During a couple of recent writing projects, I’ve come across a two situations of releases/almost-releases of BBC radio and library sessions that strike me as being in the vanguard of this sort of thing.

1. In 1968 a man at BBC Radio Enterprises wrote to Seamus Ennis with a proposal to release on LP most of a 1958 ‘Permanent Library’ session of uilleann piping (ie. recorded during a period of folk music collecting by the BBC for purely public service archival reasons, not specifically recorded for broadcast though many of their PL recordings were broadcast here and there). Ennis was between address at the time and the project never materialised, though it sounds innovative in concept. Did BBC Radio Enterprises release other single-artist LPs of BBC radio or library recordings in the 60s?

2. The other example is an October 1973 Radio 3 ‘Jazz Workshop’ session by the Howard Riley Trio which was licensed for release as a ‘current’ album by Incus Records the following year, titled ‘Synopsis’, as Howard had felt the recording/engineering quality was so good (let alone the performance).

So… was Howard’s album the first time a BBC session was released as an active, current artist’s » Continue Reading.