Guitar Riffs At The BBC

[Kev Hunter]

Good to see last night's "Guitar Riffs At The BBC" compilation although there was nothing particularly unfamiliar to me, apart from the Yardbirds' appearance on "A Whole Scene Going" which I don't recall seeing before.
What surprised me was the performance of "Bullet In The Head" by Rage Against The Machine, which was excellent yet censored; I saw it at the time on the Late Show (1993) but don't remember it having the f-word (to use the overly coy reference) removed then.
The Late Show performance was uploaded to YouTube in 2006 and this seems to bear out my memory but can anyone confirm or deny this?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0j0GCbMC7A
It seems odd that the word would had been taken out specifically for this compilation however, given that it was shown well after the watershed and singer Zack de la Rocha was wearing a t-shirt with the legend "Fuct" on the front, which got into more camera frames than the sung expletive!

[Chris Barratt]

Is there more apt description of the current generation of 'young people' than Bullet In The Head? Of course, with the USA always being 20 years ahead of the UK it makes perfect sense now (see also Kurt Cobain).
I'm of an age when the RATM debut was one of 'the' albums, and it still sounds incredible to me (I've even got a black 'Fuct' top in perfect condition still in my wardrobe). There was a lot a great music around in the nineties, and quite a lot of decent (if short-lived) music tv shows. Now 'culture' (as we knew it) is dead, it seems somewhat like a golden age when people like me would be eagerly recording the TOTP repeats on UK Gold and the contemporary music tv. Even plain old MTV UK - I transferred some footage of that from 1993 recently, looking at it now my thoughts were 'and I took it all for granted!'
Strange that 'Bullet' should be censored that late at night - but then again given the cultural war being fought whoever chose that particular track for inclusion deserves a pat on the back at the very least. I'd be the first to call out BBC4 for being 'not as good as it used to be' but I know there are people there really fighting our corner and doing their best in extremely trying circumstances (while the corporation commits harakiri around it) and the current state of play may well end up being an 'MTV UK 1993' situation soon enough.

[Deleted]

Glad to see The Yardbirds appearance in AWSG being used in this programme (I haven't seen it as yet) as it's just about the only appearance by them still existing at the BBC and has been generally forgotten about in compilations up to now.

[Alan Turrell]

I don't know if they performed more than the one song but here's the excellent over under sideway's down.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WMp-s27ihA

[Dave Woods]

Jul 21, 2014 7:40:04 GMT Chris Barratt said:

Now 'culture' (as we knew it) is dead, it seems somewhat like a golden age when people like me would be eagerly recording the TOTP repeats on UK Gold and the contemporary music tv. Even plain old MTV UK - I transferred some footage of that from 1993 recently, looking at it now my thoughts were 'and I took it all for granted!'

The scariest prospect is that we may well be looking back at today some twenty years hence and thinking the same thing. (Actually we already know that the bit about eagerly recording TOTP repeats will still apply.)

[Alan Turrell]

Jul 23, 2014 20:45:59 GMT Dave Woods said:

Jul 21, 2014 7:40:04 GMT Chris Barratt said:

Now 'culture' (as we knew it) is dead, it seems somewhat like a golden age when people like me would be eagerly recording the TOTP repeats on UK Gold and the contemporary music tv. Even plain old MTV UK - I transferred some footage of that from 1993 recently, looking at it now my thoughts were 'and I took it all for granted!'

The scariest prospect is that we may well be looking back at today some twenty years hence and thinking the same thing. (Actually we already know that the bit about eagerly recording TOTP repeats will still apply.)

To be honest Dave i really don't think it can get any worse than it is now but you never know those in control of tv these days may well suprise us .

[Kev Hunter]

Jul 19, 2014 14:19:19 GMT Kev Hunter said:

Good to see last night's "Guitar Riffs At The BBC" compilation although there was nothing particularly unfamiliar to me, apart from the Yardbirds' appearance on "A Whole Scene Going" which I don't recall seeing before.
What surprised me was the performance of "Bullet In The Head" by Rage Against The Machine, which was excellent yet censored; I saw it at the time on the Late Show (1993) but don't remember it having the f-word (to use the overly coy reference) removed then.
The Late Show performance was uploaded to YouTube in 2006 and this seems to bear out my memory but can anyone confirm or deny this?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0j0GCbMC7A
It seems odd that the word would had been taken out specifically for this compilation however, given that it was shown well after the watershed and singer Zack de la Rocha was wearing a t-shirt with the legend "Fuct" on the front, which got into more camera frames than the sung expletive!

As a footnote (should anyone care) while going through some old tapes yesterday I found my original VHS recording of "Bullet In The Head" from the Late Show, and it was uncensored; the "Guitar Riffs.." version where the expletive was dropped out was taken from The Late Show's No Nirvana compilation programme, so it looks like compilations are now made from previous compilations rather than source material.