I’ve written at length before about my love for the work of Jim ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ Steinman, and I’m pretty sure that I’ve touched on my fondness for Batman, so you can probably imagine the double-surge of fanboy glee I experienced this weekend when I found this, a site about the started-but-never-produced Batman musical.

Steinman was booked to write the songs for the musical, and as ridiculous a pairing as that might sound, I think it’s pretty much perfect; not just because of his experience of writing songs with the word ‘Bat’ in them, but because Steinman pretty much specialises in wildly operatic and overblown (he tends to use the word ‘engorged’) songs about damnation and the like. Seriously, I think it would have been a perfect pairing, and of course Steinman has experience of writing for stage musicals (‘Whistle Down The Wind’ in London, and ‘Tanz Der Vampire’ in Germany).

For whatever reason, it didn’t happen – but thanks to the wonders of the internet, and the hosting skills of Madhatterster, various details are available – but even more importantly, demos of songs which Steinman wrote for the musical can be downloaded, for free. For a perfect example of the kind of insanely overdone stuff I love so much in Steinman’s work, I’d point you towards the song ‘Gotham City / The Graveyard Shift’. Those of you who, like me, have followed Steinman’s stuff for a long time will recognise a number of themes (in terms of both lyrics and music) which he’s used before, but I find that oddly reassuring.

And if you don’t care for any of it, fair enough; despite what the pages of NME might have you believe, the world’s big enough for us to have differing opinions on music (though I’m right).