Steel Pulse at the BBC Maida Vale studios.

After a long day spent in London, we headed out to Maida Vale to The BBC Studios;

This is the radio home of BBC classical music, drama and of the studios where bands ranging from The Beatles to Nirvana have played.

One of the smaller studios was where John Peel recorded sessions with up and coming young bands for some 30 years - recording everybody you've ever heard of.

Seriously!

They have proper equipment and everything;

This was a big deal for me - we had tickets to see 'Steel Pulse' being interviewed and playing cut down acoustic versions of tracks from their debut album 'Handsworth Revolution' which is now 38 years old.

The programme comes out on Radio 4 on 4th and 5th January 2016 and on the 'Mastertapes' website where it can be downloaded.

In fact I was getting worked up in the queue because we'd been asked to submit questions and mine wasn't selected.

Worst of all, the producer even sent out a second e-mail giving a list of suggested 'questions' we should send in.

It doesn't bring out the best in me.

Then it started and the band played most of the album - including 'Ku Klux Klan', 'prodigal', 'soundcheck' and 'Handsworth Revolution'.

Actually the presenter did ask my question (as Robyn reminded me later) about the Rock against Racism carnival in 1978.

Back then while 'Punk' gave angry white youth a voice, 'Steel Pulse' represented a British and more militant version of Reggae. The two were always going to come together even if the music was a world apart.


This is Selwyn Brown on keyboards and vocals and on the right David Hinds on lead vocals and rhythm guitar. They are the two survivors of the original band;

They were in good form - describing their early days in Birmingham and the problems black youth had at that time from racism and the Police, how their music represented their political activism and Rastafarian faith.

They talked about their role in 'Rock against Racism' which included playing in front of 150,000 people at the Victoria Park carnival in 1978.....including me.

There was some great music and the band were very willing to play for us - including a rerun which most bands wouldn't have bothered with.

David Hinds talked about the pressures the band had been under from record companies - to go mainstream when political Reggae was replaced by 'dancehall' or 'lovers rock', at a time when white youth was also turning it's back on punk and going over to the 'New Romantics' in the same way.

That was the effect of 'Thatcherism'.

A quick look at their website shows that the band has never lost it's engagement with politics and none of their activism either.

But it must have been tough - there were lean years.

Here's Selwyn Brown talking to fans after the show;

It was a huge pleasure to revisit 1978, a really tempestuous year and a turning point - a time to fight back.

And just as much a pleasure to hear a band still in very good form - unfortunately the BBC's unique lighting system defeated both my camera and Robyn's phone to the extent that we couldn't do justice to the rest of the band.

A very special evening.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Barry's Lunch Club.

Wow, that was a really tough day - a lot worse than spending the night in a field at Stonehenge celebrating the Solstice.

We took the Underground in to London.

I only took walking sticks and then ended up in a massive crowd. I'd forgotten how many stairs there are and no lifts.

Considering how many wars this country has been in and how many injured and disabled people we have always had - it's obvious that no one ever gave a %#@* when they built it.

It was agony and I never really got over it.

That's the grumbling over.

I got tickets from the BBC for a Radio 4 comedy recording; Barry's Lunch Club.

Well it was something to do, didn't cost anything and we got inside the RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts) studios.

Alex Lowe is a comedian who's been making fun of suburbia for a while on the radio as 'Barry from Watford' and he's just got his own show. He always made me laugh.

The photos aren't much good because I couldn't take any when they were recording (I'd have got thrown out) and Robyn had to do it surreptitiously (she took the rest on her phone).

Anyway......we never got a shot of the star himself!

Here's Philip Pope on Piano;

And here's Stephanie Cole who is properly famous;

I don't like being told I have to laugh, which is what the producer told us....it brings out the sullen worst in me, so I'm probably not the best person to be in a studio audience.

But I did laugh - Barry is funny and as his comedy is largely ad lib - the bits I particularly enjoyed weren't scripted.

And I enjoyed seeing 'behind the curtain'. I've listened to radio shows all my life and whenever I hear another one I'll think of last night at RADA.

And it's always a pleasure to watch people who are really good at their jobs.

Oh, did it hurt on the way back home, you have no idea.

But I've made it back to town on the Tube and I haven't done that since March 17th.

Perhaps I won't take another trip today....I might wait a day or so!

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Great to be back.

I’m having one of those lucky weeks – could it get any better than Monday?

Late Wednesday, me and Robyn took a chance and it worked out for us – we headed here;

Not sure?

Those are the domes suspended from the roof of The Royal Albert Hall to improve the 19^th century acoustics.

 

That’s right, we’re queuing up for The Promenade concerts at The Royal Albert Hall.

We’ve become ‘promenaders’, that means we are queuing up for standing tickets for ‘The Proms’, the summer concert season sponsored and broadcast by the BBC.

I’m not a fan of classical music – had a real try but it just didn’t work for me.

But the late night concerts are a different matter; a bit of Jazz, some world music, modern classical (minimalist or atonal, quite like a bit of that) and sometimes something a little more popular.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

This time I was being fairly tough with Robyn – this one was always going to sell out and we had to get there as early as possible, 8pm for a 10 15pm start. We got in easily.

This was to be a night of music by The Pet Shop Boys – Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe. They are pioneering exponents of 1980’s electronica, from the world of Disco, big stadiums and festivals.

We started off with an overture to ‘Performance’, written for their 1991 tour but never actually performed live before. As a medley of some of their music performed by the BBC Concert orchestra it was a piece I could take or leave – I’ve never liked orchestrations of popular music. It misses the point and I’ve never been happy that it works.

Chrissie Hynde, now that’s a different matter altogether, she performed 4 Pet Shop Boys songs; 'Vocal', 'Love is a Catastrophe', 'Later Tonight' and 'Rent' set to orchestra by film composer Angelo Badalamenti.

This fantastic picture is by Robyn May using her phone (I stole it, luckily she'll never know!), much better than anything my cheap camera can do;

I’ve seen Chrissie Hynde way back in The Pretenders days – this was very different to that; quiet, thoughtful, romantic and despite the large hall, very vulnerable.

Chrissie and Neil Tennant dueted for us on ‘Rent’, for me the highlight of the evening, I'm quite proud of this one;
 

Then the main piece; a world premiere and something very new;

 “The legendary Pet Shop Boys make their Proms debut in this Late Night Prom, joining the BBC Singers and BBC Concert Orchestra for the world premiere of A Man from the Future, a new piece for electronics, orchestra, choir and narrator.

 

The piece is inspired by the life and work of Alan Turing, who helped break the German Enigma code during the Second World War and formulated the concept of the digital computer, but was prosecuted in 1952 for his homosexuality, receiving a posthumous pardon last year. It comes as a timely homage, 60 years after Turing’s death.”

If it had been rubbish, it would have been worth being there just to hear the BBC Singers combining with the full BBC Concert orchestra conducted by Dominic Wheeler to celebrate the life of a man who was to be hounded to his death by the British Establishment for his sexuality.

This performance from the prestigious Albert Hall was broadcast live on BBC radio 3 and later will be televised, perhaps that goes a little of the way to say sorry to a man who played such a major role in the code breaking of the Enigma machine and laid the basis for modern computing.

It wasn’t rubbish; Juliet Stephenson narrated the story of Turing’s life and the vocals were from Neil Tennant and the BBC Singers.

Meanwhile high up in the hall you could just make out Chris Lowe, in his trade mark baseball cap, an Adidas top and jeans, supervising an array of monitors and laptops which controlled his formidable bank of computing, a billion times more powerful than anything Turing could have imagined.

And I mean a billion times more.

Really, what I would have liked to have done would have been to drag Chris Lowe down from his hidden corner and put him into the front of the hall. He’s been in the background too long; what we didn’t need was an orchestra stealing the sound and filling up the hall.

Just occasionally we got a stretch of electronics and how good it was to hear it there.

This was a missed chance to show just what electronic music can do in a fine setting– a string quartet and the singers would have been enough of an accompaniment.

Oh well, I’m still glad we made it, in the fifth row for ;

Actually, I'm over the moon. The last Prom I made it too was in August 2011. By November 2011 I was dying and that continued for the next two years. There was no way I was going make it standing for over 4 hours.

My doctor fought very hard to win me this little window; it's great to be back while it lasts.

Neil Harris 

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me:  neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com


 

Neil plus one; Tony Blackburn at the BBC.

The big secret I’ve been keeping from you?

It doesn’t happen very often but I won tickets to see something special;

{tony_Blackburn}

Yes – the celebration bash BBC London threw to mark his 50 years in broadcasting.

There was an exclusive and secret location – their old studios on Marylebone High Street.

We had to promise not to give it away.

There was a sprinkling of showbix stars;

 

There was music, there was glitter, there was even a proper cake;

 

The message on the photo is from Smoky Robinson who was interviewed last week for the show.

As you’ll know by now this wouldn’t be my kind of thing at all – I’m cynical and I hate all that stuff, but this really was a special night.

And no, I haven't sold out either!

Tony Blackburn has been around as long as anyone can remember – he was the original cheesy, embarrassing DJ of the 1960’s; he invented the whole smaltzy routine.

  J

As he joked he’s about the only one who hasn’t been arrested and some of them are in jail now.

Around 1981, Radio One had had enough of all of them and he got banished to those parts of radio you really don’t want to end up in; BBC Local Radio

It was then that his story starts to get really interesting because London’s local radio is a little bit different. It’s been messed about, cut back, neglected, ignored and had its name changed more times than St Petersburg.

Another week, another image.

But it just can’t help being a big city station all the same; irritating, annoying but sometimes edgy and even risky too.

And Tony Blackburn the original ‘all round entertainer’ could have just carried on doing his same old safe and boring routine until he ended up with Alan Partridge on Radio Haystack.

That didn’t happen, he reinvented himself.

He went back to where it all began – Soul music.

MOTOWNdetroit 

As a result in the 1980’s, his London shows attracted a cult following, an underground movement of soulboys and girls, Mods and groovers attracted by the sound of that sweet soul music.  

HITSVILLE

      U.S.A.

And word got out – there was a scene.

At the time I was working in a record shop and we’d check out his morning soul shows every day to catch the new releases (along with Blues and Soul Magazine and word of mouth) and then we’d get the orders in early so that the people who’d caught the sounds today would find the records already waiting for them tomorrow.

It was cool, I can tell you and we were a chart shop too.

When we sold a record it had an influence on the charts and in those days we played a small part in the resurgence of British Soul.

I could have been cynical about it all and written a sharp and sour piece about last night but it really was a pleasure to be there.

And it was nice, as a Mod, to pay homage to someone who stuck to what he believed in and played some amazing soul music over the years. KTF.

And then there was the music too;

 

Yeah really; me and Robyn in the front row, just by the microphone watching Cy Cranstone and his 7 piece house band. He was playing some of Jackie Wilson’s hits mixed with his own tunes; he’s got an album out and a massive record company plugging him like mad at the moment.

Then we got the cream of British Soul from the 1980’s – these were the acts I sold in our shop; lots of memories for me and some great numbers too.

That’s Jaki Graham blasting it out.

And that was Denise Pearson from 5-Star, really big in the 80’s and frankly, giving it some tonight.

There were some real highlights for us; The greetings from The S.O.S band in the States which made Robyn gasp and I'm guessing that Tony probably quite liked being called "Soul brother No. 1".

We also enjoyed Junior Giscombe (Style Council, Red Wedge, Soul Deep - not forgotten junior); he used a backing track with his duet with the late Tupac Shakur which was a hit for him in America.

Who wouldn’t like that morphing into ‘Mama used to say’ which was a cover hit for him here.

I liked that, but the real highlight for both of us was Leee John of ‘Imagination’;

 

Robyn hadn’t come across ‘Imagination’, they may have been big here but they didn’t cross the water so well.

But we both hate backing tracks and he sang it for real and alone. The pianist he brought with him was something special and Leee had that voice. All the acts should have had the confidence to do it alone too – they’ve got the sound and the soul to carry it off.

And so we drifted away at the end of a really special night.

I was thinking back to all the shows I’d heard coming out of those studios – deserted and abandoned now, come alive again for just one night.

All around us the old monitors and vinyl, the odds and ends of a technology that has been left behind for new sounds and new studios.

BBC London allowed in a small audience of people like us, real fans who’d loved that music over the years.

The kind of people who don’t normally get a glimpse behind the curtain. It was nice.

It was a unique audience too – a good mixture of black and white people who wouldn’t meet up together for any other broadcaster than Tony Blackburn.

And some very special sounds as well.

Thanks for all that.

Oh, by the way you can hear it all yourself (edited version) on all BBC Local radio stations when they all link up together at 7 pm on Friday night. Click on a picture for a slideshow and better quality.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
 

My Beatles Christmas.

THE

beaTles

I have to confess it has been a Beatles Christmas for me, shamelessly wallowing in nostalgia.

It started because I bought myself (why not?) ‘The Beatles On air – live at The BBC volume 2’.

About twenty years ago the BBC and Apple brought out a double cd of Beatles numbers from the archives with a few introductions and snippets as well. It was about a year before the magical series of demos, outtakes and odd leftover stuff came out on ‘The Beatles Anthology’.

Now there is a second volume out – I couldn’t resist. I loved the Beatles in the 1960’s and whatever anyone says I still like them now.

Beatles fans come in two blocks – before 1967 and after, I’m very much a ‘before 67’ fan.

I can’t stand Sgt Pepper, which was a dreadful, pretentious album. If you don’t believe me, listen to the tracks on ‘Anthology’, to the demos and early takes before George Martin messed them about, they are far better than the finished article. Also, Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane were due to be on it but EMI wanted a single out and they were ‘stolen’, we can only guess which songs made it as a result.

Anyway, ‘On Air 2’, is a pleasure; great sounds, great photos and some interviews, a lot of fun.

I grew up with a transistor radio from about 6 years old, catching the tail end of these broadcasts and later heard them endlessly repeated. Back then ‘The Beatles’ were aimed at a younger audience and they often did matinee performances for children.

They got their contract with Parlaphone records (EMI’s comedy label) – based on their humour, because everybody thought that the Merseybeat sound was already dead by then. Their ‘harmless’ humour won over the older generations as well as the BBC – they did a lot of performances (250 plus) and always nurtured their relationship with ‘The Beeb’.

When new experiences, the Vietnam war and drugs radicalised them – that was why the older generations were so scandalised – they had thought The Beatles were harmless.

Because their contract with EMI was so bad (a farthing per record – which is a quarter of an old penny or less than one eighth of a present day ‘new’ penny) they had to keep touring.

Their punishing schedule meant that their BBC shows were often crammed in between rushing up and down the country for shows. As a result it’s the nearest thing to a live performance you can find, without the screams.

It’s also the nearest thing to their act when they were playing all night in Hamburg – more rocky, more lively.

It’s a sheer joy to an old ‘un like me. And Brian Matthews (of Saturday Club fame) whose on the disc and got them onto the BBC to start with, is still broadcasting ‘The Sounds of The Sixties’ at 0800 am every Saturday on BBC Radio 2.

 

 

A Hard Days Night

Then I went into Staines for the sales and didn’t buy anything, except I went into Sports Direct and bought a Beatles Calendar which charts 1964 (50 years ago) with some wonderful photos from the Apple archive.

When I got home I enjoyed it so much that when I went back to Staines today to go to HMV for music, I bought another one to give to my new friend Thomas, in Upton Park Hospital, just so that he realises that you have to make plans for 2014, whatever the year holds.

He loved it too.

And I’ve still got to review Andrew Deeley’s album.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)