NEW RELEASES SOON: The Shadows Lost BBC Sessions

[StuartD]

True!!

[Fenderman]

That's me received my copy of volume 1 of the BBC sessions, sound quality is mostly very good.

[Fenderman]

I find it insane that the BBC saw no value in keeping their recordings and as a result there is massive holes in their archives. Many important recordings are lost forever. Same goes for the TV vaults.

[Fenderman]

I'm a bit confused - i thought Cerveza was only performed on Radio Luxemburg but it's on the BBC Lost recordings volume 1 appearing on Saturday Club. I didn't realise two versions were recorded, i'm only now managing to play the Lost Recordings in full as i've been busy the last few weeks decorating and had no time.

[Arpeggio]

Yes...they did "Cerveza" on Saturday Club....October 1st, 1960.

[Iain Purdon]

I find it insane that the BBC saw no value in keeping their recordings and as a result there is massive holes in their archives. Many important recordings are lost forever. Same goes for the TV vaults.

I should declare an interest. As well as being a Shadows fan I also worked 43 years for the BBC. Here’s my thought on this issue.
Analog tape is expensive but it can be used over again. If the BBC had stored all its audio and video tapes in case of possible archival interest, it could not have re-used them, so every recording would have included the cost of brand new tapes. Then somewhere would have had to be found to store them. Year upon year of all sorts of recordings being kept just in case? You’re talking large buildings here with air conditioning and damp proofing. Massive costs. Who would pay?
The problem lay in identifying what was an “important” recording and likely to be of interest way into the future. Yes, a programme or programme item would be kept for a while in case the schedulers decided to repeat it but, once they had concluded it had served its time, they would do the economical thing and use the tape for something new.
Digitisation has changed everything. Now a programme can be stored as an audio or video file and can live invisibly on a file server. But they didn’t have that technology back then. And, of course, live programmes didn’t need to be recorded in the first place.

[GoldenStreet]

Thanks, Iain - spot on!

Bill

[Fenderman]

Yeah that's a fair point. I'd forgot to take into account the economical aspects and yes, space would be an issue.

[GoldenStreet]

Yes...they did "Cerveza" on Saturday Club....October 1st, 1960.

By coincidence, Elaine Delmar, referred to in a recent thread in association with Brian Bennett, also featured in that edition of Saturday Club.

Bill