THE FRIDAY ROCK SHOW

[dmh84]

Thanks so much yet again!!
Always cool to hear about the treasure hunts of old--makes me certainly appreciate this place all the more.

[MCPing16]

These must have been mind blowing for fans in 1979/80. The only BBC boots up till then had all been atrocious quality, and all the best ones had been in the first few years of the decade. Lightning from a clear sky.

I remember staying up late to tape these and the excitement I had hearing these holy grail tracks that I'd only read about in The Beatles An Illustrated Record by Roy Carr and Tony Tyler. Then learning to play them on the guitar and feeling smug that I was able to play these special songs and the neighbours had no idea how special what they were hearing was (well I was very young!!!) A few months later I went to my first record fair and was amazed to find several LP's with these, and other, BBC tracks on. Mind well and truly blown. Limited budget, which to choose??? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGH!! Happy days indeed.

P.S. VERY surreal hearing BBC Beatles followed by the Tygers Of Pan Tang!

[Lord Reith]

Also amazing timing that these broadcasts took place just around the time Lewisohn's BBC catalogue came out. Just like Ultra Rare Trax a few years later.

[brenski]

just missed this - any chance of a re-up
thanks

[harrythebannister]

Also amazing timing that these broadcasts took place just around the time Lewisohn's BBC catalogue came out. Just like Ultra Rare Trax a few years later.

I think it was the Record Collector feature which sparked the Beeb into digging out what they had left and broadcasting them. It was very strange why they would choose The Friday Rock show to broadcast them on though. Totally out of context with the heavy rock/ metal which was usually played and an even more bizarre twist was the following week Tommy Vance dug out some old Bono Dog Band sessions.

[Lord Reith]

Also amazing timing that these broadcasts took place just around the time Lewisohn's BBC catalogue came out. Just like Ultra Rare Trax a few years later.

I think it was the Record Collector feature which sparked the Beeb into digging out what they had left and broadcasting them. It was very strange why they would choose The Friday Rock show to broadcast them on though. Totally out of context with the heavy rock/ metal which was usually played and an even more bizarre twist was the following week Tommy Vance dug out some old Bono Dog Band sessions.

I don't think it was too odd because he played an archive session every week and the only reason they were all so recent was because all the really old stuff was long gone. But they do sound out of place and hard to imagine what most of the regular listeners thought of them. But I think this was such an exceptional rarity that it didn't matter. They fared much better in the context of a dedicated documentary though. A lot of people would have been like "Huh? The Beatles had a radio series? What?!"

It's also hard to believe that these recordings were only 15-17 years old. Think of what was on the charts in 2006... wasn't it basically the same as now? Music really did progress in those days. Now it's just frigging wallpaper.