BeebRock - The BBC4/BBC3/BBC2/BBC1 Music Programmes thread

Hi there, Thursday sees the 28th anniversary of the Berlin Wall being pulled down, and that seems to have struck a chord in both BBC4 and Sky Arts who have very similar looking programmes about how Rock and Roll apparently defeated Communism.
Not sure if there's an ounce of truth in that, or why the 28th anniversary is a thing, but BBC4 wrap it up in a loosely themed Beatles Night which isn't bad, I really like the Howard Goodall Sergeant Pepper Doc.

Sky Arts goes large on the Martin Scorcese Bob Dylan film over two nights, while if you're thinking "I'm sick and tired of Dolly Parton, why doesn't RTE fly in her sister instead?" then there's exciting news in the shape of the Nathan Carter Show ...




Thursday
7.30pm & Midnight: Top Of The Pops 1984: November 22nd (BBC4)
John Peel and Tommy Vance host the November 22nd show, with Nick Heyward, the Human League, Billy Ocean, Murray Head, Shakin' Stevens and Chaka Khan. Full details here https://www.thetvdb.com/?tab=episode&seriesid=78332&seasonid=653476&id=5857864&lid=7

8pm Sam Smith at the BBC (BBC1)
Fearne Cotton presents this one-off special in which the singer performs tracks from his eagerly awaited new album The Thrill of It All, as well as a few of his hits. Sam is accompanied by his band and the BBC Concert Orchestra, and in between numbers he talks to Fearne about his life and career



Friday
3.30pm Radio 2 In Concert: Paloma Faith (BBC Red Button, Repeated at various times over weekend)

7pm Trailblazers: Conscience Songs (Sky Arts)
Rick Wakeman and Pete Waterman are among those examining the emergence and impact of songs that brought major issues to the world's attention

7.30pm Sounds Like Friday Night (BBC1)
Greg James and Dotty present a lively mix of music and entertainment, joined by Grammy-nominated US singer Demi Lovato as co-host. Demi will be introducing performances from Brit and Ivor Novello award-winning singer-songwriter Plan B, and Loyle Carner, who is making his BBC One debut. Greg interviews the guests, while Dotty keeps across the social media streams and goes out-and-about meeting music fans across the country

8.20pm & 12.30am Top Of The Pops 1984: November 29th (BBC4)
Peter Powell and Janice Long introduce performances by Nik Kershaw, Eurythmics, Slade, Tina Turner, Kool & the Gang, Madonna, Alvin Stardust and Jim Diamond. Full details here https://www.thetvdb.com/?tab=episode&seriesid=78332&seasonid=653476&id=5857865&lid=7

9pm Top Of The Pops 1984: November 22nd (BBC4)
Appears to be a repeat of Thursday's show, although the timing might indicate a generic TOTP compilation

9pm & 1.15am Rolling Stone: Stories From The Edge (Sky Arts) New!
New series. Charting the history of the magazine founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and Ralph J Gleason that mixed music coverage with innovative political reporting

10pm Bob Dylan: No Direction Home (Part1) (Sky Arts)
Part 1/2, Part 2 follows tomorrow at 11.15pm Martin Scorsese's two-part profile of the singer, featuring rare interviews and archive footage. The first half examines Dylan's formative years, with contributions by childhood friends and teachers on his earliest musical efforts and also explores his arrival on New York's thriving early 1960s folk scene and the artists who influenced his work. In his own words, Dylan tells how he became smitten with folk music as the story shifts from the iron range in Minnesota to Greenwich Village in New York City, with characters including Dave Van Ronk, the king of Greenwich village folk clubs, Joan Baez, queen of the folk music world, and Allen Ginsburg, America's beat poet laureate


Beatles Night on BBC4!
9.30pm & 2.10am Storyville: How The Beatles Rocked The Kremlin (BBC4)
How the band's music may have contributed toward the collapse of the Soviet Union. Millions of people in the country became passionate fans of the Beatles during the 1960s, leading the authorities to grow wary of the seditious potential of rock 'n' roll, destroy the group's records and ban their music. Despite their efforts, a generation of youngsters had come to enjoy the culture of the Cold War enemy and defected emotionally from the Soviet system


10.30pm Sgt Pepper's Musical Revolution with Howard Goodall (BBC4)
The composer explores why the Beatles' 50-year-old album is still revered as an innovative, revolutionary and influential release. With the help of out-takes, studio conversations between the band and never-heard-before outside of Abbey Road, Howard gets `under the bonnet' of the album, taking the music apart and reassembling it to reveal how it works. Producer George Martin and his team constructed the album sound by sound, layer by layer - a formula that became the norm for just about every rock act who followed

11.30pm Arena: Magical Mystery Tour Revisited (BBC4)
The making of the Beatles' self-directed TV movie Magical Mystery Tour, which originally aired on BBC1 on Boxing Day 1967 at the height of the band's popularity - but was greeted with disdain by the media and many viewers. The programme explores the creation of the surreal tale and investigates why it inspired such a furious critical reaction, and also asks whether opinions about the film have changed in subsequent years. With contributions by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Peter Fonda, Martin Scorsese, Terry Gilliam, Neil Innes and Paul Merton

1.10am Sings The Beatles (BBC4)
A look back through the BBC's archives at memorable covers of classic Beatles songs. Included are a performance of Day Tripper by Sandie Shaw, Shirley Bassey's version of Something, the Carpenters' rendition of Help!, Oasis's reinvention of I Am the Walrus, and Joe Cocker's chart-topping interpretation of With a Little Help from My Friends. Plus, Paul McCartney's solo performance of Lady Madonna

12.15am Elvis: The Final Hours (Sky Arts)
Documentary exploring the highs and lows of Elvis Presley's life, as told by a small group of the singer's closest friends and confidants

2.15am John Lennon: Live in New York (Sky Arts)
A benefit concert by Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono staged in Madison Square Garden on August 30, 1972, in aid of children with developmental disabilities. Featuring performances of Instant Karma!, Mother, Cold Turkey, Give Peace a Chance and Imagine, as well as Beatles classic Come Together and a cover of Hound Dog



Saturday
7pm Elvis Presley: A Legend in Concert (Sky Arts)
A collection of the star's early TV appearances, featuring hits including Tutti Frutti, Love Me and Blue Suede Shoes, as well as a duet with Frank Sinatra. The programme also includes footage from his 1956 performance on The Milton Berle Show, where his pelvic gyrations caused uproar, and an appearance from later that year on The Steve Allen Show - where the host came up with a unique solution to counteract the singer's supposedly threatening sexuality

8pm The Beatles: From Liverpool to San Francisco (Sky Arts)
Documentary following the band's early career and subsequent rise to fame, discovering how they conquered the charts and won millions of fans around the world

9pm & 3am Free To Rock: How Rock & Roll Brought Down The Wall (Sky Arts) New!
Kiefer Sutherland narrates a documentary telling the story of how rock music became a symbol of freedom behind the Iron Curtain and how it helped end the Cold War


10.15pm Rolling Stone: Stories From The Edge (Sky Arts)
Same as Friday

11.15pm Bob Dylan: No Direction Home (Part 2) (Sky Arts)
Conclusion. Martin Scorsese's profile of the singer takes a dark turn. Already a phenomenon at the age of 23, Dylan struggled to find a new musical vocabulary. The old Left hoped he would be a political activist, while the media wanted him to articulate the concerns of America's youth, but neither role interested Dylan

12.30am Top Of The Pops 1984: November 22nd (BBC4)
Same as Thursday

1am Down The Tracks: The Music That Influenced Dylan (Sky Arts)
Records and artists that inspired the singer during his formative years, including Pete Seeger, Blind Willie McTell and Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music

1.05am Top Of The Pops 1984: November 22nd (BBC4)
Same as Friday



Sunday
8pm Elvis: The Final Hours (Sky Arts)
Documentary exploring the highs and lows of Elvis Presley's life, as told by a small group of the singer's closest friends and confidants

9pm The Beach Boys: Live At Knebworth (Sky Arts)
A performance from the June 1980 Knebworth Festival featuring all six of the Beach Boys - Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston - who provide a set comprising many of their most memorable hits including Good Vibrations, Wouldn't It Be Nice, California Girls, I Get Around and Surfin' USA

9.30pm The Nathan Carter Show (RTE1)
The country singer is joined by guests Stella Parton, Scouting for Girls, Earl and Donna Taggart, and makes an unexpected appearance in the kitchen of one of his fans

10.30pm Pop Goes Northern Ireland (BBC2NI) New!
1972 The key events of 1972 set to music from the year. The programme explores the Bloody Sunday massacre, the imposition of direct rule, and the brief IRA ceasefire, as well as Operation Motorman, a military operation intended to bring an end to the infamous `no-go' areas and the rise of loyalist movement Vanguard and paramilitary force the UDA

10.30pm She's Got It: Susan McCann (TG4)
Susan McCann is joined by a host of artists as she presents a country music Christmas show recorded in 1988. Guests for this seasonal celebration included Ray Lynam, Daniel O'Donnell and Gloria

12.30am Rolling Stone: Stories From The Edge (Sky Arts)
Same As Friday

1.30am Gimme Some Truth: John Lennon (Sky Arts)
Documentary following the former Beatles star and his wife Yoko Ono as they recorded the album Imagine at their Ascot estate in 1971



And that's more or less it, that Pop Goes Northern Ireland is basically a Northern Ireland rip off of Reeling In The Years which was a copy of the BBC's Rock and Roll Years. I quite liked it.

If you are disappointed by yet another week gone with no mention of Lindisfarne then you might want to check out Gascoigne (ITV4 Sunday 11.15pm) the 105 minute Paul Gascoigne Documentary from 2015. Surely any honest look at the man's life has to include this No.2 Smash Hit ...

I never copped that Prince wrote I Feel For You ... yet another Number One for him, him and Nile Rodgers made making hits look easy.

I got an email from the Apple Records Mailing List today, plugging Friday's Beatles Shows on BBC4

They claim that the original film of Magical Mystery Tour will be shown after the documentary, although I can't see it listed in any other schedules

Here's their version of the listings anyway

http://www.thebeatles.com/news/bbc4-rebroadcast-sgt-pepper%E2%80%99s-musical-revolution-and-magical-mystery-tour-friday-10th-november

How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin (Storyville): 9.30pm
Sgt. Pepper’s Musical Revolution: 10.30pm
Magical Mystery Tour Revisited (Arena): 11.30pm
Magical Mystery Tour: 1.00am

Gizmo55 wrote: »

Skid! Shame on you! His first No.1.

Sorry Gizmo

Sorry Prince

Sorry Everyone

Nice to see nearly everyone wearing their Feed The World T-Shirts, you would feel like a git if you had refused on the basis that it didn't suit your look.

Jim Diamond's finest hour must have been the theme from Boon, surely?