BBC Radio's London Folk Song Cellar - compered by Scottish folk duo Robin Hall & Jimmie Macgregor * - dates from the mid-1960s. This now largely unknown radio series was produced by the BBC World Service and distributed worldwide on acetate discs by the Transcription Service of the BBC. These latter disks are now long gone - usually junked for lack of storage - but were mainly distributed to overseas broadcasting corporations for late night transmission aimed at British ex-patriots. The series was also transmitted on shortwave. Most of these recordings were RadioRipped direct from the BBC World Service on shortwave (hence the poorish quality). They are over 45 years old. The actual dates of transmission are also long forgotten.

* For Robin Hall & Jimmie Macgregor see:

http://www.theballadeers.com/scots/hm_01.htm

These 30 min. programmes recorded in London emulated the ambience and sounds of the folk clubs of the 1960s that were predominant at the start of the British folk song, music and dance revival of that period. The performers included such pioneering luminaries as the Young Tradition, the Dubliners, Cyril Tawney, Sandy Denny, the High Level Ranters, and a host of others from those times.

The recordings uploaded here were RadioRipped onto reel-reel 1/4" tape and have now been passed onto a collector, before that though they were transcribed onto cassette tape, these were then in turn digitised to MP3. It is thought that it is best to present these latter recordings just as they are (or were) on the cassette tapes. These recordings are quite unique and probably do not exist elsewhere. If anyone wishes to try and reconstruct the original 30 min. programmes then if the original lists of performances can be found in the BBC archives then Audacity could do that.

And if anyone knows where other copies of the BBC London Folk Song Cellar exist please do let us know.

And there was also the inimitable Sandy Denny, see:

http://www.headheritage.co.uk/headtohead/unsung/topic/42592/

Note that from the Sandy Denny reference it appears that the BBC London Folk Song Cellar was superceded by similar programme called 'A Cellar Full of Folk' (BBC World Service) of which there are (currently in 2010) no known extant recordings in the public domain.