The Radio Ballads-available on the Internet

Subject: The Radio Ballads
From: Northerner
Date: 21 Mar 06 - 04:49 PM

Has anyone else noticed that the Radio Ballads are available on the Internet? I'm currently listening to the one about the travellers. Great stuff. Now, if only I could get the hang of the blue clickies...

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads
From: Northerner
Date: 21 Mar 06 - 04:53 PM

Sorry I can't do the link. Maybe somebody else can?

http://www.bbc.o.uk./radio2/radioballads/original/

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads
From: Northerner
Date: 21 Mar 06 - 04:56 PM

Double sorry - that url refuses to work when I copy and paste it. GRRRR!!!

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads
From: Northerner
Date: 21 Mar 06 - 05:02 PM

Gosh I'm an idiot. It's in the BBC radio player. I expect you can work out how to find it. I hope. Apparently there are some modern radio ballads on there too.

It's a real treat listening to the radio ballads. I never heard the orginals in their entirety, only snippets of them. And here they are again, thanks to the wonders of computers.

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads
From: Northerner
Date: 21 Mar 06 - 05:15 PM

Trying again. Think I see the error.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/radioballads/orginal/

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads
From: Northerner
Date: 21 Mar 06 - 05:17 PM

I will do this if it kills me...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/radioballads/

Okay, it's still a copy and paste job.

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads
From: Micca
Date: 21 Mar 06 - 06:06 PM

do you mean here, Radio Ballads?

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads
From: gnomad
Date: 21 Mar 06 - 06:07 PM

Can't bear to see a fellow northerner suffering click on listen again link

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads
From: gnomad
Date: 21 Mar 06 - 06:08 PM

Ah, beaten to the draw :-(

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads
From: Northerner
Date: 21 Mar 06 - 06:12 PM

Whee!!!! That's it! Both times!!!! Thank you both!!!

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads
From: Northerner
Date: 21 Mar 06 - 06:16 PM

Actually, I think that link only takes you to extracts of the radio ballads. I got the full radio ballads on the bbc radio player.

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Mar 06 - 06:31 PM

I can see I have a lot of listening to do. I bought a couple of the Radio ballads on CD. I enjoyed them - but I admit I listened to them only once. I wasn't motivated to buy more - but I'd certainly like to listen to them all, once or twice.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads
From: Northerner
Date: 21 Mar 06 - 06:44 PM

Determinedly trying to get this url onto here. Here goes again. Afraid it's still copy and paste from this.

http://www.bbc.tv/radio/aod/genres/musicdoc/audiolist.shtml

Yes, I have a lot of listening to do to. I hope the bbc link stays up a while as I'm away from home for a hoiday on Thursday. Off to Turriff to see a cousin. Am calling in on Aberdeen for a couple of nights. Will be going to an event hosted by the Elphinstone Institute on the Scottish Traveller Culture. I'll be seeing my old friend Stanley Robertson again (Jeannie's nephew). I wonder if any of his family were on that Travelling People radio ballad...

I think the radio ballads have been uplifted as part of the publicity for their modern counterparts; don't know how long they'll be up there.

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads
From: GUEST,J C
Date: 22 Mar 06 - 02:13 PM

They are available on CD from Topic - but that means buying them.
Well worth while as far as I'm concerned

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads
From: Northerner
Date: 22 Mar 06 - 02:49 PM

I will probably buy some, if not all of them.

I'm busy packing now for my trip up north.

Got my accommodation in Whitby booked for folk week.

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads
From: Zhenya
Date: 22 Mar 06 - 04:50 PM

Northerner,

Is this the page you were thinking of?

BBC radio player - Radio Ballads

(And thanks for the link. I'm eager to listen once I get home from work.)

Zhenya

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads
From: Northerner
Date: 22 Mar 06 - 06:21 PM

Yes, that's it, thank you!

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads
From: Peterr
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 07:45 AM

Mike Harding said last night that all the ballads would remain on the BBC website, not be subject to the usual 7 day listen again limit.

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads
From: Scrump
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 08:09 AM

Re. the original ballads on the BBC website: one day recently I found (not sure how, now) that although it said "Listen to a 20-min extract", in some cases (not all) it would start playing and then play the whole thing through (about an hour in each case). However there were some where I didn't seem to be able to do that. When I tried to do it again a couple of days later, I found I could only get the 20 mins' worth of each. Does anyone know if there's a way to get the whole hour of each? Or maybe the BBC varies how much you can hear according to load on the website or something? I think the only one I haven't heard all the way through now is the Fight Game - if anyone can point me to a link where I can listen to the whole of that, I'd be grateful.

Cheers

Scrump

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads-available on the Internet
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Sep 15 - 06:31 AM

The Fight Game (film) is on YouTube.

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads-available on the Internet
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Sep 26 - 09:59 PM

https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/radioballads/original/

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads-available on the Internet
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 29 Sep 26 - 06:49 AM

"A revolutionary series of radio programmes broadcast on the BBC from 1957–64, a time of rapid change across the UK. Combining song, music and sound effects with the voices and stories of communities, each original Ballad focused on the lived experiences of workers and groups whose voices were otherwise rarely, or never, heard in the media." Radio Ballads: Songs for Change. The Radio Ballads were very progressive for the BBC. And very time-consuming to research and put together. They must have made a much greater impression when they were first broadcast almost 70 years ago! Singing the Fishing won the Prix d'Italia for radio documentary in October 1960.

They have left us a wonderful collection of songs whose verses were woven into the narrative of each programme. Several of the songs - including The Shoals of Herring, The Moving On Song and The Thirty Foot Trailer - survive in folk clubs today. The original Radio Ballads inspired the BBC to commission a further six programmes which were broadcast on Radio 2 in 2006. Celtic Connections featured a Radio Ballads concert in January 2007. Four more programmes, Ballads of the Great War, were broadcast from 2015-2018, plus a live concert.

The original Radio Ballads were released on Topic Records and can now be downloaded from Bandcamp.

Subject: RE: The Radio Ballads-available on the Internet
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 05 Oct 26 - 08:56 AM

episode list for the 2012 broadcasts
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ljkf6/episodes/guide

some other BBC programmes on the Radio Ballads

Like Blackpool Went Through Rock - 2008
The Archive Hour
Sean Street recalls the Radio Ballads, a series which began in 1958, mixing original voices and sounds with specially composed music to document ordinary people's lives.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00c4fmk

The Radio Ballads - 2010
In specially commissioned songs to mark the 25th anniversary of the end of the miners' strike, Radio 2 explores how lives were changed by the year-long dispute (1984-85). The Ballad of the Miners' Strike is a forthright and powerful exploration of contrasting human experiences.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00r33b2

Dan Damon looks back at the Radio Ballads & political songs - 2015
Broadcasting House
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05nsb41
> skip to 17:40   ~6 minutes

Charles Parker: Radio Pioneer - 2019
Archive on 4
Sean Street delves into the archive of one of the most innovative and controversial BBC radio producers, reviewing Charles Parker’s work from the Radio Ballads to his sacking in 1972.
Parker’s life was also a journey from poverty to Cambridge University, from a Conservative Christian to a Socialist, from a Submarine Commander to a Radio Producer. But throughout his career, two things remained constant - his dedication, often working for days without sleep, and most importantly his desire to tell the extraordinary stories of ordinary people in their own words.
Producer: Andy Cartwright
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00040r6