Tag Archives: Tomorrow

Pete Murray joins Kaleidoscope for music-themed TV event

VETERAN DISC jockey and TV presenter Pete Murray is to make his final public appearance this June, at a celebration of vintage TV and music.

Pete Murray

Pete Murray

BBC Radio 1 original Murray, 85, will be joined by fellow DJs Mike Read, Ed Stewart and ‘Diddy’ David Hamilton at the one-day event, organised by classic TV research organisation Kaleidoscope.

Junior Campbell of sixties Scottish pop rockers Marmalade will also be there to introduce some vintage appearances by the Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da chart-toppers.

TV highlights at the event, taking place on Saturday, June 4, will include screenings of a previously-missing edition of Top of the Pops from 1976, a long-lost performance by Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, and the sole surviving episode of 1968’s Discs A Go Go.

The full line-up is as follows:

THE MAIN ROOM

* 12:00 pm Thames television start up film.

* 12:10 pm Music Peter – a special compilation of musical highlights from fifty years of Blue Peter. Acts include the Merseybeats, Girls Aloud, ABBA, Musical Youth, Slade and The Goodies.

* 1:00 pm Top of the Pops – this recovered 1976 edition is presented by Noel Edmonds and also features performances by Billy Ocean, Marmalade, Guys ‘N’ Dolls, The Walker Brothers and Electric Light Orchestra. A domestic Philips N1500 video recording of the show was purchased from an internet auction site by a consortium including classic TV organisation Kaleidoscope in December 2010 (TX: 12/02/1976).

* 1:30 pm Junior Campbell introduces highlights from performances he did with Marmalade. Guest Junior Campbell looks back on a couple of editions of Anatomy of Pop and an edition of Television Club called “Making a Record”. He was also in Jock and Roll from 1982 which includes some of the Anatomy of Pop material of Marmalade. Marmalade appearances include Julie Felix (TX: 03/05/1970) and It’s Lulu (TX: 25/07/1970). The presentation will be followed by a short question and answer session with the audience.

* 2:00 pm Break

* 2:15 pm Guest Panel – DJ Heaven. Kaleidoscope are delighted to welcome old friends and new to today’s panel celebrating the art of the disc jockey. Mike Read, Ed Stewart and Pete Murray are interviewed by David Hamilton. This is Pete Murray’s last ever public appearance and it will be filmed by ITV local news. The panel will be illustrated by clips including Crackerjack, Saturday Superstore, Six Five Special and Pete Murray appearing in Maigret as an actor.

* 3:45 pm Afternoon Tea accompanied by a Quantel demo tape from 1979. This remarkable technology became a staple of pop shows in the eighties and makes for fascinating background wallpaper.

* 4:15 pm Sing Me a Fantasy – A one off musical film from TWW, believed wiped until it was found at Ulster Television in 2010. Featuring Tony Crane, Kenny Lynch, Joan Savage, The Jay Gee Dancers and The Millerman Orchestra (TX: 03/03/1968).

* 4:45 pm Top of the Pops – material from 1967-68 recovered by the National Film and Television Archive. Acts appearing including Pink Floyd.

* 5:00 pm Discs A Go Go – the only recorded edition of TWW’s pop show. This one-off Bristol Special is hosted by Tony Blackburn and features The Symbols, Paul and Barry Ryan, Tomorrow, Keith West, Steve Howe, Solomon King, The Gojos, Samantha Lee, Engelbert Humperdinck and Bob Miller and the Millermen (TX: 02/03/1968).

* 6:00 pm See You Sunday – a selection of musical performances from the 1974 BBC religious show that featured many well known contemporary pop groups.

* 6:30 pm Time for Blackburn – join compere Tony Blackburn for this Southern Television show featuring The Who. Produced and directed by Mike Mansfield with Johnny Pearson as musical director. The programme includes original off-air continuity (TX: 26/10/1968).

* 7:00 pm Closedown – from Thames Television, featuring Barbara Dickson.

THE BAR

* 12:00 pm The Bacharach Sound – this Granada programme survives as uncut studio sequences only. Composer Burt Bacharach is joined by Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield, The Searchers, The Merseybeats, Chuck Jackson and Hal David (TX: 14/04/1965).

* 1:00 pm Doing Their Thing – Labi Siffre.

* 1:30 pm Pop Quiz – Episode 6. Mike Read hosts the show where teams of musicians test their knowledge of the music scene. Featuring Phil Lynott, Paul Nicholas, Gary Tibbs, Chas Chandler, Hazel O’Connor and Nicky Tesco. This 1-inch videotape was written off by the BBC Archives and scrapped before transfer, but Kaleidoscope have paid for an outside contractor to restore it and make a new Digibeta copy (TX: 08/08/1981).

* 2:00 pm Cliff! – Cliff Richard and The Shadows are joined by The Vernon Girls, Jack Parnell and His Orchestra and Petula Clark in this ATV production (TX: 16/02/1961).

* 2:30 pm Pop Goes Guy Fawkes – Granada special from 1983 featuring Roman Holliday, Spandau Ballet, The Flying Pickets, Culture Club, Carmel and Dave Edmunds. Presented by Gary Byrd and Bob Carolgees (TX: 05/11/1983).

* 3:30 pm D’Abo – an untransmitted BBC pilot presented by Michael D’Abo with Derek Griffiths. Recorded on 30/07/1971.

* 4:00 pm The Old Grey Whistle Test – an edition from Christmas Eve 1980 featuring Ian Dury and the Blockheads (TX: 24/12/1980).

* 5:00 pm Jazz Scene… at the Ronnie Scott Club. The Clarke-Boland Big Band, Guitar Workshop, The Miles Davis Quintet, The Stéphane Grapelli-Teddy Wilson Quartet, Sarah Vaughan and Her Trio, The Charlie Shavers Quartet, The Oscar Peterson Trio, The Gary Burton Quartet, The Stars Of Faith and Buddy Rich and His Orchestra are introduced by Ronnie Scott himself for this BBC show (TX: 26/12/1969).

* 6:00 pm On The Road – an untransmitted edition from the 1979 Granada series devoted to singer-songwriter Kate Bush.

* 7:00 pm Closedown

  • The Kaleidoscope summer event takes place at The Talbot Hotel, High Street, Stourbridge, on Saturday, June 4, 2011, from 12-7pm. Admission is free and all proceeds from the day will be going to Kaleidoscope’s chosen charity for 2011, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. For more information, visit www.kaleidoscope.org.uk.
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Filed under Events, Kaleidoscope, Music, Screenings, Sixties' Music, Top of the Pops

Doomwatch Fanzine Goes On Sale

Doomwatch Fanzine by Doomwatch.orgA NEW fanzine celebrating the 40th anniversary of TV series Doomwatch is now available.

Doomwatch Fanzine is described as the “perfect introduction” to the groundbreaking show, which dealt with a scientific government agency responsible for investigating and combating various ecological and technological dangers.

Over a year in the making, the 24-page glossy colour magazine features an exclusive full series synopsis, “Embryonic Nazis on Four Legs”,  as well as new articles and artwork.

It is being released by website Doomwatch.org as a limited edition, priced £6. Proceeds will go to charity Cancer Research UK.

Publisher Scott Burditt says he expects the fanzine to “sell out fast”.

He added: “This is the perfect introduction to the series for those who are unfamiliar with it and would like to find out exactly what Doomwatch was all about and why it caused such a stir in the early 1970s with its prescient storylines.”

Doomwatch was created by writers Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, who also devised the Cybermen in Doctor Who, and was produced throughout its original TV run by Terence Dudley.

In three series aired between 1970 and 1972, the Doomwatch team, led by the incorruptible Dr. Spencer Quist, dealt with threats including killer rats, a plastic-eating virus and nuclear weapons.

A feature film was made in 1972 by Tigon British Film Productions and a further TV movie, Winter Angel, was screened by Channel 5 in 1999.

As well as the series overview by Tony Darbyshire, Doomwatch Fanzine also includes contributions from Richard Thomas who looks at “Transhumanism in Doomwatch”, Michael Seely with his views on Season 3, and Stephen Dudley (Terence Dudley’s son) provides his thoughts on the series in “A Letter from the Front line”.

Scott Burditt has designed the entire fanzine and Brian Gorman has provided the illustration of Dr. Spencer Quist that appears on the front cover.

Presently, out of the original three 13-episode series of Doomwatch only season two resides complete in the BBC archives.

Five episodes from season one are missing along with nine from season three.

One of the biggest losses is season one’s thrilling finale “Survival Code” (tx 11/05/70), which is still remembered today for its shocking ending where main character Toby Wren (played by Robert Powell) was killed.

  • Doomwatch Fanzine is priced£6 (including postage and packing) and is available from Doomwatch.org.

READ ON: Scott Burditt and Anthony Brown have previously written an article on Doomwatch for Wiped, which you can find here.

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Tyrannosaurus Rex: Missing Top Gear Session Discovered

A previously missing 1960s BBC session by psychedelic rock/folk band Tyrannosaurus Rex has been discovered.

The session by the group – which would evolve in to legendary glam act T-Rex in the 1970s – was broadcast on March 23rd, 1968 as part of the BBC Radio 1’s influential “progressive” music programme Top Gear, but wiped soon after.

The BBC archives might not have retained a copy but a fan did, making an off-air recording from his radio featuring the whole session, with DJ John Peel’s introduction and performances of ‘Knight’, ‘Debora’, ‘Afghan Woman’ and ‘Frowning Atahuallpa’.

The sound quality of the domestic tape is said to be good on account of the fan plugging his recorder straight in to the radio, as opposed to placing a mike next to the speaker.

Responsible for discovering the recording is Nigel Lees, an expert on psychedelic music and founder of the Top Sounds record label, set up in 2004 with the purpose of conducting a ‘slow but sure archaeological dig into the UK’s lost pop archive’.

He announced his discovery on the Missing Episodes forum here.

Nigel has been responsible for tracking down other lost live performances by 60s bands such as Tomorrow, Kaleidoscope and Killing Floor, either preserved on transcription disks or from off-air recordings.

These previously unreleased gems, performed on shows including Saturday Club and The Dave Cash Programme as well as Top Gear, have been released commercially by Top Sounds (with the full blessing of the BBC) on three CD compilations: ‘Alphabeat‘; ‘Shapes and Sounds‘ and ‘Shapes and Sounds Vol 2‘.

Wiped hopes to bring you a feature on Nigel and the Top Sounds label soon.

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