I stumbled upon your site today and looked with interest at the notes. I wonder if you are aware of the following facts:

The musical 'Time' was derived from an original idea by Jeff Daniels and David Soames in the late seventies, called 'The Time Lord', the title based very loosely on the TV character Dr. Who. Daniels had limited previous experience as a songwriter and teamed up with unemployed Shakespearian actor Soames to put the project together. A demo was recorded of a dozen or so songs using local musicians with the aim of selling the project to Daniels' former record company MCA. Instead, with more songs recorded, the pair managed to air the concept a couple of years later at the Kingston Overground theatre, recruiting Milton Reame-James (Cockney Rebel) as MD/Keyboards. From there, Dave Clarke became involved and the project was transformed to the musical 'Time' as was performed at The Dominion theatre.

The embyonic 'The Time Lord' was a script written by David Soames. His partner, Jeff Daniels was tasked to write the music, a task he obviously felt he could not achieve alone so through an ad in a Bedford newspaper, recruited two local musicians, Mick Sharp and myself. (Daniels lived in Oakley, Bedfordshire and was married to former Miss Anglia and 'Sale of the Century' hostess, Angela Daniels.)

We met Daniels and he explained the concept of 'The Time Lord' to us. He needed musicians to 'develop' his musical ideas so offered us expenses-paid involvement in arranging and recording the songs. This would have been around 1977/8 - I was about 17 years old and was playing in a local band with Mick Sharp who was about a year older than myself. Mick and I had some songwriting and recording experience. In practice, Daniels' ideas were not much more than hummed melody lines, sometimes a few chord changes (with descending bass-lines) on the piano, often just a verbal description of the required 'feel' of the song. Mick and I developed the ideas until Daniels was happy with them. Soames was consulted to ensure the rhythm of the lyrics fitted the song structure.

The songs were recorded (in 8-track) at Piper Sounds Studios, Luton. Mick Sharp played guitars, myself bass and keyboards. We used our own band drummer Joe Vasso. Vocals were by Daniels, another male singer (black) and a female singer friend of Daniels, originally from the cast of 'Hair!'. The female vocals were so bad they had to be scrapped and Daniels' was stuck for a replacement at short notice. I suggested a school friend, Deryn Edwards (now in 'The Swingle Singers') and she completed the female vocal parts.

Looking at the song list from 'Time', titles that featured in the original demo recording are (from memory):

The Time Lord Theme
The Charge
What On Earth
Your Brother In Soul
Case For The Prosecution
Harmony

Once the production was engaged at The Kingston Overground Theatre, we got a frantic phone call from Daniels to develop more songs. Another ten or so were hastily put together and recorded very basically in Soames' London flat, including 'Move The Judge'.

We attended one of the performances at The Kingston Overground and I noted that in the audience was Tony Osoba, ('Sonny Jock' McLaren in 'Porridge'). After the three-week run, I got a phone call from Daniels to say that he no longer had access to Milton Reame-James and was I available for MD/keyboards if he could secure another production. That was the last I heard from him, and the last of 'The Time Lord' until Mick Sharp informed me of the 'Time' production at The Dominion.

-- Bob Peters