BBC Archives

[alanforduk]

> [Alan - by the bye - i think I have TWO more of the Peel-for-
Radcliffe shows from that week in March 96 somewhere ...


Thanks Ken. I've got 45 mins of 19/3/96 and 90 mins of 20/3/96 but 
the quality varies from bad to appalling. I'll wait to see what 
you've got first.

Alan



--- In peel@yahoogroups.com, "ken garner" <ken_garner@...> wrote:
>
> Happy new year all. A lot of bits and pieces to try and answer.
> 
> First, Bill, on this one, Rocker is probably right: if Peel sounded 
like he meant he was 
> listening back immediately to that night;s show, then, yes, it must 
have been a cassette 
> made during broadcast by the studio engineer for him. Neither 
Sheila nor John ever 
> mentioned these to me and knowing Peel I doubt he kept them. For 
the general picture on 
> complete show tapes, see my long post on the topic from summer 08, 
pasted below.
> 
> Martin is right to be cautious - but I think Roger and the 
Preservations department will be 
> happy to be offered the lossless versions of all we have achieved, 
though what they decide 
> to do with them I don't know. If we added in offers of the 500 
project, my own (I am 
> already doing a checklist for them), and others, with a short 
statement of our collective 
> policy (which I think we all know - no money, our only intent is to 
help broaden and 
> deepen the Peel archive in any way we can, and are sharing files in 
compressed form at 
> this archiving stage mainly to check errors, reconstruct gaps and 
glitches), I think that 
> would look good. If I might be excused a moment of vanity - but it 
does support my 
> analysis of the politics here - my brother in law coincidentally 
met an in law on his side of 
> the family over Christmas who had just joined that department at 
Maida Vale, who said 
> something like 'we all think Ken's book is great and keep telling 
him so whenever he gets 
> stuff our way'. I think he was refering to lost sessions, but the 
point holds for anything 
> and everything, I suspect.
> 
> [Alan - by the bye - i think I have TWO more of the Peel-for-
Radcliffe shows from that 
> week in March 96 somewhere and will see what I can do sometime. I 
have none from the 
> other two weeks.]
> 
> On another matter, I've evidently been thinking something similar 
to Steve over the 
> holidays. The wiki is blossoming into a glorious thing. And when I 
eventually got round to 
> looking seriously at Phil's database a few weeks ago I realised how 
astounding that was 
> too. A good resolution for 09 therefore might be as follows....
> 
> .... if all those on this list who are not otherwise generally 
involved in the 400 /500 / etc 
> box ripping project(s) made an effort to complete a single show 
tracklisting for the wiki 
> once a month, then in theory within 2 or 3 years there would be a 
wiki entry of some form 
> for almost every Peel show. You could start with ones that 
obviously need doing -as new 
> tapes emerge week by week and the archivists do not have the time 
to do all that - and 
> then move on to others, working from (for example) my shows index, 
your diaries, the 
> sessionography, other documents, etc. This would mean that it could 
even be a realisable 
> prospect that in the not too distant future the (not very) mythical 
request Peel used to get 
> in the post - "one night ten years ago in the summer of 84 you 
played a long reggae 
> record with the word Jah in it. Can you now tell me what this was, 
because I wish to get it 
> - you'll know what it was because you played a Smiths session track 
straight afterwards" - 
> could actually be answered!
> 
> k
> 
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> "...Peel may of course have been joking! But, to be serious, all 
commercial radio
> stations and the BBC - were/are required to keep a record of 
transmissions for 28 days in
> case of complaints. But these were normally done back then by a 
very lo-fi, slow, one
> and a quarter inch per second reel to reel tape recording (or later 
on cassette), by
> engineers in a special (remote) department, and the which tapes 
were then recycled. They 
> were just to have a record of what were said. I couldn't remember 
what these tapes were
> called, so I ran this past retired Radio 1 archivist Phil Lawton 
last night and he says: "The
> tapes of speech were commonly known as "snoop" tapes and held as 
you say in case of a
> listener's complaint. They were kept from 1-3 months before being 
wiped." So these tapes 
> to the best of my knowledge were not kept, ever. Producers never 
saw them - unless
> there was a complaint they had to answer!
> 
> Listenable, better quality recordings of shows before the mid-90s 
(since when in
> theory every show has been recorded on a CD during transmission in 
the studio –
> although often this has not happened!)
 were only ever done 
selectively by (a) the BBC 
> Sound Archives as an occasional sample of a show, (b) the national 
sound archive in 
> Kensington, now part of the British Library, or (c) the individual 
show producer, who 
> frequently had to keep such tapes at home to avoid the occasional 
visitations of the tape-
> wiping police to offices. Example: Sounds of the 70s producer (and 
good guy) Malcolm 
> Brown, left R1 for an attachment at BBC TV in 75. He came back 
early in 77, unlocked his 
> office on the third floor of Egton, and was shocked to find his 
shelves of all his great 
> sessions he had produced himself (Thin Lizzy, Free, Hawkwind, etc 
etc) had been taken 
> and wiped in his absence in compliance with policy, which valued 
blank tape a more 
> worthy commodity than any live music recorded on it.
> 
> Anyway, all this means that until recently, many years, especially 
from 1970-1990, only
> have half a dozen complete Peel shows each in the BBC archive. 
Others (2000, and
> 1999, for example) have dozens, almost all, or at least well over 
100 complete. The norm 
> is anything between 10 and 30 shows surviving from each year. Until 
the test BBC archive 
> catalogue pages were taken down from the web, anyone could search 
these privately!
> 
> But more shows have been emerging since 2005. Example: a 
professional BBC sound 
> engineer called Mike Dick recorded over 150 Peel shows complete in 
high quality reel to 
> reel audio between 1979-1985, and donated them a couple of years 
ago. Preservations 
> found an example of the original tape machine Dick had used, and 
then at Maida Vale got 
> Chris Lycett (Peel's old producer for the middle of that period) in 
as a consultant, to work 
> his way through them trying to date them, using my old book and his 
own diaries. I came 
> in half way through this project and helped a bit in clarifying 
some dates and a few 
> muddles that had crept in. I think most of these shows are now 
fully digitised and in the 
> system. It was thanks to the Dick collection that Chris, Roger 
Olive and I found and 
> restored to the archive (and the band - one of them is now a 
producer at BBC Ulster!) the 
> long lost Protex session from 1979 (TX on show of 19/2/79, a lovely 
programme, they lent 
> it to me, broadcast after Peel got home after a week in Ireland, to 
an England covered in 
> snow), for example, originally recorded for the Jensen show and 
therefore almost certainly 
> lost - i am guessing here - when the tape went back to that 
programme's office at Egton. I 
> have the list somewhere as an excel spreadsheet, and suspect there 
is occasional overlap 
> (but not much) with the 400 project here, and Dick also taped the 
entire second series of 
> Peel's Pleasures!
> 
> Once the 400 project is complete it would make sense for me to 
cross check with the Dick
> collection catalogue before we donate uncompressed files to BBC, to 
avoid unnecessary 
> duplication. Phil also suggests the right person to give the 
recordings to is Roger Olive, 
> who can be trusted to look after them..."
> 
> --- In peel@yahoogroups.com, "billfromnorthwales" 
<billfromnorthwales@> wrote:
> >
> > I have a couple of questions about the BBC and Peel tapes. 
Someone like 
> > Ken may know this, I guess?
> > 
> > 1. On one of the recent 400 box shows, Peel says he often 
listened to a 
> > tape of the show on his way home. So we can assume that there 
must be 
> > many complete shows either in the BBC archives or at Peel Acres
> > 
> > 2. If these tapes were shortlived, and not archived, are they 
> > interested in what we are doing here? 
> > 
> > Just wondering.....
> >
>