Back In Time Live & Remix64 25th Anniversary Compo
"Wings of Death" Kickstarter Fully Funded!
The crowdfunding campaign of Wings of Death - Reworked Anthology
, a project by the German Remix Group (GRG) has just ended - and we're glad to report it got fully funded! In fact, it far surpassed its original goal of €6,500, which means that there will be bonus remixes on the album by Tronimal, Nordischsound, Fabian Del Priore, Chris Hülsbeck, Barry Leitch, and Matt Gray, too! The support from the retro community has been fantastic, and the GRG is really grateful for it. Well done, fans, and congrats to the German Remix Group for the highly successful campaign!
Note: if for some reason you missed this campaign, you can still order digital downloads from the project.
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25 Years Ago: The First "Back In Time Live!"
It was exactly 25 years ago on May 16, 2001 when the first Back In Time Live! event was held in a club in Birmingham. Back then many of us thought this might be our only chance to meet our heroes, the C64 musicians who enriched our lives in the 1980s, so we flocked to the place from all around the world. It was a euphoric event whose success luckily spawned many more meet-ups. So, let's get a bit teary eyed as we remember that milestone event…
Jeroen Tel Bithday Show
On Tuesday, May 19 RetroGamingMusic will have a special birthday show for Jeroen Tel who is responsible for many great compositions on the Commodore 64 like Cybernoid 1 & 2, Supremacy, Hawkeye, Turbo OutRun, Robocop 3, Golden Axe, and many-many more. Don't miss out on this special show, you will hear live performances and remixes of Jeroen Tel's work
Remix Compo!
Back In Time 2026 and Remix64.com are proud to join forces and together present the Remix64 25th Anniversary Remix Compo! Remix64.com turned 25 years old in April of this year, so what better way to celebrate that milestone than with a remix compo! This will be a live compo that will take place during BIT Live 2026 on July 31 - Aug 1, but entries can be submitted to the compo as of today. The theme of the compo is Make the Classic Your Own
. Deadline for the entries is July 21, 2026 (updated). For more details, head over the compo's webpage. This being an anniversary compo, there will be special prizes and a compo for the listeners, too. But for now, let the remixing begin (or continue, as it were)!
Happy Birthday Barry Leitch!!
On Monday, April 27 RetroGamingMusic will have a special birthday show for Barry Leitch who is responsible for many great compositions for video games like: Top Gear, Lotus Turbo Challenge 2, Hero Quest, Silkworm, Super Cars, Horizon Chase Turbo, and many-many more. Don't miss out on this special show, you will hear live performances and remixes of Barry Leitch's work!
Happy Birthday David Whittaker!
On Friday April 24 RetroGamingMusic will have a special birthday show for David Whittaker who is responsible for many great compositions on the Commodore 64 and the Amiga like: Shadow of the Beast, Lazy Jones, SpeedBall, Glider Rider, Armageddon Man and many many more. Don't miss out on this special show, you will hear live performances and remixes of David Whittakers work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xJqrmHtLaU
"Wings of Death - Reworked Anthology" Kickstarter Now Live
The Kickstarter campaign of Wings of Death - Reworked Anthology
by the German Remix Group is live as of today and is accepting pledges, with €1287 of the original €6500 goal already pledged with 29 days still to go. As a reminder, the finished product will be available not only as a digital download, but also on physical media: as a double CD, and as a limited-edition Best of
vinyl record, with additional stretch goals also available. The project is also approved and supported by the original author himself, Jochen Hippel. Check out the campaign's page below for more details!
The Best of Rob Hubbard - 8-Bit Symphony EP
by Chris Abbott and Rob Hubbard
Let's celebrate the miracle that is Rob Hubbard! Not only is he a great chipmusic composer, but he's an amazing symphonic artist who's graciously given us the definitive orchestrations of some of his greatest SIDs, performed in Prague by the Czech Studio Orchestra.
These tracks are taken from the seminal 8-Bit Remix albums 8-Bit Symphony Pro: First Half
and 8-Bit Symphony Pro: Second Half
.
Uniquely, you can also download the conductor's score for each track! You can also get much more context on the tracks from 8-bit-symphony.com.
About Rob Hubbard
After leaving school in the 70s, Rob spent his formative years as a gigging musician in rock bands playing all over the UK and Europe.
After moving to Newcastle and finishing college, he met Steve Daggett (later of Lindisfarne), who shared his enthusiasm for musical collaboration and experimentation. This led Rob to the studio, electronic studio gear and music production.
He quickly expanded into home computers, and found the C64 and its legendary SID sound chip an essential purchase.
Keen to use it to earn some income, he started to write educational programmes. However, feedback was that the market wasn’t there: but writing Blue Danube
for the sound-chip was the start of a bright future.
In 1983/4, chance contacts led Rob to start working on a game for a local company (Razzmatazz by Ubik), but this was never released. Rob packaged up the music with other demos and sent disks around for freelance music programming.
The first two jobs for Mastertronic’s Action Biker
and Incentive’s Confuzion
were well reviewed. But it was Thing on a Spring
, an original composition full of bounce and percussion (and the occasional spring noise) that was simply mind-blowing. This was followed by Monty on the Run, initially inspired by Devil’s Galop
, which he was asked to copy, but took in a completely new direction. Manic violin playing, Simmonds drums and a rock guitar solo meant Rob became a rock star to certain impressionable youths.
Tiring of the freelance life, Rob joined Electronic Arts in 1989. At the time, EA was a new and vibrant US company and the chance to explore the outer limits of music interactivity on new gear was irresistible, and he was soon appearing on consoles and PCs before being moved to management in 1997.
In 1998, Rob was the linchpin of the first commercially released CD of C64 music remixed in studios: Back in Time
, from Chris Abbott’s C64Audio.com, which led to live performances and further album work.
Soon, he started to arrange his own tunes orchestrally, starting with his own arrangement of Kentilla. With US musician Steven Scherer he scored three of his tracks (W.A.R, a new version of Kentilla and Food Feud
), of which W.A.R appeared on Back in Time 3
.
Rob came back to the UK in 2001 and kept himself busy with gigs and music, even playing piano on the Hull to Rotterdam ferry! In 2005 he orchestrated International Karate for the Play concert at the 2005 Games Development Conference in Leipzig. It showcased a wide variety of orchestral colour and technique, further enhanced for this project.
In 2016 he was awarded an honorary degree by Abertay University, reflecting his wide-ranging contribution to video game music.
Besides being the producer of the 8-Bit Symphony Pro projects, in 2019 he was also the musical director of the 8-Bit Symphony concert in Hull.
He recently co-wrote Master of Magic
, a hardback book covering his game music work over a long and stellar career.
credits
released May 30, 2025
Conducted by Robin Tait
Performed by the Czech Studio Orchestra led by Radek Krizanovsky
Recordings produced at Smecky Studios by Vitek Kral & Mikel Toms
Orchestra managed and led by Radek Krizanovsky
Produced by Chris Abbott & Rob Hubbard
Executive Produced by Damian Manning & Russell F. Howard
Assisted majorly by Thomas Finnerup, Ian Flory & Anna Black
Score and parts preparation by Robin Tait
Mixing, mastering and surround sound mix by Allister Brimble
Editing by Chris Abbott
Illustrations by Steph Abbott (www.maplebutterstudios.com) and Mateo Durante (@cosmicphrog)
license
all rights reserved
Ballblazer (feat. Beastie Boys)
Arranged by Romeo Knight
It's one of the most original remixes I heard in a while…
Review by the_jinx
Arranged by Poloskei, Gergely
its too good
Review by Johnnyschuhkraft
Arranged by 7DD9
Review by Gurbz
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