Garth Tucker

Is there anyone who can help me? I have vague memories of being with a camera crew in one of the bigger TC studios recording a number by the Rolling Stones which was being lit by Bob Wright. My son is asking me questions about it which I cannot answer. I think it must have been pre-1969 because I believe Brian Jones was present and was enthusiastically agreeing with Mick Jagger that the Lighting was the best they’d come across, they were being lit independently from both sides and Bob and his team were cutting between the two conditions in time to the music.

 

David Brunt

The Stones did ‘Honky Tonk Women’ for TOTP the week after Jones died in 1969 (10-07-1969).

Before then you’d have to go back to 1967 as they only sent videos in 1968.

26-01-67 – Let’s Spend the Night Together
02-02-67 – Ruby Tuesday
28-12-67 – 2000 Light Years From Home

Though I’ve no idea if they were pre-recorded performances, or even from TC.

Could it be ‘2000 years’? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjYmfXeKt9Y

 

Graeme Wall

TOTP was still Studio G for those, wasn’t it?

 

Pat Heigham

Harry Secombe achieved the charts with “If I Ruled the World” from “Pickwick”, so came into the studio for TOTP.

On rehearsal, the galleries were empty, as everyone went onto the floor to see and cheer him. Didn’t bother with the pop groups!

 

David Brunt

There were some occasional TOTP in TV Centre (The Beatles one in 1966, for example).  That’s why I’m not certain if they were TC, Lime Grove or Riverside (where a lot of the pre-recorded inserts were done).

 

Alec Bray

We did the first ever Beatles insert for TOTP from the TV Theatre, Thursday 19th March 1964 as a 35mm FILM recording (so why is it lost?), txed the following Wednesday.

We were scheduled to do the racing results from the TV Theatre (finishing around 16:00 –ish), and stayed to do The Beatles.  They had spent the day filming for "A Hard Day’s Night".

See : A Whoie Mole Page …>

 

Pat Heigham

My Beatles Story: I worked for BBC TV Tech Ops during the 1960s, and on a Light Entertainment crew which did “Pops and Lenny ” (Lenny the Lion) for the kids at 5 o’clock.

Each week we used to have a pop group in to do a number – might have been Gerry and the Pacemakers, Freddie and the Dreamers – whatever.

We had a standard mic rig – covering lead, rhythm and bass guitar and drum kit, plus vocals, so it was pretty well (yawn) Oh, another lot!

I used to operate a mini-Fisher boom, located on the circle of the TV Theatre, looking after a side set on the stage apron, and during The Beatles number, for it was they, I was aware that the whole circle was vibrating. Looking round I saw that the complete teenage audience were legging it for the exits, presumably to get to the stage door.

Years later, I was recording an interview with Paul McCartney and chatting with him, told him that this had been my first exposure to The Beatles – and we had a good laugh.

 

Mark Lewisohn “The Complete Beatles Chronicle” 

“… The Beatles’ second appearance on national BBC TV was in the children’s series Pops and Lenny, broadcast live, in front of an enthusiastic audience, from the Television Theatre in west London.  ….

…The Beatles arrived at Television Theatre in time for a 1.30pm rehearsal and performed two songs on the 5.00-5.30 broadcast, ‘From Me To You’ and a shortened (1 min 5 secs) version of ‘Please Please Me’.  They also joined resident musicians the Bert Hayes Octet and other members of the cast – Terry Hall, the Raindrops, Patsy Ann Noble, and, of course, Lenny the Lion – for the finale, a one minute version of ‘After You’ve Gone’, the Creamer/Layton standard written in 1929 …”

 

Pat Heigham

“Crackerjack”[and] “Pops and Lenny” were programmes serviced by Crew 3 on which I was for some considerable time. And loved every minute!

I don’t know how the powers that be managed to schedule me to crews that did LE. but bless them!

Later, as a Gram Op, Marion, our secretary was constantly juggling directors who wanted certain technicians (Sound Supervisors and Gram ops) for their programmes, SS and Grams who liked to work on certain programmes, with the need to fulfil staffing. She was brilliant, and I rewarded her by taking her for a weekend in Amsterdam! Ahem!

The BBC Management was very po-faced about people specialising, saying that everyone was equally well qualified. Yes, they were, but some were better at Drama. Some better at Music. That was never recognised, except for Marion’s intuition. Thus, Len Shorey and Hugh Barker handled jazz and big band, and DMT, Gordon Mackie ,Norman Greaves et al, sorted out drama.

Marion met and married a French Engineer, and had a flat in Paris. When I was freelance and happened to be filming in Paris, used to go round for supper. …

I took my training at the BBC to working on “Fiddler on the Roof” (Oscar for Sound) and a couple of Bond films.

Thank you, BBC, and John-John who persuaded me to go the gram op route and learn the sound control.

 

Tony Grant

I did a Rolling Stones shoot for TOTP the afternoon before the live TX in one of the Television Centre studios. I’ve just trawled YouTube to find it, as I came across it at least six or seven years ago, and thought – “I did that!” – but I can’t find it at all. I have no recollection of which crew I was on, what song they were singing, or who lit it, were they singing live or miming, but it was in colour, so 2001s.

I’m fairly sure it wasn’t “Brown Sugar”, but other than that I can’t be sure. Very annoying, although I do remember they were on a raised rostra and I was shooting from camera left fairly low down and at one point had an MCU of Jagger with a defocused coloured 2k in the background possibly even with a star filter (in fact, almost probably with a star filter!).

 

Pat Heigham

I believe that Bob Wright had  a claim to fame by lighting a production of “Hamlet” at Elsinore, in the 15th-century Kronborg Castle, by having sparks holding poles on which were mounted light sources (Redheads?).

I don’t know if they were battery powered, but the whole point was that they were very flexibly mobile. Think the sparks christened them “BobLights”.

Anyone got any further info?

I remember LG ‘G’ mostly for Grandstand, and a particular Saturday when, because of weather, there was no sport coming in from any of the OBs, so Pres decided to run a film. We all sat around a studio monitor on the green canvas chairs, and watched “Berlin Express” which is still being churned out to this day!

 

Alec Bray

Jimi Hendrix

You ALL helped to produce a book on Jimi Hendrix – “Jimi Hendrix at the BBC” by Caesar Glebbeek.  Caesar contacted Bernie through the Tech Ops website and was interested in anything we could offer about Jimi and the editions of TOTP that he appeared in.  In the end I seemed to be his main “conduit” to you all.  He would ask a question like “What area of Studio G was used for Jimi…” and we would try to answer him.   Unfortunately I goofed: Caesar asked where the canteen was, so I told him – but what he really wanted to know was where hospitality was (in Sangers)!

One of Jimi’s entourage took pictures of his first appearance in LG “G” for “TOTP” – it was a pre-recorded insert.   All the photos are just of the Jimi Hendrix Experience – except for one:

I remember to this day exactly what it felt like taking that shot!

52 years later and a photo of it turns up!