Heroes of Rock and Roll

[mattchurchett]

Bit of a strange request here. Does anyone remember Heroes of Rock and Roll? It was a 2 hour program, made by ABC in America. It was shown over here on BBC1 and I'm trying to find out that date.

www.imdb.com/title/tt0248084/

I've got a VHS of it recorded from the time, but there's no clues to the date apart from a trailer for the new series of Holiday the following day!

Also, as it's a show full of performances from various sources, were any of the clips from TOTP?

[johnpoole]

I watched it when it was shown by the BBC (in two parts?), can't remember when but I think it was maybe a year or two after 1979 (the US date). I doubt that it had any clips from TOTP, but I would have to watch it again to be sure. It has been posted on YouTube in 9-10 minute segments
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HCMfkzqLVM

[Jeff Leach]

I still have the Vhs tape from when it was first broadcast and since I got my first video recorder in December 1980 it was one of the first things I recorded - so I would guess it was in the summer of 1981. - A Saturday night as I recall - consists of mainly. movie clips and US TV show clips.
A good documentary for the time though

[mattchurchett]

Thanks for the comments guys. The recording I have is 2 hours, not two separate parts (but I have read it was broadcast like this)

If I could find an episode guide for Holiday if be sorted. Shame the BFI TV and film database doesn't work any more.

[Deleted]

I seem to recall it was 1980 as I remember watching it at a particularly difficult time linked absolutely to Autumn & Winter of that year, and was verily heartened by footage of The Buffalo Springfield. I recorded audio of the whole thing. It was repeated in 1981, which I also watched and was maybe the one Jeff recorded.

It was shown, I'm sure, on BBC2, late-ish ... after the pubs had shut. It was infamous for Jeff Bridges' exclamation, "Rock 'n' roll, phew!", much lampooned in the NME thereafter for a few months.

I'm wondering if it was part of Rock Around The Clock, which was when BBC2 gave over 12 hours or more of airtime exclusively to rock/pop music. They did one of these in August 1984, but there was at least one earlier which featured the Jan & Dean biopic, Deadman's Curve. There was also a running feature where you voted for your favourite video, from a list which included It's Only Rock & Roll and Strawberry Fields Forever. I also recall a letter the following week in the Radio Times from someone who acknowledged the showing of this and hoped that that was it for rock & pop and the BBC could go back to "proper" music.

Sorry to be vague, but I could only find online verification for RATC August 1984 edition: the rest is from memory.

Maybe William could confirm some broadcast dates for Rock Around The Clock in its various guises from his amazing collection of NME's etc.

[Deleted]

Right ... update. Heroes Of Rock & Roll was first shown on October 4th, 1980, 11:15 PM to 12:55 AM ... at least it was in Scotland. It was part of an early version of the Rock Around The Clock thread. This thread went through the week and featured films and docs. Hope this helps.

Info gleaned here ... If you want to find out what else was shown, just follow the papers.

news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19801004&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

[mattchurchett]

Thanks so much for all the info Shelley

October 1980 must have been the original broadcast.

Mine is definitely from BBC1 as it has the old BBC1 logo before the show. This logo was replaced in Sept 1981 so it's definitely from before then.

Thanks again for the info, hope I can track down the date of my recording!

William if you're reading this, can you help?

[Deleted]

Hi, Matt, I would think it'd be from the first 2 or 3 months from 1981 if there's a holiday show afterwards. The post christmas schedules were awash with such things back then lol.

I recall its being reshown pretty quickly afterwards. If you follow the link from my last post, you'll find access to The Glasgow Herald, which gives daily TV schedules for the majority of months for the majority of TV years. It's how I tracked down Heroes' initial showing. Start with a rough idea of when in the year and go from there. Labourious, sure, but worthwhile too in that you can find listed progs you might well have been into then but since forgotten about.

[Tim Brown]

I concur with the Oct 1980 date, my list says the 20th?
I recorded the Bowie (Ziggy H'smith 3rd July 1973) section on my first VCR a brick that was a Sharp model!

[Deleted]

There was also a Kinks concert from the Low Budget tour and I think Cream's Albert Hall concert film was shown.

[robchapman]

Aug 18, 2014 19:49:39 GMT @sheldi said:

It was infamous for Jeff Bridges' exclamation, "Rock 'n' roll, phew!", much lampooned in the NME thereafter for a few months.

I'm glad someone else remembers it for the infamous exclamation and the ribbing in NME. It was the first thing that popped into my head when this thread started. I have the same dim and distant memories of it. Dodgy 'trying too hard' script. Great footage.

Talking of which Peter Yorks little inserts on the early days of The Tube were great for the same reason. Enterprising archive retrieval. Slightly arch and wince inducing scripts. Sadly they are never included when they rerun the old Tube music clips.

[Deleted]

The footage was fantastic. We didn't have youtube etc then, so the chances of seeing decent archive footage, even in gobbet form, were few & far between. I'd never even HEARD of Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues film clip (though I knew the song), let alone seen it ... and you NEVER saw footage of The Buffalo Springfield. I'd discovered them back in 1979 so seeing the clip of For What It's Worth, was incredible.It brought life to the music I loved, and still love ... made it corporeal and real in a human sense. Corny though the prog was, it was a fantastic window to what's out there.

[paulwelton]

My first thought was the Rock and Roll-Phew line also.
Brings back a memory for me as the first time I watched this was in a Preston Hotel room drinking beer with some mates after a trip to the Blackpool lights.
This thread dates it exactly.