Tapes of Top Gear from 1969 and 1970

[ken garner]

Dear John

I know a bit about the dates because in order to write my previous 
book, IN SESSION TONIGHT, I was able, as it was an official BBC 
project, to print out every Peel show programme-as-broadcast script 
(the running orders of the music basically) from the launch of Radio 
1 to June 78, when I ran out of time and money. I still have them all 
right here in my office at home in Glasgow.

Yes, Peel was initially sceptical of Walters. I have a long quote 
Peel gave Melody Maker in suport of Bernie but I have not heard that 
last show link from the week before. If you could transcribe it for 
me and e-mail it to me, maybe...?

I think I simply noted the Elton John spin because it demonstrated 
that Peel alone was backing Eltona good year or more before anyone 
else noticed him. Rememebr, elton;s first album stiffed in the uk on 
first release, it was only after his lvie success in America that... 
etc

Legality? Well legally, unlike TV with video recorders, it is still, 
would you believe, technically illegal to record radio programmes off 
air, I think, and this is one of the reasons why the BBC cannot do 
many podcasts from its website, only 'listen again'. I think it 
unlikely at this late date anyone is going to try and nobble any of 
us for exchanging tapes and MP3s of 40 year old radio shows. On a 
personal level, I know the archivists and producers at Radio 1 are 
delighted to get copies of anything they do not have - after all, 
this was how Kevin Howlett was able to make The Beatles at The Beeb 
series, largely thanks to listener contributions, and several of 
these ended up on the EMI album.

Regarding BBC recordings of full shows, these were rare and 
haphazardly done internally, at the whim of a producer or not, from 
time to time, until the mid nineties: since then, a CD is 
burned of every show as it goes out and this is lodged in the R1 
archive, for future storage. Louise Kattenhorn, Peel's last producer, 
has CDs of all Peel shows back to 2001, and most of Anita Kamath's 
(previous show producer) going back to 98, for example. But don't 
expect to find any of this on the peel archive site: that was created 
independently of R1 staff by the freelance production company 
Somethin' Else, and they only used two sources for it: my book (I 
know, because they asked me if I minded them rekeying it!) and the 
Radio 1 aged computer system Romeo, which contains session sheet 
files, but which are often incomplete.

However, late last year, BBC INfax, the BBC's archiving 
operation, lanched its experimental programme archive catalogue 
online. Only the catalogue, mind, not the shows: it's like showing 
you their card index files online, that's all. Media academics like 
me were invited to have a look at it and tell them what we think. 
It's not bad but the information about the entries is inconsistent. 
Neverthless, it has already proved useful in reconstructing my grand 
narrative of the Peel show from 99 onwards, with the complete show 
records for 2000 being particularly helpful. If anyone's interested, 
it's here:

http://open.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax/

cheers

Ken Garner
working on book THE PEEL SESSIONS, forthcoming Oct 07, BBC 
Books/Random House

--- In peel@yahoogroups.com, "hills1902" <jandchill@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks for the information on dates - how do you know all this??
> 
> In response to your questions:
> 
> - in the show on 27/4/69, I haven't played it all through again, 
but 
> I think the only reference John Peel makes to the new producer is 
to 
> call him John "Petals" Walters, you get the impression he took a 
> while to warm to him! One of the tapes has the last bit of the 
> previous show (unfortunately I recorded over most of it with a John 
> Peel concert programme) in which JP pays tribute to Bernie Andrews 
> the outgoing producer and says he can't understand the reason for 
the 
> change - so perhaps he was initially a bit hostile to John Walters.
> 
> - unfortunately I recorded over the last 10 mins or so of the show 
on 
> 27/7/69 (also with a JP concert programme) so don't have the last 
> item (Elton John's Skyline Pigeon)- was it significant?
> 
> 
> The tapes also have some mostly incomplete recordings of the John 
> Peel concert programme (Van der Graaf Generator, Mungo Jerry, Brett 
> Marvin and the Thunderbolts are some I've written down) but I don't 
> find these very interesting now, compared to the Top Gear shows 
which 
> you listen to and think what great music (mostly)!
> 
> One question from me - does anyone know about the legality of 
> distributing these recordings? I imagine the BBC are the only ones 
> that might take an interest. I've looked for archive recordings on 
> their website and they have the odd disappointingly brief snatch of 
> Top Gear. Does anyone know if they have preserved the recordings of 
> the shows, or is it only the sessions that they have kept?
> 
> John
> 
> --- In peel@yahoogroups.com, "ken garner" <ken_garner@> wrote:
> >
> > I too would like to hear them, of course. I think I can be of 
some 
> > assistance with confirming your dates, here you go:
> > 
> > Sn 27/4/69 Eclection, new session first broadcast (plus repeated 
> > sessions from: Family, Principal Edwards Magic Theatre)
> > - yes, defintiely 27th, not 26th, and coincidentally that was the 
> > first Peel show Produced by John Walters, I wonder if Peel says 
> > anything about this in his links?
> > 
> > Sn 11/5/69 T.Rex, King Crimson (Fleetwood Mac, Bonzos)
> > - correct, King Crimson's first, by the way
> > 
> > Sn 18/5/69 Pentangle, John Dummer's Blues Band (Blodwyn Pigg, 
> > Mandrake Paddle Steamer)
> > 
> > Sn 29/6/69 Idle race, Led Zeppelin (Pentangle, Savoy Brown Blues 
> Band)
> > 
> > Sn 6/7/69 John Hiseman's Coliseum, Imrat Khan (Pretty Things, 
John 
> > Dummer Blues Band)
> > 
> > Sn 27/7/69 Third Ear Band (Roy Harper, Ten Years After)
> > - my notes also say last record in show was Skyline Pigeon by 
Elton 
> > John! Got that?
> > 
> > ...Top Gear moved to Saturday afternoons late Sept 69...
> > 
> > St 4/7/70 Country Joe McDonald (Fotheringay, Cochise)
> > 
> > St 11/7/70 Kevin Ayers + the Whole World, Son House (East of Eden)
> > 
> > Most of the major sessions there survived on tape, but I am not 
> sure 
> > quite all of these are in the Radio 1 Archive, by the way, 
> especially 
> > the Country Joe one, but I can check that easily enough...
> > 
> > ken
> > 
> > 
> > --- In peel@yahoogroups.com, "hills1902" <jandchill@> wrote:
> > >
> > > I have some old 7 inch reel-to-reel tapes of eight Top Gear 
> > > programmes 
> > > that I recorded in 1969 and 1970, with sessions from the 
> following 
> > > bands:
> > > 
> > > 26 Apr 69 - Principal Edwards Magic Theatre, Eclection, Family
> > > 11 May 69? - Fleetwood Mac, King Crimson, Tyrannosaurus Rex, 
> Bonzo 
> > > Dog 
> > > Band
> > > Date unknown - Pentangle, Blodwyn Pig, Mandrake Paddle Steamer, 
> > John 
> > > Dummer Blues Band
> > > Date unknown - Ten Years After, Roy Harper, Third Ear Band
> > > 29 Jun 69 - Led Zeppelin, Pentangle, Idle Race, 
> > > 6 Jul 69 - John Dummer Blues Band, Colosseum, Pretty Things, 
> Imrat 
> > > Khan
> > > 4 Jul 70 - Country Joe Macdonald, Fotheringay, Cochise
> > > 11 Jul 70? - Kevin Ayres, East of Eden, Son House
> > > 
> > > Some of the tapes are recorded at 3 3/4 inches per second and 
> some 
> > at 
> > > 1 
> > > 7/8 inches per second, and are of complete programmes, though 
> > > unfortunately I edited out the half-hourly news on most of 
them. 
> I 
> > > seem 
> > > to remember Radio 1 was only on medium wave at the time so 
> quality 
> > is 
> > > not brilliant, but they were recorded by connecting to the 
> speaker 
> > > terminals of a radio (not using a microphone). Also the tape 
> > recorder 
> > > was a bit dodgy and took about 10 mins to warm up to full speed 
> so 
> > > some 
> > > of them now play back too fast for the first 10 mins or so! The 
> > tapes 
> > > also have various LPs of that era on them. 
> > > 
> > > Despite all their faults, is anyone interested in them ? I'm 
> > willing 
> > > to 
> > > send them by post in return for the postage (plus donation to 
> > charity 
> > > if there's a lot of interest), and would be interested in 
> > > copies on CD if that's what someone would like to do with them.
> > >
> >
>