The Xmas 1965 Saturday Club 'eavesdrop tape' is hilarious. One of my favourite things that I've downloaded so far. Love the bit where they're arguing about rehearsals (when Ringo explains his plans, Paul's 'Hmm-mmm' reminds me of Oliver Hardy reacting to some Stan Laurel nonsense ). I've only grabbed selected things up to now but will download the whole series.Lord Reith wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2024 12:23 pmTop Of the Pops was made by the BBC Transcription Service. They would study the forthcoming domestic programme schedules and pick programmes they thought overseas listeners would be interested in. Sometime sthey would record them as they went to air and then edit them to suit their purposes, or sometimes they would eavesdrop on an actual recording session via a Post Office landline. So there would be two different copies of a session, one made by the BBC at the studio where it took place and one made by TS remotely. TS would naturally tend to edit their copy differently which explains why some bits are left in or out on either domestic or overseas versions. There are two TS Beatles eavesdrop tapes still in existence, one where The Beatles are trying to record I Feel Fine and She's A Woman and the eavesdrop tape also catches the discussion between the control room crew and The Beatles. The other one is the session for the Christmas 65 Saturday Club where the eavesdrop tape captures an argument about whether they're going to rehearse or not, and some impersonations of Cavern fans.old flat top wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2024 1:33 am Thank you for clarifying. So now it appears there are at least 3 different edits of that chat: (TG, TOTP, and Live at the BBC) none of them complete on their own. Very interesting.
I really liked the 'compilation' stuff. The extended Beatles At The Beeb, Yellow Matter Custard (I'm not really into making things into 'stereo' just because you can, but this stays on the right side of tasteful) and the Transcription Discs volume (I wouldn't have minded if the 'Four By The Beatles' EP had been on there though, fake or not ).
I discovered lately that all of 'The Special 36' fit on one CD (as long as you use the shorter Saturday Club version of Lucille), which makes a handy compilation. For actual listening pleasure though, I prefer a compilation of only the exclusive PGTB songs.
One thing I noticed is this. I previously said that the apex of their BBC recordings for me was the second From Us To You special (or more accurately, the TS 'Alan Freeman Introduces The Beatles' edit). But another highpoint of their BBC career for me is the PGTB programmes recorded in July 1963. Listening to my comp of the exclusive PGTB tracks, the ones taped in July seem to sound better than the others. It's not that they were all recorded in the same studio (6 programmes recorded over 3 sessions at 3 different studios), yet they all have a uniformity of (great) sound. Contrast that with the editions taped in August and September, which have a flatter and more boxy sound. Why is that?
I really enjoyed your 'Ramblings' documents (I think I've read ten of them, were there more?). A similar document with info on the various tape sources would be also welcome (if there isn't one already that I missed).