Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2

Subject: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 12 Nov 14 - 09:51 AM

I recorded the first programme, 1914, last night and have now listened to it - some great new songs and singing from John Tams, Bob Fox, Rachel Unthank etc, as well as the authentic spoken witnesses. Can be heard here.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 12 Nov 14 - 09:56 AM

Oops, lost the link - try again here!

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 09:07 AM

The Ballad of the Great War - 1914

1/5 The ballad of 1914, featuring stories told by men and women who took part in the conflict.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04n2d2s

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04m4j7g

The Ballad of the Great War - 1914, featuring stories told by men and women who took part in those first few months of the conflict both at home and abroad. The stories are accompanied by original music written especially for the programme and was inspired by the stories told.

In this programme we hear stories about La Belle Epoque, the era of calm before the outbreak of the first world war, the clamour by young men to join the army during August 1914, the London buses which were conscripted into the army to take the troops to the battlefields, the battle of Mons, trench warfare, the bombardment by German battleships of Scarborough, Whitby and Hartlepool and The Christmas Truce.

The songs for this programme are written by John Tams, Billy Bragg, Julie Matthews, Jez Lowe and Sean Cooney.

This programme, which has been a year in the making, was produced by John Leonard.

CJB

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 09:10 AM

Can be recorded using Audacity and Stereo Mix as i/p. Or can be downloaded using the latest get_iplayer or iFetch apps. CJB

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: OldNicKilby
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 09:21 AM

"Ballads of the Great War " implies that they were current at the time . Not written by Tams , Fox The Unthanks et al

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 11:28 AM

This is the list that I've discerned so far - amendments welcome.

Cherry Cheeked Optimists (John Tams) John Tams

La Belle Epoque (Jez Lowe) Bob Fox

We're Joining Up, Boys (Julie Matthews) Barry Coope and Lester Simpson plus brass arranged by Richard Rock and boots

Wrong Bus (Jez Lowe) Roy Bailey

Mons (John Tams) John Tams

Digging In ( ) Bob Fox and Barry Coope

One December Morn (Sean Cooney) Rachel and Becky Unthank

Christmas with the Hun (Billy Bragg) Billy Bragg

Songwriters; John Tams, Jez Lowe, Julie Matthews, Sean Cooney and Billy Bragg

Performers; Bob Fox, Roy Bailey, Lester Simpson, Barry Coope, Rachel and Becky Unthank, Billy Bragg, John McCusker and Andy Cutting

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,veteran
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 11:50 AM

may well be interesting material but hardly lives up to the title, as pointed out by OLdNic- there are plenty of GENUINE 'Ballads of the Great War'- do we really need new songs by folk celebs? Am sure the whole thing is very respectful, at least I hope it is- have no intention of listening to such stuff, it seems superfluous to me

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 12:40 PM

Everybody has the choice!

A long discussion follows about the definition of 'genuine'.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 01:19 PM

Perhaps I should have added that this series is intended to continue the format of the Radio Ballads created by Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger and Charles Parker in 1958, integrating eye-witness accounts from veterans into fifty new songs.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 01:19 PM

The BBC has run series of radio ballads, using new songs to describe past events and occupations, before.... just because they weren't written at the time of the events they relate to doesn't mean they aren't worth listening to?

Kitty

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,vetean
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 02:47 PM

Nobody said they weren't worth listening to- just doubtful that they add anything to the existing store of material. Maybe some will survive- a few of MacColl's have, it's true, but I think I used the word 'genuine' in its true sense

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: JHW
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 02:48 PM

The PROGRAMME is surely The Ballad as were the original Radio Ballads.
(One of those had the title 'The Ballad of John Axon').

The new programme is 'The Ballad of the Great War - 1914' ie five programmes are five 'Ballads'.
Ballads of the Great War is the series title.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: JHW
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 03:14 PM

Scarborough Art Gallery has its upper floor devoted to the story of the naval bombardment in November 1914 featuring the same retelling of local interviews as the latter part of the 1914 Ballad.
The exhibition 'Remember Scarborough' is worth seeing if you can get to Scarborough. Runs till January. Scarborough Art Gallery

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: Thompson
Date: 14 Nov 14 - 03:14 AM

Apparently the soldiers loathed the war fever of the 'blighters' back in 'Blighty'. I wonder are there many songs expressing this.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,veteran
Date: 14 Nov 14 - 11:50 AM

try 'Hanging on the old barbed wire' what modern song could rival this as a critique of the b.... who promoted this was, wherever they came from

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 14 Nov 14 - 12:37 PM

Here's one example;

Your King and Country need You

Oh, we don't want to lose you
But we think you ought to go
For your King and your country
Both need you so
We shall want you and miss you
But with all our might and main
We shall cheer you, thank you
Kiss you when you come back again

These parodies are the soldiers' reply;

We don't want your loving
And we think you're awfully slow
To see we don't want you
So please won't you go
We don't like your sing-songs
And we hate your refrain
So don't you dare sing it
Near us again

Now we don't want to hurry you
But it's time you ought to go
For your songs and your speeches
They bore us so
Your coaxings and pettings
Drive us insane
Oh we hate you, and'll boo you
And hiss you if you sing it again

But I think soldiers' concerns were often closer to hand.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,DaveRo
Date: 14 Nov 14 - 02:39 PM

Previous Radio Ballads have relied on the songs and the voices of those involved - the fishermen, roadbuilders, or railwaymen in the original Radio Ballads. This one adds a narrator/historian to put the events in context; it turned it into a bit of a history lesson, I thought.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GMGough
Date: 08 Nov 16 - 05:04 PM

BBC Radio 2 Saturday 12th November 2016
Episode 3 of 5 will be broadcast at 9.00 pm
and will cover 1916

Did I miss the broadcast of episode 2
which covered 1915 and was presumably
broadcast in November 2015 ?

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: DaveRo
Date: 08 Nov 16 - 05:28 PM

2015_programme.

Not available on iPlayer.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,SB
Date: 11 Nov 16 - 01:15 AM

Huh - you'd have thought that the Beeb might have let folks hear the previous episodes for 1914 & 1915.

There was also this prog. ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04lp2m9

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,SB
Date: 11 Nov 16 - 08:10 AM

Try here for a few days ...

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/b3e0mmr5tkz9c/Ballads_of_the_Great_War

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: DaveRo
Date: 12 Nov 16 - 02:52 PM

2016 programme - 2100 GMT today and then on iPlayer for a month, I expect:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b081mm10

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,CB
Date: 14 Nov 16 - 10:55 AM

get_iplayer will download it.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 14 Nov 16 - 05:27 PM

"indeed it will" but easier to use its front end - Web PVR

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,SB
Date: 16 Nov 16 - 09:57 AM

Yes - but the prog. will not be listed as available on the Web PVR after about 7 days. Between 7 and 30 days you have to use the command line version. Viz.:

c:/program files/get_iplayer>get_iplayer --type=radio --pid=b081mm10 should do it.

From the UK it is possible to download in 320kbps from the new DASH servers. If overseas this is reduced to 196kbps. But you need to know how.

The FAQ & Help / Support are here:

https://squarepenguin.co.uk/
https://squarepenguin.co.uk/forums/

Support Mailing List is at:

[[e-mail]]

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: DaveRo
Date: 16 Nov 16 - 10:59 AM

For anyone not familiar with the BBC's Programme Identifier (PID) system, a bit of explanation. Each programme (episode) has a code - you can see it in the link I posted earlier and in the URL of any programme page you display in a browser. There are actually several levels:

david@pan:~> get_iplayer --preset radio  --pid=b03z7zx8
  ...
  
  INFO: Brand pid detected
  INFO:  Brand: 'World War One' (b03z7zx8)
  INFO:    Series: 'The Ballads of the Great War' (b04n2d2s)
  INFO:      Episode 'The Ballad of the Great War - 1914' (b04m4j7g)
  INFO:      Episode 'The Ballad of the Great War - 1915' (b06nn8bg)
  INFO:      Episode 'The Ballad of the Great War - 1916' (b081mm10)
  INFO:    Series: 'The Songs and Shows of World War I' (b04q0z92)
  INFO:      Episode '1914: We Don't Want to Lose You' (b04q10gh)
  INFO:      Episode '1915' (b06nt201)
  INFO:    Series: 
  INFO:      Episode 'All Is Calm - The Story of the Christmas Truce' (b04ttzjl)
  INFO:      Episode 'Forgotten Heroes: The Indian Army in the Great War' (b04tkz1w)
  INFO:      Episode 'Oh What a Lovely War' (b03thcl8)
  INFO:      Clip 'Christmas trees in the trenches' (p02fkbz6)
  INFO: Please run the command again using one of the above episode PIDs or to get all programmes add the --pid-recursive option
  

So if you want a whole series you can download them all at once. But not all these episodes are retrievable - the 1915 ballads programme (b06nn8bg) isn't - it's too old.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,Andy Northerner
Date: 20 Dec 16 - 04:28 AM

It would be great if someone could upload an mp3 or m4a of the 2016 show
Many Thanks in advance

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,SB
Date: 20 Dec 16 - 02:07 PM

Try here for a few days ...

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/b3e0mmr5tkz9c/Ballads_of_the_Great_War

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Dec 16 - 03:00 AM

Bummer. Too late....

Any chance of a re-up?

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Dec 16 - 05:46 AM

Bump...

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Dec 16 - 04:17 AM

Try the link again.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,SqueezeMe
Date: 24 Dec 16 - 06:05 PM

Thank you very, very much :-)

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,Andy Northerner
Date: 25 Dec 16 - 01:34 PM

Hi there
For the guys that posted the 2016 ballads many thanks
I am trying to get the bbc radio 6 Roy Wood show as my father is a hige fan. It was broadcast today
Any info on how I can download this show from iplayer would be amazing

Many Thanks
Merry Christmas from
Andy

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Dec 16 - 05:19 AM

Use get_iplayer

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GMGough
Date: 08 Nov 17 - 06:19 AM

Episode 4 (of 5) to be broadcast
9.00 pm Saturday 11th November 2017

According to the new issue of Radio Times,
this series concludes next autumn".

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,CJB
Date: 09 Nov 17 - 10:42 AM

Yup - just the one new show to be aired on Saturday. All the rest are not available on iPlayer anymore, and likely will never be repeated.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: DaveRo
Date: 09 Nov 17 - 11:18 AM

My post 16 Nov 16 - 10:59 AM listed episodes in the series (PID b04n2d2s) whether available or not. get_iplayer doesn't seem to do that any more (I have 3.05):

  get_iplayer --preset radio   --pid=b04n2d2s
  ...
  No episode PIDs found for parent PID: b04n2d2s

Presumably one will appear on Saturday.

If there are series like this one which might be rebroadcast one day I suppose you could put their series PIDs in a file and run a CRON job every month to see if any had been.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 09 Nov 17 - 07:51 PM

It wasn't a great war - it was F***ing awful.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 11 Nov 17 - 05:58 AM

It's Armistice Day today.

Ballad of the Great War Episode 4/5
BBC Radio 2
9.00pm Saturday 11th November 2017

With contributions from John Tams, Jez Lowe, Karine Polwart and Ray Hearne. Barry Coope joins The Thurnscoe Harmonic Male Voice Choir to sing his arrangement of ?Trench Raid?, a new song written by Sean Cooney of The Young ?Uns. Jim Boyes & Maarten Decombel perform ?Passchendaele?, a song by Jim which was specially commissioned for the programme.

The final episode will come next year.

I'll be at Gregson Lane Folk Club, Preston, tonight to hear Robb Johnson's WW1 suite Gentlemen, performed by Roy Bailey and Robb Johnson.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: DaveRo
Date: 11 Nov 17 - 06:12 AM

I have Robb's double-CD of 'Gentlemen'. I recommend it.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 11 Nov 17 - 07:34 AM

He has released two double CDs of the suite!

The first was the by the original cast of the Paschendaele Peace Concert, including Roy Bailey. The more recent is IRR099: GENTLE MEN, A SOLO PERFORMANCE Released 6th November 2015.

Gentle Men tells the stories of Robb Johnson?s grandfathers, Ernest Johnson and Harry Jenner. The songs present the effect of history on two of its statistics, two gentle men, who survived the First World War, but were forever in its shadow.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 11 Nov 17 - 12:45 PM

It seems that get_iplayer 2.97 will no longer record live TV as it used to - thank you BBC! I wanted to record the Festival of Remembrance on BBC One this evening to my PC as our freesat is fully occupied.

However, this BBC One HD Live webstream lurking in the shadows can be captured free of iplayer restrictions using ffmpeg!

http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio_video/simulcast/hls/uk/abr_hdtv/ak/bbc_one_hd.m3u8

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: DaveRo
Date: 11 Nov 17 - 02:51 PM

GUEST,henryp wrote: He has released two double CDs of the suite!

The first was the by the original cast of the Paschendaele Peace Concert, including Roy Bailey.

That's the one I have: IRR030 -1997. Also features Vera Coomans. Many of the songs are accompanied by 'the Golden Serenaders' - which recreates the inter-war music by the band of that name in which one of his Grandfathers toured Europe. Until they had to stop - "what with Noni being Jewish".

I can't imagine a solo performance.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: DaveRo
Date: 11 Nov 17 - 02:54 PM

Latest get-iplayer is 3.06 - though I have 3.05.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 12 Nov 17 - 08:03 AM

I seem to have get iplayer 3.04 at the moment, and just installed 2.97 when I wanted to record live BBC TV, but although the Web PVR Manager shows an option to record live TV, it no longer works - at least on my PC it doesn't.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,CJB
Date: 12 Nov 17 - 09:36 AM

get_iplayer is at v3.06 - due to massive changes by the Beeb. Even then the PVR otpion doesn't handle TV progs very well. Use the CLS option for TV.

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 12 Nov 17 - 09:46 AM

What is CLS?

I downloaded the British Legion Festival of Remembrance in HD using command line in get_iplayer this morning OK - 3gb+ mp4 file!!

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,CJB
Date: 12 Nov 17 - 09:54 AM

CLS is the command line option - which apparently you used!!

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 12 Nov 17 - 09:55 AM

Thanks!

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: rich-joy
Date: 13 Nov 17 - 06:21 PM

Subject: RE: Ballads of the Great War BBC Radio 2
From: GUEST,SB - PM    Date: 20 Dec 16 - 02:07 PM

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/b3e0mmr5tkz9c/Ballads_of_the_Great_War


THANK YOU so much for these!!! Much appreciated.

R-J
Down Under