Urban Soundtracks

Paul Oakenfold produced Urban Soundtracks for pieces of classic and contemporary literature from late 1999 to 2002. They were aired by Galaxy FM in the UK. They were also aired on BBC Radio One at the same time.

There were a total of 35 soundtrack audiobooks produced and aired over the Galaxy network during 1999-2002. Each two-hour programme went out on Sunday evenings at 7:00 pm. These tracks blend classic literature with a mixture of dance and contemporary music. The narratives were read by famous voices such as Ewan McGregor, Kylie Minogue, Richard Blackwood, Sean Pertwee, Max Bleasly, Tom Baker, Neneh Cherry, Christopher Lee, Brian Blessed, Neil Tennant and Honor Blackman.

The series, won a Bronze Award in the 2002 Sony Radio Academy Awards Specialist Music category, and was endorsed by the National Literacy Trust. The series also included Pinocchio read by Ronan Keating, The Little Mermaid by All Saints' singer Nicole Appleton and Kylie Minogue read Alice in Wonderland. Broadcast on the radio stations Galaxy and Kiss 100, they proved to be hugely popular with the core 15 to 34-year-old audience.

Although highly successful and well received, the series have never been released and are not officially commercially available. However, some copies recorded at time of broadcast seem to be in circulation.

Episodes

Literature	Author	Narrator	Date
Filth	Irvine Welsh	Ewan McGregor	1999-01-31
With Your Tongue Down My Throat	Hanif Kureishi		1999-02-27
I Hate You and I Hate Your Jesus	Joe Ambrose	Ewan McGregor	1999-03-27
Paper	John McCaid		1999-04-24
The Sopranos	Alan Warner		1999-05-29
Powder	Kevin Sampson	Ewan McGregor	1999-06-26
Girlfriend in a Coma	Douglas Coupland		1999-07-31
High Fidelity	Nick Hornby		1999-08-28
Come Together	Josie Lloyd & Emlyn Rees		1999-09-25
The Business	Iain Banks		1999-10-30
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	Roald Dahl		1999-11-27
A Christmas Carol	Charles Dickens	Nick Moran	1999-12-25
Alice in Wonderland	Lewis Carroll	Kylie Minogue	2000-03-25
The Picture of Dorian Gray	Oscar Wilde	Neil Tennant	2000-04-29
Treasure Island	Robert Louis Stevenson	Billy Bragg	2000-05-27
Frankenstein	Mary Shelley		2000-06-24
Pinocchio	Carlo Collodi	Ronan Keating	2000-08-26
The Jungle Book	Rudyard Kipling	Richard Blackwood	2000-09-30
Oliver Twist	Charles Dickens	Sean Pertwee	2000-10-29
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow	Washington Irving	Max Beesley	2001-01-28
Dracula	Bram Stoker	Tom Baker	2001-02-25
The Snow Queen	Hans Christian Andersen	Neneh Cherry	2001-03-25
Cleopatra	H. Rider Haggard	Honor Blackman	2001-04-29
Jack the Ripper	Donald Rumbelow	Keith Alan	2001-05-27
The Fall of the House of Usher	Edgar Allan Poe	Christopher Lee	2001-06-24
Robin Hood		Rhys Ifans	2001-07-29
The Little Mermaid		Nicole Appleton	2001-08-24
Hercules	Unknown	Brian Blessed	2001-09-30
Ben Hur	Lew Wallace	Derek Jacobi	2002-04-07
Wind in the Willows	Kenneth Grahame	Phil Daniels	2002-04-28
Heart of Darkness	Joseph Conrad	Goldie	2002-06-02
Hunchback of Notre Dame	Victor Hugo	Steven Berkoff	2002-06-30
The Water Babies	Charles Kingsley	Tilda Swinton	2002-07-28
Beauty and the Beast	Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve	Sadie Frost	2002-08-25
The Count of Monte Christo	Alexandre Dumas	Jonny Lee Miller	2002-09-29