Old Grey Whistle Test

Subject: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Will Fly
Date: 23 Feb 18 - 11:18 AM

One night only - tonight on BBC4 - "Whispering" Bob Harris with some of the former Whistle Test performers, including Richard Thompson and Albert Lee. 9pm - midnight.

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: GUEST,CJB
Date: 23 Feb 18 - 12:35 PM

Subject: Old Grey Whistle Test

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09scfnb

One night only - tonight on BBC4 - "Whispering" Bob Harris with some of the former Whistle Test performers, including Richard Thompson and Albert Lee. 9pm - midnight.

===

Hosted by Bob Harris, this live studio show features music, special guests and rare archive footage to mark the 30 years since the legendary series was last broadcast.

Featuring performances from Peter Frampton, Richard Thompson, Albert Lee and more. Bob also chats to Whistle Test alumni, including Dave Stewart, Joan Armatrading, Ian Anderson, Chris Difford and Kiki Dee, as well as fan Danny Baker.

===

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 23 Feb 18 - 03:13 PM

Thanks, Will. Magic box set to record.

LFF

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 23 Feb 18 - 03:32 PM

Freesat set to record!!!!

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: GUEST,CJB
Date: 23 Feb 18 - 05:09 PM

Full of talking heads. Very little music or song.

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Will Fly
Date: 23 Feb 18 - 05:25 PM

Good fun, though, for those of us who used to watvh it regularly... I'm enjoying the chat, which always was part of the programme.

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Nick
Date: 23 Feb 18 - 06:52 PM

Really enjoyed Wildwood Kin and will be listening to more from them. And a nice nostalgia trip. Amazing how many of the clips were instantly recalled. Saw a lot of episodes

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 25 Feb 18 - 06:55 AM

Brilliant evening! Loved all the chat and the music. It brought back so many memories!

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Feb 18 - 07:05 AM

Too much nattering and not enough tunes. Gave up after a while.

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: GUEST,CJB
Date: 25 Feb 18 - 07:25 AM

One-off revival of The Old Grey Whistle Test sparks new BBC sexism row after former presenter Annie Nightingale reveals she was 'snubbed' over special

* Annie Nightingale said she was snubbed over The Old Whistle Test special
* She claimed BBC bosses refused to let her host, sparking new BBC sexism row
* Despite hosting between 1978-82, they let 'Whispering' Bob Harris host instead

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5431505/Old-Grey-Whistle-Test-revival-sparks-new-BBC-sexism-row.html

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: GUEST,CJB
Date: 25 Feb 18 - 07:26 AM

Yup - way too much chat. I too switched over after 30 mins. Shan't bother with iPlayer either. CJB

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Feb 18 - 07:34 AM

"A six-minute section of the three-hour programme looked back at some of the highlights from Nightingale’s years as host.

"Broadcaster Liz Kershaw, whose brother Andy worked on the show, said last night the shortage of female presenters and guests on the special was ‘bewildering’.

"She criticised the BBC for not only sidelining Nightingale but also for ignoring fellow female Whistle presenter Ro Newton. She said: ‘I found the whole thing bewildering… like a tribute to Bob Harris, not the show. I think there was sexism there. There were only four women guests on the sofa. Where are the women? It was just one bloke after another. Ro Newton wasn’t even mentioned.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5431505/Old-Grey-Whistle-Test-revival-sparks-new-BBC-sexism-row.html

Make a Complaint to the BBC

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Feb 18 - 08:10 AM

the main thing i noticed about it - apart from john otway - there were hardly any songs the public would recognise.

the OGWT was part of the middle class take over of a working class artform.

They saw that unwashed herberts like the beatles and the swinging blue jeans, and unwashed northerners were making money. so it looked good to them and the rich annexed it for themselves.

of course they didn't actually have the talent to write anything memorable.

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Johnny J
Date: 25 Feb 18 - 08:21 AM

" there were hardly any songs the public would recognise."

I, You, and everyone on this forum are members of the public!

I have been well acquainted with the great majority of all the artists who appeared and were featured on the show if, not necessarily, some of their more recent material.

Lots of so called "working class" contemporaries of mine enjoyed this music too.

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 25 Feb 18 - 09:16 AM

Excellent show, nice to see that clip of the reformed Small Faces from 1975-6 with Rick Wills on bass, very nice chap - shared a table with him at Kenny Jones's Polo Club once. Nice to see Mollie Marriott too!

A waste of Richard Thompson unfortunately, pity he didn't play electric.

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Feb 18 - 09:32 AM

most of us are muso's - the kind of people who swoon with despair every time someone on eggheads doesn't know who the drummer with The Hollies was.

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: GUEST,Clive Pownceby
Date: 25 Feb 18 - 11:53 AM

Re. the last post - the brilliant Bobby Elliott - the crispest, most economical drummer I've heard Big Al. Still at it too. If only more drummers would learn that 'less is more' when it comes to time keeping.
Well that's my 10p worth!!!! I started out playing 'Wipe Out' on my school desk in 1963 and still think Bobby is an example to all us stix-persons - guess I'm just a slave to the rhythm!

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 25 Feb 18 - 11:56 AM

Less is more belongs to Dave Mattacks!

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 25 Feb 18 - 12:19 PM

Re. Bobby Elliott. I agree 100% with Clive P (2 posts up).
Tidy drummer. Keith Moon's antipode.

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Feb 18 - 12:33 PM

see wot i mean!

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 25 Feb 18 - 02:26 PM

It gets worse - IMHO Bobby Elliott was an inferior drummer to Don Rathbone, whom he replaced, but Don was a quiet and private person, and not cut out for the chicaneries of the rock world. Last heard of selling Vauxhalls in Manchester, I believe.

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Mick Lowe
Date: 26 Feb 18 - 03:09 AM

First off being in the US I can no longer see any BBC4 progs. I was a devoted fan of OGWT it was a transformation after having only Top of the Pops to watch, so I was devastated about 5/6 years ago there was a BBC4 prog (was still living in England at the time) and whistling Bob let slip that most of the artists were miming on the OGWT. For me that killed the program right there.

As for drummers. Dave Mattacks apparently pissed Dave Swarbrick off so much that Swarb nailed a tambourine to his dressing room door. Keith Moon was on so many drugs he hadn't got a clue what he was hitting.. coke, heroine.. whatever.. That's why you drive your roller into your swimming pool.

To distract this thread slightly, a lot of people consider Ginger Baker (Cream for those who don't know) as one of the best beating the skins. I would suggest anyone wanting to discover more re drummers, they listen to Michael Giles (King Crimson)especially on 21st Century Schizoid Man.

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 26 Feb 18 - 03:39 AM

'Whispering Bob', surely.....

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 26 Feb 18 - 04:17 AM

I started Grammar School 1970.. So OGWT was precisely timed for my intro to teenage years and rock music..

There was a simple snobbish cultural divide - OGTW and prog rock was for boys who passed the 11 plus...

Top of the Pops and glam rock & pop was for girls and secondary modern kids...

..Slade in particular was the band for bootboy skinhead thugs...

Of course.. mid 70s pub rock, then punk gradually turned all those dimwitted prejudices inside out and upside down...!!!!!

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 26 Feb 18 - 04:30 AM

OGTW - old grey test whitle...?????

..well it's a very long time since grammar school...

and we did get the chaos and educational disruption of being converted to a Comprehensive School
with the Girl's Grammar and nearest Secondary School
at the start of the 4th year.....

We actually had to start talking to girls instead of about them,
and making nervous alliances with the bootboys from the Sec Mod...
I even started going out with and snogging a girl who's favourite band was The New Seekers...

That was a shock to the system and 2 years of anarchy when we should have been concentrating on O levels...

The Secondary Modern boys did however sucessfully turn us on to Slade & Marc Bolan & T.Rex..

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 26 Feb 18 - 06:43 AM

Don Rathbone.....you don't meet too many rathbones.

I wonder if he was any relation to Basil - the Serlock/Holmes/Sherrif of Nottingham actor?

Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: GUEST,Clive Pownceby
Date: 26 Feb 18 - 10:22 AM

Hi Big Al, Rusty Dobro et al - I hadn't heard of Don Rathbone but it seems he was dismissed as being (quote) 'not good enough' as the big time beckoned. That's hard to bear as the band was on the cusp of breaking big, and there are shades of Pete Best there. Pete was ideal in the 4/4 bass drum days of Hamburg when hard hitting without too many frills was called for but when creativity and George Martin reared their heads - "sorry lad you're out." There was the hair style issue and Pete's popularity with the girls too.
My wife was at the Cavern when Ringo debuted with The Beatles, and to chants of 'we want Pete' George Harrison got a black eye and Paul shouted 'if you want him, you can have him."
Nasty business drumming. Anyway we don't want a thread-drift into percussive matters, so I'll say cheerio and do listen to 'Bus Stop' everyone!