peel sessions live

[Stuart McHugh]

>actually, as i understand it, it's not radio1's insistence, but the
>musician' union. the MU came to an agreement in the 60s that all of the bbc
>channels must play a certain proportion (2% or something) of live or
>commisioned music (hence sessions).
Thats spot-on, there was something called 'need;e-time' which was intended
to limit the amount of records played. I'd thought it wasa way of saving
money in royalties, but now you mention it, it soulds like exactly the kind
of thing the MU would do!

>generally i think this a Good Thing, but i agree that radio 1 seem to treat
>it a bit half-heartedly. it IS possible to record good live sound... yet
>they always make an arse of it!
The sessions are generally pretty good, the likes of Dale Griffin, Ted de
Bono etc are very often better producers than the ones used by record
companies. I wonder... if sessions seem less good now, could it be that the
indie bands who previously would have sounded either raw' or 'crap'
depending on your view, will, without someone over-prodicing them, have
sounded better in the past. But with all the new technoology these days,
well, at least they'll have a level playing field as far as sound quality,
amount of tracks etc goes.

>i have heard it speculated that they deliberately spoil the quality of live
>stuff (bad mixes, and talking over it) so that bootleggers can't get decent
>recordings...
>but who knows?
In the good old days of punk the session versions of Siouxsie, Slits and
many others had a reputation for being better than their major label
debuts. I suppose this would have affected sales.... though I know you're
talking about live sessions here, but that could apply too, if a live lp
was something the band's label were thinking about.
>

I like Gene too, but am also keen on Ballroom, who are/were to Gene what
Gene are to the Smiths. All a bit confusing...

>peel also championed Pulp for a bit, despite having said he hated them...
>it's good that he's willing to be seen to change his mind...
I never knew that, I assumed he liked their first session (now that's
something I still have on tape - I liked that too). There were always
stories about him giving them money to make records, getting them gigs
etc...
>i think it would only be a problem if he was playing ALL successful indie
>bands - but he's being very selective...
I suppose the Bluetones is as good a marker as any to show how things are
on other shows - you can't have too much of a good thing, after all.

Stuart

http://www.vacant.demon.co.uk