It’s been such a rotten time for so many of us during the pandemic, I know.
I posted recently about the tragic loss of my good friend and collaborator Paulo Turin, gone far too soon, but never forgotten.
Since then, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I really wanted to do something in tribute to my friend, beyond a blog post.
And I got to thinking about another lovely friend and collaborator, Dooj Wilkinson, who sadly passed away in 2017.
Then i remembered that when i put together a series of posts for the 20th anniversary of On Edge i found the original soundtrack DAT tape master recordings. And i had an idea…
I dusted off the DAT tapes and, thanks to the dudes over at TransferMagic, they have been professionally digitised.
And now Paulo and Dooj’s wonderful music can live on.
It’s my tribute to them both.
Never before released, ON EDGE: original soundtrack, is a charity EP containing every note of music from the film (along with a bonus track from Paulo & I with our band SDN).
The track listing is as follows:
1. Defiler
2. Cycles of Abuse
3. Waiting room
4. Uberdrill
5. Eyes
6. F.U.F.B.
7. Pshoos
Vinyl, CD and digital download editions are available below.
So sorry to have to say that my good friend & collaborator Paulo (aka Paul O) Turin has passed away after contracting Covid-19.
My sincere condolences to his family & many friends. We were all hoping he’d pull through after three weeks in the ICU in Brazil. Thanks to all the doctors & nurses who tried so hard to keep Paulo alive.
Here’s a photo from much happier times, taken when we worked on the music for ‘On Edge’ together with our band Self Destructive Nature
My friendship with Paulo began in the mid-90s when we were introduced via mutual contacts. We spent many happy hours writing and recording music together, discussing life the universe & everything — and eating penne arabiatta, or pizza, or both. Paulo worked & studied hard and was always inquisitive and determined to master whatever he put his mind to. His musicianship was second to none. Our song Cycles of Abuse featured in my film On Edge, as did Paulo’s killer dance moves (you can spot him in the nightclub scenes that bookend the film). Another composition Defiler featured on the Planet Metal compilation and on Brazilian rock radio.
SDN’s track Defiler featured on Planet Metal Volume 2
When Paulo returned to Brazil, we kept in touch and exchanged family photos (and godawful Dad jokes!). A couple of years ago, Paulo asked for my help in putting together a Wikipedia page about him. But the Wiki editors rejected the page as ‘not notable’!!!
Well, screw them. I’m including the Wikipedia text below in full, in tribute to Paulo, who was very notably a gentle giant, and a brilliantly talented musician. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him.
(And if any Wikipedia wizards out there can create a page for Paul O Turin, please do so. He would have liked that!)
Sweet dreams Paulo, be at peace, the world will rock a lot less without you x
Paulo in his own words…
Paul O Turin performing live in 2014
Paul O Turin
Background information
Birth name: Paulo Eduardo Turin
Born: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Genres: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal, Instrumental Rock/Metal
Occupation: Guitarist, songwriter
Instruments: Guitar
Associated acts: Gangland UK, Battlezone, Paul Di’anno, Self Destructive Nature, Aquiles Priester, Felipe Andreoli, Realm of Illusion
Labels: Pony Canyon, Encore Records, Magick Records, Zoom Club Records
Biography
Paulo Turin was born in Brazil but made his mark in metal music in England where he lived for 22 years. He was of Italian heritage. His grandparents moved to Brazil from Venice during the first world war. He spoke English, Italian and Portuguese.
He started playing his father’s acoustic guitar at a very young age and learned music from some music books that also belonged to his father. After begging his parents to buy him an electric guitar for two years, he finally got it at the age of 13. It was a Fender Jaguar copy. The first songs he learned on the electric guitar was from Credence Clear Water Revival, Slade and Chuck Berry but when he heard Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin his guitar playing and musical taste went to a new dimension.
Turin then started taking private guitar lessons with some well known teachers around the Sao Paulo area. The lessons included rock, jazz and music theory. During this period he played with some local bands.
In 1986 Paul took advantage of his European (Italian) citizenship and moved to England where he worked part time and took guitar lessons at the Musicians Academy and at the Guitar Institute. Paul also held a degree in management and graduated to be a University teacher.
Paul O Turin at the Marquee, London
Career
In England, Paul went to several auditions for bands in the underground metal scene of London and got the job as the guitarist of an up and coming act called Gangland UK. They toured the UK nonstop for two years and recorded two songs Beyond the Law and Death Threat for the album Metal for Muthas‘92 released in Japan. Gangland also put out a single One in a Million/Crazy Angel for the Japanese market.
Paul composed the soundtrack song Cycles of Abuse for the horror film On Edge with Self Destructive Nature (SDN), a band he formed with vocalist and writer/director Frazer Lee. Another SDN song Defiler featured on the Planet Metal compilation. Paulo did session work and played for bands as a hired hand also.
In 1997 he was invited to join Paul Di’anno’s (former Iron Maiden vocalist) Battlezone. They recorded and toured the album Feel My Pain. Paul returned to Brazil in 1999 and put together a band for Paul Di’anno which recorded and toured the album Nomad. Nomad was re-released in 2006 with a few bonus live tracks under the name of The Living Dead.
Since then Turin was writing and recording solo instrumental Rock Metal, and with thrash metal oufit Realm of Illusion, in addition to producing, and hosting guitar masterclasses.
Congrats to sound mixer Gary Dodkin and huge thanks to him, to composer Lester Barnes, and to boom operator Lloyd Dudley, without whom ‘The Stay’ would not have won BEST SOUND at Cinestesya Festival 2021!
Amazing news! Another win for my folk horror film The Stay. Best Horror Film at 4th Dimension Independent Film Festival. Screening this month in Bali! Many thanks to the film festival organisers, the cast & crew of The Stay & all our supporters.
…I signed the publishing contract for my debut novel The Lamplighters.
I had pitched the book to legendary horror editor Don D’Auria at Dorchester Publishing’s infamous Leisure Books imprint in 2009, and I was excited to receive a full manuscript request from Don by return. I submitted the book and waited anxiously for the outcome.
…and then Dorchester Publishing went under.
It was difficult not to take that as a sign. Ha ha!
But when Don D’Auria became Executive Editor of the new Horror line at Samhain Publishing, my manuscript followed him there. Don told me he loved the book and thought it would be a fine addition to the line.
Contracts were finalised 26th April 2011, and the e-book was published in November of that year, followed by the paperback in February 2012. An audiobook followed in 2016 (now out-of-print).
Crazy scenes at the Bram Stoker Awards!
Things went a little bit crazy from there. The Lamplighters was selected as a Finalist in the Bram Stoker Awards for ‘Superior Achievement in a First Novel’ from all the horror debuts published that year. I enjoyed sitting up at 4:30am in freezing cold England, watching the Stoker Awards webcast broadcast live from the USA. Don had written to me prior to the awards ceremony and asked me for an acceptance speech ‘just in case’. I wrote some waffle about not winning because I knew I wouldn’t, and I didn’t, so that was that. But as I always say to my creative writing students: “Remember, it’s cooler to be nominated. Unless you win and then it’s cooler to win.”
The Lamplighters — Book Pipeline Finalist
The Lamplighters was a Finalist again, this time in the Book Pipeline Contest for books deemed suitable for film/TV adaptation, one of only 6 from almost 1,000 entries. I wrote a screenplay based on the novel, and that went on to be a Semi-finalist in the Screencraft Horror Screenplay Competition, from over 2,000 entries.
Close, but no close-up this time Mr DeMille.
I still think The Lamplighters would make for an excellent scary movie, but then I would think that, wouldn’t I? (Ha ha #2)
The Lamplighters — Screencraft Horror SemiFinalist
The book became my first translated work, with the Japanese edition published by TakeShobo in 2015. I was really thrilled about that, especially when I learned that the Tokyo-based publisher has Stephen King and the Star Wars books on its roster. Getting my author copy was a surreal experience, and it’s a very beautiful object, that edition. Hey you guys! My other books are available for translation, just sayin’.
a very beautiful object
And then, just as Dorchester Publishing had during my initial pitching of the book, Samhain Publishing went under. IT’S NOT MY FAULT, OKAY? STOP MAKING OUT LIKE IT’S SOME KIND OF WEIRD CURSE THAT FOLLOWS ME AROUND… (Ha ha #3).
I like to keep my work out there and available and soon after, I signed with Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink for all my Samhain backlist titles. My thanks to the two Davids at Crossroad for keeping my malformed offspring in circulation.
And so, without any further ado, here it is.
Ten years and a day since I became a fully signed-up novelist, a new 10th anniversary paperback edition of The Lamplighters is now available.
The nightmare continues!
The Lamplighters — 10th anniversary paperback edition — out now!
And coming soon… There will be a limited edition hardcover, too.
Happy anniversary, old thing. My thanks to Don D’Auria & all at Samhain, to the two Davids at Crossroad Press, and to all my readers (yes, all 3 of you! Ha ha #4) and reviewers for the last ten years.
Here’s to a few more, eh?
Frazer x
About The Lamplighters:
Life on Meditrine Island is luxurious…but brief. Marla Neuborn has found the best post-grad job in the world—as a “Lamplighter” working on Meditrine Island, an exclusive idyllic paradise owned and operated by a consortium of billionaires. All Lamplighters have to do is tend to the mansions, cook and clean, and turn on lights to make it appear the owners are home. But the job comes with conditions. Marla will not know the exact location of the island, and she will have no contact with the outside world for the duration of her stay. Once on the island, Marla quickly learns the billionaire lifestyle is not all it is made out to be. The chief of security rules Meditrine with an iron fist. His private police force patrols the shores night and day, and CCTV cameras watch the Lamplighters relentlessly. Soon Marla will also discover first-hand that the island hides a terrible secret. She’ll meet the resident known as the Skin Mechanic. And she’ll find out why so few Lamplighters ever leave the island alive.
I’m devastated to hear of filmmaker Norman J. Warren‘s passing, and touched to see social media buzzing with fond memories of, and tributes to, this gentleman of horror.
The late, great Norman J. Warren (photo: Vice.com)
My friendship with Norman began just over a decade ago, when a producer recommended me to him as a potential screenwriter on his new movie project. We met in a hotel bar in London and got along like a haunted house on fire. I was hired to do rewrites on Norman’s script ‘Beyond Terror’, which was both a sequel to ‘Terror’ and a ‘greatest hits’ showcase. I was thrilled to be working with him, as I was a fan of Norman’s cult-occult movie ‘Satan’s Slave’ (aka ‘Evil Heritage’) from my VHS video nasties days.
Our collaboration continued and we met up for coffee-fuelled story meetings and regular chinwags at the National Film Theatre café on the South Bank, and sometimes at Norman’s home in West London, where I got to see his vintage movie posters and memorabilia over mugs of tea. Norman had so many great stories from his decades in the film industry, and I loved hearing about him driving around in an open topped car with ‘Terror’ star Glynis Barber in the passenger seat.
(Glynis Barber in Norman J. Warren’s TERROR)
‘Beyond Terror’ was retitled ‘Delusion’ (we joked that we were deluded if we thought it was going to get made) and Norman eventually took the project to China with producer Yixi Sun, to pitch for financing. Sadly, it just wasn’t meant to be.
Following our work on ‘Delusion’, Norman invited me to brainstorm ideas with him for a horror/thriller film called ‘Shadows’ and I worked up a story outline based on our creative discussions with producer Yixi Sun.
Horror can be a notoriously hard sell when trying to attract funding, especially state funding, and so Norman decided to pursue the art house/surreal thriller route. Following on from ‘Shadows’, Norman and Yixi then developed a script called ‘Susu’, which Norman was going to direct in China. When ill health prevented him from directing, Norman moved into a producing role, with Yixi directing. Norman made a fun short too, for the ‘Turn Your Bloody Phone Off’ segment at FrightFest London.
Alongside all this, I was hard at work on my short folk horror film ‘The Stay’, and Norman mentored me throughout the process with his trademark enthusiasm and words of encouragement. You’ll see his name on the thank you credits at the end of the film (I apologised in advance, in case he didn’t like the movie!).
Norman was a lovely friend and collaborator who always had time for others, even when he was unwell. And I have never known someone to be so excited and upbeat when discussing grisly death scenes over lunch! Norman survived polio during his younger years, and I think that maybe gave him some of his appreciation for life’s possibilities. He was a proper gent, and I will miss him.
Listen to Norman discussing his filmmaking roots and influences on Radio 4’s The Film Programmehere.
And you can relive Norman J Warren’s greatest hits in this stonking Indicator Blu Ray box set.
“Lee creates an atmosphere of unease and foreboding that culminates in explosive violence and terror. Rife with frightening imagery, ghosts, and visceral horror, this tale will please the most ardent of horror fans.” (Booklist)
Thanks for reading!
Beast witches,
Frazer
Is this your new site? Log in to activate admin features and dismiss this message
FrazerLee.com 