Electronic Music
What's been the greatest perk of playing C3PO?
One of the magic things about walking through these studios [at Maida Vale] today was just hearing a symphony orchestra rehearsing.
The urge for me to rush in there, kill the conductor and take over the baton [was great] because once, in about 1976 or 1977, they invited me as C3PO to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra at the Albert Hall in London as an encore to a John Williams evening of music.
It was the most extraordinary experience to walk out there as C3PO, to the extent that I completely forgot that I was Threepio, because the audience reaction - eight thousand people all around you - was so humungous. I stood there, not petrified, just going 'Wow,' and then must have stood there a few seconds until, 'Oh wait a minute, I'm Threepio', and then carried on and did the whole thing.
We did it a couple of times because to be faced by 80 plus orchestral musicians, waiting for you to do ;Wooh,' (mimes waving baton) and then they go... Oh, the power! It was magic. And that was just one of the great experiences I've had.