he not only produced but which he released on his own record label, GDI Records. The success of this first volume would lead to a full series of Hammer soundtracks in the next few years. However, it was for this first album that Caroline Munro and Gary Wilson made appearances together at conventions and other promotional events. Wilson even performs alongside Hammer legend Christopher Lee in two of Lee's more recent music videos (available on the Anchor Bay Special Edition of Scars Of Dracula). Gary Wilson's brother, session musician Clive Wilson, was enlisted for the soundtrack project as well, and Clive's guitar playing can be heard in two of Christopher Lee's recordings: "Wanderin' Star" and "It's Now Or Never." In a strangely ingenious way, Gary Wilson succeeded in insinuating himself into the cult of Hammer fandom by being responsible for bringing its music and its film icons into the new millenium, and for giving the Hammer phenomenon the veneer of credibility much needed to reach modern goths. Despite his own musical roots in the doo-wop and sixties rock traditions, and ignoring the daunting incongruity of Christopher Lee and Caroline Munro's formal vocal styles with the darker and more violent sensibility of modern goth rock, Wilson nonetheless grafted their image to bands like Incubus-Succubus and Forbidden Planet--bands that more truthfully engendered the slasher sensibility of Caroline's later films with leading man Joe Spinell, but which nonetheless breathed new life into the campy goth image of Captain Kronos and Carla.

AppleMark Wilson, it seems, also gave up some flesh for the beast--as a young actor, that is, in the 1972 Lions of St. Petersburg (Leoni di Petersburgo), by Italian director Mario Siciliano. Siciliano, who sometimes worked under the pseudonym of Lee Castle, is oft remembered for films like Orgazmo non-stop and Porno lui erotica lei that blurred the line between art and sleaze. (Incidentally, this was a line that Caroline Munro refused to cross, even when asked to play the leading role in Vampirella, Jim Wynorski's 1996 homage to the Hammer classic, Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter.) Wilson's work in Lions Of St. Petersburg (film posters mistakenly dropped the plural "-s" from Lions) was a good ten years, however, before he joined Rick Kemp's Maddy Prior Band--which later took the name Maddy Prior & The Answers.

Clearly, even after Wilson's record company changed its management and Wilson discontinued work on the Hammer soundtracks, his friendship with Caroline Munro endured. No further evidence of another Wilson-Munro single has surfaced, much less the hoped-for album's worth of material, but clearly Caroline has not ruled out the possibility. In many of her interviews since the single's release, she has expressed hopes to return to the studio with Gary Wilson and record more.

A quick listen to the tracks on the "Let It Be Me" single (which includes one original track, co-written by Brian Hodgson and Gary's brother, Clive) demonstrates why, for there is something at once familiar about the choice of material and about the chemistry of the duet that makes "Let It Be Me" reminiscent of the Judd & Miss Munro singles of the late 1970s. Unfortunately, Gary Wilson has the stronger voice in these recordings. Whether this is a product of the mixing or of the actual talent enjoyed between them, it is immaterial; the duet performances on this single make us pine to hear each artist sing individually, and for Caroline, in particular, to show us more colors from the range of style we know her to have. Her pre-Wilson Munro convention cassette of demos provides an incomplete glimpse into that range, and it would still be nice to hear someday a cohesive and modern collection of songs from a woman who is every bit as talented and every bit as connected as Nancy Sinatra. In any event, the single is a credit to the very fine musicians, Brian Hodgson and Clive Wilson, who give it an undeniable finesse.

Profts from the sale of "Let It Be Me" went to the U.K. based Winston's Wish organization, a charity assisting grieving children and their families with financial, emotional and other practical support. The single is now difficult to locate even on the secondary market but copies can be purchased from the Official Caroline Munro Fan Club.