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Post by Tony T on Oct 13, 2004 10:59:18 GMT
Now heres a subject of many a debate over the years, has Dave Clark ever been approached?....in the correct way of course, perhaps by Dick Fiddy?....I know he has always declined to let anybody in on his collection...or a case of ££££??
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Post by H Hartley on Oct 13, 2004 13:08:25 GMT
What makes you think approaching Dick Fiddy and/or the NFTA is going to help you see this material?
Without Dave Clark, RSG would have probably never been seen again?. Whatever his motives and peculiarities in presenting the material , DC got RSG on channel 4 in the 1980s as well as various VCR releases.
Now how many programmes from ITV has the BFI re-issued in the past 30 years? can you count them on one hand?
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Post by Laurence Piper on Oct 13, 2004 15:49:04 GMT
Clark is very cagey about what he does actually have. Those RSG compilations were cobbled-together abortions. I don't think there's likely to be a sympathetic DVD release of RSG re-mastered unless the £ signs talk loudly enough. Ar regards what he has of TOTP etc - who knows?!?
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Post by William Martin on Oct 13, 2004 15:59:25 GMT
rumour has it he has a recording of every totp with a live DC5 appearance, but unless he want's to tell us we will never know.
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Post by TONY T on Oct 13, 2004 16:32:54 GMT
To William/ Laurence....EXACTLY!!!!!....its like Dick Clark denying the existance of the Buddy Holly TRs....same old story....
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Post by Richard Hunter on Oct 13, 2004 16:40:57 GMT
Perhaps if Dick Fiddy reads this thread then he may let us know if he has ever approached Dave Clark on this very subject.
I seem to recall that DC rescued the RSG stuff from Rediffusion (I think) who were about to junk it all.
He said if you don't want them then I'll have them (or words to that effect). I don't know if he paid anything for them.
By the way, does anyone know what he's up to these days? Since "Time" in the 80's he seems to have disappeared.
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Post by gary freeman on Oct 13, 2004 20:51:55 GMT
my own theory on the dave clark archive is this.
The guy was given a copy of every ed sullivan show the DC5 appeared on, this was done as a matter of course by the shows producers. as for top of the pops, RSG and other shows, i doubt it as he would have included them in the little DC5 montages that appeared during the RSG re-runs in the early80's.
As for Ready,Steady, Go, well the show is a legend and there is always rumours of this and that turning up and the wonderful wacky story of a van load being found in london (i think this was reported in an edition of record collector) but to my knowledge only one other clip from rsg has ever surfaced apart from the ones shown on chanell 4 yonks ago and that was the Walker Bros "sun aint gonna shine" clip that surfaced in germany a few years ago.
i honesty think that Dave has got no more to show us, if he did then it would have attracted a lot of press attention and somebody would have paid his asking price to show these beauties.
this is my theory and i could be a million miles from the truth (i hope i am).
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Post by Kev on Oct 13, 2004 20:58:15 GMT
There is a complete RSG doing the rounds, extracts of which were shown on channel four.
Also a really poor copy of one featuring the Stones.
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Post by Simon Wells on Oct 13, 2004 23:01:32 GMT
As far as Clark's track record is concerned, it is unlikely that there is any more than what he licensed to C4 in the 80's. It would be pointless to cite "legal problems" as he skirted Apple's litigious team with ease to produce the hideous Beatles "Ready Steady Go" Live video.
another point: Seeing as RSG went out at different times in certain regions of the UK, ALL would have had to have been telecined (or recorded in some format) would they not?
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Post by Sal Mohammed on Oct 14, 2004 2:44:48 GMT
It's a pity that Dave Clark & Apple don't get together to release material on DVD. The official "Ready Steady Go!" Video featuring the Beatles "Around the Beatles" programme could easily be upgraded. The songs performed on the programme were re-recorded especially for the show and can be found on bootlegs. Two tracks can be found in stereo on the Anthology CD. Overdub stereo recordings to the footage and you have a perfect remastered DVD fit for the 21st century.
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Post by Kev on Oct 14, 2004 7:38:24 GMT
Hi Si!
Here's an extract from a letter I received from a bloke who' worked with video tape his whole life:
An videotape systems engineer did explain to me why tapes were recycled by all broadcasters: at the time they used giant reels of 2" Quad Videotape that cost £200 each even in the latter half of the 60s and required giant machines that needed a compressed air supply to run at a constant speed. If a programme producer hadn't set aside a budget for "buying" the tape internally, it would be wiped after a given amount of time in order to reduce costs. This was common practice at a time when TV broadcasts were considered to have little or no life after transmission (they weren't seen as an "asset" unless the recording contained a significant event, such as a performance of the Beatles, etc).
The only exception to this would be if the show was to be distributed internally - such as Ready Steady Go! was - in which case either the 2" masters were retained or a so-called "telerecording" was made. This involved a very special rig that saw a film camera record the screen output of a specially-adapted flat "high definition" TV monitor. It was exposed to film which was then processed and printed just like any film. Obviously, that produces a negative - and is not something you can erase. That's how some old Dr. Who, Steptoe & Son and Dad's Army episodes came to survive.
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Post by Laurence Piper on Oct 14, 2004 9:02:49 GMT
Rumours about RSG abound. I also recall a Record Collector item in the '90s which reported as fact in it's news page that a cache of over 30 editions had been found in an underground vault! Nothing more was heard, of course!
Dave Clark was also interviewed in the same magazine at about this time and when asked about RSG, he replied ambiguously, stating that what he had "represented the bulk" of the editions transmitted. He certainly doesn't have "the bulk" of them or anything like it or he would have made use of them by now.
There are, I believe, three complete regular editions (not sure if he has these as such but the NFTVA do) plus a couple of specials and a chunk of another from 1966 with The Rolling Stones (a print of which was saved by the director Michael Lindsay Hogg and also resides at the NFTVA). What Clark managed to buy were bits of various episodes of indeterminate length, mainly from the '63 / '64 period, it seems. There were several different title sequences used in those compilations so maybe they are part-programmes, some of which are the beginnings. Clark has never listed what he has, to my knowledge.
The theory that he bought all the DC5 appearances on Ed Sullivan is probably right as clips which seem to come from there (with very obviously inserted screaming audience cutaways not in the original shows) have surfaced here and there.
Clark seems particularly sensitive to criticism too. I recall watching an edition of Beat Club '60s on VH-1 a few years ago that was hosted by Mark Ellen. There was a clip of the DC 5 coming up and Ellen (rightly) was very sarcastic about the group's jumping on a particular musical bandwagon in the clip. In the repeat of the edition shortly after, the preamble was there, but the DC 5 clip had mysteriously disappeared to be clumsily replaced by a current pop promo! I still have the edition. That's typical of Clark though - he tries to keep a tight reign on DC's profile - but it made me laugh!
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Post by Tony T on Oct 14, 2004 12:53:17 GMT
Very interesting reading Laurence....He plays is cards close to his chest....I wonder if Parky has ever approached him for a chat....might be interesting....dont think hes ever been interveiwed...could be wrong though...the thing is if he `pops` it....who does it all go to?...Enter Dick Fiddy to the rescue?
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Post by Laurence Piper on Oct 14, 2004 18:26:47 GMT
He'll probably have set up some impenetrable estate or trust, just like the Hancock estate that keeps an iron grip on the ATV Hancock series and won't let them be released or repeated!
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Post by Larry Dutch on Oct 15, 2004 12:33:36 GMT
Dave Clark is one of the most paranoid and litigious-threatening men in the UK. If you use the name "Ready Steady Go", he threatens to sue. He tried to copyright the name I believe but failed. I believe he tried to get Shawn Levy's book pulled for using those words, even though the book was not about the show.
He purchased the film cans of RSG but I believe he does not own the rights to the series per se. He evidently owns those cans but I believe nothing more. Only those cans. So if other material turns up, he has no legal right to say, "those belong to me". Even though he continually does.
Apparently everyone is too afraid to sue him. He has as much right to RSG as Michael Lindsay Hogg or Cathy McGowan. When he put those tapes out he never obtained permission or paid any of the artists a cent aside from the standard mechanical royalties for the audio. Fordyce, McGowan were not contacted and approval never granted.
These days, having accidently melted his plastic surgery-altered face under a sun lamp, he is no longer seen in public. He had all the DC5 under contracts right from the start of their career banning them from discussing who played on their tracks (ie - not Dave on the majority of them). He also shut down the official fan club in the past few years for some indiscretion - think one of the former members spoke up about the past.
From what I have been told by someone to whom this happened, if I went to the press and said I had found an old RSG under the floorboards in a derelict house, he would contact me ASAP and threaten to sue if I didn't hand it over and would threaten to get a warrant to have the place searched. I know of an archive that no longer lists the few fragments that they have of the show (nothing unseen though possibly a link or two may not have surfaced) in their catalogue for fear of him.
There is a brilliant book waiting to be written once he goes.
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