Legends of the Commodore 64 & Amiga scene

Ben Daglish was “amazing talent and an absolutely lovely bloke”.

The shocking news about the passing away of Ben Daglish is hard to believe and to digest as he entered to so many Commodore 64 users and 8bit lovers to the hearts with his unique personality and his fascinating tunes.  he was totally inspiring to a whole 8bit generation who had the Commodore 64 and other 8bit computers  on the “golden age” time .

how is it  possible to write farewell letter about a musician who had so much influence our childhood with so many  retro music tunes on the Commodore 64 ?? i am devastated of the fact he passed away so early,  so young in the age of 52. damn !!! life could be so short.

how can i sum up in words that Ben Daglish isn’t with us anymore?? i think its impossible mission…but we are here to cherish his legacy as one of the legendary and lovable musicians of all times with so many memories , which of course gonna be kept for ages in our heart and we gonna keep listening to them as long we are living and love the retro music .

we decided on 8bit Legends to make a tribute page to pay respect to his tremendous  legacy .

The official letter from Sara his wife  from 03/10/2018 who delivered on the Facebook:

“Dear friends,
This is Sarah, Ben’s wife. For those of you who don’t already know I am deeply sorry to pass on the news that Ben died very suddenly on Monday morning. We know that it will come as a shock to you as it has to us. we are all at home feeling loved and supported, and our thoughts are with all of you who knew, loved, got irritated by and were lucky enough to have a little bit of his magic in your lives. I’ll post details of what’s happening as soon as we have sorted everything out.

this 1 October saw the disappearance of Ben Dalglish, one of the pioneers of good music in the video game. This composer had many bands sound on commodore c64 AMSTRAD CPC, zx spectrum and amiga has his assets. 720°, last ninja, auf wiedersehen Monty, Gauntlet, krakout, Deflektor, pacmania,… to name only the most iconic. The world of “Demoscene” in which he was particularly appreciated pays tribute to him with many tributes .

Ben Daglish (31 July 1966 – 1 October 2018) was an English composer and musician. Born in London, his parents moved to Sheffield when he was one year old. He was known for creating many soundtracks for home computer games during the 1980s, including such as The Last Ninja,  Trap, and Deflektor. Daglish teamed up with fellow C64 musician and prolific programmer Tony Crowther, forming W.E.M.U.S.I.C., which stood for “We Make Use of Sound in Computers”. Daglish had attended the same school as Crowther.

Daglish lived in Derbyshire where he composed, played and performed in a number of UK bands, including Loscoe State Opera. He also regularly performed with violinist Mark Knight and the band SID80s at retro computer game events such as Back in Time Live and Retrovision. He had also performed with Commodore 64 revival band Press Play on Tape together with Rob Hubbard. He was a fan of the late Ronnie Hazlehurst, a prolific composer for television. He died from complications from lung cancer on 1 October 2018.

Sara his wife shared  memories of Ben Dalglish (thanks to  Jazzcat for letting us to put this touchy letter of Sara on here)  you can watch the full article  “Half Man Half Music” by  clicking the here:

http://www.atlantis-prophecy.org/recollection/?load=articles&id=halfmanhalfmusic

Ben was indeed a beautiful soul. The love being sent from so many people from so many different parts of his life is overwhelming. The thing about Ben is that he was intrigued by everything, never stopped learning, never stopped laughing. He was frantic, joyous, stubborn, opinionated, inspirational and charming and so much more. He loved the whole C64 scene, and would always come back from events with stories of wild times and good friends made. I think that he found something interesting about everyone he met, and that he treated everybody with the same generosity – friends from his schooldays, people he worked with, children and adults he inspired both with his computer music and his numerous schools projects and theatre work. He loved contact from everyone in the C64 world, and was delighted (and always slightly amazed) to receive and reply to random emails and messages from all over the world. He would have been astonished at the outpourings at the moment. Then after a bit he would have really revelled in it, telling us with great excitement about it all. Then after a coffee he would probably have grinned, said how silly everyone was being, that he was just a tunesmith and a bit of a faker, and gone back to normality (but with a bit more joy in his heart).

I cannot tell you how much he is going to be missed. We all loved that man – or half-man/half-music – as my friend referred to him, and he definitely leaves a big Ben-shaped hole in my life, Jake, Rhianna and Lottie’s, and all his friends and the people he met along the way.”

Very heart touching Tribues to Ben Daglish around can be found here:

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-10-04-tributes-paid-to-ben-daglish-1980s-video-game-music-legend

Games Ben Daglish have worked on, either composing or arranging (and occasionally scriptwriting) includes :

• 3D Galax
• 720 Degrees
• Action Fighter
• Alternative World Games
• Ark Pandora
• Artura
• Auf Wiedersehen Monty
• Avenger
• Axel’s Magic Hammer
• Basil the Great Mouse Detective
• Biggles
• Black Lamp
• Black Thunder
• Blasteroids
• Blitzkrieg
• Blood Brothers
• Blood Valley
• Bobby Bearing
• Bombo
• Bulldog
• Butcher Hill
• Chubby Gristle
• Cobra
• Coil Cop
• Continental Circus
• Corporation
• Dark Fusion
• DeathScape
• DeathWish III
• Defenders of the Earth
• Deflektor
• Dogfight 2187
• Druid (PC)
• Dynamite Düx
• Federation of Free Traders
• Firelord
• Flintstones
• Footballer of the Year
• Footballer of the Year 2
• Future Knight
• Future Knight II
• Gary Lineker’s Hot-Shot!
• Gauntlet
• Gauntlet II
• Gobots
• Greg Norman’s Ultimate Golf
• H.A.T.E – Hostile All Terrain Encounter
• Hades Nebula
• Harvey Headbanger
• He-Man
• Heroes of the Lance
• Hot Rod
• Jack the Nipper
• Jack the Nipper II
• John Lowe’s Ultimate Darts
• Kettle
• KillerRings
• Krakout
• Last Ninja
• L O C O
• Lunari
• Mask
• Mask II
• MASK III Venom Strikes Back
• Masters Of The Universe
• Mickey Mouse
• Monty Python’s Flying Circus – The Computer Game
• Motor Massacre
• Motörhead
• Mounty Micks Deathride
• Munsters
• Northstar
• Olli and Lissa
• Pac-Mania
• Passing Shot
• Percy The Potty Pigeon
• Prison
• Pub Games
• Rapid Assault (PC)
• Real Stunt Experts
• Re-Bounder
• Revenge of the Mutant Camels II
• Rick Dangerous
• Rick Dangerous 2
• Saint & Greavsie
• Satisfaction
• Skate Crazy
• SkateRock
• Skidz
• Super Cars
• Super Scramble Simulator
• Supersports
• Switchblade
• Terramex – The Cartoon Animation Game
• The Flintstones
• They Stole a Million
• Thing Bounces Back
• Touché (PC)
• Trap
• Venus the Flytrap (ST)
• Vikings
• Way of the Tiger
• William Wobbler
• Wizard Warz
• Zarjaz

here you can hear Ben Daglish music through DeepSid website highly recommended

http://deepsid.chordian.net/?file=/MUSICIANS/D/Daglish_Ben/

you can visit his C64 pofile as CSDB here:

https://csdb.dk/scener/?id=344

Very touch and informative article and memorial called “Half Man Half Music” by Jazzcat.

Originally published in Vandalism News #68 – November 2018

http://www.atlantis-prophecy.org/recollection/?load=articles&id=halfmanhalfmusic

we publish a chosen comment from “Half Man Half Music” from Phil  Wheatley which describe Ben so well
Phil Wheatley:
“Can’t believe another hero of mine passed away a couple of days ago. Ben was an accomplished musician who could play every instrument under the sun, but was known for writing music for Commodore 64 games such as Last Ninja and many more. I always find it sad when people with such talent are taken early from us. Condolences to his wife Sarah and family x”

The Variety magazine have published article for his lost

Renowned ’80s Game Composer Ben Daglish Dies at 52

sources to memorial page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Daglish

https://csdb.dk/scener/?id=344

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-10-04-tributes-paid-to-ben-daglish-1980s-video-game-music-legend

http://www.atlantis-prophecy.org/recollection/?load=articles&id=halfmanhalfmusic

 

Rest In Peace..BEN