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Old Grey Whistle Test

23 Feb 18 - 11:18 AM (#3907415)
Subject: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Will Fly

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.


23 Feb 18 - 12:35 PM (#3907426)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: GUEST,CJB

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.

===


23 Feb 18 - 03:13 PM (#3907448)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Long Firm Freddie

Thanks, Will. Magic box set to record.

LFF


23 Feb 18 - 03:32 PM (#3907452)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Bonzo3legs

Freesat set to record!!!!


23 Feb 18 - 05:09 PM (#3907465)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: GUEST,CJB

Full of talking heads. Very little music or song.


23 Feb 18 - 05:25 PM (#3907468)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Will Fly

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.


23 Feb 18 - 06:52 PM (#3907480)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Nick

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


25 Feb 18 - 06:55 AM (#3907821)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: GUEST,Mike Yates

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


25 Feb 18 - 07:05 AM (#3907822)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Steve Shaw

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


25 Feb 18 - 07:25 AM (#3907826)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: GUEST,CJB

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


25 Feb 18 - 07:26 AM (#3907827)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: GUEST,CJB

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


25 Feb 18 - 07:34 AM (#3907830)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: GUEST

"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


25 Feb 18 - 08:10 AM (#3907835)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Big Al Whittle

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.


25 Feb 18 - 08:21 AM (#3907839)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Johnny J

" 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.


25 Feb 18 - 09:16 AM (#3907842)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Bonzo3legs

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.


25 Feb 18 - 09:32 AM (#3907845)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Big Al Whittle

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.


25 Feb 18 - 11:53 AM (#3907865)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: GUEST,Clive Pownceby

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!


25 Feb 18 - 11:56 AM (#3907866)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Bonzo3legs

Less is more belongs to Dave Mattacks!


25 Feb 18 - 12:19 PM (#3907868)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: GUEST,DTM

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


25 Feb 18 - 12:33 PM (#3907872)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Big Al Whittle

see wot i mean!


25 Feb 18 - 02:26 PM (#3907902)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Rusty Dobro

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.


26 Feb 18 - 03:09 AM (#3908000)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Mick Lowe

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.


26 Feb 18 - 03:39 AM (#3908005)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Rusty Dobro

'Whispering Bob', surely.....


26 Feb 18 - 04:17 AM (#3908012)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: punkfolkrocker

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...!!!!!


26 Feb 18 - 04:30 AM (#3908018)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: punkfolkrocker

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..


26 Feb 18 - 06:43 AM (#3908053)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: Big Al Whittle

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?


26 Feb 18 - 10:22 AM (#3908091)
Subject: RE: Old Grey Whistle Test
From: GUEST,Clive Pownceby

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!