There were two versions of Four Score, called 'Four Score', and 'Four Score Two'. Both lasted three-and-a-half minutes, but had various shorter edits, and were the only tracks used during commercial breaks (ie. the 'Follows shortly' sequence for the ITV stations to opt-back to if there were not enough ads) during Channel 4's first month or so on air.
The early idents used various stings from 'Four Score (One)' as their jingles, and a one-minute edit of the track was used before the Channel Four News in the very early days as a music bed when trailing the evening's programmes.
The tracks were used less and less frequently as Channel 4 progressed through the 80s, and I don't believe they've been heard on-air at all since the channel became responsible for its own advertising in 1993 - except for the ident stings which lasted until the mid-90s.
It was also used as the soundtrack to Channel Four's Launch Film - the first thing ever to be shown on the channel.
ISTR that the reason Channel Four presentation had "Follows Shortly " slides in the early days was something to do with Equity and Musicians Union rules about adverts being shown on another channel ... because remember up until this point, ITV Regions were the only outlet for television advertising. The dispute wasn't settled until well after Channel Four launched, leaving breaks in most regions being filled by the holding slides.
It was also used as the soundtrack to Channel Four's Launch Film - the first thing ever to be shown on the channel.
ISTR that the reason Channel Four presentation had "Follows Shortly " slides in the early days was something to do with Equity and Musicians Union rules about adverts being shown on another channel ... because remember up until this point, ITV Regions were the only outlet for television advertising. The dispute wasn't settled until well after Channel Four launched, leaving breaks in most regions being filled by the holding slides.
You are correct - the dispute was not settled until well into 1983. It was a dispute between the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and Equity, mainly over fees for Equity members who appeared in commercials on Channel 4 (and TV-am).
It was only in Scotland, Northern Ireland and North-West England that there were no commercials at all onm C4. Other regions had some commercials, but with a major lack of actors in them. Whether or not the breaks were padded with public information films instead was down to the particular ITV company. Here, Ulster didn't bother so we got the music and captions. There were no adverts here for the first several weeks of the channel, then some appeared, then they disappeared again, until they started to build-up later in 1983.
The same thing affected TV-am for its first few months on air, though it wasn't as badly affected by the dispute as C4. Of course, its ratings were terrible, too, and that affected advertising.
Various other disputes affected advertising on C4 for many years, including two disputes at Thames in 1984, which kept commericals off the screens in London and other places where Thames' staff sold advertising, and a two week dispute at UTV in 1987 kept commercials off the screens here in NI, too. Recessionary times also lead to breaks not being filled at times, and many regions, including UTV, did not sell advertising for the late-night breaks, so the captions/music would be seen/heard.
The captions/music continued to be played until midnight on 31 December 1992, when C4 began to sell its own advertising. A new break-bumper was launched, and the 'follows shortly' interval slides were no more.
Personally, I never thought they adequately replaced the multi-coloured logo and 'jingle' that acompanied it. I'm sure anyone over about 20 who heard those four notes again now would think of C4 - the current stuff simply doesn't have that recognition.
You are correct - the dispute was not settled until well into 1983. It was a dispute between the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and Equity, mainly over fees for Equity members who appeared in commercials on Channel 4 (and TV-am).
It was only in Scotland, Northern Ireland and North-West England that there were no commercials at all onm C4. Other regions had some commercials, but with a major lack of actors in them. Whether or not the breaks were padded with public information films instead was down to the particular ITV company. Here, Ulster didn't bother so we got the music and captions. There were no adverts here for the first several weeks of the channel, then some appeared, then they disappeared again, until they started to build-up later in 1983.
The same thing affected TV-am for its first few months on air, though it wasn't as badly affected by the dispute as C4. Of course, its ratings were terrible, too, and that affected advertising.
It also explains why the first advert on TV-am was presented by a businessman. Though I never knew the advert shortage ever affected Granadaland.
I'm sure anyone over about 20 who heard those four notes again now would think of C4 - the current stuff simply doesn't have that recognition.
Gosh, you're right, started listening to it thinking "what's he on about?", then sudenly "der der - de der" and I recognised it straight away without even thinking with C4. How odd...
