any interest in an early nineties cassette collection?

[thinkingthinkingthinking]

Hi Ken

It was a chap called Simon Rooks, an archivist at "Information and
Archives" with the usual bbc email address if you want to contact him.
The main part of his reply message was as follows:
John Peel Archives
Our policy regarding presenter-led/DJ music  programmes is to archive
permanently those which feature sessions whether live  or recorded
specially by the BBC. This was not always the case as you are aware.

I can tell you that the BBC does not have a  complete archive of every
John Peel Show, but I cannot definitively tell you  what is missing. 
There are obviously many private off-air recordings in  existence but
clearly it's not possible to have an overview of these.  One of  the
many problems was the failure of BBC programmes to deliver recordings to
the  Archive: there was no policy of enforcement. We have been
recovering recordings  from internal sources for years (not just Peel of
course). We have also  recovered some recordings from the Peel estate.

I would say that it is highly likely that  our collection is virtually
complete for the 1990s. The collection would be  progressively more
sparse the further back we go.

We do make efforts to recover recordings not  originally archived, but
it can be a very labour intensive activity which often  does not justify
the effort. There is no dedicated effort to do this work and it  has to
be prioritised against all the other work we have. In short, there is 
very limited resource available to evaluate, document and digitise
offered  collections. We do our best to make informed decisions and in
this case for  example, when and if we have the resource I would favour
concentrating on the  Peel Estate as being more likely to result in high
quality recordings.
I had suggested a project to digitise the best available recordings of
all the shows, thinking that these may be in the BBC archive. When you
think of the potential combined goodwill and financial and voluntary
resources of Peel fans, it ought to be possible to fund and staff this
relatively easily with the right sort of organisation. I got the
impression Mr Rooks had not really got the idea.

Steve

--- In peel@...m, "ken garner" <ken_garner@...> wrote:
>
>
> agreed on all that mate. Let's get 'em in!
>
> You're right, when I last looked at the complete show tape listings on
BBC INFAX, there were no more than 20 or 25 shows from any one year of
the Peel show (some years have less than 10, and there are very few from
before 1980), UNTIL you get to about 97/98/99, when the full force of
the new digitalising policy, recording of each show onto CD during
transmission, gradually became real practice.
>
> So I wonder who it was you spoke to in Archives, Steve? Can you dish
the dirt? He may have meant, of course, that they think they have all
the session tracks, which is probably true... but then it is only a very
few people in BBC Information & Archives who truly understand what they
have and have not really got! The really enlightened ones are those who
realise how much they are missing...
>
> ken
>
> --- In peel@yahoogroups.com, rockerq@ wrote:
> >
> > I think we in this group would be very interested in those tapes!
> >
> > The BBC probably have very little of this period saved, as it was
before
> > they digitized the shows.
> >
> > I am in Bristol, and would be happy for you to deliver them to me!
As you
> > may have gathered I am organizing the ripping of the "400 Box" of
late 70s /
> > early 80s which we clubbed together & bought on Myspace - this
should be
> > completed sometime over the summer - so I would be happy to take on
the "92/93
> > Box", provided no-one else volunteers, and you don't mind a bit of a
wait!
> >
> > Cheers!
> >
> > Rocker
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > <<Hi. I have a large number of cassettes of complete shows
covering a
> > > complete period of more than one year from 1992 through 1993, plus
a few shows
> > > and selected tracks with partial links from the early and mid
eighties,
> > > also including some Kershaw shows. The tapes include complete
tracklists with
> > > dodgy spellings. It is not clear on the tracklists where one show
begins
> > > and the next one ends, but possible to work out hopefully by
listening to
> > > them.
> > >
> > > These tapes have been stored a long time in boxes in an attic,
where they
> > > might have deteriorated. I hardly dare try to listen to them, but
I am
> > > currently clearing out the attic. If anyone may be interested to
have the whole
> > > lot or some of the collection, it is free to a good home. I'm in
North
> > > Dorset, and I'm willing to deliver free within Dorset, South
Somerset,
> > > Bristol, West Wilts, etc.
> > >
> > > If more detailed info is required, please ask for further info. I
can
> > > check the quality, the actual range of dates, and perhaps take
some photos if
> > > there is genuine interest.
> > >
> > > I wrote to the BBC archive to ask whether they have this period
covered as
> > > I would not like to dump the tapes if there was any chance of them
being
> > > unique, and the guy replied that he thought it highly likely that
they have
> > > the whole nineties covered, but obviously couldn't be bothered to
check
> > > properly.
> > >
> > > Steve Lowman>>
> >
>