SNCF Rail Jingle Inspires David Gilmour's New Single.

reb0118 · 19 Jul 2015

For those of you who regularly travel on the French railway network then this one's for you. The jingle has certainly hooked me...........

more info here.

Daily Telegraph said:
French national rail jingle inspiration behind Pink Floyd legend David Gilmour's new single. Pink Floyd guitarist says he fell in love with French national operator SNCF's train announcement jingle while on Aix-en-Provence platform and turned it into new title-track Rattle That Lock, released on Friday.
To the French, the national railway’s instantly recognisable four-note jingle can only herald one thing: train departures, arrivals or delays.
But the musical ditty sounding the notes do, sol, la, mi struck such a chord with Pink Floyd rock legend David Gilmour that he decided to turn the melody into a song released on Friday.

Rattle That Lock, the single featuring the jingle, will no doubt have many French fumbling for their train tickets before they realise the tune has taken a different track. The eponymous solo album will follow in September.

Mr Gilmour, whose collaboration on titles like Wish you Were Here and Another Brick in the Wall have earned him a place as one of rock music’s greats, first heard the SNCF jingle while waiting for a Paris-bound train in the south-eastern city of Aix-en-Provence.

The notes are a synthesised mixture of several female voices known to all French.
“I recorded it on my smart phone at the TGV Aix station where I had spent time with my family on holiday. Every time I travel in France by train, which happens quite often on holiday or with my profession, when I hear that little music ‘papalala’ in the Gare du Nord or Gare de Lyon, it makes me want to sing and dance,” he told Le Parisien.

The jingle’s composer, Michaël Boumendil, recounted on RTL radio his “huge surprise” at receiving a call at his office one day from a man who said: “I’m a guitarist, from the band Pink Floyd.”

“For years, I’m regularly solicited by musicians from all over the planet who want to use my creations, notably the SNCF tune and I’ve always refused until now," said Mr Boumendil.

“But when Gilmour contacted me, I wasn’t far off thinking someone was playing a joke on me. Pink Floyd’s guitarist is a living legend. You can imagine what I felt when I actually met him.”

Mr Gilmour said: “This is a great gift the French have given me.”
Rattle That Lock, the single, is co-written by the two composers.
The musician will play three consecutive nights at London's Royal Albert Hall on September 23, 24 and 25 in his first tour in nine years. He will also play in North America in March and April 2016.

Mr Gilmour could have chosen a more auspicious day to release his single in France as SNCF announced that the entire rail link from Paris to the South East remained "totally blocked" due to "numerous incidents", including a car crash on the line.

While his album makes no mention of trains, one of the tracks is called A Boat Lies Waiting.

Here is the original jingle - I have it as a message alert:-

Listen.

RailUK Forums

Blindtraveler · 19 Jul 2015

I cant get that link to work Im afraid but am certainly going to have to lay my hands on a copy of the track.
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Now found it on Youtube, very very catchy!

CC 72100 · 19 Jul 2015

I was shown this by a friend who also lived in France last night - brilliant.

I'd also love to have thE jingle as my text tone - somebody did on my train yesterday so it's obviously not that rare a choice!

87015 · 19 Jul 2015

This site will do it as an MP3
http://lasonotheque.org/detail-0564-jingle-sncf-2.html

Aictos · 19 Jul 2015

That's a good track and one I actually like > as a side note I have the SNCF jingle as my FB Messenger tone

Groningen · 19 Jul 2015

Already on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHP7l0EaouM

Aictos · 19 Jul 2015

AND also on Spotify too

yorksrob · 19 Jul 2015

Very stylish - Heard it for the first time, yet somehow it manages to feel quintessentially French !

Bletchleyite · 19 Jul 2015

yorksrob said:
Very stylish - Heard it for the first time, yet somehow it manages to feel quintessentially French !

I thought cringeworthily French, TBH.

My favourite version of this kind of thing is found on some regional trains in Germany, where the pre-announcement tone is the first few bars of the anthem of the Bundesland you're in. I also like the SBB one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NntqvfqR5Bs

which has a different tone for each language area. And of course the very atmospheric DB "bong", which is dying out as they move to DOO so the platform-based dispatch equipment is falling out of use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTJiUZe775c

yorksrob · 19 Jul 2015

Well, it's all a far cry from Gladys Pew's "ding-dong-ding, Hello Campers, Hi-Di-Hi".

jamesontheroad · 19 Jul 2015

And here is the original, extended version of the SNCF tune, composed I think for corporate branding videos and presentations when the brand was introduced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OSfOTsXYNY

317666 · 19 Jul 2015

I used to have the SNCF one as my message tone. Now though I use the Swiss ones linked above - SBB is for texts, CFF for WhatsApp and FFS for Facebook. Sad I know

Ianigsy · 19 Jul 2015

When I was in Paris the other week, I caught a TV interview (the usual silly season daytime filler material) with the lady who is "the voice of SNCF". Instantly recognisable once she started speaking, and talked about the slog of having to record the name of every station in France (and some outside) with rising and falling intonations. Apparently she also insisted on recording a "du" version for every place name beginning with "Le" (so "du Mans" etc) to avoid the grammatical horrendousness of a recorded announcement describing a train as "de Le Mans".

CC 72100 · 19 Jul 2015

Ianigsy said:
Apparently she also insisted on recording a "du" version for every place name beginning with "Le" (so "du Mans" etc) to avoid the grammatical horrendousness of a recorded announcement describing a train as "de Le Mans".

Some of the French written press have struggled with this during the Tour de France - I saw "à Le Havre" and "de Le Havre" a few times instead of the contracted "au Havre" / "du Havre".

In terms of recorded announcements, the RATP metro ones are also recorded twice, and different audio files are used for each of the two announcements, the latter one with a lower intonation.

La différence entre les deux annonces est dans l’intonation, d’abord montante, presque interrogative (« nous sommes arrivés ? ») puis descendante, plus affirmative (« oui, nous sommes arrivés »).

http://scope.ratp.fr/annonces-sonores-operation-de-renouvellement-des-voix/

The difference between the two announcements is in the intonation - initially with a rising intonation, almost interrogative ("have we arrived?") then falling, more affirmative (yes, we have arrived.")
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87015 said:
This site will do it as an MP3
http://lasonotheque.org/detail-0564-jingle-sncf-2.html

Aha excellent... whack that on the phone, set it as text tone and jobs a good 'un!

Bletchleyite · 20 Jul 2015

CC 72100 said:
The difference between the two announcements is in the intonation - initially with a rising intonation, almost interrogative ("have we arrived?") then falling, more affirmative (yes, we have arrived.")

SWT's Junipers (or at least pre-refurb, I have a feeling the refurbed ones have gained the Desiro PIS modules) have that, but in a really amusing way, it sounds like the person recording it had never done deliberate rising intonations so it sounds completely ridiculous, almost as if he's had a nasty shock that the train has arrived at Feltham. Indeed, that's probably a valid emotion for ending up there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx6_6xTvWIM (right at the end) if you've not heard one. All the stations are pronounced like that.

Alfie1014 · 20 Jul 2015

I have to say that I still prefer teh 'old' SNCF chime;

http://lasonotheque.org/detail-0396-jingle-sncf.html

DeeGee · 20 Jul 2015

Neil Williams said:
I also like the SBB one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NntqvfqR5Bs

which has a different tone for each language area.

That's a brilliant idea, if you're aware of the reason there's a difference. Get off a train, not sure what language you need?

(Then again, I imagine the language in which the tannoy announcement is made is a giveaway as well?)

I have fond memories of the old SNCF jingle, too. Happy days.

It's simple little things like that make international travel a pleasure.

gazthomas · 20 Jul 2015

It is okay a few times then it starts to grind

Bletchleyite · 20 Jul 2015

There was of course the 3-tone BR one, though that seems largely to have died out.

shinkansen1966 · 20 Jul 2015

reb0118 said:
For those of you who regularly travel on the French railway network then this one's for you. The jingle has certainly hooked me...........

Me too.

On my iPhone and iPad, it's the text notification sound.

Great when you are in France and you get a text. Drrring - ding - ding.

Seagulls01 · 11 Aug 2015

shinkansen1966 said:
Me too.

On my iPhone and iPad, it's the text notification sound.

Great when you are in France and you get a text. Drrring - ding - ding.

Could you explain to me how you get this on an iPhone.
thanks

SNCF Rail Jingle Inspires David Gilmour's New Single.

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