I’m afraid not too much to write on this post, can’t find
anything at all on The Sidney Simm Funny Orchestra. Released in 1974 “William
Tell Rides Again” b/w “Zoopops Theme” (K-5438) On Festival Records. Produced by Martin Erdman and conducted by
Mel Bourne which I’m pretty sure is a play on words just like Sidney. After listening to this I would compare the
tracks to early Capt. Matchbox style. But like I often say maybe there is
someone out there that will inform us on more of these guys someday soon. Flac
8 comments:
I recognised the name Zoopops and when I checked the label, I saw the name Terry Hennessey.
"Terry Hennessey started with AP Films in UK as puppet maker with Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray and Thunderbirds. He arrived in Australia in '66, and made 200 puppets in 11 months for the Marionette Theatre of Australia including the puppets for "The Explorers".
He was the live presenter and puppeteer on Owly's School Channel Ten, Zoopops Channel 7 , Super Flying Fun Show Channel Nine and various commercials."
Zoopops was a Saturday morning cartoon show on Channel 7 Sydney. I remember that the POPS stood for Pedal Operated Puzzle Show, but the meaning of ZOO escapes me at the moment. The presenter was David Jeffrey.
Terry Hennessey was in a band called The Famous Peter Miller Jug Band, around 1969, who recorded one LP, also produced by Martin Erdman, which wasn't released until 1972 to try to cash in on the Captain Matchbox wave. Terry made all sorts of weird and wonderful instruments for the band, many of which, I recall, were on the set of Zoopops.
Thank you for this post. I'll file it my copy of The Famous Peter Miller "More Wonderfuller Than Friction" album.
just wondered if you have the song "are you looking at me" by the ferrets in flac?
I was one of the people who appeared in the original Zoopops program on Channel 7. We started with 3 characters Dr. Stark (Stuart Esplin, Mr Raven (Terry Hennessy) and Bonkers (me - Lindsay Hewson). We produced 2 hours each Saturday morning live to air, and pre-recorded 4 x episodes for broadcast each Monday to Thursday afternoon. This was before government C classification. We combined live characters, puppets and animal costumes to present US cartoons.
I was also a member of the Famous Peter Miller Jug Band and prior to that, the Original Battersea Heroes from 1965.
We released the More Wonderfuller Than Friction LP and a single of Flat Foot Floogie. The show continued for several years with a range of hosts. We also had a theme song for Zoopops. Unavailable. But it stood for Zany Outrageous Original Pedal Operated Puzzle Show.
After searching for 40 years, it's great to finally hear the Zoopops theme once again!
Thank you - hugely - for posting the flac file.
An old friend of mine just visited Terry Hennessy down in Kangaroo Valley. He still has that crazy musical spark, and those crazy musical gadgets too!
Thanks so much for piping-in Lindsay.
This fills-in so many pieces of the Zoopops puzzle.
Zoopops totally fired my crazy imagination so much in my teen years. The sheer inventiveness, puppetry and musical mayhem you all created influenced my future career enormously.
I went on to create the Smith's Gobbledok, and nowadays work over the ditch with Weta Workshop.
Just want to finally say a big thank you.
Cheers,
Woz B.
Thank you so much for posting this information. It has bought back great memories.!!
Not sure if people are still monitoring this blog. My name is Lucy and my uncle is David Jeffrey - he was a presenter on Zoopops. David is not very well at the moment. We would love to find some video of the show if anyone has anything. Equally, any photos would be great too. Many thanks.
Hi Lucy - I've been trying to do some research on ZooPops myself, and came across this blog and your comment.
It looks like the National Film and Sound Archive have items relating to ZooPops in their collection, including photos. If you get in touch with them and explain the situation with your uncle they may be willing to pass on items to you, or at least give you more information:
https://www.collection.nfsa.gov.au/search/query=zoopops
Hope this helps out a bit.
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