Colin H on Bert Jansch at the BBC
The following information was prepared for possible inclusion in the ‘Bert Jansch at the BBC’ box set, but not used. It is gathered from the BBC Written Records Centre, the BBC audio licensing database, communications with several current and past producers, BBC transcription discs, listings in Radio Times and references in other period newspapers, surviving off-air recordings, off-air notes made by listeners at the time and anecdotal evidence. With the caveat that someone somewhere probably recalls hearing Bert on this or that regional BBC station at some point in the 1980s, 90s or 00s, it represents – with one caveat – all that can now be known about Bert’s many performing appearances on BBC radio and television. The caveat is that research at Caversham was not completed before the Covid-19 lockdown. Consequently, there are several instances of missing ‘songs played’ information that would have been retrievable from programme-as-broadcast microfiche – a task for some ardent fan in the future.
CONTINUES IN COMMENTS…
BERT JANSCH BBC RADIO SESSIONS
GUITAR CLUB (HOME SERVICE)
Rec: 14/11/66, Studio 2, Broadcasting House
TX: 16/12/66
Producer: Bernie Andrews
Fee: 10 guineas
Songs: Whisky Man / Running from Home / The Wheel
Bert is interviewed by urbane presenter/guitarist Ken Sykora ahead of a series of solo concerts and performs three numbers, including the otherwise unrecorded original ‘Whisky Man’. Two songs from the show, running a tone fast, were posted online in 2019 by Sykora’s family. This complete session in the box set derives from a master copy kept by producer Bernie Andrews.
WONDERFUL COPENHAGEN (R2)
Rec: ?/67
TX: 7/10/67
A 45-minute show recorded in Denmark and featuring Bert and John Renbourn, Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick and artists from Denmark and Sweden. The four Britons were regular visitors to Denmark in the late 60s and all four were featured in a Danish TV documentary Folksangere i London, filmed earlier that year in London. The Pentangle filmed a (now lost) TV concert in Denmark in August 1967, which aside from group numbers is known to have featured Bert performing ‘Nottamun Town’ solo and ‘Orlando’ in a duo with Renbourn. No further information on Wonderful Copenhagen can be found at the BBC Written Archives Centre at Caversham (hereafter, WAC).
NIGHT RIDE (R1/2)
Rec: 11/12/68, Studio 2, Broadcasting House
TX: 18/12/68
Producer: John Muir
Fee: 25 guineas
Songs: Tree Song / I Loved a Lass / I Got a Woman / Thames Lighterman / Haitian Fight Song / Birthday Blues
A Bert Jansch & Danny Thompson session. ‘All monies made payable to Mr Joe Lustig’, the Pentangle’s manager. Three of the five items would appear on Bert’s 1969 album Birthday Blues. Five of the six items survive off-air from two sources, one of which is the bass solo ‘Haitian Fight Song’. ‘Thames Lighterman’ was otherwise unrecorded by Bert.
COUNTRY MEETS FOLK (R1)
TX: 25/1/69, live on air from Playhouse Theatre
Producer: Ian Grant
Fee: £15
Songs: Come Sing Me A Happy Song / Come Back Baby / I Am Lonely
Two more songs from ‘Birthday Blues’ (1969) and one from ‘Nicola’ (1967). None survive. Other guests on the hour-long show this week, presented by Wally Whyton, were George Hamilton IV, the Lorne Gibson Trio and Derek Brimstone.
SOUNDS OF THE 70S (R1)
Rec: 15/7/71, Aeolian Hall Studio 2
TX: 2/8/71
Producer: John Muir
Fee: £25
Songs: Twa Corbies / Nobody’s Bar / Bird Song
SOUNDS OF THE 70S (R1)
Rec: 15/7/71, Aeolian Hall Studio 2
TX: 23/8/71
Producer: John Muir
Fee: £25
Songs: Omie Wise / Tell Me What is True Love (plus a repeat of the three tracks above)
By chance, Melody Maker ran a feature on Radio 1 in its 28/8/71 issue, giving a snapshot of that week’s key shows, which included this one with Bert in session and Bob Harris presenting: ‘As a progressive music programme, Sounds of the 70s is a dead loss, and as a programme for ordinary folk who want to hear a nice “toon” … it must come across as mediocre and tedious. Bob Harris does quite a good job with his programme as a whole, and when the show moves to its later slot and he has far more time to waffle, it will take on a new light. But at the moment, judging by Monday night, he is restricted to a few minutes chat per programme which means that someone who had never heard of Bert Jansch would know little more about him except that he sings and plays a fine guitar.’
Save for one Festival Hall solo concert that year, this was the only time Bert performed the ‘Rosemary Lane’ LP tracks ‘Nobody’s Bar’ and ‘Bird Song’; ‘Tell Me’ was occasionally revived in the 90s. Similarly, it was a very rare performance of ‘Twa Corbies’, which would appear on ‘Moonshine’ (1973). None of the session appears to have survived.
SOUNDS OF 70S/THE SEQUENCE (R1)
Rec: 5/4/73, Langham 1
TX: 27/4/73
Producer: John Muir
Fee: £25
Solo: Oh My Father / The Wheel / Running from Home / Soho
Ostensibly, a session to promote the newly released LP ‘Moonshine’. Bert plays one item from it, his new single ‘Oh My Father’. The other tracks on this show, presented by Pete Drummond, date from 1965–66 and were reappearing in his repertoire in the immediate aftermath of the Pentangle finally collapsing in March 1973. Bert performed scattered shows between February and April (in Reading, Coventry and Aberdeen) before slipping off to Wales to try and be a farmer for a year or so, and appeared on Norwegian TV in May, performing ‘Running from Home’ and ‘The Wheel’. These two songs also appeared (mentioned by a local paper review) at the Aberdeen concert. ‘Soho’ rarely appeared in Bert’s repertoire after this, until his penultimate performance, at Cambridge Folk Festival, in 2011 (an amateur video clip of which is online).
At this point, Bert was being represented by the Pentangle’s final manager (after many years with Jo Lustig), Roger Myers, an accountant for the Rolling Stones. The contract states: ‘All cheques to Roger Myers, Roxburgh House, Regent Street.’ An internal BBC memo of 19/4/73 states that Bert is changing representation to Dunbarton [sic] Artists Management Ltd. A contract, for £6.25, is later created for the use of ‘The Wheel’ to be rebroadcast in a SOTS Sequence special on 3/8/73 as is a separate contract for the use of ‘Soho’ on the same show (although the recording date for both is given as 19/4/73). Despite these rebroadcasts, nothing from this session appears to survive.
GENTLEFOLK (BBC RADIO BIRMINGHAM)?
TX: 28/4/75
Known only from a newspaper listing, where the 45-minute show is said to be ‘featuring Scotch Mist and Bert Jansch’, implying a live appearance rather than a record spin.
FOLKWEAVE (R2)
Planned Rec: 27/5/76, S5, Broadcasting House, Manchester
Planned TX: TBA
Producer: Peter Pilbeam
Fee: £35 + £9.40 train return to London
Contract: ‘To talk to Tony Capstick and play three tunes.’ Bert is now represented by Bruce May Music Management, 40 Charlwood Rd, SW15. The contract is cancelled on 27/5/76 with no reason noted.
FOLKWEAVE (WORLD SERVICE)
Rec: 31/7/77, live at Cambridge Folk Festival
TX: ?
Fee: £32
Songs: Poormouth / Blues Run the Game / Daybreak / Pretty Saro / Ask Your Daddy* / If I Had A Lover* / Come Back Baby
A Bert Jansch, Martin Jenkins, Danny Thompson and Mary Hopkin (*) concert recording, presented by Toni Arthur. The fee is paid to Bruce May. The selection broadcast included three songs from Bert’s current album A Rare Conundrum (1977) and two that would appear on the Bert Jansch Conundrum’s Thirteen Down (1980). Mary Hopkin had previously recorded backing vocals on Bert’s Moonshine (1973). ‘If I Had a Lover’ is a translation of a song by Swede Jan Johansson, always introduced in that way, although it appears on Thirteen Down erroneously credited to Bert.
IN CONCERT (R1)
Rec: 21/5/80, Paris Theatre
TX: 24/5/80
Producer: Jeff Griffin
Fee: £100
Songs: Poor Mouth / Running from Home / Kingfisher / Let Me Sing / Sovay / Alimony
A concert specifically staged for the BBC’s In Concert featuring the Bert Jansch Conundrum – Bert, Martin Jenkins and Nigel Portman Smith with Stuart ‘Luce’ Langridge guesting on drums. Save for the 1980 Japan-only Live at La Foret (1980), Lead Belly’s ‘Alimony’ was otherwise unrecorded by Bert. The canon-style rearrangement of ‘Running from Home’ is also peculiar to this concert and the Japanese LP. Internal BBC memos reveal that Bert turned up without a PA so he hired one and Jeff Griffin agreed to pay for it ‘as he didn’t want In Concert to blow out’. ‘Both groups used it’ (the other act on this concert being the John Renbourn Group). PA hire from Professional Audio Engineers was £90. Bert is now being represented by his partner Charlotte Crofton-Sleigh c/o Flat 5, 5 Rosslyn Rd, Twickenham. This show was previously released in slightly edited form on CD in 1993 along with the 1982 In Concert.
IN CONCERT (R1)
Rec: 28/4/82
TX: 22/5/82
Producer: Jeff Griffin
Fee: £138
Songs: Love is Lost / Fresh as a Sweet Sunday Morning / Up to the Stars / If I Were a Carpenter / Sit Down Beside Me / Is It Real? / Heartbreak Hotel
Advertised as ‘Bert Jansch and Friends’. The line-up was due to be Bert, Nigel Portman Smith, Albert Lee and Terry Cox. Terry was involved in a road accident and replaced at late notice by Luce Langridge. Bert was now represented by Robin Greatrex, On the Green Ltd., Hammer House, 113–117 Wardour St. Five of the seven tracks derived from the Heartbreak (1982) album that was being promoted. This was the last time, barring reconfigurations of the Pentangle (1982–95, 2008, 2011) that Bert toured with a band. From this point on, barring a few Edinburgh Festival shows with Paul Millns and Nigel Portman Smith (1985–86) and a US trio tour with Jacqui McShee and John Renbourn in 1992, he would tour in solo or duo capacity.
ROUND MIDNIGHT (R4)
TX: 23/8/85 live
Producer: Robin Sedgely
Song: Is It Real?
Bert Jansch, Nigel Portman Smith and pianist Paul Millns. Live on air with a small audience from the Castle Suite, Caledonian Hotel, Edinburgh, presented by Brian Matthew and broadcast, literally, around midnight. The trio was specific to the Edinburgh Festival this year and the next. A non-BBC recording of one of their concerts survives.
TRAVELLING FOLK (BBC RADIO SCOTLAND)
TX: 29/8/85 live
Producer: Philip Whittaker
Bert Jansch, Nigel Portman Smith and Paul Millns. Live on air from BBC Studio 1, Edinburgh. Content unknown.
ROUND MIDNIGHT (R4)
TX: 20/8/86 live
Producer: Stella Hanson
Bert Jansch, Nigel Portman Smith, Paul Millns. Live on air from the Castle Suite, Caledonian Hotel, Edinburgh. Presumably one song was broadcast, as with the previous year.
FOLK ON TWO (R2)
Rec: ?/88, Pebble Mill, Birmingham
TX: 4/5/88
Producer: Geoffrey Hewitt
Sweet Rose / This Land is Your Land / Ain’t No More Cane / Strolling Down the Highway / Knight’s Move
Bert & Rod Clements, in session to promote their new touring and recording partnership. Their sole album, Leather Launderette (1988) for Black Crow Records, remains the only Jansch album never to have been available on CD. Four of the tracks in this session feature on the album while the fifth, ‘This Land’, was the duo’s contribution to a Woody Guthrie tribute LP on Black Crow, Woody Lives! (1987). Bert was recuperating from a major operation during 1988, and a new lifestyle without alcohol. His creativity was at a low ebb and Leather Launderette featured only two wholly new Jansch (co-)compositions (‘Why Me?’ and ‘Knight’s Move’), plus re-recordings of older songs like ‘Sweet Rose’ and ‘Strolling’, a couple of traditional songs and new material from Rod. There were two extensive UK club tours that year and much credit must be given to Rod for keeping Bert visible and active, after a period in which his reputation for reliability among bookers had declined.
NIGHT RIDE (R2)
Rec: ?/88, BBC Birmingham
TX: 16/4/88, 28/5/88, 1/6/88 and other dates
Producer:
Songs: Sally Free and Easy / Been on the Road So Long / Strolling Down the Highway / Bogie’s Bonny Belle / This Land is Your Land / The Snows they Melt the Soonest / Poor Mouth / Knight’s Move
Another Bert & Rod session. There are two off air sources, with five songs in common and eight songs between them. At least two dedicated fans stayed up between 1–3am for several nights (with songs from a weekly session scattered over five nights, and the session repeated at least once) to tape the eight items that survive. Adding intrigue, the shared songs from the two sources derive from different broadcasts with at least three different presenters – Charles Nove, Patrick Lunt and one other – and some with voiceovers at the start or end. The two duo sessions provide, together, six of Leather Launderette’s 11 tracks plus ‘This Land is Your Land’ from the Woody Lives! LP. The duo versions of ‘Sally Free and Easy’, ‘The Snows’ and ‘Poor Mouth’ are excusive to this session. The latter was a nod to Bert and Rod’s time together in 1976–77 as a trio with drummer Pick Withers, which can be seen in the Danish TV documentary A Man and His Songs (1976).
WE STAYED IN WITH… JUNGR AND PARKER (R2)
TX: 9/3/93
Producer: Sonia Beldom
Songs: Blues Run the Game / Dobbin’s Flowery Vale
From Radio Times: ‘Barb Jungr and Michael Parker present their own music and special guests from the musical world. This week they are joined by Helen Watson and Martin McGroaty, Bert Jansch and Peter Kirtley.’ This was one of a seven-part series hosted by the comedy/cabaret duo and featuring a number of acoustic music artists throughout, including Wizz & Simeon Jones and Steve Tilston & Maggie Boyle. Surprisingly, ‘Dobbin’s Flowery Vale’ appears to have been the only song from Bert’s sublime The Ornament Tree (1990) that he performed on the BBC.
BOB HARRIS (R2)
TX: 8/7/93
Songs: Stealing the Night Away / Walk Quietly By (aka Troubled Mind)
Known only from two surviving tracks with this date in the BBC archive. Clearly recorded as an insert for Bob Harris’ R2 show, as far as I know these were never broadcast at the time, with Bert performing live on air instead (see below).
BOB HARRIS (R2)
TX: 14/7/93 live on air
Producer:
Songs: Lily of the West / Trouble in Mind
Both Bert and Bob Harris – best-known as presenter of the Old Grey Whistle Test on BBC TV in the 1970s – were on a long comeback journey. The breezy whimsy of the 1980s Nightride style of broadcasting had been dispensed with and Radio 2 itself was in the long process of changing into a more grown-up version of Radio 1. Still, if anyone wanted to hear Bert’s interview and songs on this occasion, they needed to be awake for Bob’s midnight to 4am show. Both songs – the first traditional, the second associated with Big Bill Broonzy – would feature on Bert’s 1996 ‘authorised bootleg’ Live at the 12-Bar.
GLORIA HUNNIFORD (R2)
TX: 22/8/94
Producer: John Langridge?
Songs: My Bonny Boy / Sally Free and Easy / Chasing Love
Bert Jansch, Peter Kirtley and Jacqui McShee, live on air on Gloria’s popular afternoon show – presented on this occasion by Lorraine Kelly. Bert and Jacqui performed these songs on occasional duo gigs in 1994, while all three featured in Pentangle shows, with Peter also a member of the group. Bert and Peter also toured regularly as a duo in the early 90s.
BOB HARRIS (GLR)
TX: 7/98 live on air
Songs: Paper Houses / How It All Came Down
A live-on-air appearance on Bob’s BBC regional (London) show. Bert had made at least three interview appearances on GLR shows in the 1979–80 period. Living in London, he likely made further appearances on GLR that are lost in the ether, and also appeared on independent London stations Capital and LBC. An imperfect cassette recording of this one happened to survive.
CUNNINGHAM & COMPANY (BBC RADIO SCOTLAND)
TX: 10/8/98
Prod: Ken Mutch?
Song: She Moved Through the Fair
An hour-long show in which Phil Cunningham interviews Bert about his life, with several recorded-music interludes and one live duet. Bert selected four records for the show himself and talked a little about them. These were: Fats Domino’s ‘Walking to New Orleans’; Wizz Jones’ ‘National Seven’; harp/vocal duo Sileas’ ‘Ca the Yowes’ (a Robert Burns composition); and Jackson frank’s ‘Blues Run the Game’.
EDINBURGH FRINGES (R4)
TX: 23/8/00 live on air
Producer: Dave Batchelor and Wilma Gardiner-Gill
Songs: Crimson Moon / The River Bank
A late-night show presented by comedian Boothby Graffoe from the Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh. An imperfect off-air recording survives.
JOHN BENNETT (RADIO ULSTER)
TX: 20/9/00 live on air
Producer: Maggie Doyle
Songs: Crimson Moon / The River Bank
A regional live-on-air radio spot – an interview and a couple of songs – while on tour. Bert probably did dozens of these on BBC and commercial regional stations in the UK over the years, and a full list would be impossible. In this period, his preferred songs for these sorts of broadcasts were clearly the two featured here and on the Radio 4 show above, although the Bennett performance of ‘Crimson Moon’ was a minute and a half shorter than the one on Edinburgh Fringes – an example of how Bert could edit or extend his material depending on the context. An imperfect off-air recording survives.
BBC RADIO 2 FOLK AWARDS (R2)
Rec: 2/01, Cumberland Hotel, London
TX: 7/2/01
Song: Poison
Bert received the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Johnny Marr, and performed ‘Poison’ with Johnny and Bernard Butler. Only the presentation was included in this two-hour broadcast.
DON MACLEAN (R2)
TX: 23/7/03
Songs: TBC
Bert was a guest on the former Crackerjack entertainer’s two-hour early Sunday morning show.
BBC RADIO 2 CAMBRIDGE FOLK FESTIVAL 2004 (R2)
TX: 4/8/04
Producer: John Leonard
A two-hour compilation of highlights from that year’s festival, from the same production company that made the BBC4 TV compilation but presented by Nick Barraclough and Mike Harding. However, although Radio Times promised ‘interviews and music from Jimmy Cliff, Beth Orton, Asleep at the Wheel, Gillian Welch, Ralph McTell, the Divine Comedy, Sharon Shannon, Loudon Wainwright III, Jim Moray, Bert Jansch and many others’, Bert was conspicuous by his absence from the show as broadcast.
TRAVELLING FOLK (BBC RADIO SCOTLAND)
TX: 16/12/04
Rec: 26/8/04, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh
Producer: Seán Purser
Songs: Carnival / Come Back Baby / Rosemary Lane / Blackwater Side / She Moved Through the Fair / Crimson Moon / The River Bank / Empty Pocket Blues / The Old Triangle / Poison / October Song / Strolling Down the Highway / Angie / Blues Run the Game / Lily of the West / Downunder / Summer Heat / Weeping Willow / Let Me Sing / Walking This Road / La Luna / Watch the Stars / It Don’t Bother Me / Step Back / High Days / Courting Blues / A Woman Like You / Texas Cowboy Blues / Candy Man
A part of this show was broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland, although the broadcast date has proven elusive. Happily, while the broadcast edit does not survive at source and seemingly nobody taped it off-air, producer Sean Purser retained the master of the entire 2 ¼ hour concert.
MIKE HARDING (R2)
TX: 15/12/04
Rec: 11/04
Song: Moonshine
A special recorded at Ralph McTell’s 60th birthday concert including duets with Bert, Cara Dillon, Nanci Griffith and Billy Connolly. Ralph released the show on DVD as The London Concert.
FREAK ZONE (BBC 6 MUSIC)
TX: c. early 2005
FREAK ZONE (BBC 6 MUSIC)
TX: 17/9/06, The Hub, Western House, London (live on air)
Producer: Henry Lopez Real
Songs: The Old Triangle / A Woman Like You
Stuart Maconie interviews Bert and he plays two songs in the studio (from his new album The Black Swan. During the show, Stuart refers to Bert having been a guest on it ‘about 18 months ago’, but tracing the date let alone the audio has proved strangely elusive. Engineer Andrew Smillie asked Bert to record ‘Angie’ as a gift for his father at the session and he kindly made it available for the box set.
MARK RADCLIFFE (R2)
TX: 23/11/06 (live on air)
Songs: High Days / It Don’t Bother Me / The Old Triangle
Bert performs two songs from The Black Swan (2006) plus the title track of his second LP, which he had resurrected as a duo with Johnny Marr in the BBC 4 Sessions concert of 2003 and demoed with Johnny for possible inclusion on The Black Swan (the demo is on Earth’s On the Edge of a Dream 4CD/LP set).
TRAVELLING FOLK (BBC RADIO SCOTLAND)
TX: 8/08
Rec: 30/1/08, The Old Fruit Market, Glasgow
Song: Running from Home
One song from Bert’s concert during the three-week Celtic Connections festival was broadcast on this highlights programme, while two featured in a TV compilation.
TEDDY THOMPSON & FRIENDS (R2)
TX: 20/12/08
Rec: 17/12/08, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Song: Moonshine
Bert contributes ‘Moonshine’ to a programme of Christmas-themed songs from Richard Thompson, Chris Difford, Kathryn Williams and others. He performed three numbers at the concert event, hosted by Teddy, and Teddy’s manager Gary Waldman happily retained MP3s of the two unbroadcast items, ‘Angie’ and ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’, from the first half of the concert. ‘It was only a few days after Davy Graham had died and Bert had tears in his eyes talking about Davy to me,’ Gary recalls. ‘He was very quiet and very gentlemanly but clearly mourning (and probably not feeling very well himself).’ ‘Moonshine’ was performed in the second half of the show, and was perhaps a strange choice for broadcast, being a slightly wobbly performance compared to the assurance of the other numbers.
FOLK AWARDS (R2)
TX: 4/2/09
Rec: 2/2/09, The Brewery, London
Song: Angie
Bert and Ralph McTell performed ‘Angie’ at this year’s Folk Awards event, in honour of its author, Davy Graham, who had passed away in December 2008. A filmed edit of the show – primarily a Radio 2 event – exists, though I believe it was only a digital/red-button broadcast. The Mark Radcliffe & Stuart Maconie Radio 2 show broadcast an episode live from the backstage area of the event on 2/2/09, in which there may or may not have been Bert Jansch content.
TOM ROBINSON (BBC 6 MUSIC)
Rec: 12/6/09
Producer: Henry Lopez Real
Songs: Blues Run the Game / Fresh as a Sweet Sunday Morning / One for Jo
Seemingly Bert’s last solo session for the BBC, Henry Lopez Real recalls Bert discussing, on the way out, his recent cancer diagnosis/treatment. For whatever reason, he chose to play three songs from the past.
BERT JANSCH BBC TV APPEARANCES
MEETING POINT: OUTCASTS AND OUTSIDERS (BBC1)
TX: 20/11/66
Producer: Kenneth Savidge
Song: Needle of Death
An oddity, but the first time a BBC TV audience were made aware of Bert Jansch. Soho social worker Judith Pieppe is interviewed by Tom Salmon in this 25-minute documentary, which includes scenes shot around the late-night streets of Soho and in folk dens Les Cousins and Bunjies. Jackson Frank, Weston Gavin and Al Stewart are seen briefly in performance. While Bert is not seen in performance, two and half minutes of the LP recording of ‘Needle of Death’ are played over a still of Bert followed by verité of people smoking and injecting (presumably) heroin. The full programme survives and an edited version was shown on BBC4 during the February 2006 Folk Britannia season.
JULIE FELIX (BBC1)?
TX: 4–5/70
Producer: Colin Charman
Song: Twa Corbies?
Acoustic Routes (1992) director Jan Leman discovered that Bert appeared solo on a show fronted by Julie Felix performing what he described, from seeing the information only on paper, as ‘a Scottish traditional song’. It was possibly this, the most obvious Scottish song in Bert’s repertoire and featured during his and the Pentangle’s 1971 concerts. Felix’s Once More with Felix ran from January–March 1969 and included the Pentangle and John Renbourn & Danny Thompson as a duo among its guests; her eponymous series ran during April–May 1970. If Bert appeared, he was not mentioned in Radio Times listings. Bert’s earliest TV appearance was performing ‘Needle of Death’ on Associated Rediffusion’s Hallelujah in 1966, followed by a vaguely recalled appearance on another regional ITV station in 1967 and an Ulster TV appearance also in 1967.
RUSSELL HARTY (BBC2)
TX: 14/12/82, Greenwood Theatre, London (live on air)
Producer: Tom Gutteridge
Song: Angie / Song for Martin
As Radio Times put it, ‘television’s most unpredictable show. There’ll be music, conversation and, as always, star-studded entertainment.’ On this occasion, the latter was provided by Bert performing ‘Angie’ with Ralph McTell and Ralph’s ‘Song for Martin’ with both Ralph and John Williams, and John Williams performing a solo Bach prelude. All three were promoting a Barbican concert in aid of the Samaritans. Bert had been well-served as a solo artist by TV stations in Norway, Sweden and especially Denmark, with appearances throughout the 70s and well into the 80s. This was not the case in the UK. Charisma Records had actively tried to get Bert on to The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1974–75 but to no avail, although its presenter Bob Harris would remain a supporter on his radio programmes. Four days after this prime-time appearance on Russell Harty’s show, fans could see Bert on BBC2 with the reunited Pentangle, performing ‘Bruton Town’ at Cambridge Folk Festival (filmed in July). Earlier in the year, the group had been featured in rehearsal for Cambridge on BBC2’s Summer Festivals. Fans had waited ten years to see Bert Jansch on BBC TV, and in 1982 three appearances, like buses, came in quick succession. They would have to wait another ten years to see Bert on BBC TV again.
ANDERSON ON THE BOX (BBC NI)
TX: 13/11/92 (live on air)
Song: Heartbreak Hotel
Bert and Peter Kirtley, his splendid duo partner of the time, had been booked to appear on this regional talk show, which was otherwise themed around Elvis Presley, with one of Presley’s flunkies and Gary Glitter booked to talk about the man. Whatever Bert had planned to perform went out the window when someone mentioned to a junior producer that Bert had once recorded ‘Heartbreak Hotel’. It was swiftly added to Bert and Peter’s duo repertoire.
ACOUSTIC ROUTES (BBC2)
TX: 12/4/93
Dir: Jan Leman
Originally commissioned for BBC Scotland in 1992, from a speculative showreel created by independent director Jan Leman’s Red Herring Productions, featuring Bert playing extracts from a few songs and talking about his career, Acoustic Routes was upgraded to national BBC2 and a longer running time once Billy Connolly had come on board as presenter. Bert had originally hoped to be the anchor man on a TV series where he could feature one of his acoustic guitar peers from the 60s each week, such as Wizz Jones, Al Stewart, Ralph McTell, Martin Carthy, Archie Fisher and Davy Graham. Jan’s eventual film rolled this idea into a more impressionistic documentary in which Bert was the central figure, referencing his own journey – including visits to the former premises of the Howff folk club in Edinburgh and to the home of one of his formative influences, Brownie McGhee, in California – while allowing space for many of his peers to perform, either with him or on their own. Davy Graham, for instance, wished to perform on his own; Anne Briggs performed with Bert for the first and only time (despite having briefly been collaborators in 1965); and Bert was seen performing and rehearsing with his old Pentangle partner John Renbourn, although plans for a mooted Bert & John II album fell through before the film was broadcast. Bert himself felt that he didn’t play particularly well during the project, but many would disagree and it remains a valuable document of British acoustic music pioneers who (in most cases) had rarely been captured on film, as well as being an enjoyable 70 minutes, in its original broadcast form, loosely linked by a charismatic personality with mainstream appeal (Billy Connolly filling that obvious gap in Bert’s skillset). In 2013, Jan made an extended cut of the film and an extended audio soundtrack available in a 2DVD/2CD set.
LATER WITH JOOLS HOLLAND (BBC2)
TX: 15/6/96
Rec: c.12/6/96
Producer: Mark Cooper
Songs: Blackwater Side / When the Circus Comes to Town
Living in London, Bert had been on the ‘subs bench’ for BBC TV’s flagship live music show for a while – someone who might get a call if someone bigger/further away cancelled at short notice. Whether that was a factor in this first appearance on the show, I don’t know, but it was widely being felt that When the Circus Comes to Town (1995) was a ‘comeback’, and publicist Mick Houghton had been doing sterling work in getting Bert into print and celebrities down to see him at the 12-Bar Club in Soho. Bert performed the title track with presenter/pianist Jools Holland and ‘Blackwater Side’ with Irish traditional music sensations Altan, who had just released their first major-label album Blackwater and were making their own debut on the show. Other guests included ZZ Top and Bo Diddley.
LATER WITH JOOLS HOLLAND (BBC2)
TX: 20/5/00
Rec: c.17/5/00
Song: The River Bank
Four years on and Bert was boosting his perceived revival with Crimson Moon, an album featuring well-known guitarists Johnny Marr and Bernard Butler. Johnny and Bernard had both played on this song on the album, albeit Johnny playing harmonica. The trio were lined up in a semi-circle on the show, all playing guitars – visually, more effective. Bernard recalls that ‘Poison’ was also performed in rehearsal. The following month, Channel 4 broadcast director Matt Quinn’s documentary Dreamweaver, again featuring Marr and Butler among many others from Bert’s journey.
BBC FOUR SESSIONS: BERT JANSCH
TX: 21/11/03
Rec: 24/10/03, St Luke’s Church, London
Producer: Serena Cross
Songs: Blues Run the Game / Blackwater Side / Running from Home / Moonshine / Angie / Edge of a Dream / Crimson Moon / Bruton Town / Train Song / I’ve Got a Feeling / It Don’t Bother Me / Fool’s Mate / The River Bank / Strolling Down the Highway / Carnival
Bert performed a 60th birthday concert on 11 November 2003, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, with a number of guests joining him, and this specially staged BBC4 concert at St Luke’s Church, London, was to some extent a streamlined TV version of that. In the broadcast edit, Bert performed five numbers solo and was joined by combinations of Ralph McTell, Jacqui McShee, Johnny Marr and Bernard Butler for the rest. Intriguingly, aside from ‘Moonshine’ (1973), everything played was from the 1960s or the 2000s. The programme has been repeated on BBC4 several times.
FOLK BRITANNIA (BBC4)
TX: 3,10,17/2/06
Dir: Mike Connolly
A three-part series on the folk revival in Britain, in which Bert was interviewed and filmed performing ‘Angie’, along with vintage Pentangle clips. The series was repeated that year on BBC4 in July/August and again in October and shown on BBC2 in September. A three-part tie-in series on BBC4 in February, Folk at the BBC, featured the ‘Angie’ performance in full and a Pentangle song in full, from Degrees of Folk (1968). The Pentangle’s In Concert (1971) was also rebroadcast in full that month.
CAMBRIDGE FOLK FESTIVAL (BBC4)
TX: 20/8/04
Rec: 7/04, Cherry Hinton Hall, Cambridge
Song: Crimson Moon
An hour of highlights from that year’s Cambridge Folk Festival, presented by Mark Radcliffe and Mary Ann Kennedy, including one number by Bert.
CELTIC CONNECTIONS (BBC 2 SCOTLAND)
TX: 17/2/08
Rec: 23/1/08, Old Fruit Market, Glasgow
Song: High Days / Running from Home
Bert was advertised for a concert with Eliza Carthy and Espers at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall during this three-week concert series but the concert that was excerpted on this broadcast took place at Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket. Bert gave a short interview to introduce ‘High Days’, his homage to Cliff Aungier. ‘Running from Home’ was also broadcast on BBC Scotland radio show Travelling Folk in 2008. The film of the song was added to Travelling Folk’s web page in October 2011.
FOLK AWARDS (BBC DIGITAL ONLY?)
TX: ?/2/09
Rec: 2/09, The Brewery, London
Song:
Bert and Ralph McTell performed ‘Angie’ at this year’s Folk Awards event, in honour of its author, Davy Graham, who had passed away in December 2008. A filmed edit of the show – primarily a Radio 2 event – exists, though I believe it was only a digital/red-button broadcast.
PENTANGLE BBC RADIO SESSIONS
Note: Ignoring the bootleg Live on Air 1967–69 (2020), two collections of Pentangle BBC audio have been released to date: Live At the BBC (Band of Joy, 1995), reissued as On Air (Strange Fruit, 1997), contained the two studio sessions that survive on master tape plus audio of the 1971 TV In Concert; while The Lost Broadcasts (Hux, 2004) contained the 12 surviving session tracks that survive on BBC World Service transcription discs (albeit trimmed of presenter voiceovers) plus six of the eight session tracks from Live at the BBC and 24 off-air recordings. Many more 1968–72 Pentangle BBC session tracks have come to light since then – sound upgrades and exclusive tracks – on a number of uncirculated reels in at least three collections: one inherited by myself, another with ‘the Johnny Kidd Fan Club’ and another with Top Sounds label mogul Nigel Lees. A fairly substantial Pentangle BBC set would be achievable if the will were there. Where tracks in this digest appear on On Air or The Lost Broadcasts this will be noted by OA or TLB, respectively; if off-airs are known to survive additional to those releases, the phrase ‘off-airs survive’ will be used. Additionally, both songs from Degrees of Folk (1968) and ‘In Time’ from In Concert (1971) appear on the Vestapol DVD John Renbourn: Rare Performances.
AUDITION REPORT ON TRIAL ‘TOP GEAR’ SESSION (18/2/68):
‘I like this – it’s different, almost oriental… a blend of folk music and chamber music, very classy.’
‘Pleasant and varied vocal and instrumental sounds with unusual rhythmic patterns. More suitable to programmes aimed at new sounds than general R1 programmes.’
‘Unusual sounds efficiently done, but of limited appeal, I should think.’
‘Interesting [but] only for a minority audience.’
‘Unusual beat/folksy group… touch of the Indian which is the contemporary scene at present. A good relaxed performance. I’d very much like to hear this sort of thing in a late-night programme to give a contemporary lift somewhere, but I’m sure this group will only get exposure in very sharp shows.’
‘Beautiful vocal sound – lead male singer has a really distinctive voice and the girl has a sweet, true quality. Very musical and, to me, quite lovely.’
TOP GEAR (R1)
Rec: 1/2/68, 201 Piccadilly, Studio 1
TX: 18/2/68
Producer: Bernie Andrews
Fee: £45
Songs: Travelling Song (2:38) / Let No Man Steal Your Thyme (2:22) / Turn Your Money Green [John & Jacqui] (2:39) / Soho [Bert & John] (3:52)
Note: Represented by Bryan Morrison Agency, 142 Charing Cross Rd. Session repeated 28/4/68. Off-airs of all tracks on TLB.
NIGHT RIDE (R1/2)
Rec: 9/5/68
TX: 29/5/68
Producer: Denis O’Keefe
Fee: £45
Songs: The Time Has Come (2:56) / Mirage (1:47) / Hear My Call (3:00)
Note: ‘Travelling Song’ and ‘Let No Man Steal Your Thyme’ from the debut Top Gear session were also repeated on this show. Off-airs survive.
COUNTRY MEETS FOLK (R1/2)
TX: 15/6/68, Playhouse Theatre
Producer: Ian Grant
Fee: £45
Songs: Travelling Song (2:55) / Hear My Call (3:15)
Note: A Saturday teatime show from the Playhouse Theatre, with a live audience, broadcast on Radios 1 and 2 simultaneously, introduced by Wally Whyton and featuring both country and folk acts – each genre’s fans tending to just about tolerate the other. Rather than being live-on-air, some online recollections suggest it was recorded on the Friday evening for broadcast the next day. Bert was also interviewed on this occasion by future Folk on Two presenter Jim Lloyd. ‘Hear My Call’ exists off-air, along with the interview.
TOP GEAR
Rec: 2/7/68, 201 Piccadilly, Studio 1
TX: 7/7/68
Producer: Bernie Andrews
Fee: £45
Songs: Every Night When the Sun Goes In [John & Jacqui] (2:26) / I Am Lonely [Bert] (3:12) / Forty-Eight [John & Terry] (2:51) / Orlando [Bert & John] (1:35)
Note: Danny had a hand injury so was not present on this session. ‘No More My Lord’ and ‘Bransle Gay–La Rotta¬–The Earl of Salisbury’ were also recorded on 2/7/68 for later broadcast. Given that effectively two sessions were recorded on the same date, two £45 fees were given. TLB (bar ‘No More My Lord’); ‘Orlando’, from a new off-air source, appears on the ‘Bert Jansch at the BBC’ box set.
TOP GEAR
Rec: 2/7/68, 201 Piccadilly, Studio 1
TX: 4/8/68
Producer: Bernie Andrews
Fee: £45
Songs: No More My Lord / Bransle Gay–La Rotta–The Earl of Salisbury [John & Terry] (3:24)
Note: The four tracks broadcast on 7/7/68 are also repeated in this show. Although usually a full-band number, as Danny was injured, ‘No More My Lord’ was performed by the other four on this occasion. A BBC memo at this time notes that the group are asking for a higher fee once their first LP is released. Producers agree that they are worth it, though one worries that the floodgates will open. Their session fee is raised from £45 to £50.
MY KIND OF FOLK
Planned Rec: 3/7/68, Studio 2 Broadcasting House
Planned TX: 10/7/68
Producer: Frances Line
Fee: £50
Contract cancelled 3/7/68. No reason is given.
COUNTRY MEETS FOLK (R1/2)
TX: 17/8/68, Playhouse Theatre
Producer: Ian Grant
Fee: £50
Songs: The Time Has Come (3:09) + unknown
Note: Wally Whyton presented the show, with the other guests being the Hillsiders and the Big Timers. The Programme-as-Broadcast (PasB) file could not be located but an off-air ‘The Time Has Come’ appears on TLB. At most, two other songs would have been performed.
TOP GEAR (R1)
Rec: 23/9/68, 201 Piccadilly, Studio 1
TX: 3/11/68
Producer: Bernie Andrews
Fee: £50
Songs: Sovay (2:53) / Sweet Child (5:02) / I Loved a Lass (2:48) / In Your Mind (2:18)
Note: ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ recorded 23/9/68 for later broadcast. ‘Sovay’, ‘I Loved a Lass’ and ‘In Your Mind’ were cut to transcription disc and re-broadcast on Brian Matthew’s Top of the Pops World Service show, hence they survive in this form, with Brian’s voiceover intros. All five tracks (transcriptions + off-airs) are on TLB. ‘Sovay’ and ‘In Your Mind’ also appear on the 2007 Pentangle box set The Time Has Come.
TOP GEAR (R1)
Rec: 23/9/68, 201 Piccadilly, Studio 1
TX: 15/12/68
Producer: Bernie Andrews
Fee: £50
Song: I’ve Got A Feeling (4:45)
Note: Plus repeat of the four songs broadcast on 23/9/68.
COUNTRY MEETS FOLK (R1/2)
TX: 7/12/68, Playhouse Theatre
Producer: Ian Grant
Fee: £50
Songs: unknown
Note: On this occasion, the other acts were the Hillsiders and Cheryl Pool. The PasB couldn’t be located, so the Pentangle songs – likely to be two or three short ones – are unknown.
Night Ride (R1) ?
TX: 1/5/69
Producer: Pete Ritzema
Note: A post-John Peel Night Ride, presented by Jon Curle. Despite the group being listed in Radio Times as guests on this episode, the PasB file reveals that they were not on it and nor is there a surviving contract. The group was certainly in the UK at the time, with US tours that year being in February/March and July/August. Possibly, they appeared on an episode around this time and RT got the info mixed up, or a projected itinerary was sent to Radio Times before a booking for the group had been confirmed.
TOP GEAR (R1)
Rec: 12/5/69, Playhouse Theatre
TX: 18/5/69
Producer: John Walters
Fee: £50
Songs: Once I Had A Sweetheart (TBC) / Hunting Song (7:20) / Bruton Town (5:45) / Sally Go Round the Roses (3:20)
Note: The contract states that two Top Gear sessions were recorded on the same day (12/5/69) and hence two £50 fees were given. However, it seems that a full second session was never broadcast. The PasB for the Top Gear appearance below confirms that two of the three items broadcast are repeats, with ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ the only exclusive – exactly as happened, with the same song, on the Top Gear session recorded on 23/9/68. The only explanation is that producer John Walters might have felt that as the group had recorded around 24 minutes of music, which was roughly double the length of most Top Gear sessions in 1967–69 (12–16 minutes being the norm), they could be given a double fee. On the other hand, ‘Bruton Town’ and ‘Sally Go Round the Roses’ were cut to transcription disc from this session for Brian Matthew’s World Service Top of the Pops, with the printed credits specifically stating that they derive from a Top Gear session recorded on 12/5/69. However, the version on the TOTP disc is 4:56 long, not 5:45 (as stated in the Top Gear PasB). Was it a different, deliberately compressed performance or was it simply edited by the TOTP team? Without a known off-air version from Top Gear, it is impossible to say. Adding to the mystery, a Pick of the Pops transcription disc version of the show was created (these discs being sold to overseas broadcasters for their own use within a one-year time frame) on which ‘Bruton Town’ has been edited to 3:05. On both the TOTP and POTP discs, ‘Bruton Town’ is preceded by an exclusive short interview with Jacqui about the group’s 1969 touring plans, conducted by Keith Skues. ‘Sally’ does not appear on the POTP disc. Both ‘Bruton Town’ and ‘Sally’ appear on TLB.
TOP GEAR (R1)
Rec: 12/5/69
TX: 29/6/69
Producer: John Walters
Fee: £50
Song: I’ve Got a Feeling (4:55)
Note: Plus repeats of ‘Hunting Song’ and ‘Bruton Town’ from the 18/5/69 Top Gear, above. This version of ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ is almost certainly the one (trimmed to 4:45) on a rare July 1969 BBC transcription disc called Progressive Pop 1 – one of two volumes of radio session tracks, with no spoken introductions, sold to overseas broadcasters. It escaped notice when TLB was being compiled and has not been released. Off-air copies of both this episode of Top Gear and the 18/5/69 episode survive in full.
RADIO ONE CLUB (R1)
TX: 15/5/69, live on air
Producer: Keith Bateson
Fee: £55
Songs: Sally Go Round the Roses (3:00) / In Your Mind (2:20) / Mirage (2:00) / Bruton Town (5:02) / Once I Had a Sweetheart (2:26) / Way Behind the Sun (2:40)
Note: The contract stated that the group were to ‘provide six suitable numbers as arranged’, and the PasB confirms that they did so. Radio 1 Club was a roving entity, broadcast from various places around the UK. It was from London on this occasion.
COUNTRY MEETS FOLK (R1/2)
TX: 7/6/69, Playhouse Theatre
Producer: Bill Bebb
Fee: £50
Songs: Sally Go Round the Roses (3:15) / Cold Mountain (2:05) / Watch the Stars (2:45)
Note: ‘Watch the Stars’ was likely a John & Jacqui duet. The other guests this week were the Country Fever and Cliff Aungier. Recollections of Aungier would form the basis of Bert’s song ‘High Days’, recorded for his final album in 2006 and for a couple of late BBC appearances.
RADIO ONE CLUB (R1)
Rec: 19/6/69, Paris Theatre
TX: TBA
Producer: Keith Bateson
Fee: £55
Songs: Cold Mountain (2:00) / I Am Lonely [Bert] (2:50) + 4 others
Note: The contract stated that the group were to ‘record six suitable numbers as arranged with the producer’. The show was broadcast from London on this occasion, presenter unknown. ‘Cold Mountain’ and ‘I Am Lonely’ were recorded to transcription disc and re-broadcast on Brian Matthew’s World Service show, both on TLB. ‘I Am Lonely’ is on the ‘Bert Jansch at the BBC’ box.
MY KIND OF FOLK (R1)
Rec: 25/6/69, Studio 2, Broadcasting House
TX: 2/7/69
Fee: £60
Producer: Frances Line
Songs: Sally Go Round the Roses (3:20 / The Cuckoo (4:49) / Let No Man Steal Your Thyme (2:55) / Hunting Song (7:15)
Note: A half-hour Wednesday evening show, wherein each week a different headline act introduced listeners to ‘their kind of folk’. Guests on this episode headlined by the Pentangle were Archie Fisher and Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick.
COUNTRY MEETS FOLK (R1/2)
TX: 6/9/69, Playhouse Theatre
Producer: Bill Bebb
Fee: £55
Songs: Five and Seven (3:15) / I Loved a Lass (2:35) / Moondog (2:50)
Note: Johnny Silvo presenting, with other guests being Jackie & Bridie and the Muskrats. ‘Five and Seven’ is otherwise unknown. No off-air copies are known.
MY KIND OF FOLK (R1)
Rec: 17/8/69, Studio 2, Broadcasting House
TX: 24/9/69
Producer: Frances Line
Fee: £55
Song: TBC
Note: As Radio Times put it, this was an all-star final edition: ‘After a very successful 18 months the series comes to an end tonight. The most star-studded bill of folk artists ever to appear on one radio programme will be there to mark the occasion. Wally Whyton introduces: the Johnstons, Ralph McTell, the Pentangle, Peter Sarstedt, the Spinners, the Strawbs, Redd Sullivan.’ This appearance was recorded on the same date as one of the group’s Peter Sarstedt sessions. It was still only a 30-minute show, so each artist can only have performed one song.
PETER SARSTEDT (R1)
Rec: 17/8/69, Studio 2, Broadcasting House
TX: 5/10/69
Producer: Frances Line
Fee: £55
Songs: The Cuckoo (2:56) / Hunting Song (7:04) / Theme from Take Three Girls (1:50)
Note: This was a 12-part Sunday night series fronted by that year’s ‘Where Do You Go to My Lovely?’ hitmaker and featuring guests from the progressive end of folk: Eclection, Humbelbums, Bridget St John, Al Stewart, etc. Only Pentangle, the Johnstons and the Strawbs guested on two episodes. This session and Sounds of the 70s on 19/6/72 are the only Pentangle sessions surviving on BBC master tape. With some irony, ‘The Cuckoo’ and ‘Theme from Take Three Girls’ (later reworked as ‘Light Flight’) from this session are also among those that made it to the lifeboats of the transcription service. The same is true for three of the five Sounds of the 70s tracks. Out of all the music the group recorded for the BBC, what are the chances? All three songs OA and the first two TLB.
PETER SARSTEDT (R1)
Rec: 9/9/69, Maida Vale 5
TX: 30/11/69
Producer: Frances Line
Fee: £55
Songs: Let No Man Steal Your Thyme (3:25) / Moon Dog (2:50) / ‘The Carpenter’ (4:50)
Note: The contract gave 5/11/69 as the broadcast date but the PasB confirms the Radio Times 30/11/69 date to be correct. ‘The Carpenter’ is surely the traditional ‘House Carpenter’ (which always came in at between 4:25–5:35 in duration), although the PasB credits all five group members with authorship.
COUNTRY MEETS FOLK (?)
TX: 6/12/69
Songs: Market Song / Sovay / In Your Mind (?)
Note: At some point, I received this information from a fan. Pentangle were not listed in Radio Times but the show did promise ‘surprise guests’. No off-airs known, but post-Covid PasB research at Caversham would settle the matter.
THE GEORGIE FAME SHOW (R1)
Rec: 21/12/69, Playhouse Theatre
TX: 26/12/69
Producer: John Muir
Fee: £55
Songs: Light Flight (3:15) / Train Song (3:45) / House Carpenter (5:10)
Note: Titled on the contract ‘Pop Music Spectacular’, this was more jazz, pop and comedy, in a one-hour show featuring the Pentangle plus Blossom Dearie, Raymond Froggatt, the Scaffold and the Harry South Orchestra, presented by Fame – at the height of his fame that year with international smash ‘The Ballad of Bonnie & Clyde’.
THE PENTANGLE: EPISODE 1 (R1)
Rec: 3/12/69, Studio 2, Broadcasting House
TX: 28/12/69
Producer: Frances Line
Fee: £60
Songs: Light Flight (signature tune) (0:10) / Train Song (3:36) / The Trees They Do Grow High (3:43) / Sweet Potato (2:53) / Westron Wind (1:04) / Bruton Town (5:50) / Moondog (2:43) / Cold Mountain (2:00) / Sarabande (1:20) / Sweet Child (5:16) / Light Flight (sig) (0:16)
Note: A series of four half-hour shows featuring the group and its constituent parts in various combinations plus, from Episode 2, a guest artist. Only parts of the series survive in off-air form. ‘Sarabande’ here is a Bert Jansch solo piece, later recorded for Rosemary Lane (1971) and included on this collection. It is among six tracks here that survive (from different sources) in off-air form. Train Song’, ‘Moondog’ and ‘The Trees’ are on TLB.
THE PENTANGLE: EPISODE 2 (R1)
Guest: Stefan Grossman
Rec: 15/12/69 (P), Studio 2, Broadcasting House
Rec: 11/12/69 (SG), Studio 2, Broadcasting House
TX: 4/1/70
Producer: Frances Line
Fee: £60
Pentangle: Light Flight (0:10) / Sally Go Round the Roses (3:23) / Morgana (3:05) / Light Flight (3:28) / Country Blues (1:56) / Hunting Song (7:20)
Stefan: Eagles on the Half (2:40) / Orphan Sunday (4:00)
Note: ‘Country Blues’ survives in off-air form and appears on TLB.
THE PENTANGLE: EPISODE 3 (R1)
Guest: The Humblebums
Rec: 18/12/69 (P), Studio 2, Broadcasting House
Rec: 18/12/69 (H), Studio 2, Broadcasting House
TX: 11/1/70
Producer: Frances Line
Fee: £60
Pentangle: Light Flight (0:10) / House Carpenter (4:42) / Reynardine (4:25) / In Time (4:12) / Springtime Promises (4: 03) / Mirage (2:22) / Lyke Wake Dirge (3:56)
Humblebums (+ David Moses on bass): Blood & Glory (2:44) / A Little of Your time (2:13)
Note: ‘Reynardine’, which would later be recorded for Rosemary Lane (1971), was Bert’s only other solo item from this series. The version from this episode, along with ‘House Carpenter’, ‘Springtime Promises’ and ‘Lyke Wake Dirge’, was included on TLB, and ‘Reynardine’ appears on the ‘Bert Jansch at the BBC’ box.
THE PENTANGLE: EPISODE 4 (R1)
Rec: 7/1/70, Studio 2 Broadcasting House
TX: 18/1/70
Producer: Frances Line
Fee: £60
Light Flight (0:10) / Let No Man Steal Your Time (3:05) / No More My Lord (4:45) / Way Behind the Sun (3:50) / Pentangling (15:48)
TOP OF THE POPS (WORLD SERVICE)?
Rec: 2/70
TX: late 2/70 and 3/70
Song: Light Flight (3:25)
Note: This recording appears on two Top of the Pops transcription discs. On the first one, the printed credits merely say ‘recorded at a BBC studio’ and no date is given, although every other performance on the disc (from the likes of Love Affair, Honeybus and Toe Fat) derives from Radio 1 sessions recorded at various points in late February 1970. On this disc, the song is introduced by a brief interview with Jacqui McShee (by Brian Matthew) in which she gives its background and mentions it being in the charts. Occasionally, Brian’s show recorded items specifically for its own use, although most of its content was cherry-picked from existing recent Radio 1 sessions; this appears to have been one example. This version of the song appears (minus interview) on TLB. A few episodes later, the very same version of the song reappeared on another World Service disc, this time accompanied by a much longer interview with Jacqui
THE PENTANGLE: EPISODE 5 (R1
Rec: 18/3/70
TX: 12/4/70
Producer: Frances Line
Fee: £60
Songs: Light Flight (0:10) / Sally Go Round the Roses (3:23) / Sally Free and Easy (3:55) / Westron Wind [JR] (1:04) / No More My Lord (4:45) / Cold Mountain (2:00) / Sarabande [BJ] / Let No Man Steal Your Thyme (3:05) / Hunting Song (7:20) / Light Flight (0:10)
Note: A second four-part series using the band name.
THE PENTANGLE: EPISODE 6 (R1)
Rec: 20/3/70
TX: 19/4/70
Producer: Frances Line
Fee: £60
Songs: Speak of the Devil (4:13) / Name of the Game + others
Note: While the PasB for this episode seems to have gone astray, it must be the source of ‘Speak of the Devil’ – a Bert Jansch song that was never commercially recorded – on an off-air reel in my own collection that has a few other items from the series around it, hence identifying the series as the source. ‘Name of the Game’ on TLB must derive from this episode. ‘Speak of the Devil’ is on ‘Bert Jansch at the BBC’.
THE PENTANGLE: EPISODE 7 (R1)
Rec: 21/3/70
TX: 26/4/70
Producer: Frances Line
Fee: £60
Songs: Light Flight (0:10) / House Carpenter (4:35) / I Really Should Go (2:56) / Light Flight (3:28) / Haitian Fight Song [DT] (4:02) / Wondrous Love (2:11) / The Trees They Do Grow High (3:34) / Sarabande [BJ] (1:20) / Sweet Child (5:16) / Light Flight (0:10)
THE PENTANGLE: EPISODE 8 (R1)
Rec: 27/3/70
TX: 3/5/70
Producer: Frances Line
Fee: £60
Songs: Light Flight (0:10) / Train Song (3:36) / Country Blues (1:56) / Springtime Promises (4:03) / Every Night When the Sun Goes Down (2:40) / Pentangling (15:48) / Light Flight (0:10)
FOLK ON ONE (R1)
Rec: 1/10/70, Maida Vale 5
TX: 3/10/70
Producer: Frances Line
Fee: £60
Songs: Rain and Snow (3:48) / Lord Franklin (2:33) / A Maid That’s Deep in Love (5:14) / Helping Hand (3:22) / Wedding Dress (2:12) / Speak of the Devil (4:55) / Will the Circle Be Unbroken? (4:54)
Note: A 30-minute show solely featuring, as Radio Times put it, ‘music from the current concert programme of Britain’s leading contemporary folk group’. Other shows in this 11-part series were dedicated to further progressive folk acts including Mr Fox, Dando Shaft and Fotheringay, plus US singer-songwriters Kris Kristofferson and James Taylor. ‘A Maid’ and ‘Will the Circle’ from this show were cut to disc for Brian Matthew’s TOTP show – the latter in an edit of 3:38 – hence their survival. They appear on TLB (albeit with an incorrect date attribution). The whole show survives in high-quality off-air form.
SOUNDS OF THE 70S (R1)
Rec: 5/11/70, Aeolian Hall, Studio 2
TX: 12/11/70
Producer: Mark Brown
Fee: £55
Songs: Wedding Dress (2:16) / A Maid That’s Deep in Love (6:24) / Lord Franklin [John] (2:48) / Sally Free & Easy (3:58)
Note: Presented by Stuart Henry. The whole session survives off-air.
NIGHT RIDE (R2)
Rec: 8/2/71, Aeolian 2
TX: 20/2/71
Producer: Derek Drescher
Fee: £60
Songs: Train Song / Helping Hand / Way Behind the Sun / Hunting Song / Sally Free & Easy / Will the Circle Be Unbroken?
Note: Although long past the zany John Peel era of 1968, Night Ride still featured the occasional progressive folk or blues act in among the lounge singers and light jazz acts that got most of the session time. For this episode, Radio Times said: ‘Keith Skues with swinging sounds on and off the record featuring the BBC Northern Dance Orchestra, conductor Bernard Herrmann, with Julie Jones.’
SOUNDS OF THE 70S
Rec: 6/4/71, T1, Kensington House
TX: 19/4/71
Producer: John Muir
Fee: £55
Songs: Will the Circle Be Unbroken? (3:35) / When I Get Home (4:35) / Helping Hand (3:30) / Wedding Dress (2:20)
Note: Presented by Bob Harris. Although recorded by the Transcription Service, none of these tracks appear to have been cut to disc. The session, minus ‘Wedding Dress’, survives in off-air form.
SOUNDS OF THE 70S
Planned Rec: 4/10/71
Planned TX: 18/10/71
Producer: John Muir
Contract cancelled (date unknown).
TWELVE NOON (R4)
Rec: 11/10/71, Edinburgh
TX: 14/12/71
Producer: John Arnott
Fee: £55
Songs: Lady of Carlisle (4:00) / Jump Baby Jump (2:53)
Note: The contract stated that the group were to ‘provide five numbers, one for transmission in each of five programmes’ of this daily one-hour show broadcast on Radio 4 as a Scottish regional opt-out. However, the PasBs for the week reveal only the above two songs, on 14/12/71, preceded by a short interview with Bert Jansch by Alastair Clark (1:10). The show was a mix of regional theatre reviews, farming news and interviews, and diverse music – folk-based on one day, predominantly classical music the next.
SOUNDS OF THE 70S
Rec: 9/11/71, T1, Kensington House
TX: 29/11/71
Producer: John Muir
Fee: £55
Songs: Lord Franklin [John] (3:40) / Willy O’ Winsbury (6:00) / Lady of Carlisle (4:15) / Will the Circle Be Unbroken? (3:30)
Note: Presented by Bob Harris. ‘Will the Circle Be Unbroken’ was repeated on SOTS 3/11/72 (£13 repeat fee). ‘Lord Franklin’ and ‘Lady of Carlisle’ were cut to disc and used on Brian Matthew’s TOTP. A minute or so of spoken introduction by John Renbourn precedes ‘Lord Franklin’ on the TOTP disc and this seems to have been present in the SOTS session as well (the SOTS PasB of 3:40 covers both song and intro). Both songs appear on TLB. A high-quality off-air ‘Willy O’Winsbury’ survives.
SOUNDS OF THE 70S
Planned Rec: 31/1/72, Maida Vale
Planned TX: TBA
Producer: Malcolm Brown
Contract cancelled 6/1/72.
SOUNDS OF THE 70S (R1)
Rec: 19/6/72, T1, Kensington House
TX: 17/7/72
Producer:
Fee: £60
Songs: Cherry Tree Carol (3:00) / Jump Baby Jump (4:07) / Lady of Carlisle (4:07)
Note: ‘People on the Highway’ and ‘No Love Is Sorrow were also recorded 19/6/72 for later broadcast. This is the second of two Pentangle sessions to randomly survive on BBC master tape, which is a bit of luck, as one could argue that every version is superior to the commercially released version, on the group’s final album, Solomon’s Seal. Three of the tracks – ‘Jump Baby Jump’, ‘People on the Highway’ and ‘No Love is Sorrow’ – also survive on a TOTP disc. All five appear on OA and four on TLB.
SOUNDS OF THE 70S (R1)
Rec: 19/6/72, T1, Kensington House
TX: 9/10/72
Producer: Jeff Griffin & Pete Dauncey
Songs: People on the Highway (5:15) / No Love Is Sorrow (2:52)
Note: Plus a repeat of the three 17/7/72 tracks.
BARRY ALLDIS (R2/1)
Rec: 24/9/72, Aeolian 2
TX: 5/11/72
Producer: Barbara Page
Fee: £60 + £30 (repeat fee)
Songs: Jump Baby Jump (2:55) / I’ve Got a Feeling (4:15) / Lady of Carlisle (3:50) / People on the Highway (4:40) / When I Get Home (3:50)
Note: Repeated 24/12/72. On the contract as ‘the Early Sunday Show’; the Barry Alldis show went out at 7–9am.
SOUNDS ON SUNDAY
Rec: 27/9/72
TX: 29/10/72
Producer: Frances Line
Fee: £65
Songs: I’ve Got a Feeling (4:55) / People on the Highway (4:45) / Lady of Carlisle (4:15) / The Snows (3:50) / The Dowie Dens of Yarrow (6:50)
Note: Another Frances Line series featuring progressive folk people, this one a half-hour Sunday evening show, presented by Johnnie Walker. Surprisingly, this seems to have been the only instance of the original-era group performing the Solomon’s Seal (1972) epic ‘Yarrow’ for the BBC.
[CAMBRIDGE FOLK FESTIVAL] (WORLD SERVICE?)
Rec: 7/82
TX: ?
Songs: Train Song / If I Had a Lover / People on the Highway / Sovay / Bruton Town / I’ve Got a Feeling
Note: Although no UK broadcast can be traced, this half-hour recording from the group’s reunion concert at the 1982 Cambridge Folk Festival survives as a BBC transcription disc, suggesting it was sold abroad or featured on a World Service broadcast.
NIGHTRIDE (R2)
Rec: ?/86
TX: ?/86
Songs: Is it Real? / People on the Highway / Taste of Love + others?
Note: Now with the name in one word, the occasional interesting session guest could still be heard in among the light entertainment and whimsical presenter babble from 1–3am nightly. Surviving off-air, these three tracks are probably only part of what was recorded. Session guests for the week would have one or two songs broadcast nightly across the Monday to Friday period. A trawl through microfiche at Caversham would eventually deliver the date of this session, and a complete list of broadcast tracks, but it would be a long trawl.
FOLK ON 2 (R2)
Rec: ?
TX: 10/12/86
Producer: Geoffrey Hewitt
Songs: Bruton Town (5:25) / Dragonfly (3:51) / Sunday Morning Blues (3:10) / Yarrow (4:26) / She Moved Through the Fair (4:42) / Taste of Love (3:29) / Kingfisher (1:55)
Note: Jacqui and Terry did the heavy lifting on this session, with ‘Bruton Town’ being the only Jansch (co)vocal.
NIGHTRIDE (R2)
Rec: ?/87
TX: ?/87
Songs: Taste of Love / Bruton Town / Sally Free and Easy / Kingfisher / Circle the Moon
Note: Again, the session survives off-air, date long forgotten.
UNKNOWN SHOW (R2)
Rec: ?/88, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
TX: 17/9/88
Songs:
Note: While a broadcast cannot be traced, an off-air tape with the above date survives, clearly from an FM broadcast and from the Rod Clements era of the group.
SATURDAY GALA NIGHT (R2)
Rec: ?
TX: 21/4/90
Producer: Geoffrey Hewitt
Songs: TBC
Note: ‘An Evening of British Folk Music’ with Pentangle plus Sileas and Alistair Anderson in concert from the Purcell Room at London’s South Bank Centre, and the Boys of the Lough from the RSC’s Swan Theatre, Stratford upon Avon. Peter Kirtley would have replaced Rod Clements by this time.
BBC RADIO 2 FOLK AWARDS (R2)
Rec: 2/07, The Brewery, London.
TX: 7/2/07
Producer: John Leonard and Kellie While
Songs: Light Flight / Bruton Town
Note: Pentangle reformed for this event, receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award presented by David Attenborough and performing two songs. A duff chord at the very start of ‘Light Flight’ meant that a safety take, recorded earlier that day, was used for the broadcast a few days after the event.
FREAK ZONE (BBC 6 MUSIC)
Rec: 27/4/08
TX: 1/6/08
Producer: Henry Lopez Real
Songs: Let No Man Steal Your Thyme (2:54) / Light Flight (3:11) / Market Song (3:16) / I’ve Got a Feeling (3:35)
Note: Pentangle reunited for a UK tour in 2008. Presenter Stuart Maconie introduced 13 minutes of magic – the group’s first original line-up BBC radio session since 1972. It would also be their last.
CAMBRIDGE FOLK FESTIVAL (R2)
Rec: 30/7/11-1/8/11
TX: 3/8/11
Bruton Town
Note: One song from the group’s second last ever performance in a Cambridge Festival highlights programme.
PENTANGLE BBC TV APPEARANCES
DEGREES OF FOLK (BBC1)
Producer: Iain MacFadyen
Pres: The Corries
Fee: ? (plus five return fares London/Brighton)
Songs: Let No Man Steal Your Thyme / Travelling Song
Note: Rehearsals at Television Centre, London, 13/5/68. Iain MacFadyen (Light Entertainment Producer) writes to Pentangle manager Jo Lustig on 22/5/68: ‘I was very pleased with the performance of the Pentangle at Sussex University and I am sure that it will have a lot of impact with our viewers when it is shown…’ This was Pentangle’s first appearance on British TV, performing their single ‘Travelling Song’ and a track from their debut LP, filmed three days before the release of both and broadcast in the week between their Festival Hall ‘launch’ concert on 29/6/68 and the Melody Maker’s Woburn Abbey Festival on 6/7/68. Also in May, the group performed at Oslo University and around 50 minutes of their set, including a solo ‘A Woman Like You’, was broadcast across two programmes on Norwegian TV (NRK).
HOW IT IS (BBC1)
Rec: live broadcast
TX: 26/7/68
Producer: Tony Palmer
Pres: Richard Neville and Peter Asher
Guests: Pentangle, Eric Burdon
Songs: TBC
A 30 minute live-transmission music show. The Pentangle were scheduled to appear on the very first show of this first series, on Saturday 6/7/68, when they were also scheduled to be appearing live at the Woburn Abbey Festival. It is not known if a pre-recorded insert of the group was in the can or if it was to be broadcast live from the festival. For whatever reason, the series’ launch was postponed until 19/7/68. The Pentangle were then featured on this, the second show in the series – possibly because Danny had sustained a hand injury in between times (which precluded him from appearing on the group’s 2/7/68 Top Gear session). The date of this broadcast coincided with the group’s appearance at Cambridge Folk Festival, and possibly this formed the content of the programme. Given its live nature, nothing from the series, bar a few inserts, was tele-recorded. If the Pentangle appearance was one of these pre-recorded inserts, it is not among those known to have survived.
HOW IT IS (BBC1)
Rec: live broadcast
TX: 25/10/68
Songs: TBC
Broadcast six days after Bert married Heather Sewell and seven days before the release of second album Sweet Child and the eve of Pentangle’s second British tour. Probably featured songs from Sweet Child.
ONCE MORE WITH FELIX (BBC2)
Rec: 16/12/68
TX: 11/1/69
Producer: Mel Cornish
Pres: Julie Felix
Guests: Pentangle, Jim Dale
Songs: TBC
One of the earliest editions of Once More with Felix, a folkish music variety show, which ran from 1969–70. Presenter Julie Felix was also represented by Pentangle manager Jo Lustig. The Pentangle would probably have played something from Sweet Child, released in November 1968.
DEE TIME (BBC1)
Rec: live broadcast?
TX: 17/5/69
Producer: Richard Drewett
Pres: Simon Dee
Songs: TBC
A popular Saturday tea-time magazine show, presented by radio personality Simon Dee. This Pentangle appearance was almost certainly to promote their second single ‘Once I Had A Sweetheart’, peaking 11 days later at No. 46.
MONSTER MUSIC MASH (BBC1)
Rec: ?
TX: 14/10/69
Producer: Peter Ridsdale Scott
Pres: Alan Price
Guests: Pentangle, Duster Bennett
Songs: TBC
This was a six-part Tuesday tea-time series promising ‘Pop, Blues, Folk, Whoopee!’ It ran during October–November 1969, presented by Alan Price and his band plus regulars Bob Kerr’s Whoopee Band, and series guests ranged from Archie Fisher and Shirley Collins to Slade. As Radio Times put it, the show provided ‘a regular spot aimed to give artists time to perform two or three numbers: not just to plug their latest single but to show off their own style’. The series is the source of an oft-repeated clip of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac performing ‘Oh Well’. Pentangle would likely have performed ‘Light Flight’. The night of this broadcast, they were in concert in Leeds.
LINE UP’S DISCO 2 (BBC2)
Rec: ?
TX: 31/1/70
Producer: Granville Jenkins
Pres: Tommy Vance
Guests are the Pentangle, Richie Havens
Songs: TBC
The BBC2 precursor to the Old Grey Whistle Test (launched in Sept 1971), Disco 2 began as a late-night 25-minute spin-off from the arts magazine show Late Night Line Up in January 1970, running to June 1971. The first nine episodes used the title Line Up’s Disco 2. Typically, two to four artists would be featured each week in the studio, although there would occasionally be specially filmed extracts from concerts. The Pentangle appeared on Simon Dee’s new Simon Dee Show on LWT on the same weekend. They presumably performed or mimed to their current single ‘Light Flight’ on both, although a photo from the show that was used in newspapers that year shows Bert with a banjo, so probably ‘House Carpenter’ was played (as well). The group were playing a show at the Village Blues Club in Dagenham on Saturday 31 January, suggesting their segment at least was pre-recorded. Very little from the series has survived.
TOP OF THE POPS (BBC1)
Rec: Live broadcast?
TX: 2/70
Song: Light Flight
Pentangle’s only appearance on Britain’s premier pop show. Musicians’ Union rules at the time demanded that at least one member of a group should perform live: Jacqui drew the short straw; the others mimed to a specially recorded backing track. ‘Light Flight’ had been released on single alongside the Basket of Light LP in October ‘69; Take Three Girls, the BBC drama series to which a version of the song provided the theme, began in November. The album reached No. 5 in November while the single peaked at No. 43 on 14 February 1970.
THE YOUNG GENERATION (BBC2)
Rec: 8/2/70
TX: 11/4/70
Producer: Stewart Morris
Pres: The Young Generation
Guests: Pentangle, the Paper Dolls
Songs: TBC
A 40-minute Saturday night variety show fronted by a dance ensemble, who appeared in various other TV variety shows in this period. Other guests in the series included Glen Campbell, Vince Hill, Bruce Forsyth and Mrs Mills. Pentangle were fairly unusual in being able to appear on ‘underground’ music shows and mainstream light entertainment shows, with no real difference to their act. There was a studio rehearsal for the programme on 5/2/70. The group’s fifth British tour began the following day.
FOLK SONG PROM (BBC1 SCOTLAND)
Rec: 1/7/70, Studio A, Glasgow
TX: ?
Producer: Iain MacFadyen
Fee: £300 + £45 (subsistence) + £120 (six air fares) + £12 (porterage)
Rehearsals held at Studio A, Glasgow on 30/6/70.
SONGS FROM A COUNTRY CHURCH (BBC2)
Rec: 1–2/8/70
TX: 25/12/70
Dir: Steve Roberts
Songs: Lyke Wake Dirge / No More My Lord / Moondog / Train Song
This performance was staged for the cameras of BBC2’s Late Night Line-Up team in Trumpington Church near Cambridge, around the Cambridge Folk Festival weekend. It was the church’s 700th anniversary that year and the material chosen compliments well the austerity of the occasion and, presumably, the surroundings. John Renbourn had previously used a brass rubbing from the church, of Sir Roger Trumpington, for the sleeve of his Sir John Alot (1968) album. Off-air audio survives and a brief clip in a recent BBC4 documentary suggests the film does too.
SHOW OF THE NORTH (BBC1)
Rec:
TX: 26/9/70
Producer: Iain MacFadyen
Pres:
Guests: Pentangle, the Johnstons, Cliff Aungier & Gerry Lockran, Stella & Bambos, Hamish Imlach
Songs: House Carpenter (5:25) / Train Song (3:39)
A 30-minute Saturday tea-time show with the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra ‘presenting from Scotland international artists in a fast-moving musical entertainment of songs from America, Brazil, Ireland, England, and Scotland’, as Radio Times put it. The Pentangle songs survive as high-quality off-air audio.
IN CONCERT (BBC1)
Rec: 20/6/70
TX: 18/9/71
Dir: Stanley Dorfman
Songs: Train Song / Hunting Song / Light Flight / In Time / House Carpenter / I’ve Got a Feeling / Blues
This was one of the BBC’s first series of half-hour TV concerts with contemporary songwriters of note, generally from North America (Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor et al.) and generally solo artists. A second series was shown in early 1972 and the show then became Sounds for Saturday, which ran later in 1972 with more of a group focus. Pentangle’s episode was apparently recorded on this date, a Saturday, when the group had also been advertised to appear in concert at Oxford Town Hall. Although four other 25- to 50-minute concert performances survive, from Granada TV in Britain, NRK in Norway and a station in France, this BBC In Concert remains the group’s classic surviving TV document, with a warm, full sound, sympathetic lighting, an effortless, airy feel to the music itself and a spacious, split-level stage arrangement. No doubt well-rehearsed in terms of direction, it was a four- or five-camera situation with imaginative camera work and vision-mixing. At the end, the group busks its way through 40 seconds of ‘Blues’ from Bert’s 1969 Birthday Blues LP. The entire performance was included in audio form on OA. It has been rebroadcast occasionally on BBC4 since 2006.
SING HI SING LO (BBC1)
Rec: 17/1/72
TX: c.8/72
Producer: Iain MacFadyen
Fee: £200 + £54 (subsistence) + £132 (six return air fares)
Songs: TBC
Filmed at Broadcasting House, Glasgow, this 25-minute show featured the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra and, like Show of the North (above), had a decidedly folkish bent to its guest policy. Described in Radio Times as ‘a non-stop programme of popular music by international artists’, it ran for five Wednesday-night episodes in 1971 and six Saturday-night episodes in 1972, from 29 July to 2 September, with five or six artists per episode. Other artists featured in the 1972 run included Tom Paxton and Mary Hopkin, who guested that year on Bert’s Moonshine album. Pentangle’s final British TV appearance before their brief 1982 reunion appears to have been the confusingly titled Dave Cash Radio Programme for Granada TV on Thursday 28 December 1972, at 5.15pm, with Mungo Jerry, Edison Lighthouse and Ashton, Gardner & Dyke. The show had possibly been first shown in ITV’s London region on 26 October 1972. Either way, it was the last time the British public would see the group on TV for ten years.
SUMMER FESTIVALS (BBC2)
Rec: c.6/82
TX: 23/7/82
Producer: Rosemary Bowen-Jones
Songs: Hunting Song / Sovay
A 45-minute show (in a series of four) presented by Paul Gambaccini and Fran Morrison, previewing several summer events. Pentangle (minus Terry) are filmed rehearsing for their reunion concert at the Cambridge Folk Festival, along with sequences on the Cambridge Theatre Company, Cambridge Opera Group and Christopher Hogwood. The Pentangle sequence last ten minutes and features interview clips with all four, excerpts from ‘Hunting Song’ and all of ‘Sovay’.
THE 18TH CAMBRIDGE FOLK FESTIVAL (BBC2)
Rec: 30/7/82
TX: 18/12/82
Producer: Donald Sayer
Song: Bruton Town
One of a series of compilations of performances at that year’s festival. One Pentangle number is featured along with Johnny Silvo, Figgy Duff et al. BBC radio recorded six songs (including ‘Bruton Town’) from the event.
LATER… LIVE (BBC2)
TX: 29/4/08 live
Producer: Alison Howe
Song: Let No Man Steal Your Thyme
LATER… (BBC2)
Rec: 29/4/08
TX: 2/5/08
Producer: Alison Howe
Songs: Light Flight / I’ve Got a Feeling
Bert had featured twice before as a solo artist on the BBC’s long-running live music show, presented by Jools Holland. At this time, a live-to-air prelude to the main Friday night show was being broadcast on the preceding Tuesday, the day on which the Friday show was recorded. Pentangle used the opportunity to perform three songs rather than two, with one being a repeat (as was the norm with most artists).
NEWSNIGHT (BBC2)
TX: 26/6/08
Editor: Peter Barron
Songs:
Former folk music journalist Robin Denselow manages to sneak the band on to BBC2’s flagship current affairs show. As the programme’s website put it: ‘Leonard Cohen’s at Glastonbury, the Beach Boys’ lead man is playing London. Perhaps all great things have their time again. Yes, even Pentangle the cult heroes of 1960s folk-jazz have stopped running restaurants in Minorca and gone back to music. They’re back in fashion. And we feel duty bound to remind you why.’
INTERVIEW APPEARANCES
Over the years, Bert would have appeared on local and regional radio stations many times, often to plug a gig in that area that evening. Some appearances might have involved a song or two in the studio, but many would have been a brief interview and a play of something from his most recent record. Three more general interview appearances on GLR, a BBC London region station, survive from the 1979–80 period, and are available on YouTube, two of them on shows fronted by Wally Whyton, part of Bert’s London folk music milieu in the mid-60s. Below are a handful of national-level BBC radio interviews Bert gave, with no live performances involved, mostly from his Indian summer as a living legend, 1998–2011.
FOLK ON FRIDAY (R2)
Rec: 20/3/70, Aeolian 1
TX: 17/4/70
Producer: Frances Line
A Pentangle interview.
MIKE HARDING (R2)
TX: 12/7/00
Producer: Mike Leonard
An interview with Bert by Christine Collister.
MIKE HARDING (R2)
TX: 18/2/04
An interview with Bert, in the wake of his having received the Radio 2 Folk Awards Lifetime
Achievement Award.
CLASSIC SCOTTISH ALBUMS: BERT JANSCH (BBC RADIO SCOTLAND)
TX: 2005
Producer: Rab Noakes
A 30-minute documentary in which Bert talks about his first album. Around about this time, producer Rab Noakes also made a radio documentary about Bill Leader, in which Bert was interviewed. The Jansch documentary has been repeated several times on digital platforms.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO DAVY GRAHAM? (R2)
TX: 20/8/05
Producer: Trevor Dann
Bert is among those interviewed by presenter Stuart Maconie in this hour-long documentary in search of the guitar pioneer, at that point making a kind of comeback.
RAMBLIN’ BOY – THE DONOVAN STORY (R2)
TX: 6/5/06
Producer: Jo Wheeler
Bert was among those interviewed for this documentary on the mellow one.
FREAK ZONE (BBC 6 MUSIC)
TX: 11/3/07
Bert and Jacqui appeared on Stuart Maconie’s show to promote the Pentangle box set The Time Has Come.
MIKE HARDING (R2)
TX: 4/6/08
Producer: John Leonard
An interview with Bert and Jacqui McShee on the Pentangle’s forthcoming reunion tour.
FRONT ROW (R4)
TX: 8/8/08
Producer: Laura Thomas
Note: More interviews around the Pentangle reunion tour.
JOAN ARMATRADING’S FAVOURITE GUITARISTS (R4)
TX: 31/7/09
Producer: Hannah Ratcliffe
Singer/songwriter Joan Armatrading interviewed five guitar legends in this series of 15-minute profiles, Bert appearing in the fifth.
LAUREN LAVERNE (BBC 6 MUSIC)
TX: 27/6/11
Bert and Jacqui McShee interviewed on the day of Pentangle’s only appearance at Glastonbury Festival. In the age of digital platforms, the chat was filmed for online broadcast. Seemingly, Bert’s last visual appearance on the BBC.
CAMBRIDGE FOLK FESTIVAL (R2)
TX: 3/8/11
A compilation programme presented by Mark Radcliffe and Mike Harding, including eight-minute interview with the Pentangle members. Cambridge Folk Festival was to be Bert’s penultimate live performance.
What a staggering amount of research, and what a staggering amount of recorded music and other related material.
Thank you for putting it all up here for posterity (and stealing by obsessional fans!).
@Mods – this needs to go in the Afterwiki for exhaustively collated, brilliantly erudite and conscientiously executed research output from the likes of @Colin-H
AfterWiki?!? I had trouble enough posting it as a Feature, as Ainsley will confirm! 😀
Wonderful research Colin. Thank God there are people like you around to permanently record this invaluable history . Thanks Mr H.
You’re welcome, Bingmeister. Actually, our mutual friend Twang of this parish was very helpful in doing some of the Caversham legwork here. I could only do some of it myself (being on a different island) but Twang pursued several leads before lockdown curtailed physical access.
This kind of thing actually makes me proud to be an Afterworder.
Kudos to Twang as well…what a superb bunch of music/culture lovers on this site. Many thanks
Proud, you say? I’m envisaging a colourful parade of middle-aged white blokes carrying Camel albums, books by Heppo and wearing aspidistra T-shirts – declaring unashamed loyalty to pottering about, the 70s, and telling each other things have all gone to the dogs… 😀
I should say, incidentally, that while the above text couldn’t be fitted into the box set booklet, what *is* there is very substantial – a history of BBC sessions in general plus long essay on Bert at the institution + lengthy testimonials from / interviews with 20 of Bert’s collaborators plus many radio & TV presenters / producers.
I was at the Later recording in 1996 as a guest of the Bluetones. What a great lineup there was that evening – Bo Diddley, ZZ Top, the Bluetones, Stereolab and Bert. I vaguely remember Nigel Kennedy being there. He may even have accompanied Bert. None of the artists disappointed and the only Take 2 was ZZ Top for some imperfection in Take 1. A wonderful evening.
Wisely, if Nige was there, he kept his distance from Nige. 🙂