I spend two weeks in the hot spa tubs of Budapest and...

[ken garner]

I agree with all that, Phil. I was only posting on the topic of a 
site/database/archive because a few people have raised it here and 
some have also been asking me privately. I know I could not - and 
would not wish - to attempt it myself. I am simply saying if the list 
DID want to think about it for the future (we might not), these were 
some of the issues that struck me. For now, there is enough 
autonomous energy here getting on with things and let's see how we 
go. Who was it who started the Peel wiki site? That's a nice idea in 
principle if we did decide to pool our existing collective data, for 
a start...

...on another matter, yes, sorry, that's right, I'd completely 
forgotten that: with the switch in October 1988 to the new all day 
Radio 1 FM frequencies and Peel moving forward to 8.30-10.30, 
combined with the end of the 10pm-midnight R1/2 simulcast, Peel was 
for several months for the first time in years actually unavailable 
on FM to certain parts of the country, because the R1 FM network was 
not then 100% complete. I seem to recall him reading out several 
distressed listener's letters about it. I think some of the places 
affected were East Anglia/Lincolnshire, Northern Ireland, and much of 
Wales. I think it was 1990/91 before all these gaps in the new R1 FM 
network were plugged.

ken

PS. in my previous I obviously meant those shows John's just posted 
were maybe Mon 3 - Fri 7 Oct 77 (not the 5th, sorry)

--- In peel@yahoogroups.com, festive50@... wrote:
>
> Whoa Ken Whoa!
> A mighty ambitious project indeed and nobody has commented yet. 
Maybe most
> people think that this beyond the scope of this group.
> I for one am interested, as I had already started a database along 
these
> lines but never finished.
> It consisted of a lot of my tracklistings, listings from Lorcan's 
website
> plus listings extracted from the BBC's listing sites.
> It currently stands at about 20,000 tracks and is in my preferred 
database
> software (MS Access). Although Excel can be used for DBs, Access is
> purpose built for such a task. It can however be exported to Excel 
or
> ASCII.
> 
> Briefly, I was "A listener writes" on p136 in Ken's latest tome.
> 
> Basically
> I started taping JP whilst in hospital on 2 occasions in 1987
> My nephew took up the baton but with gusto and created about 300 
tapes
> (1990-1992).  About 10 years later he started giving me packs of 10 
tapes
> (including the tracklistings) for birthday and christmas presents.
> As I listened to them I checked and edited the tracklistings
> I received the last of these last Christmas.
> A lot of these tapes tracklistings weren't checked and edited as I'd
> abandoned this project and just used to play them in the car.
> 
> Ironically, I was in hospital in May and returned to this project of
> annotating these listings and am still doing so (about another 80 
tapes to
> go).
> I'd also started digitising these tapes and putting them up on the 
Peel
> Server which I ran and which sadly died while I was in hospital.
> I've just built a new IBM/Windows 2003 server. I just need to get a
> SCSI/IDE adaptor and I can then repopulate with all the shows I 
have and
> get back to digitising my 600+ tapes.
> I did start adding to my collection with the various shares 
(DivShare,
> RapidShare etc.),advertised on this site but I found them very hit 
and
> miss. ie. where links became out of date, or didn't work, or you 
had to
> pay for premium download otherwise you could only DL once a day. I 
didn't
> really get on with BitTorrent either. There was always Gary's 
server but
> somehow my original log in credentials no longer work.
> You mentioned the various fields Ken. But what would be really 
useful is a
> standardised file naming convention.
> I prefer Peel yyyymmdd - Session Artists.mp3/flac etc.
> This way, when sorting on file names you get them in chronological 
date
> order.
> 
> Phil
> 
> > ...just got back to uk from holiday and have now caught up on all 
the
> astonishing correspondence here via my aged dad's PC. First of all, 
yes,
> the seller of the tapes had evidently tried to email me but this 
was after
> I left the country, sorry. But it all worked out ok, thanks to dee 
dee,
> rocker and everyone. And despite pledging my twenty quid in
> advance, I also appear to have missed the cough-up period, sorry. I 
agree
> with Mark, these are probably low-Q FM recordings rather than AM, as
> Martin says, yes, from October 71 all Peel's late evening shows 
(excluding
> the first 9 months of 75, the BBC '3-day week'
> > period) were on the Radio 2 FM frequency as well as R1 AM, until 
R1 FM
> for almost 24 hrs launched in Oct 88 anyway. Some friends gave me 
their
> prized shoeboxes of Peel show tapes (about 30 tapes in all, mostly 
79-81,
> I think) when I was doing In Session Tonight, taped on a stereo 
system,
> but time and decay made them v muffled, although they can be 
listened to
> just about (actually I wonder if I still have those
> somewhere...?). AM recordings at 10pm-midnight would be v
> > crackly, possibly. Like others, I am happy to hear shows in any
> > quality short of unlistenable, and not just for what Peel says, 
but for
> the totality of the experience, and simply to know they survive.
> >
> > I am sure it has occurred to others that those doing the 
digitising not
> only need to agree on a digital file format standard (which
> > appears to have been done
> > already!), but also a cataloguing system and application. Whoever 
is
> doing the divvying out needs to give each tape a clear number 
before the
> digitising gets under way. Then there are the agreed fields of data
> required for each tape (date, duration, featured items, running 
order?,
> > notes, edits, etc.. to be discussed), and the application: You 
could use
> a database, if there is one that everyone is likely to have which is
> simple, or (don't snigger), excel is pretty universal, I did both 
books'
> sessionography in it and my big bro does mutliple data daily for an
> international engineering company with excel files containing 
thousands
> and thousands of entries or rows, all relating to each other, so it 
can do
> almost anything we'd want, as long as we agreed on the fields or 
columns,
> surely? I think you would need two
> > spreadsheets that talked to each other: one with a single row of 
agreed
> main data for each every TAPE/ SHOW; then one which was an 
individual
> > sheet for each TAPE / SHOW with the full track listing and any 
notes,
> even maybe a field for transcribing Peel's links... Just a 
thought...
> >
> > On the continuing issue of some kind of eventual Peel Archive 
online, I
> too have been mulling this over. I think for the time being let's 
just
> share the stuff and document what is out there and is emerging.
> Eventually, though, I suspect something might be possible. A friend 
of
> mine, a professor at a with-it institution, has been advising the 
BBC on
> its digital strategy and claims their new objective is to liase 
with and
> facilitate other social networks, and not try to do it all 
themselves.
> However, in that context the (incomplete, out of date and frequently
> bonkers) 'official' peel pages occasionally accessible via Radio 1's
> website are a peculiar exception! And so would be the rumour I have 
heard
> from inside sources recently that BBC Worldwide is working on a 
project to
> create a website where people can listen to and purchase for 
download BBC
> session tracks (not just Peel's, please note!), both
> current and from the archive. But there is a world of difference 
between
> doing this for discrete, identifiable copyright tracks by named 
artists,
> and complete show recordings of variable quality: even if that 
rumour is
> true, I doubt they would even contemplate the enormity of the task 
of
> making complete shows available in this manner. But for someone 
else to
> stream a rotating sequence of archive shows might be possible even 
under
> existing
> > copyright legislation, if the BBC chose to recognise the 
credibility of
> the organisation doing it (it sells TV shows for repeats by any TV 
channel
> in the world, so why not...?). If we were to demonstrate our 
capacity to
> do this by how we deal with these new tapes, for example, that 
might go
> some way to helping. Any such official website /
> > archive / association project would of course need the BBC, Radio 
1,
> Sheila's and the Selwoods' consent. But if we got the last two, or 
even
> three, of those, then the institional support from the top of the
> organisation might just fall into line, eventually. I can
> > envisage some form of
> > trust /association being recognised by these stakeholders. Such a 
site
> could then be much more than that and grow data organically, with
> eventually a data entry for every show, which would indicate if it 
is
> known to exist in any of the public or private archives we can
> > identify (and thereby request and identify those that are missing 
from
> any visitors to the site).
> >
> > I feel, however, as I say, that's all some way off in the future. 
The
> first step towards any such formal recognition or credibility of 
this
> group as the official custodians of the Peel legacy/archive -
> > (alongside how we deal with the tapes!) - might be perhaps some 
form of
> face to face meeting, a Peel Listeners' Convention, which could 
seek,
> among other fun things (gigs, guests, debates, etc), to
> > finalise and ratify a draft constitution or terms-of-reference
> > articulating the association's aims, membership, and so on, which 
could
> be circulated in draft electronically in advance. Sounds
> > dreary, i know, but if we were to decide to be truly serious 
about this
> (including maybe seeking national lottery funding - I am not 
joking, there
> have been other digital musical archiving projects that have won 
cash from
> this source!), we'd need to do that kind of
> > thing...
> >
> > ken
> >
> >
>