R2OK!

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 19382 Location: Cheshire

Off topic a bit, but Robbie's message brought to mind hearing him talk with John Dunn on Drivetime many moons ago.

Now that was a pleasant way to wind down on the commute out of Manchester!

H
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88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!

I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 10/3/2005

iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 2133 Location: Northumberland

Whoops, yes, it was Larry Adler on Genevieve.

I knew it had to be one or the other.

Ian.

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

Back from my hols, caught up with Saturday's edition, which was largely unremarkable, except perhaps for the inclusion of Vanilla Fudge and The Nice - two overblown instrumental hatchet-jobs in one show (but don't you just love them!).

Rolf Harris re-recorded Two Little Boys some years later, as an uptempo country/bluegrass number, thereby removing all the pathos from it. I didn't know that it was one of Harry Lauder's repertore.
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Ron

RobbieM · Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 12:12 pm Post subject:

iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 2133 Location: Northumberland

Heard Saturday's show in bits, as I was away for the weekend. Have provisionally reserved tomorrow evening for a spell on Listen Again.

Anita Harris' Just Loving You will alone be worth the wait. I remember when it was out, in summer 1967, making a very poor attempt to play it on the piano at my hospital digs!

Ian.

John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 3367 Location: Warwickshire, UK

Ian,

If you're not listening right now, another Listen Again that you might want to do is for today's Radio 3 'In Tune' programme which features John Wilson and lots of light music, in a special programme from Maida Vale

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/intune/pip/iu85v/

iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 2133 Location: Northumberland

Thanks for this, John. I may well have a listen later in the week.

John Wilson is coming to the Gateshead Sage on 8 July to conduct the Northern Sinfonia in an evening of British light music. Needless to say my ticket's already purchased!

Ian.

iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 2133 Location: Northumberland

Again I heard today's SOTS in bits and missed the last 30 minutes or so, making it likely that I'll be visiting Listen Again this week.

Only one observation: the Julie Grant track Watch What You Do with My Baby sounded unexpectedly familiar for a B side. Did someone else cover it?

Ian.

pickle · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 2:14 pm Post subject: SOTS

The Patty Duke track played this week seemed to be a rewrite of Lesley Gore's 'You Don't Own Me'.

If Janis Ian's 'Society's Child' had been written by a 15-year-old white girl now, the boy in question may have been a Muslim.
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RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 19382 Location: Cheshire

It's a while since I've heard the start of SOTS but I wasn't impressed with the first half today at all.

To top it all they have dispensed with the 'Avids Alert'...... what else can they do this show? It's a becoming a joke these days.

H
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88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!

I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 10/3/2005

Briant · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 12:38 pm Post subject: SOTS...

The second half was an improvement on the first hour, H. Brian did sound a bit tired though, I thought. Rolling Eyes

iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 2133 Location: Northumberland

Sorry, Helen, but I disagree that the show is a joke. It's still my favourite 2 hours broadcasting of the week. There isn't much unmissable stuff on R2 now and the station would be much the poorer without it.

Actually I thought that the content of yesterday's show was better than that of the previous week, in which the whole wasn't quite the sum of its parts. But I too am mystified at the exclusion of Avids Alert.

Discs like Rick Nelson's Young World remind me of listening to America's Hot Ten on Luxembourg on Friday nights circa 1962/3. Was it Tony Hall who presented this?

BM mentioned a book about 500 lost hits of the 60s. Does anyone have any details about this?

Ian.

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 19382 Location: Cheshire

Ian,

I too used to think it was unmissible but since the change of producer it's sadly not even half the programme it used to be.

H
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88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!

I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 10/3/2005

Lord Evan Elpuss · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 3417 Location: Cloud Cuckoo Land

Whilst they're in the mood for changes on SOT 60s, I wish they would go back to back-announcing all the tracks played, like the three-in-a-row, and the before 9:00am news instrumental. I can remember when they used to remind you of what the three-in-a-row segway was afterwards. Why on earth did they stop doing that?
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Lord Evan Elpuss, Your ideal job is a Lumberjack.

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

I suppose it makes for a less laboured presentation, and in the knowledge that one can always look at the list on the BBC R2 page.

I hadn't noticed that Avids' Alert had gone AWOL this week - I always thought it superfluous anyway; if you've written in for a dedication, and they're usually to commemorate some event, you should be listening to or recording the whole show anyway.

Quite a high proportion of the over-familiar this week, I thought (although I know that's a bit like quiz programmes - they're only easy if you know them). Tantalising me with yet another Dave Clark Five track, and the Hollies' tighter version of If I Needed Someone which the Beatles allegedly disapproved of. The different version of Gin House (Nina Simone and Amen Corner's are not exactly overplayed) and Clodagh Rogers' Goodnight Midnight, sounding very like Fox, which of course producer Kenny Young had great success with a bit later in the 70s.
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Ron

Briant · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 3:45 pm Post subject: Kenny Young.....

I have an LP by Kenny Young called 'Last Stage to Silverworld' that is full of strange songs. Halfway through Kenny's version of 'Under the boardwalk', The Drifters suddenly appear and sing along! Laughing

iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 2133 Location: Northumberland

Was doing a first aid refresher course this morning and will be doing it next Saturday also. This meant that I had to forsake SOTS around 9:15. I note that I missed Morecambe and Wise, so may pay a visit to Listen Again.

Frankie Vaughan's Hercules was a Warburton family favourite in its day but it's very similar to his earlier no 1, Tower of Strength, which may account for its peaking at #42.

Ian.

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

Having long thought that Avids' Alert was absurd, I miss it now it's gone.

Even if Cilla In The 60s was the only CD of her he had, there are 23 other tracks on it - why play Surround Yourself With Sorrow again?

Morecambe and Wise was the start of a new feature, replacing the TV themes, of "Childrens' Favourites", in acknowledgment of the frequent mention of them on MBs like this and the R2 one. In truth, the Light Programme's Children's Favourites of the 60s, pre Ed Stewart's Junior Choice, wouldn't have played anything like as subversive as M&W; indeed most of what Uncle Mac played was well before 1960! Laughing

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Ron

iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 2133 Location: Northumberland

True, but I still look forward to hearing what they dig out for this spot.

Ian.

iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 2133 Location: Northumberland

Have now caught up with the rest of this on Listen Again.

Absolutely top-notch, of course, but weeks ago they promised a 3 in a Row to commemorate the late Bo Diddley. I wonder when it's going to happen.

Ian.

iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 2133 Location: Northumberland

Heard the Bo Diddley tribute this morning--worth the wait.

How many people other than BM can say that they were taught to twist by Chubby Checker?

Delighted to catch up with Charlie Drake's Boomerang after so long. I remember that on Children's Favourites they used a version which edited out C Drake saying Oh My Gawd. In those far-off days, this was doubtless thought blasphemous by Uncle Mac!

Ian.

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

Didn't remember that, Ian. It has sparked a daft debate about whether it was politically acceptable to play it in 2008 on the BBC R2 Message Board.

Holiday by Andre Brasseur again. Either my LP or his CD must be mis-labelled. Didn't mention that Noel Edmonds used it as his theme tune (he had, just, joined the Beeb in 1969).
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Ron

iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 2133 Location: Northumberland

But it's supposed to be a comedy record. Surely nobody takes it that seriously.

Ian.

iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 2133 Location: Northumberland

Have now looked at the BBC message board, to which I don't contribute any more.

What a fuss about nothing!

As one whose blood is half Scots, may I complain if they play Donald Where's Yer Troosers?

Ian.

iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 2133 Location: Northumberland

Had forgotten all about that wretched Max Bygraves Lollipop thing. Awful really but hearing it again made me go all nostalgic!

My listening to SOTS over the next 3 Saturdays may be a bit fragmented, as we'll be on holiday (more about which to follow), but, as we're staying in the UK, I should hear at least some of each edition.

Ian.

SantaFefan · Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 11:56 am Post subject:

Didn't hear all the show myself but I too had to join in with Max and annoy everybody.. Laughing

I tend to like this type of song more as I get older! Razz

I think the Everly's version of House of the Rising Sun was possibly the worst I've ever heard! painful.
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iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 2133 Location: Northumberland

Alas, I have to agree with you about the Everly Brothers track. But somebody did ask specifically for their version of House of the Rising Sun as a Playing Hard to Get. I hope that at least the recipient will gain some pleasure from it.

Ian.

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

Sounded as if they were trying just too hard to sound hard and heavy just like everyone else in 1967. Like a lot of Hard To Gets, the album from which it comes can be had quite easily through the usual online place, for around a fiver, and contains covers of such gems as Lets Go Get Stoned, Trains and Boats and Planes, and Oh Boy, with intro borrowed from the Monkees' Last Train To Clarkesville.

I enjoyed Leroy Pullins' "I'm A Nut" - his album is available too, but I think a little may go a very long way.

I remember Max Bygraves doing When You Come To The End Of A Lollipop on a Sunday Night At The London Palladium, which is where that recording was made. Was it not a "spoof" of the old song When You Come To The End Of A Perfect Day, which the light operatic singers like Mario Lanza used to do?

He tantalised with another DC5 track - everything comes to he who waits, so they say. Cliff Richard's double-A side was one of my early pocket money purchases - I still have the green Columbia single, and the Brian Bennett's intro to Do You Wanna Dance still sounds pretty meaty today.
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Ron

iwarburton · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 2133 Location: Northumberland

Thanks, RockitRon.

I think you're righ re the Perfect Day spoof and that this accounts for the gales of laughter that greet the first use of the word Lollipop.

I had several DC5 singles, including Any Way You Want It, coupled with Crying Over You. Unfortunately it wasn't that big a hit, peaking at #24 in the NME chart. Perhaps the sound is better than the song. The single has long since gone wherever missing singles go to but I can still enjoy Any Way You Want It on the album Glad All Over Again.

The Cliff single came out before we had a record player but it was a real treat to hear it again. Hope you still have a means of playing your old singles.

Ian.

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

Perhaps it was because I was so preoccupied with the Beatles and other Liverpool acts, that I missed out on the DC5 at the time. I do have the 25 Thumping Greats! LP but the sound quality is pretty poor (compressed). Somehow missed the CD when it came out in the 90s, so it's on a Waiting List that also includes a decent Best Of George Harrison, ditto AC/DC, and Jim Capaldi's Short Cut Draw Blood.

I still have a deck to play the old vinyl on, and still can't bear to part with the singles, although I've transferred most of them onto CD-R.
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Ron

John H · Joined: 16 Apr 2008 Posts: 36

I am loving the records played in the new slot The Kids Are Alright.It all reminds me of a spot I used to do on a hospital radio show I used to present, playing the same material, but the best title I could come up with was "Childhood Classics".

Trouble is, all those songs have stuck in my head the rest of the day!

I am with Ian Warburton on the current standard of the programme as well.Everyone's entitled to their own view but I honestly think that the programme has been refreshed and rejuvenated under the stewardship of Phil The Collector Swern.

Looking forward to what Brian will be playing for our delight and delectation tomorrow.

John H

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 19382 Location: Cheshire

I think I read somewhere that SOTS now plays the obscure rather than the songs we remember. Well I'd rather hear a few more that I can recall hearing at least once!

It used to get me off to a great weekend but I'm afraid there isn't a lot that I enjoy on SOTS these days.

H
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88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!

I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 10/3/2005

John H · Joined: 16 Apr 2008 Posts: 36

The obscure is just what I like these days! Not that I wish to see awkward about it, but I think SOTS has the mix just about right, and ,let's be honest, there are dozens of radio stations about on which we can hear the "usual suspects"-brilliant as they may be-all day every day just about.It's nice I think to hear some of the lesser played artistes and tracks.

John H

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 19382 Location: Cheshire

Hi John,

The obscure sometimes should remain that way! I like a few 'oddities' but maybe it's the presentation style change as well that makes it a 'background only' listen most of the time.

H
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88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!

I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 10/3/2005

John H · Joined: 16 Apr 2008 Posts: 36

If I am totally honest, Helen, I must say that SOTS is usually a musical accompaniment to something else I am doing,such as checking e-mails, reading, etc etc,but that's more because of me than the programme.Whatever it is accompanying, it's the perfect accompaniment for me!

John H

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

Obscure in this context probably depends on how old you are and how good your memory is.

On Saturday 14 out of the 34 tracks played (not including Foot Tapper) were UK chart hits. In addition, Sweet Pussycat and Puff The Magic Dragon were frequently played at the time but not hits, and there were two songs more famous by other artists. So half the tracks were instantly recognisable to me, long in the tooth as I am! Younger viewers might have struggled with some of them.

The rest may have been unfamiliar, but they were not so obscure or unmelodic as to make listening a bit of a chore - for that you have to try Mark Lamarr's show midnight til three Saturday morning.

I love Sounds of the Sixties, both in its Roger Bowman days and now in its Phil Swern incarnation. The only quibble I usually have is with the Hard To Get feature. Yet again, on Saturday, Frank Ifield's Angry At The Big Oak Tree, his last chart hit, is easily available, on an excellent and very reasonably priced 3CD box set, from the bloke's local *** (even cheaper online).
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Ron

SantaFefan · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 8:04 am Post subject:

I love it too... and, I never realised that Pete Townshend played bass on Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air" Shocked

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Johnnie Walker read out my message on Pirate Radio! Very Happy

13/8/07
I have heard how radio should be.

Cherskiy · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 11:27 am Post subject:

Caught the last hour of today's show whilst working overtime. Hadn't heard Laura Nyro before and enjoyed some of the subsequent tracks though I can't remember the artists! (Apart from Harry Belafonte and the song with Wendy Richard in it - "Come Outside"?)
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RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

Clare Teal does a great, big-band, version of that Laura Nyro song on her Don't Talk album.

I knew that Thunderclap Newman was a protegee of Townshend, who got him signed to the Who's label. The B-side, "Wilhelmina" is one of those outrageous singalong ditties - "Wilhelmina is plump and round..."

Elsewhere on the show, yet another use of the Adagio of Dvorak's New World Symphony (Bill Brady and the Concordes), the demo of George's Piggies, a rather uncharacteristic, Ray Conniff-type Walker Brothers record, and Harry Belafonte's Hole In The Bucket - now we know who Sybil modelled "Basil!" on. Possibly.

(Incidentally does anyone remember another Harry Belafonte record that used to get played, with a line that went "With her one eye on the pot and the other up the chimney"? Made me laugh at the time - I've just googled it - The Drummer and the Cook http://www.akh.se/harbel/lyrics/drummer_and_the_cook.htm
I suppose it might not be quite PC to play it these days.
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Ron