Harry And His Box Set (V1, 2, 7, 10, 12, 15, 14 update.)

[Lord Reith]

I wonder if Nigel Hunter is the source for the “Parlophone Rehearsal Session” boot. Maybe he recorded it as an aide memoire.

You know, that thought had occurred to me too.

[MrMurphMcgee]

Great details to add the the Beatles Beeb story.

[JoeWadley]

I loved the way you presented Lewisohn’s A COMPLETE CATALOGUE OF THE BEATLES' BBC RADIO PERFORMANCES last time, with your addendums that included comments on the tape sources for each show. I know that’s a lot of work in itself, but an update of that including the ramblings would be fun.

I did update it but to add everything including the ramblings would be too much. That's why the ramblings were separate.
[\quote]

Ahhh, found it in with disc 18. Thank you. Much appreciated.

I’m gathering things like that, the continuity sheet and such, in one folder so I can find them more easily.

[slane]

I loved the way you presented Lewisohn’s A COMPLETE CATALOGUE OF THE BEATLES' BBC RADIO PERFORMANCES last time

Isn't that what's included in volume 18 of this set?

Thanks, that's the kind of thing I was looking for. I like reading about this stuff almost as much as listening to it.

I think I can figure out a lot of it myself, but thought it might be an idea to specify what kind of (best) source each track comes from, e.g. BBC tape (are there any/), Copy of BBC tape, Transcription disc, Off air (via mic or direct feed), etc. and any other details such as who the source came from (if known), and alternate sources for tracks.

I wonder if Nigel Hunter is the source for the “Parlophone Rehearsal Session” boot. Maybe he recorded it as an aide memoire.

You know, that thought had occurred to me too.

Seems like a good bet to me too.

[Lord Reith]

I think I can figure out a lot of it myself, but thought it might be an idea to specify what kind of (best) source each track comes from, e.g. BBC tape (are there any/), Copy of BBC tape, Transcription disc, Off air (via mic or direct feed), etc. and any other details such as who the source came from (if known), and alternate sources for tracks.

Well maybe I'll do that at some point but the reason I didn't is because I just wanted the material to speak for itself. When people first heard these programmes on the radio they weren't concerned about any of that stuff. It can just get in the way of people's enjoyment I think. There aren't any BBC tapes prior to 1964 so anything that exists was taped by ordinary people like us. After that there are Transcription Service discs but there aren't that many with music, so once again most of it is just off air. Some were taped at 3&3/4ips quarter track which gives very good quality, and a few by Bernie Andrews and another guy were done at 7&1/2ips. Compare this to full track mono at 15ips, which was the original broadcast format. What we have sounds good, but those lost tapes would be simply stunning. They all should have been archived at Abbey Road!

I wonder if Nigel Hunter is the source for the “Parlophone Rehearsal Session” boot. Maybe he recorded it as an aide memoire.

Seems like a good bet to me too.

Yes, maybe a sweetener to encourage him to write a positive article, or as a reference for what he'd heard at the session. Might explain why it's terrible quality too, if it were recorded on a portable battery powered machine used for interviews.

[slane]

I think I can figure out a lot of it myself, but thought it might be an idea to specify what kind of (best) source each track comes from, e.g. BBC tape (are there any/), Copy of BBC tape, Transcription disc, Off air (via mic or direct feed), etc. and any other details such as who the source came from (if known), and alternate sources for tracks.

Well maybe I'll do that at some point but the reason I didn't is because I just wanted the material to speak for itself. When people first heard these programmes on the radio they weren't concerned about any of that stuff. It can just get in the way of people's enjoyment I think. There aren't any BBC tapes prior to 1964 so anything that exists was taped by ordinary people like us. After that there are Transcription Service discs but there aren't that many with music, so once again most of it is just off air. Some were taped at 3&3/4ips quarter track which gives very good quality, and a few by Bernie Andrews and another guy were done at 7&1/2ips. Compare this to full track mono at 15ips, which was the original broadcast format. What we have sounds good, but those lost tapes would be simply stunning. They all should have been archived at Abbey Road!

Yeah, I can understand that. It would be an informative document for those who are interested in the recovery of this material though.

One more question - I remember hearing something about the 'Bush House Tape', which was apparently a compilation of PGTB material. Does that actually exist, and what is it exactly?

[Lord Reith]

One more question - I remember hearing something about the 'Bush House Tape', which was apparently a compilation of PGTB material. Does that actually exist, and what is it exactly?

It was called "The Bush Tape". According to Tommy Vance who first played the tape on the Friday Rock Show in 1980, it came from a guy who worked at the BBC World Service in Bush House. Apparently when PGTB originally aired one of the engineers recorded bits of it, which wouldn't have been too difficult as there were landlines from Broadcasting House to Bush House. Kevin Howlett says they used to play the tape at Bush House on the night shift.

The tape has 16 tracks:

nothin shakin
lonesome tears
so how come
memphis
secret
matchbox
till there was you
please mr postman
hippy shake
crying waiting
to know her
honeymoon song
dont ever change
shot of R&B
monkey business
pop go the beatles

You'll recognise that this tape formed the basis of the first hour of "The Beatles At the Beeb" but it was actually heard first on Tommy Vance's show two years earlier (and I shared a compilation of those shows here somewhere - search for "The Friday Rock Show")

[slane]

One more question - I remember hearing something about the 'Bush House Tape', which was apparently a compilation of PGTB material. Does that actually exist, and what is it exactly?

It was called "The Bush Tape". According to Tommy Vance who first played the tape on the Friday Rock Show in 1980, it came from a guy who worked at the BBC World Service in Bush House. Apparently when PGTB originally aired one of the engineers recorded bits of it, which wouldn't have been too difficult as there were landlines from Broadcasting House to Bush House. Kevin Howlett says they used to play the tape at Bush House on the night shift.

The tape has 16 tracks:

nothin shakin
lonesome tears
so how come
memphis
secret
matchbox
till there was you
please mr postman
hippy shake
crying waiting
to know her
honeymoon song
dont ever change
shot of R&B
monkey business
pop go the beatles

You'll recognise that this tape formed the basis of the first hour of "The Beatles At the Beeb" but it was actually heard first on Tommy Vance's show two years earlier (and I shared a compilation of those shows here somewhere - search for "The Friday Rock Show")

That's the list I've seen before, thanks for confirming.

I'm guessing that the songs on this tape are still the 'masters' being used by Apple. Or have they been superseded?

Just looking at the contents (and still wondering about PGTB#5, which precedes the material here). Might the 'reference acetate' that the 'Four By The Beatles' EP supposedly comes from also be a Bush House recording? Like a trial run for the above?

[Lord Reith]

I'm guessing that the songs on this tape are still the 'masters' being used by Apple.

Not sure.

Just looking at the contents (and still wondering about PGTB#5, which precedes the material here). Might the 'reference acetate' that the 'Four By The Beatles' EP supposedly comes from also be a Bush House recording? Like a trial run for the above?

Possibly. The BBC premises were all interconnected by audio landlines and sometimes things would be recorded remotely from somewhere else entirely. At Broadcasting House there were rooms called "Recording Channels" where the operator could patch in audio from any source be it a live broadcast, live performance from somewhere else, a tv broadcast or anything and record it to tape or disc. Mostly 78rpm discs because they were cheap although obviously they only stored about 5 minutes a side, or 10 minutes at 33&1/3. I've seen hundreds of these things, sometimes a producer would want an audio copy of a tv show as it went out and they'd literally spread it over 10 discs! There possibly were PGTB producer discs although I've never seen a real one, only a faked picture which had six songs from episode 6 (which would have well exceeded 5 mins!) Likewise at Bush House there were these same rooms and it's possible someone just liked what they were hearing and threw on a blank acetate as it went out on the air. Or maybe wanted to evaluate the programme for overseas broadcast. That is the only way in-house copies could survive as there were no real opportunities for someone to just pull a tape off the shelf and copy it. The tapes were all kept at Broadcasting House and no-one but the engineers were allowed to touch them or you'd have a strike on your hands. You'd have to ask an engineer to do it and have a valid reason for doing so. It was all very regimented.

[Spaniard in da Works]

I'm listening to the "It's The Beatles" portion.

I'm probably not saying anything that hasn't been said before, but what a pity that this show was not recorded by someone who knew what they were doing, like the guys who recorded Pop Go The Beatles or Pop '63. The performance is fantastic, and this might be the greatest Roll Over Beethoven ever. MY GOD, RINGO.

Also, it appears that John introduces more numbers than usual. I don't know if it's because the show is in Liverpool and he can pretend he's in the Cavern or something - I always got the vibe that he felt the theatre concerts a bit weird and that's why he deferred to Paul's showbiz instincts to conduct the show.

EDIT - Yup, you can certainly feel the difference when John and Paul introduce numbers from With The Beatles. John is addressing the local crowd and calls Till There Was You a number that "it's on the new LP, but you'll remember it from the Cavern", while Paul is conscious that he's on national TV and calls Money (which the audience knows since back in the Pete Best years) "a new number from the new LP".