60th Anniversary Christmas Gift Guide

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Prepare for the festivities with the James Bond 2022 Christmas Gift Guide. From a 007 snow globe, to tree decorations and a cashmere range from N.Peal, the Aston Martin DB5 LEGO Speed Champions set, 60th anniversary socks, golf accessories and the perfect martini shaker – you’ll find gift ideas for all the family here. 

For him

Style lovers will love the N.Peal Goldfinger Cashmere Sweater or the London Sock Exchange 007 60th Anniversary Gift Box featuring six limited edition designs. Try a set of silver-plated Family Crest Cufflinks or the new Bowers & Wilkins 007 Headphones in Dr. No midnight blue leather. Floris No.007 captures the essence of Bond in a unisex scent, while Orlebar Brown’s Gun Barrel Swim Shorts add a little pool time elegance. An engraved “Licensed troubleshooter” hip flask, Lock & Co’s James Trilby and a silk pocket square, finish things off nicely.

For her

Indulgent gifts include Orlebar Brown’s Dr. No Robe – a recreation of the towelling gown worn by Honey and Bond; the Octopussy Art Plate, a limited edition collector’s plate by British ceramicist Tom Rooth, or a pair of 007 AVTAK Sports Sunglasses. What about adding a 007 Cocktail Shaker to the bar, along with the new SPECTRE Symbol Wine Stopper and a bottle of Blackwell 007 Rum?

For kids

Keep them busy on Christmas Day with the new 007 LEGO Speedmaster DB5 or a James Bond Playmobil set. The 60th Anniversary T-shirt is available in kids sizes and 007 chocolate bars from Charbonnel et Walker will be a hit at any time of year.   

For car lovers

A fleet of new model vehicles are fresh from the Q Branch garage and ready for gifting. From Dr. No’s Chevy Bel Air to the Tomorrow Never Dies BMW Cruiser, Aston Martin fridge magnets, books and a new DB5 tree decoration.

For the family

Take a leap of faith with The Spy Who Loved Me Snow Globe, made in a limited edition, or keep everyone busy with The World of James Bond Jigsaw Puzzle. 007 Scalextric, Cluedo and Bond Bingo are ideal for a games night, while SPECTRE The Board Game is perfect for strategy lovers.

Stocking fillers

Little treats include the new James Bond tea towels and handmade 007 Christmas tree decorations.  Pop in a beanie hat embroidered with the 007 logo or SPECTRE symbol, or a box of 007 Martini Truffles. Golfers can tee off with Penfold’s golf balls and accessories.

Find the full gift guide at 007Store.com now.

 

Sean Connery Foundation Launches

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The Sean Connery Foundation has been established in memory of Sir Sean Connery. The foundation will honour Sir Sean’s legacy by honouring organisations in Scotland and the Bahamas – the two countries he called home – through strategic grantmaking. Focus areas for the foundation will be to accelerate ocean welfare and educational initiatives. 

Stephane Connery, Sean’s son and the foundation’s Chairman said: “We have chosen to focus on the communities that Sean loved and on issues that reflect his beliefs, passions, and legacy. Above all, Sean believed that education was a force-multiplier and was most concerned that children from disadvantaged backgrounds, like his own, be given opportunities to succeed. Thanks to Sean’s gift, we dearly hope that our family’s grantmaking will help young Scots and Bahamians, along with our oceans, to thrive.”

The foundation is set to commit £6 million in grants by the end of 2022 to institutions such as St. Andrews University, the Scottish Youth Film Foundation, the Scottish International Education Trust, Dyslexia Scotland, The Lyford Cay Foundations, the Bahamas Reef Environmental Educational Foundation, The Cape Eleuthera Foundation, Girl Rising and Swift Swimming.

Two of the charities close to Sir Sean’s heart – the Scottish Youth Film Foundation and the Scottish International Education Trust – were recipients of funds from the 60 Years of James Bond charity auction in October, with over £60,000 raised from the two respective lots.

Find out more about the foundation here.

David Arnold On The Music Of 007

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David Arnold is widely regarded as one of the UK’s leading film composers and his contribution to the James Bond series has been immense. He is the first composer to score more than one Bond film since John Barry. Among his early credits are Stargate (1994), Independence Day (1996), for which he won a Grammy Award, and Godzilla (1998). His television work includes the series Little Britain and Sherlock, the latter earning him and co-composer Michael Price a Creative Arts Emmy. He has composed the music for five films in the 007 franchise — Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World Is Not Enough (1999), Die Another Day (2002), Casino Royale (2006) and Quantum Of Solace (2008) and he recently curated and produced The Sound of 007 In Concert, a celebration of James Bond’s iconic music.

With such a wealth of great songs and music from which to choose, how did you approach the arrangement of The Sound of 007 in Concert?

We tried to avoid putting one singer on after another. You’ve got 25 movies — so that’s 23 songs without Dr. No and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service — and alongside those we also had 25 feature films’ worth of music to choose from. So we tried to find the pieces that meant we can go on a journey; it doesn’t necessarily mean that we start at Dr. No and finish with No Time To Die.

So it was more about finding the right mood and atmosphere…

Yes. Imagine that this were a Bond movie. We’d have an explosive start, the great amazing stunt at the front, the thing that gets you into the movie. Then you’d have a lower key explanation and then a series of musical set pieces that hopefully finish in a satisfying climax. It’s not chronological. It’s a celebration of the music overall, and the people who have written it and recorded it.

What in your opinion defines a great Bond song?

Over the years, the idea of what is a Bond song has changed. If you put ‘Live And Let Die’, ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ and ‘You Only Live Twice’ in a line, they’re all completely different songs, stylistically, but they are all Bond songs. Once they’ve been in a Bond movie they are Bond songs. There is a core of attitude that binds them all together. It’s not style or necessarily big strings and trumpets, although that’s an easy shorthand. There is an attitude and that is what is present in all Bond songs. That’s what defines them.

The Bond films have attracted many of music’s greatest talents across the 60 years but getting Shirley Bassey on board must have been pivotal for The Sound of 007 in Concert…

Shirley Bassey was the first to say yes and if you are doing an official Bond concert and she is singing ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ and ‘Goldfinger’, then whatever else you do, you have got a great Bond concert. She is the lynchpin and when you put her, the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and the Royal Albert Hall together, then nothing speaks Bond music more. Many artists and writers are sadly no longer with us, but we have a blend of original and some new artists to perform, but the star is really the song. The performance is crucial, but it is really a celebration of the music.

How pleased are you that The Sound of 007 in Concert supported Nordoff Robbins and the BRIT School?

I love the work Nordoff Robbins does in terms of allowing music to help people in a very real way, mentally and physically. We know music stimulates every part of the brain – if you play somebody some music then every part of the brain lights up. It’s incredibly powerful and that work appears to do such a lot of good so supporting it makes such a lot of sense.

The BRIT School is non-fee-paying and is full of people who otherwise might not get a cat in hell’s chance of looking at a career in music or the arts. They have visited me at my studio and I work with them, telling them the truth about the industry, the boring essential stuff as well as the interesting stuff. What is fascinating is the breadth of expression from people who have very diverse backgrounds, both social and racial; and music is a particularly good leveller as it lives solely by the brute force of a person’s talent.

What was your first experience of a Bond film growing up?

One of my first experiences of Bond was at the Royal British Legion’s children’s Christmas party in Luton. I was about seven or eight years old. They wheeled in this 16mm projector with a rented copy of You Only Live Twice and they erected a screen the size of a kitchen table and brought out a single mono speaker. I had no idea what any of these things were. I was close to the projector and all of a sudden you saw the incredible pre-title sequence, the spaceship being consumed by a bigger spaceship, Bond getting machine- gunned to death before being resurrected in full Royal Navy Commander uniform before the titles, with that amazing song sung by Nancy Sinatra. Within about ten minutes all this stuff had happened and I remember thinking it was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen, and had ever heard.

Do you remember how the music affected you?

I think it was the music more than anything that caught my imagination. If you listen to those first ten minutes, the song, the score, the Bond theme, they are all such iconic pieces of music and pieces of cinema. From that point on I became incredibly intrigued by, and interested in, the series. The very first film came out the year I was born so my whole life has been living alongside this character. When I was asked to do my first Bond film, it was like being asked to touch the hem of God’s frock!

It is often said that John Barry recommended you for Tomorrow Never Dies on the back of your ‘Shaken and Stirred’ LP…

I think there are several different versions of the way in which I arrived at doing my first Bond film, and even I am not sure which one is true anymore! I had been making the ‘Shaken and Stirred’ record, which is covers of James Bond songs. George Martin introduced me to John and he was very complimentary and nice about the record and we became friends. At the same time I also sent some of the tracks to Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli at EON because I wanted to do something that would meet with their approval. At the same time I had just won a Grammy and was someone who was literally on EON’s doorstep. I was a life-long Bond fan who had already recorded stuff which sounded maybe the way the producers wanted to go, and I had dealt with a couple of big studio movies that had done very well. So I think it was a slightly easier decision for Michael and Barbara to make with all those things in a line. But, certainly, having John give me the thumbs up didn’t hurt.

James Bond is not a character who talks about his emotions, so how important is the music in showing the audience how he feels?

There is a thing with film where they say, ‘Don’t say it, show it’. It’s the language of cinema in a way, the ability to tell a story without words if necessary. And music holds hands with the words that are spoken, with the action and the story, and it can take over each of those things and can become the mood or the intention or the celebration of whatever it is you are seeing on the screen. With Bond movies, you are intrinsically linked to this character and you want to like him; you want him to be okay and to defeat whatever the enemy is. The delivery of those things is satisfying to the audience. That’s the epitome of a hero: he delivers what he promises, and the music can help us expect it, to be worried by it, to be frightened by it and it can help us be excited and it can help us celebrate it.

There are many answers but what in your opinion has made Bond music so iconic?

Like few others, James Bond music appears to have made the leap from its source material to the outside world, like spaghetti westerns, for example. It’s a genre of its own, and it’s entirely of John Barry’s making. He decided stylistically to create something that is so completely definitive of the character and of the series. Whenever you do a spy movie you kind of have to sound like that. And I think the positioning of the song has been a big part of it; the way the song has been able to be taken out of the movie and used as a device external to the film. You had Shirley Bassey on American TV performing ‘Goldfinger’ when it came out. Matt Monro would have been on TV doing ‘From Russia With Love;’ Adele would be on TV all around the world doing ‘Skyfall’. And Bond songs have always sounded like Bond songs. They’re classic and timeless, even when they doffed their caps to the era. The sound of a-ha and Duran Duran had a flavour of the ’80s but you wouldn’t listen to them now and think of them as ’80s tunes. They feel fresh now and it’s the same with ‘Diamonds Are Forever,’ ‘Goldfinger,’ or ‘You Only Live Twice’. They’re great songs, arranged in a way that doesn’t place them in a time that has gone. They live in their universe, sound-wise and stylistically.

Do you have a favourite Bond song or title track?

My favourite title sequence is On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, which isn’t a song at all, but it’s an incredibly powerful, potent, and unmistakably Bond piece of music. It’s just a killer tune with a dark, driving malevolence that I haven’t heard in any other piece. And because it is without lyrics it can only be about the vibe of the movie and the intention of James Bond. When I hear that, it makes me feel what James Bond is about to do. It is dark, violent, and unstoppable.

What is your favourite iteration of a Bond song in a film?

‘You Only Live Twice’ has an instrumental version and when you hear it you realise it was written for strings above all else. They made a song out of it, of course, but it feels to be such a string piece. It is so elegant, moving, and beautiful – and the polar opposite of ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’. They’re both extraordinary pieces.

And your favourite score?

My favourite score is a tight call between Goldfinger and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Goldfinger had so many iconic moments it became the blueprint of what Bond films and Bond music could be, while On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was like a maturation of everything John Barry had done up until that point. It is almost perfect. It has ‘We Have All The Time In The World’ as its love theme and it has ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ as the driving theme and then it has the Monty Norman theme as well. That’s a hell of a sequence.

David Arnold spoke with Will Lawrence for The Sound of 007 In Concert Brochure.

Bond In Motion At Saratoga

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Six decades of 007 are celebrated as Bond in Motion brings a collection of iconic James Bond vehicles to the Saratoga Automobile Museum, Saratoga Springs, New York.

The multimedia exhibition opens on November 18th, 2022 until January 31st, 2024 with vehicles, props and clips covering all 25 films. Vehicles include the iconic 1964 Aston Martin DB5, the 1977 Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me, the 2007 Casino Royale Aston Martin DBS that made movie history with a record-breaking seven rotation roll, and one of the ten Aston Martin DB10s built specifically for 2015’s Spectre.

Book tickets now. 

Casino Royale, Skyfall And Spectre In Concert

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60th anniversary celebrations continue with a new film in concert series in November. Taking place at London’s Royal Albert Hall, the series will feature screenings of Casino Royale, Skyfall and the world premiere of Spectre in Concert, with live music from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Composer David Arnold will give a live introduction to Casino Royale in Concert on 17th November. Director Sir Sam Mendes will give a live introduction to Skyfall in Concert on 18th November and the evening performance of Spectre in Concert on 19th November.

Tickets available HERE.

60 Years Of James Bond Hats Exhibit

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60 Years of James Bond Hats, an exhibit featuring hats from the EON Productions Archive, took place in London. The 60th anniversary display opened at the oldest hat shop in the world, Lock & Co. Hatters, on October 26 by The Living Daylights actress Maryam d’Abo.

The exhibit was curated by EON Archive Director Meg Simmonds and included many never-shown-before pieces. Meg tells us more:

“We had all six decades of Bond represented in this mini exhibition. From Oddjob’s SFX hat seen in Goldfinger in the 60s, to Monica Bellucci’s funeral hat seen in Spectre in 2015. We included extra props to set the scene – so for example Q’s laptop and hotel pass to accompany the woolly beanie he wears in the mountain sequence in Spectre; Goldfinger’s golf shoes are shown with the Oddjob hat; fencing foils from Die Another Day set-off Bond’s fencing mask; and an inscribed Best Man lighter Felix gives to Bond in The Living Daylights, is shown with Tim’s bullet-damaged top hat. It was fun to be able to create little tableaus around each of the hats to give them context. We also had two full costumes from the Spectre Mexico City Day of The Dead scenes – Bond’s stunning hand painted skeleton tux alongside Estrella’s look.

“Some of the 19 hats on display had never been shown before. We’ve never exhibited Sir Roger Moore’s clown hat from Octopussy or Maryam’s nurse hat from The Living Daylights – probably because those costumes were both ‘disguises’ that didn’t, in a single look, sum up their characters. But it is fun to revisit those moments and plotlines. I hope visitors enjoyed seeing these pieces from the archive.”

To mark the 60th anniversary of James Bond on screen, two new Lock & Co. hats have been released in the 007 retail collaboration. The ‘James’ Trilby is a recreation of the original Lock & Co. hat worn in the very first 007 gun barrel sequence in Dr. No. Built on the same blocks, the new hat is crafted in luxury Escorial wool. This is joined by a limited edition ’Sixty’ Baker Boy cap, inspired by the style of James Bond, made in navy wool with an anniversary satin lining. Both hats are available now at 007Store.com.

Celebrating A Sixtieth James Bond Day

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Sixty years ago today, on October 5th 1962, Dr. No had its World Premiere in London. In its honour, we’re marking a very special James Bond Day.

Events started last week with the Christie’s Sixty Years of Bond Charity Auction, which raised over £6 million for charitable causes. The Christie’s Online Auction continues until 4pm BST today – lots include the cello case from The Living Daylights and a 007 60th Anniversary Duesenberg guitar signed by the Bond producers, Dame Shirley Bassey, Hans Zimmer, David Arnold and more. 

The weekend saw the British Film Institute host a three day James Bond celebration, headlined by an In Conversation Q&A with cast and crew including producer Michael G. Wilson, writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, casting director Debbie McWilliams and actor Rory Kinnear.

Last night the music of 007 was celebrated at The Sound Of 007 In Concert at the Royal Albert Hall. to benefit Nordoff Robbins and The BRIT School. Curated by Bond composer David Arnold, the event featured 007 artists including Dame Shirley Bassey, Hans Zimmer, Lulu and Garbage, alongside a host of new artists. Stream The Sound of 007: LIVE from the Royal Albert Hall on Prime Video from 10pm BST today.

Continuing the music celebrations, James Bond Day sees the premiere of new documentary, The Sound of 007, directed by Mat Whitecross. The feature length film reveals the history of the Bond music from the genesis of Dr. No’s iconic theme through to Billie Eilish’s Academy Award-winning title song for No Time To Die. The documentary is available now on Prime Video.

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NFT Poster Collection Celebrates 007

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In celebration of James Bond Day, MGM and EON will be releasing a selection of iconic poster digital NFTs on Veve – the largest mobile-first digital collectibles platform on October 5th. 

These collectibles will be offered for purchase in a blind box format, meaning the purchaser won’t know which of the seven posters they have acquired until after their successful purchase. This first series contains posters from Dr. No to Diamonds Are Forever. 

Three more series of posters will be released in the coming months. 

 

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James Bond Collaborates With Fabergé

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Almost 40 years on from Octopussy’s famous Fabergé egg heist plot, the James Bond franchise is collaborating with the iconic brand off screen for the very first time, marking the 60th anniversary of 007 and Fabergé’s 180th celebrations.

The Fabergé x 007 Egg Objet will encapsulate Bond’s stories within its design, which will feature subtle references to Bond’s trademark gadgets. From a manufacturing perspective, the forthcoming egg will “showcase the most innovative and technologically advanced mechanisms Fabergé has accomplished to date.”

Signature to Fabergé, the 007-collaborative piece will have a series of surprising elements which will be revealed in 2023, which also marks 40 years since Octopussy’s release. Despite being central to the story, the ‘Fabergé’ egg in the 1983 film was in fact a film prop set with Swarovski crystals, meaning the upcoming one-off egg is the first of its kind.

“This is a thrilling opportunity for us to fuse the legendary on-screen storytelling of the world’s most famous secret agent with Fabergé’s globally celebrated artistry”, said Fabergé’s Creative Director, Josina von dem Bussche-Kessell.

“With this unique and ground-breaking piece, these two icons will intersect where suspense entertainment meets engineering mastery in precious materials.”

 

Bond Night On Dancing With The Stars

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A James Bond special episode of Dancing With The Stars has been announced.

The celebrity contestants on the Disney+ series will dance to the music of 007 on ‘Bond Night’ on Monday October 3rd, the third week of the competition.

The episode will begin with a group number from the show’s professionals to Paul McCartney & Wings’ Live and Let Die, before the remaining 14 celebrities take to the floor to mark the 60th anniversary of Bond.

Contestants taking part include TikTok influencers Charli & Heidi D’Amelio, Cruel Intentions actress Selma Blair, comedian Wayne Brady, and former American Idol winner Jordin Sparks.

Supermodel Tyra Banks and former Dancing With The Stars & Strictly Come Dancing contestant Alfonso Ribeiro host the dancing series, while the judges are Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli, Carrie Ann Inaba and Derek Hough.

DWTS aired for 30 seasons on ABC before becoming the first live competition show to air on Disney’s popular streaming service.

Confirmed Dances for ‘Bond Night’ episode of Dancing With The Stars

Joseph Baena and Alexis Warr – Argentine Tango – Writing’s On the Wall by Sam Smith

Selma Blair and Sasha Farber – Rumba – For Your Eyes Only by Sheena Easton 

Wayne Brady and Witney Carson – Tango – The Name’s Bond… James Bond by David Arnold & Nicholas Dodd

Sam Champion and Cheryl Burke – Samba – Los Muertos Vivos Estan by Thomas Newman ft. Tambuco

Charli D’Amelio and Mark Ballas – Rumba – No Time To Die by Billie Eilish

Heidi D’Amelio and Artem Chigvintsev – Argentine Tango – Another Way to Die by Jack White and Alicia Keys

Jessie James Decker and Alan Bersten – Rumba – Goldfinger by Shirley Bassey

Trevor Donovan and Emma Slater – Tango – You Know My Name by Chris Cornell

Daniel Durant and Britt Stewart – Rumba – The World Is Not Enough by Garbage

Vinny Guadagnino and Koko Iwasaki – Rumba – Thunderball by Tom Jones

Cheryl Ladd and Louis van Amstel – Rumba – Diamonds Are Forever by Shirley Bassey

Shangela and Gleb Savchenko – Rumba – Goldeneye by Tina Turner

Jordin Sparks and Brandon Armstrong will perform a Rumba to Licence To Kill by Gladys Knight

Gabby Windey and Val Chmerkovskiy – Cha Cha – Die Another Day by Madonna

Christie’s Charity Auction Raises Over £6 Million

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The Sixty Years of James Bond: Part I – Live Charity Auction in conjunction with Christie’s has raised over £6 million for charitable causes.

Taking place in London yesterday evening (28 September), a grand total of £6,103,500 was achieved across 25 lots, ranging from vehicles and props to memorabilia signed by cast and crew. 

Across Part I – Live Charity Auction and Part II – Online Auction which ends on 5 October, over 45 charities will benefit from 100% of all proceeds; recipient charities represented in last night’s sale include The Princes Trust, UNHCR and Severn Hospice.

The headline lot of the evening was the Aston Martin DB5 stunt car from No Time To Die, which fetched £2,922,000 for The Prince’s Trust, The Special Air Service Regimental Association, The Special Boat Service Association, The Special Reconnaissance Regimental Association and The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund. 

The iconic egg from Octopussy raised £327,600 for UNICEF, over 54 times its estimate, while the OMEGA Seamaster Diver Watch as worn by Daniel Craig sold for £226,000 in aid of Time’s Up UK. 

In addition to Bond Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, Bond alumni in attendance included No Time To Die’s Dali Benssallah, Samantha Bond, The Living Daylights’ Maryam d’Abo and A View To A Kill actress Carole Ashby. Video messages from Daniel Craig and Pierce Brosnan were played to those in attendance.

Sean Connery Stage Opens At Pinewood

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Sir Sean Connery has been honoured at Pinewood Studios with the opening of a new stage.

The purpose-built, 18,000 square foot Sean Connery Stage was opened by the late actor’s granddaughter Saskia Connery at a private event yesterday (27 September) attended by Bond Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.

Michael G Wilson said: “Barbara and I are grateful to Pinewood for acknowledging this screen legend and honoured to have been invited to celebrate this evening along with Sir Sean’s granddaughter Saskia.”

Saskia Connery commented: “I am so proud of my grandfather both on screen and for who he was and meant to all of us at home. He would have been humbled and honoured to now have his own stage at Pinewood Studios.”

Previous cast and crew also present included Connery’s From Russia With Love co-star Martine Beswick, plus John Glen, Maryam D’Arbo, Carole Ashby, Madeline Smith, and Caroline Munro.

The evening also featured a screening of Connery’s first appearance as 007 in Dr. No, which was filmed at Pinewood and celebrates its 60th Anniversary on 5 October.