[peel] Re: any interest in an early nineties cassette collection?

[Richard Fewster]

Hi Ken,
Is this Mike Dick collection ever likely to reach our eager ears?

And great news about your collection Steve. We seem to have an unusual
proportion of very valuable Steves in this group!

Cheers,

Rich

2009/4/22 ken garner <ken_garner@...>

>
>
>
> Thanks, Steve
>
> I don't know Simon, but his message is just about bang on accurate in every
> sense apart from that one point about the 90s - from the mid-90s, yes,
> maybe, but not from the start of the decade.
>
> As Martin rightly points out, it was never BBC policy to record complete
> music shows as a matter of course. They did keep low quality ROTs (records
> of transmission) for legal reasons (the snoop tapes, so-called, see previous
> posts) in case of complaints, but only for 3 months, and these were then
> recycled. These were done by a special engineering department and no
> producers or archivists ever saw them - unless they had to call one up in
> the light of a complaint.
>
> Before 1996-ish, complete, good quality shows were only ever taped the
> following ways: (i) producer decided to keep a one-off copy as a sample,
> what is now called officially 'heritage' sampling, though this was not an
> official policy again until the mid-90s. Bernie Andrews and John Muir did
> this quite a bit in the late 60s, Walters not much in the 70s (Jeff Griffin
> taped and kept all the In Concerts he produced, though, very astutely); (ii)
> someone in archives decided to record the odd one as an example (iii) the
> national sound archive (now part of the British Library) taped one as a
> sample.
>
> Unofficially, several BBC staff, incl engineers, would tape some shows from
> time to time, and these are turning up all the time. Regular members here
> will remember my news of the Mike Dick collection, some 150 complete peel
> shows from 79 to 85 recorded internally in high quality, restored by Peel's
> old mate Chris Lycett at Maida Vale in 07-08.
>
> Although Martin is right in one sense that to tape everything - every Radio
> 1 show, every day! - before the digital era would have been an impossible
> and thankless (not to mention pointless) task - it is also fair to make the
> point, as Peel often did (based on a discovery of Walters' back in the late
> 70s), that, bizarrely, every single weekly edition of Gardeners' Question
> Time, Start The Week, The Archers and Down Your Way, were recorded and
> archived for posterity, but no-one then ever dreamed of such a policy for
> Peel's shows, which we would agree were of equal if not greater cultural
> importance.
>
> Although, like I suspected, the man said he cannot tell you what is
> missing, nevertheless this COULD now be done: the BBC INFAX catalogue (now
> closed to the public, regretably) had a pretty reliable search function. You
> could then add that to the digitalised ones from 96 onwards, the Mike Dick
> collection, the other donations, etc etc.... and come up with a precise
> list. The problem is, of course, as he not unreasonably points out, that
> that would take someone a few weeks or months to pull together, and that is
> not their job - they are fully stretched simply archiving the current daily
> output of the BBC! I think this is an area where perhaps we can offer to
> come in and help, in the future, in the light of that comment in the
> Guardian article yesterday.
>
> All the shows they have - internal, donations, Mike Dick collection, ROTs
> on DAT from the mid 90s, etc - are or do get digitised, though, as wavs.
>
> I was not aware the Peel estate or family had a lot of show tapes. I know
> John did have some, some on reel to reel, more on cassette. It may be that
> people are donating them to Sheila, but I had not heard about this.
> Interesting, though this may be mere speculation on his part...
>
> k
>
>
> --- In peel@yahoogroups.com <peel%40yahoogroups.com>,
> "thinkingthinkingthinking" <slo.coche@...> wrote:
> >
> > 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@yahoogroups.com <peel%40yahoogroups.com>, "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 <peel%40yahoogroups.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>>
> > > >
> > >
> >
>
>  
>