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BS: Mike Batt

10 Aug 01 - 06:30 PM (#525342)
Subject: Mike Batt
From: Firecat

I heard on Ceefax today that Mike Batt (Wombles) has broken his neck in a car crash, but I've just searched on the web and I can't find anything about it. Has anyone heard the same and can you fill me in on a few more of the details?

10 Aug 01 - 06:49 PM (#525350)
Subject: RE: BS: Mike Batt
From: 8_Pints

I read the same report and believe that he was too badly injured to be flown back to England.

However, I don't think he is in a critical condition.

Bob vG

10 Aug 01 - 06:55 PM (#525353)
Subject: RE: BS: Mike Batt
From: Firecat

Thanks. I wasn't sure if Ceefax were lying or not (or if I was imagining things!)

11 Aug 01 - 04:44 PM (#525795)
Subject: RE: BS: Mike Batt
From: Firecat

I found this report on page 37 of the Daily Mail today.

I MISSED DEATH BU A MILLIMETRE SAYS MIKE BATT THE WOMBLE

Composer Mike Batt last night described the dramtic car smash which broke his back and almost killed him.

Batt, 51, who wrote the music for The Wombles and appeared as one on TV, was in the back of a people carrier which careered off a mountain road in Spain.

He has a cracked vertebrae and has been told if the fracture had gone a millimetre further it would have paralysed or killed him. He is also having breathing problems.

The musician was in Spain to film a £150,000 pop video to promote his latest project, The Planets, an eight-piece classical-pop group.

Speaking from his hospital bed in Madrid, he said: "We had got up at 6:15am for a shoot and we were going pretty fast when all of a sudden the driver just lost control.
For a moment everything went quite slowly and I thought I could do something, but then I realised I couldn't. There were five of us in the car, including the driver. The two in the front weren't too bad because they had the airbags.
The two in the second row got the brunt of it, and I don't know what happened to me in the third row.
My number two cervical vertebrae has been broken although there's been no spinal damage. I've been given a neck brace with bolts to stop further damage. I look like scaffolding man.
I'll have to stay in it for at least four months but at least I probably won't have to have surgery.
I've had lots of messages from friends. Tim Rice called me up and apparently he's in plaster with a broken foot - I told him we should have a meeting og geriatrics when I get back."

Batt's wife Julianne, 40, is in Spain with him. They have a son and a daughter. He added: "I know it sounds ridiculous but I just want to get back to work. I'm hoping I can make the video in two weeks time. I'll have to wait and see what the doctors tell me."

The four other occupants were injured. Salima Williams, the band's oboist, suffered concussion, a cameraman sustained a broken rib, and the director and a Spanish production assistant who was driving were also hurt.

Miss Williams, 23, from Bromley, Kent and the rest of the group have returned home. Batt has been told his injuries are too serious to fly immediately but he is hoping to be transferred to London on Monday.

His spokesman said: "He is concerned because the band are completing their album and beginning rehearsals for a Royal Festival Hall concert under his supervision."

As well as bringing the Wombles chart fame in the Seventies with The Wombling Song and a string of others, Batt also composed Bright Eyes, the theme from the film Watership Down.

More recently he was commissioned by the Conservative Party and wrote their election campaign theme tune,Heartlands.

11 Aug 01 - 05:57 PM (#525846)
Subject: RE: BS: Mike Batt
From: McGrath of Harlow

Bad news/ good news. At least he seems to have come out of it luckier than must have seemed likely.

Mike Batt also wrote a musical version of The Hunting of the Snark whgich I rather liked when they televised a version of it with John Hurt and Billy Connolly. Some good songs in there.

13 Aug 01 - 07:13 PM (#527144)
Subject: RE: BS: Mike Batt
From: Firecat

I've never heard of that one, McGrath!

14 Aug 01 - 05:09 AM (#527482)
Subject: RE: BS: Mike Batt
From: GMT

Mike Batt and Tim Rice wrote 'A Winters Tale' my other halfs favourite song.

Cheers Gary

14 Aug 01 - 05:36 AM (#527489)
Subject: RE: BS: Mike Batt
From: McGrath of Harlow

Also "Bright Eyes"

14 Aug 01 - 09:20 AM (#527592)
Subject: RE: BS: Mike Batt
From: alison

also "we wish you a wombling merry christmas"!!!!!