Irish Rock At The BBC

[Kev Hunter]

BBC4 had a good selection of Irish-themed music programmes on over the weekend - in particular, the documentary about young band The Strypes was excellent, but I couldn't help feeling that Irish Rock At The BBC was a something of a let-down. My main gripe is that there was nothing earlier than Thin Lizzy from 1973, doubtless due to the fact that anything that might have fitted the criteria has been wiped - such as Them on TOTP, Taste on Disco 2, for instance. Surely in this event, the scope for clips could be broader, as happened with the recent Bee Gees compilation which was given the extended title of "At The BBC.. And Beyond", to feature performances from other channels and European shows.  (Off the top of my head, Taste and Skid Row made Beat Club appearances which survive, so they could have been included.) It's been done once for the Brothers Gibb, or were they a special case?

[richardwoods]

Damn it, missed them! Did much OGWT Rory Gallagher footage get shown?

[Kev Hunter]

Mar 15, 2015 16:19:00 GMT richardwoods said:

Damn it, missed them! Did much OGWT Rory Gallagher footage get shown?

Just one Rory track from OGWT - "Walk On Hot Coals". The show is on i-player : www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0556qc9/irish-rock-at-the-bbc

I was surprised there was no Van Morrison in the programme - he appeared on OGWT more than a few times (or always seemed to).

[richardwoods]

Now that is a surprise. Perhaps they are going to do a feature on Rock in the North. . Cheers, will download in a mo.

[johnstewart]

Mar 15, 2015 17:21:04 GMT Kev Hunter said:

Mar 15, 2015 16:19:00 GMT richardwoods said:

Damn it, missed them! Did much OGWT Rory Gallagher footage get shown?

Just one Rory track from OGWT - "Walk On Hot Coals". The show is on i-player : www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0556qc9/irish-rock-at-the-bbc

I was surprised there was no Van Morrison in the programme - he appeared on OGWT more than a few times (or always seemed to).

Yes I recall there was a special in tandem with a simoultaneous stereo broadcast on radio 1. I turned the TV sound at the time and watched with radio sound.

It was a whole concert c. 1974.

A film clip of him performing 'moondance' was also used on the show.

Footage from the early Decca period of Thin Lizzy seems thin on the ground generally. It all seems to start with the record company promo for 'The Rocker'.

I think I'm right in saying the latter survives on 'OGWT' ?

[Kev Hunter]

The performance included in the Irish Rock programme was Lizzy's appearance on Top Of The Pops in Feb 1973, which pre-dates the promo for "The Rocker" by a good seven or eight months.
The promo film was aired in BBC4's "Totally British : 70s Rock 'n' Roll", so it does still exist. Not sure how a band from the Republic of Ireland came to be included in that particular compilation though!

[Liam Joseph]

Watched some of this last night. The parts about how the early rock and blues scenes developed in Belfast and Dublin were very interesting with the footage of Rory Gallagher, Them, Thin Lizzy etc. Never been much of a fan of Van the Man's solo career so I skipped that. As far as I could see there was no mention at all about Horslips which was surely a huge omission as they were probably the first band to credibly mix traditional Irish music and Rock in the early 70s, being sort of an Irish equivalent to Jethro Tull and having a lot of success in Ireland and also the UK. They seem to have been written out the history books!

[Kev Hunter]

Horslips were included in the Irish Rock At The BBC programme, Liam - there was an OGWT clip of the band performing "Dearg Doom", which had previously been shown on Episode 4 of Guitar Heroes At The BBC.

[Liam Joseph]

I thought that might get an airing Kev. Still seemed pretty bizarre to omit such a pivotal band from the documentary, though obviously there's only so much you can fit into an hour-long programme. If anyone is interested Horslips' The Tain is an absolute clasic album that is well worth a listen, and The Book of Invasions isn't too far behind.

[johnstewart]

Mar 19, 2015 21:20:32 GMT Kev Hunter said:

The performance included in the Irish Rock programme was Lizzy's appearance on Top Of The Pops in Feb 1973, which pre-dates the promo for "The Rocker" by a good seven or eight months.
The promo film was aired in BBC4's "Totally British : 70s Rock 'n' Roll", so it does still exist. Not sure how a band from the Republic of Ireland came to be included in that particular compilation though!

I've got that back to front then. Sure I read on an index that whistle test kept 'The Rocker' promo in their archive but I seem to remember seeing that one on TOTP as well.