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 new album (as opposed to a retrospective release)? And was it also the first single-artist LP of any kind drawn from BBC recordings?
Fairport Convention’s ‘Heyday’ LP, of various 1967-69 BBC radio session tracks not otherwise recorded by them, is generally regarded as the first of the modern onslaught of archival/retrospective releases drawn from BBC recordings, first issued in the early 80s.
Can AWers think of other examples released during the 60s and 70s?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faBXUZYkGdQ
There was a 1969 LP of Colin Davies conducting the BBC Orchestra at The Last Night Of The Proms, issued on Philips. I presume these were recordings of the actual performance.
Fair point JQ. I should have narrowed down what I was asking to the broad field of popular music – rock/folk/jazz . I don’t know enough about the history of classical music on disc but certainly it’s very common these days for BBC and other broadcaster-related performances to appear on disc.
I’ve done a bit of digging.
BBC Enterprises only started issuing records in 1969. Their releases were on the whole divided into spoken-word programme extracts, and theme tunes and other incidental music. There were also compilations licensed from elsewhere tied into specific programmes.
The BBC had a second label, named Beeb, which was formed in late 1974. Their first release was a three-track EP of a session Gene Vincent recorded for Johnny Walker’s Radio One show in 1971.
http://images.45cat.com/gene-vincent-roll-over-beethoven-beeb.jpg
That’s fascinating JQ – a label called Beeb with Gene on Johnnie Walker’s show, 1974: who knew?
I suspect the Howard Riley trio may still have been the first, though, earlier the same year.
Here’s Gene. Let’s rock…
There’s a full Beeb singles discography here:
http://www.7tt77.co.uk/BEEB.html
Forgor to say… by 1974, Gene’s release was of course posthumous.
There were some Saturday Club LPs released in the 60s, although not having heard them, I don’t know if they’re BBC recordings or the regular studio versions. This one credits the BBC on the sleeve and label, but that might just be in reference to using the name.
http://www.discogs.com/Various-Saturday-Club/release/5571450
There’s also a fair bit of music used on this LP: http://www.discogs.com/Various-BBC-1922-1972/release/603005
I do own this one but the sleeve doesn’t say if the music is sourced from broadcasts or not.
Forgot about this one!
http://www.discogs.com/Various-John-Peel-Presents-Top-Gear/release/1684101
Which does include BBC recordings.
If you don’t have them, Ken Garner’s books about BBC sessions (In Session Tonight and The Peel Sessions) are well worth investing in.
I do have Ken’s books and concur with your recommendation. That said, every time I write a book myself I seem to find a few weird anomalies and pass them on to Ken, in case he has another book at some point. Even within the uilleann piping world there were a few inexplicable oddities, such as a John Peel Show Bothy Band session that was repeated within a very short period on first the Alan Freeman Show and then the Friday Rock Show – the oddness being principally the sharing between three distinct shows, although the very fact of instrumental Irish music being featured on the FRS is itself curious. A third curio on that front is that, despite this across the board traction, that is the one Bothy Band Peel sesh that *doesn’t* survive at source.
Anyway…
I vaguely knew of the Top Gear LP but thought it featured artists associated with the programme rather than actual broadcast recordings. I stand corrected on that.
But we’re still looking at Howard Riley’s ‘Synopsis’ as the first single-artist BBC session release.