BBC Pick of the Pops

[captainhaddock]

I remember back in the seventies when 'Turn Around And Touch Me' was released as a single Tony Blackburn played it daily on his morning Radio 1 show. However, it was always played as the last record before the 10 a.m. news and it was always faded out halfway through. I wrote to him to complain but I didn't expect a reply - nor did I get one!

So, the perceived bias against the Shads by the BBC isn't just a recent thing.

Cheers.

Tony

I believe that Tony Blackburn was aware of a "bias" against the Shadows. I have mentioned this before on this forum.
Back in 1977/78, his afternoon show featured a "Juke Box Jury" style segment and one week he played a mystery track without mentioning who the artist was, in order to prevent any bias. Based on a public vote, the track won and then he mentioned the artistes name. This was the first time that I ever heard "Love Deluxe" by The Shadows. Did it chart ?

[hankb56]

I suppose I may as well expand my rant after all I started it!!! it also gets up my wick when presenters either cut short a track with an instrumental break or ending and but in and gibber a load of crap through it! To my mind the break is part of the record and would like to hear it not some arsehole who likes the sound of his/her own voice!!

Ian

[hankb56]

Love Deluxe was brilliant track and it never even broke wind in the charts!

Ian

[neil2726]

seems the worst DJ for interrupting records, making silly noises or singing along is Steve Wright!

[jimbojet]

I wrote to "sounds of the sixties" when Jet passed away to request a track in his honour by way of a tribute to him, as It wasnt mentioned on the show following his death, probably due to the programme being pre-recorded. I got a nice e-mail back saying they were planning a "tribute" to Jet and Tony in an upcoming show, but to my knowledge this never materialized, so I wrote again and received no reply to this. The host of this programme is Brian Matthew who I am told Jet fell out with in the sixties because he never turned up for a show he was hosting live, this maybe why the "tribute" never happened, does anybody else know of a fall out with Brian Matthew and Jet?

[stratmantd]

The section in Tony Blackburn's afternoon show was called 5 at 45. Quite a good title rteally because he played 5 new singles (45s) at 5:45. I remember listening the day he played Love Deluxe. He said that he wouldn't say who the artists were until afterwards so that the comments would be made on the record and not who recorded it.

From what I remember it got very good reviews and certainly surprised the "jury" when they discovered that it was The Shadows.

To be fair to the BBC, I think that it was music journalists who had turned against people like Cliff and The Shads rather than DJs. After winning awards from the NME in the early days, they went on to be slated by them. The only time I ever read anything giving grudging credit was to Alan Tarney for the backing track for We Don't Talk Anymore. In fact, the article was titled as the best record in the charts which was really surprising but goes to show that talent will out when it merits it.

Another example of music journo anti-shads bias was when Malc (Shad1) wrote to the letters page of one of the music papers. They were ignoring the 70s resurgence of the band and he wrote saying that they were "pillars of the music business". Surprisingly, his letter was printed but given the title "Pillows of the music business". It is difficult to fight bias like that so please thank Tony Blackburn for playing them, he has always been a friend of Shadows music.

[alanbakewell]

I suppose I may as well expand my rant after all I started it!!! it also gets up my wick when presenters either cut short a track with an instrumental break or ending and but in and gibber a load of crap through it! To my mind the break is part of the record and would like to hear it not some arsehole who likes the sound of his/her own voice!!

Ian

Ian, I have to wholeheartedly agree. I have yet to hear the "Diddly Diddly" bit on the end of "Sultans of Swing" whoever the presenter is. That song is ALWAYS cut short.

Cheers, Alan.

[ecca]

It seems to be the opposite with Hey Jude, once upon a time it was invariably truncated but nowadays it seems they have to play all 7 minutes of it.
Great.
Naaaaaah nah nah nah na nah nah......... nah na nah nah etc.......

[roninnes]

As you all know Brian Matthew plays out the end of his show with Foot Tapper however it always get faded out coming into the news break. I remember Johnny Walker covering for Brian when he was ill and he played it in it's entirety at the end and commented how it never gets played through to the end.
It is normal for shows to use an instro to end the show as it can be faded more easily.

Ron

[hankb56]

One time last year when the vehicle I was using had a crap radio and I had to listen to Ken Bruce, he made a comment about an outro going on a bit. I thought that's good coming from him as he is one of the worst for gibbering crap all through the show!! Always happy to get a vehicle back hat I can use my DAB converter and get back to West Sound.