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

Hi, Happy Easter. BBC Four have a few old favourites this Good Friday, and repeated on Sunday if you miss them ...


Thursday

7.30pm & 11.55pm - Top of The Pops 1980
Mike Read presents an edition first broadcast on March 20, 1980. Including performances by the Bodysnatchers, Squeeze, Sad Cafe, the Lambrettas, Barbara Dickson, Shakin' Stevens, UB40, Martha and the Muffins, BA Robertson and the Jam. Plus, dance sequences by Legs & Co



Friday

9pm & 1.35am Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender - Director's Cut
Profile of the flamboyant Queen frontman, exploring his time away from the band - including a collaboration with Michael Jackson and the triumphant Barcelona duet with Montserrat Caballe. The programme also examines his life as a gay man who was not yet publicly out. Featuring rare archive footage and interviews with bandmates Brian May and Roger Taylor, as well as friends and admirers including Paul Gambaccini, Montserrat Caballe and Matt Lucas. Extended version of a documentary originally shown as part of the Imagine strand

10.25pm & 3.05am Queen: The Legendary 1975 Concert
The rock band in performance at London's Hammersmith Odeon on Christmas Eve in 1975, featuring early singles including Liar, Keep Yourself Alive, Now I'm Here and Bohemian Rhapsody, as well as Brian May showcasing his guitar skills in Brighton Rock

11.15pm Mr Blue Sky: The Story of Jeff Lynne and ELO
The life and career of singer-songwriter Jeff Lynne, from his early days in the Birmingham rock scene to his success with Electric Light Orchestra during the 1970s and stint as a member of the Traveling Wilburys with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and George Harrison. Featuring contributions by the artist himself, along with his friends and colleagues Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, Barbara Orbison and Eric Idle

12.15am Jeff Lynne's ELO at Hyde Park
The Electric Light Orchestra's first live performance in 28 years at Hyde Park, closing BBC Radio 2's Festival in a Day 2014 in front of a 50,000-strong crowd. The show saw Jeff Lynne lead a band that included original ELO keyboard player Richard Tandy and the BBC Concert Orchestra through hits including Livin' Thing, Sweet Talkin' Woman, Don't Bring Me Down, Mr Blue Sky and Roll Over Beethoven. The frontman also paid tribute to his bandmates from the supergroup the Travelling Wilburys, with a performance of Handle with Care



Saturday

10.40pm Definitely Dusty
Archive performances from 1967 by singer Dusty Springfield, taken from the star's successful TV show. Featuring Tom Jones as a special guest and backing vocals by Madeline Bell, Lesley Duncan and Margaret Stredder

11.40pm Dusty Springfield at the BBC
A tribute to the renowned London-born pop diva, featuring BBC archive footage of some of Dusty's most famous performances from 1961 to 1995. The programme also offers a chance to relive the singer's story, from her folk beginnings with the Springfields, through to her Motown homage years and her collaboration with Pet Shop Boys in the late 1980s. Also includes the star's duets with Tom Jones and Mel Torme

12.40am Top of The Pops 1980
as above

1.15am Disco at the BBC
A tribute to the renowned London-born pop diva, featuring BBC archive footage of some of Dusty's most famous performances from 1961 to 1995. The programme also offers a chance to relive the singer's story, from her folk beginnings with the Springfields, through to her Motown homage years and her collaboration with Pet Shop Boys in the late 1980s. Also includes the star's duets with Tom Jones and Mel Torme

3.15am Sounds of the 70s 2: Art House Glam - Get in the Swing
Collection of archive performances by artists including the Kinks, Roxy Music, Elton John, New York Dolls, Queen, Sparks and Rod Stewart. Plus, a rediscovered recording of David Bowie singing The Jean Genie from January 1973



Elsewhere, the Eurovision's Greatest Hits concert is on BBC1 and RTE2 on Friday at 9pm, if you are into that. Jackie Brown is on Friday Night on Channel 4 at 12.35, featuring this cracking opening tune. One of Tony Fenton's favourites, RIP

Welsh Megaman wrote: »

Thanks Skid, the Eurovision should be good...what am I saying, Lordi are on...of COURSE it will be good

May have to record that glam show though...on a bit too late for the WM

Fingers crossed for a Lordi/Jonny Logan collaboration!

Nice to see Queen back again on BBC Four. I saw this on Youtube today, a Brian May's Star Licks guitar tutorial video.



He is an amazing guitar player IMO. Easy to forget how good he is.

I heard a nice little programme on Radio 4 today about Carol Kaye. She is a legendary Bass Player who was one of the Wrecking Crew Session artists, who played on multitudes of hit records in the sixties

Carol played on such classic tracks as The Monkees' I'm A Believer, Ike and Tina Turner's River Deep Mountain High, The Righteous Brothers' You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin', Barbra Streisand's The Way We Were and The Beach Boys' California Girls- - as well as most of Pet Sounds and Smile. She also played on the themes from Batman, Mission Impossible and Born Free, along with some 10,000 other sessions - all the while bringing up a family as a divorced single mother.

Though not a household name, she is highly respected by her peers. Paul McCartney has spoken of how much her melodic bass playing on Pet Sounds influenced him, while Sting has said he learned to play bass from one of the several books she wrote on the subject.

She is still going strong at 80 years old, giving Skype tutorials and other classes

You can listen back here, only 30 minutes but some nice anecdotes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05nk25s

Welsh Megaman wrote: »

Just watched the 'band break-up' documentary - good stuff

And Peter Hook really needs to grow up. His childish spats towards Bernard Sumner are embarrassing at this stage.

Yeah, it's a shame he is still ranting about it. Regardless of the rights and wrongs, there comes a time to move on.

When Radcliffe is interviewing him he says (to Hook) "You say New Order split up" and then there is a notable change in audio when it cuts away to a shot of Radcliffe saying "they say, or at least those trading under the banner of New Order say .." (clearly added after the interview).

It looks it was heavily edited and , maybe the lawyers didn't want Radcliffe saying something like "the rest of the band say" in case it looked like Hook wasn't challenging him that New Order still exist.

Sad way for a good band to be carrying on. Good Doc all the same, Mark Radcliffe does good telly.

Hello, New tomorrow night at 9pm is How to Make a Number One Record. The blurb says "Great pop records are the soundtrack to our lives and that is why number one hits hold a totemic place in our culture. This film goes in search of what it takes to get a number one hit single, uncovering how people have done it, and the effect it had on their lives. As the exploration moves through the decades the goal is to trace the various routes that lead to the top of the singles chart, and discover the role played by art, science, chance and manipulation in reaching the pinnacle of pop." Sounds a bit serious. The KLF wrote a well received book on the same subject, you can read it in full here http://freshonthenet.co.uk/the-manual-by-the-klf/

Before that, Sounds of the Eighties makes a welcome return at 7.30pm with Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran, Culture Club, ABC, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Bananarama and Kylie. There's a compilation of One Hit Wonders at the BBC in the aptly titled One Hit Wonders at the BBC at 10pm.

There's a change of pace at 11pm with Sting: When The Last Ship Sails "Sting performs songs from his album The Last Ship in an intimate performance recorded in 2013 at the Public Theatre, New York. The music was inspired by the shipbuilding community of Wallsend in north-east England, where the former Police frontman was born and raised, and forms part of his Broadway musical. The concert also features an appearance by actor and singer Jimmy Nail" You don't hear much from Jimmy Nail these days.


On Saturday there is another chance to see John Denver:Country Boy and John Denver live from Wembley Arena followed by An Evening With Glen Campbell


Elsewhere, Friday Night is Iron Maiden Night on Sky Arts, and the Snooker Marathon starts on BBC2. That's a tune.