The Franco Godi Ensemble.

from 8 years old when the show stopped being shown over here (uk) the theme tune just totally obsessed me. i never ever forgot about it, cause it was so evocative, european sounding, english yet foreign. the reason was of course that the tune *was* foreign but the words were re-sung in whichever country it was being shown in. i always thought 'if ever i'm in a band i'm gonna sample that' or cover it, pay homage to it somehow. like i say, i never forgot it.

so i'm in glastonbury festival, and it's 1999. travis are boring the will to live out of the nme stage crowd and it starts to piss down with rain. i take shelter and wait 4 the others in the bacardi tent, a makeshift bar witha dj playing cuban stuff, acid jazzy stuff, old 60's beat stuff etc. then, as i'm looking out at the sun coming back out, and standing by the decks, a very familiar tune comes on. no. no i thought it *can't* be, there hasn't been a record of the mr. rossi theme, i'd know about it if there was. surely not. amazed as suddenly my inner child freaks out - 'viiiiiiva, viva happiness...' comes on and i think 'christ it must be a new song sampling the old theme tune...' intrigued, half pissed, practically in tears i peer over to the circling left deck and see mr. rossi's face smiling up at me going round and round ... this is *unreal* to me !! i swear on my life, i handed the dj all the notes in my pocket, at least 40 quid, and said 'where did you get this...you can have all this cash now! ...i have to have this!!' he said he'd send me one. he refused to take the money. he made me write down my address. the record, of course, never came.

didn't take long to track down the soundtrack, cheap too, but it was not the record i heard. the rcord i heard was the extended english 12 " version in a silvery sleeve. i had the soundtrack cd, and while it had so many versions, they were all a little over a minute long. more recently i heard the long version again, in a bar in manchester, asked the guy to give me the catalogue number and i've been hunting ever since.

it's still eluding me. it's one of my top 5 records, and i can't get it anywhere. hearing it that day of the travis gig was the highlight of the entire festival !! every compilation tape i ever made sice, has the short version on.

the day i get the 12 " is the day i die happy.

" just call me rossi! "