BBC Sessons

[ronmac]

In 1963 The Beatles did a television broadcast for the BBC called It's The Beatles which was a complete (albeit, allegedly poorly shot) live concert from the Liverpool Empire. Only about ten minutes of that survive and you know why? Because the original master tape was sent to trainees to experiment editing with. Ouch. A nice quality off-air recording of that was uncovered a few years ago, at least.

Well, back then, even the Fab Four weren't sure if they'd be around much longer.

[interbellum]

Nick Drake did do two or three BBC sessions. Some of the material was officially released, although only on the 10" which came with the deluxe edition of the book Remembered For A While:

[ronmac]

Cream and The Moody Blues released killer BBC sets.

[pb2015]

Are those songs "Missing Pieces" from the BBC?

"Clocks and Clouds" is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. I can only imagine what National Health could've been like had Mont Campbell stayed with them. Three writers of that level of skill is something that I can't think of any band ever having.

Yes, most of National Health "Missing Pieces" is from BBC sessions. I think the credits are incorrect on the CD about "Clocks and Clouds" as it was recorded after Neil Murray replaced Mont Campbell.

[GuitarGeek]

A few more BBC sessions I like:

Hawkwind Radio One In Concert: Kinda plays like a Space Ritual: The Dress Rehearsal, as it was recorded just a few months before that tour commenced. Lots of spacey electronics on that one. Apparently most of The Text Of Festival unofficial release was derived from some of their earlier BBC recordings, some of it's not bad, but the sound quality is crummy.

Queen: the Xmas '75 show at the Hammersmith Odeon was broadcast on the BBC, does that count as a BBC session?! Great, stunning performance from the band, returning to London as conquering kings (pun intended) delivering a devastating set to their biggest hometown audience yet.

Deep Purple: The two BBC concerts, from '70 and '72, gathered on the In Concert release. I have the double LP release on Purple Records from the early 80's, where each LP side was nearly a half hour long. I eventually got the reissue, on Spitfire Records, which adds a couple bonus tracks to the '72 show. Only time they ever played Never Before before an audience (or at least, the only time it was recorded) just a lot of really bad ass hard rock.

Steve Hillage: he apparently did several BBC recordings, the two I know best are the ones on the Gong Go Long double CD bootleg. I believe one of them was finally issued legitimately on the Rainbow Theater 1977 release. There was a BBC In Concert disc from Hillage, released on the Windsong label, which includes, I think, most of the other show from Gong Go Long, and one or two tracks from a BBC session in 1976, I believe. And there was also the Rock Goes To College video.

And then there's all the bands who played on The Old Grey Whistle Test, which as I recall, includes Nektar, Camel, Focus, Yes (the QPR show from the Relayer tour), Lynyrd Skynyrd (from the short lived two guitar era), and Japan.

I seem to recall there was a Thin Lizzy show that was broadcast on the BBC, from the Thunder And LIghtning tour, but I've only seen it once, so I don't remember much about it.

And I don't know if it counts, but Motorhead apparently recorded a new version of Ace Of Spades for their appearance on The Young Ones. That was the first version I heard, and still my favorite (and I love how in the middle of the song, when Wurzel and Phil Campbell are trading solos, you never once see the guitarist who is soloing at any given time).

[Munster]

As well as the Queen Xmas 1975 show there is a very good CD - Queen at the BBC - which features two sessions recorded in 1973. All the tracks appeared on their first album, except for Ogre Battle, which showed up on their second. The sessions were in February and December 1973, with the February session recorded before Queen had a record contract (which was signed with EMI and Trident in July of that year). Most of the songs are very close to the versions that showed up on their official albums, but there are some significant differences. If, like me, you think the first Queen album was never bettered by them, then this is worth getting.

[Jerjo]

Now that guitargeek and JJ88 are here, I have a Queen BBC session. Was the "We Will Rock You (Brahma Remix)" done as a BBC recording or was it some other project? Either way, the surge of power after the Siddhartha quote is just sensational.

Regarding the Deep Purple BBC recordings, those are just essential for DP fans. They were playing with fire on those sessions.

[ronmac]

I just grabbed a download of this the other day. This thread is worth reading and has a link.

http://www.bootlegzone.com/phpBB3/vi...381654c1efa737

[JJ88]

This was mentioned on the Canterbury thread some time ago (in relation to Henry Cow) but worth trawling through this YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjl...p_2L40A/videos

A ton of BBC recordings from the early days of progressive rock. Non-descript titles have meant these videos have had few views. There are some 'lost' sessions here which never made it to BBC transcription discs etc., and I notice the Atomic Rooster session plays at the right speed. The Death Walks Behind You Sanctuary CD has these same three tracks in better quality but at too slow a speed, a mastering screw-up I guess.

[Munster]

^^
Great. Never knew about these. Greatest Show on Earth will be first

[per anporth]

This was mentioned on the Canterbury thread some time ago (in relation to Henry Cow) but worth trawling through this YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjl...p_2L40A/videos

A ton of BBC recordings from the early days of progressive rock. Non-descript titles have meant these videos have had few views. There are some 'lost' sessions here which never made it to BBC transcription discs etc., and I notice the Atomic Rooster session plays at the right speed. The Death Walks Behind You Sanctuary CD has these same three tracks in better quality but at too slow a speed, a mastering screw-up I guess.

Peel is hilarious, as he flubs intro after intro: "It's not like this on the Noel Edmonds show..." "Oh no they don't...Perhaps we have some boxing interviews to fill the time..."

[JJ88]

I understand that there was resistance to Peel within the BBC early on, one of his few allies being producer Bernie Andrews. The latter had previously worked closely with Brian Matthew on Saturday Club and Top Gear.

[GuitarGeek]

Peel is hilarious, as he flubs intro after intro: "It's not like this on the Noel Edmonds show..." "Oh no they don't...Perhaps we have some boxing interviews to fill the time..."

There's a great Joy Division documentary that came out about 12 or so years ago, where we hear Peel accidentally play Atmosphere at the wrong speed. It was a 7" record, mastered at 33 1/3 speed, for whatever reason. So you hear a few bars of Atmosphere at the wrong speed, and then Peel sort of sheepishly commenting on it:

[TheH]

I remember a brodcast from a '75 PFM concert.

Found some tiny bits here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0547qtm

[JJ88]

RE; transcription discs. From 1964, sessions for shows like Saturday Club and Pop Gear were generally assembled into compilations for overseas sales. They had Brian Matthew as host using the 'Top Of The Pops' banner. Of course at this time, there was little stylistic discernment in terms of what was considered 'pop', so you have some varied tracklists, to say the least.

https://www.discogs.com/label/388937-Top-Of-The-Pops

Further into the 70s, BBC Transciption Services pressed the longer 'in concert' type sessions onto disc. They used the generic title 'Stereo Pop Special'.

https://www.discogs.com/label/162823...eo-Pop-Special

As I understand it these transcription discs- rather than tapes per se- are the only source for a lot of material...certainly for 60s sessions.

[JJ88]

There's another series I forgot:

https://www.discogs.com/label/144987...ps-For-Your-DJ

Within that YouTube link I posted above there's a 1971 concert by John Martyn which otherwise seems lost/unreleased (and has had more views because it stipulates what it is!). Quite a good recording actually, but some tape damage.

[AncientChord]

Great live in the studio recordings. And in multi-music genres. My main interests are bands from the 60's British Invasion, the psychedelic era, classic rock and prog. Tons of fantastic and exciting records in those categories. And prog? Hundreds of cool recordings from the heyday to the present. For me a few essentials are:
The complete Beatles sessions
The Yardbirds
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Moody Blues
King Crimson
YES
Genesis
Gentle Giant
Jethro Tull
Pink Floyd
Curved Air

All smokin' great archives, and perfect for those that seek out unique renditions of songs and recordings of their favorite bands. I believe it was in the 1970's that the BBC did a special called The Sixties At The Beeb. It was broadcast on local FM radio and myself and another friend recorded it directly from radio to cassette. About ten years ago we transferred it track by track to digital. It took a lot of work as the show was quite long, with awesome complete tracks by of course The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, The Kinks, Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Kinks, Cream, Deep Purple, The Animals and many more.The entire show was 12 hours, 10 hours being music. I think it's around now in CD form. But I'm glad I recorded it since my friend and I weren't certain it would ever be officially released. For any fan of the British Invasion, psychedelia and early prog this is a must. Just a fantastic archive!

[JJ88]

The Yardbirds

My only gripe with some of these earlier mid 60s sessions by bands like this and The Who is that the guitar tones are very clean...far too much so, in fact. But they are otherwise well recorded and you get various songs the bands never recorded on their records. And by the time Page joined The Yardbirds, the BBC versions are actively superior to what came out on record.

The first I heard of these BBC sessions was a 90s 2-hour special presented by Alan Freeman, which was also called something like The Sixties At The Beeb.

[Jerjo]

I found the Sixties at the Beeb boot. I hadn't realized that existed. I've got plenty of official BBC recordings (Deep Purple is playing as I type this) but I hadn't done much digging into the 60s except for the major acts (Stones, Beatles, Who, Kinks). I used to have Hendrix and lost or sold it. Might need to track that down again. And yes, often the guitars are too clean but that's a gripe I have with a lot of 60s material. I like guitars that are dirty.

[JJ88]

The Beatles' BBC sessions are- in my view- the most interesting by far because, well, there's a lot more of them. Although other bands were still on the shows alongside them, none of the other bands were really given 'titled' shows of their own (Pop Go The Beatles, From Us To You etc.). There were actually very few regular 'pop' shows on the BBC, so somebody within in the BBC was noticing how important they were early on.

And things still turn up from private recordings; there's a great quality BBC version of 'Love Me Do' which only surfaced around 5 years ago and it's the only surviving studio recording of the track that has a natural end rather than a fade. If you're a Beatle anorak (which I increasingly am!) this sort of thing is priceless!

[ronmac]

^^ There are also live 1962 snippets that just appeared where Ringo plays the drums like Pete Best did on Love Me Do. Regretfully, none of these songs are complete.

[JJ88]

As for The Stones' BBC sessions, I like that four-song stereo session from 1964 most. It was a TV/radio synchronised experimental broadcast and has better sound than their actual records of the era. You also get 'Cops And Robbers' which they never recorded in the studio. Like The Beatles they stopped doing them in 1965.

There's a Stones session for Radio Luxembourg which many fans would love to turn up. (I've always wondered if that version of 'Reelin 'N' Rockin' which is around on bootlegs is from that.)

[Dave (in MA)]

Oldfield had a Tubular Bells BBC session with what might be one of the greatest one-off supergroups ever.