BBC POTPOURI

[Lord Reith]

Yes it was TOTP that preserved the lion's share of the 1960s pop sessions. They started with The Beatles in show 1 and it became an instant and massive international hit that plundered Brian Matthew and John Peel's shows mostly. They didn't play any records.

[ringo9]

At the Pink Floyd community I read transcription disc were great sounding, Pink Floyd wise at least

[ianbuckers]

Yes it was TOTP that preserved the lion's share of the 1960s pop sessions. They started with The Beatles in show 1 and it became an instant and massive international hit that plundered Brian Matthew and John Peel's shows mostly. They didn't play any records.

I shall download any that I see from now on then. Lesson learnt!

[Egg_Crisis]

Yes it was TOTP that preserved the lion's share of the 1960s pop sessions. They started with The Beatles in show 1 and it became an instant and massive international hit that plundered Brian Matthew and John Peel's shows mostly. They didn't play any records.

I shall download any that I see from now on then. Lesson learnt!

The confusion for most people is that there's also a TV show called Top of The Pops which is almost all lipsynced performances with the occasional (questionably?) live vocal sung over the pre-recorded studio track, and the occasional live performance.

[Lord Reith]

The confusion for most people is that there's also a TV show called Top of The Pops which is almost all lipsynced performances with the occasional (questionably?) live vocal sung over the pre-recorded studio track, and the occasional live performance.

No, they really did sing live vocals to backing tapes! Unfortunately the BBC wiped all the shows from that period but there are some audio recordings which show intriguing versions of hits of the time. That was the only way the Union would let the artists get away with not playing live.

I had a chance to download all of the TOTP discs a long time ago (something like 250 of them) but a lot of them were of bands I'd never even heard of so i only grabbed about 20. I can share those 20 though if people are interested. Mostly i picked ones where The Beatles appeared in some form. One week they played the film version of Help! with the alternate vocal.

[ennolenno]

I can share those 20 though if people are interested.

Oh yes, I'm very interested!

[Egg_Crisis]

The confusion for most people is that there's also a TV show called Top of The Pops which is almost all lipsynced performances with the occasional (questionably?) live vocal sung over the pre-recorded studio track, and the occasional live performance.

No, they really did sing live vocals to backing tapes! Unfortunately the BBC wiped all the shows from that period but there are some audio recordings which show intriguing versions of hits of the time. That was the only way the Union would let the artists get away with not playing live.

I was mainly thinking about the period I watched it (late 70's to mid-to-late 90's). During that period it was all lipsynced, apart from a brief period sometime around the late 80's/early 90's when the show (for some reason?) received a lot of criticism for not allowing people to sing live, so they tried it for a while by having a small number of live performances, or taped backing track but live vocals, but that experiment was pretty short-lived and they quickly went back to lipsynced performances and nobody seemed to care.

And my "questionably?" was because I've heard a few audio clips from the 60's and when they're posted there's always forum discussions along the lines of "it's not live" ... "yes it is!" ... "no it's not, the vocals are different" ... "are you sure, I compared them and they're identical to the record" ... "but the way he pronounces this one word is slightly different". The off-tv recordings are usually grotty and when the difference is so slight it doesn't excite me very much.

[Purple Chick]

The Searchers set is here

hxxps://we.tl/t-9wYQVGU0oy

Almost missed that - thank you!
I'm finally gonna finish off my Searchers collection...

[Lord Reith]

I feel sorry for the three guys in The Seekers. They had overnight success and a string of number ones - including a US #1 - but they never made a penny because their contract was so bad. And when it came time to renogiate the contract (which would have made them rich), Judith Durham dumped them and went solo.

[ennolenno]

I can share those 20 though if people are interested. Mostly i picked ones where The Beatles appeared in some form.

Do you have show no. 8, 1965 (Merseybeats; Alexis Korners Blues Incorporated; Beatles; Marty Wilde; Freddie & The Dreamers) and show no. 11, 1965 (Alexis Korner; Tony Rivers & The Castaways; Swinging Blue Jeans; Matt Monro; Johnny Spence) by any chance and if so, would you share it? Thanks a lot in advance.