by Andy Powell
In Concert
Rec: 17/10/77
TX: ?
Producer: ?
Presenter: Brian Matthew
Location: Apollo Theatre, Glasgow
Tracks: Blind Eye / Lady Whiskey / Warrior / Throw Down The Sword / Front Page News / Goodbye Baby, Hello Friend / Come In From The Rain / Phoenix / Blowin’ Free
Note: This one’s a real mystery. There is not one bit of documentation about it at WAC and no broadcast date can be found via Radio Times. And yet it exists, certainly in the form of a BBC Transcription Disc with the above tracks and Brian Matthew’s introduction (erroneously stating the venue as London’s Rainbow). At this point, Brian was presenting mostly on the BBC World Service, so it’s possible that this concert was broadcast only on the World Service, not Radio 1.
Adding to the mystery, a long tape version of the concert must exist because the band licensed ‘Sometime World’ from this concert, from the BBC, for use on Distillation (Repertoire, 1977)—and yet this 1977 In Concert is not listed among the Wishbone Ash concerts in BBC Worldwide’s own catalogue of In Concert broadcasts available for syndication.
The full setlist, sourced from the fan site www.glasgowapollo.com, was this:
Blind Eye / Lady Whiskey / Sometime World / Blowin’ Free / The King Will Come / Warrior / Throw Down The Sword / Bad Weather Blues / Runaway / Front Page News / Goodbye Baby, Hello Friend / Jail Bait
In Concert
Rec: 25/10/78
TX: 11/11/78; repeated 11/8/79
Producer: Jeff Griffin
Presenter: Alan Black (on repeat)
Location: Hammersmith Odeon
Tracks: The King Will Come / You See Red / Front Page News / The Way Of The World / Phoenix / Anger In Harmony / Queen of Torture / Blowin’ Free
Note: The contract was issued on October 31 1978. The fee was £160 ‘special’. The contract states that payment was to be made to NEMS Agency. The track list is 58:18 in duration.
A letter from John Sherry dated February 19 1979 (after a previous exchange of letters not extant in the WAC file) to a Miss Heritage from Drama and Light Entertainment Booking, confirmed ‘Wishbone Productions Inc. London—New York’ to now be the name of the band’s representation. He confirms that he is still empowered to sign all Wishbone Ash contracts and asks for monies to be paid to ‘Wishbone Ash Limited’—asking for the In Concert contract to be altered so the outstanding £160 can be paid direct to ‘Wishbone Ash Limited’. An internal memo was then circulated advising all relevant departments that John Sherry was no longer with NEMS and that his new address was: John Sherry, Wishbone Ash Ltd, 31 Kings Road, London, SW3. Nine months later, on November 16, another memo told relevant departments that Wishbone Ash could be contacted c/o Phil Banfield, esq., P.A.N., 10 Sutherland Avenue, London, W9.
The Friday Rock Show
TX: 3/8/79
Presenter: Tommy Vance
Producer: Tony Wilson
Note: This was a rebroadcast of some or all of three sessions from the early 70s: Sounds Of The 70s (recorded on April 21 1971), Top Gear (July 5 1971), and Sounds Of The 70s (May 31 1972). A letter between Booking Manager Miss Kenney and Accounting Services dated December 7 1979 suggests the contract was issued to the band retrospectively that month. The fee was £86.40 for each of the three sessions.
Year Of The Child Concert (BBC1 TV)
Rec: 22/11/79
TX: 1/12/79
Producer: Michael Appleton
Location: Wembley Arena
Tracks: two songs (probably Helpless / Bad Weather Blues)
Note: 1979 was OXFAM/UNICEF’s ‘International Year Of The Child’. Wishbone Ash performed at this concert with David Essex, Sky, Gary Numan, The Real Thing, and Cat Stevens (certainly one of the more eclectic bills the band played). This TV show was one hour of highlights produced by OGWT’s Michael Appleton. A contract was issued on November 19 1979. The fee was £240. Once again, the band’s representation address had changed, and was now ‘Wishbone Ash Ltd, 206 Upper Richmond Road, London, SW15’. The TV broadcast survives in the BBC Sound Archive—the two tracks from Sky, for instance, can be found on a CD/DVD edition of their first album released in 2015. This TV-highlights show featured two songs by Wishbone Ash, though they are listed as ‘unknown’ in the Sound Archive database, whereas everyone else’s items are named and timed. From adding these timings, one can infer that Wishbone Ash got roughly fourteen minutes of airtime, which equates to the combined timings of ‘Helpless’ (3:50) and ‘Bad Weather Blues’ (8:55), which we know from the SA information with the radio version of the show (below).
Year Of The Child Concert
Rec: 22/11/79
TX: 2/12/79
Presenter: Andy Peebles
Producer: Jeff Griffin
Location: Wembley Arena
Tracks: Blowin’ Free / Living Proof / Helpless / Bad Weather Blues
Note: This was a two-hour Radio 1 broadcast from the same event. The contract was issued on November 21; the fee was £120 ‘special’. John Sherry signed the contract on December 18, reminding the BBC to make cheques payable to ‘Wishbone Ash Ltd’. (An undated internal memo circulated, seemingly not long after this, confirming that the band’s agent was now Phil Banfield but that monies should be sent to the Upper Richmond Road address and that John Sherry still had permission to sign.) As with the TV version, the radio recording survives at source—all five of Sky’s tracks from the radio version of the show are on the 2015 CD/DVD edition of their first album. The set lasted 24:05.
In Concert
Rec: 2/2/80
TX: 1/3/80; repeated 16/8/80
Producer: Jeff Griffin
Presenter: Tommy Vance
Location: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Tracks: Doctor / Blind Eye / Living Proof / Lifeline / Insomnia / Blowin’ Free / Helpless / Jail Bait / Bad Weather Blues / [Too Much Monkey Business]
Note: This In Concert (specified as such on the contract) was broadcast as a one-hour segment within Tommy Vance’s three-and-a-half-hour show Rock On Saturday. The repeat was also within Tommy’s Saturday show. The contract was issued on February 5 1980. The fee was £160 ‘special’. The BBC Sound Archive, unusually, holds two versions of this concert: one (which the SA database wrongly identifies as ‘likely’ to be the UK ‘Programme as Broadcast’) is the 58:39 version that features on the Transcription Discs for US syndication; the other is the 54:05 version above. The situation is further complicated because audio of ‘Bad Weather Blues’ complete with Radio 1 presenter Tommy Vance’s outro voiceover, ending the broadcast, appears on YouTube. ‘Bad Weather Blues’ does not appear on the first Sound Archive version—and yet a 1:55 version of ‘Too Much Monkey Business’ (surely an encore number) is listed in the SA database as following ‘Bad Weather Blues’. It’s possible, of course, that Tommy aired two versions of the show on his two broadcast slots … but why? If all the available material were combined, the length would be 69:39. See below for the US syndicated version.
The Friday Rock Show
TX: 17/4/81
Presenter: Tommy Vance
Producer: Tony Wilson
Note: This was another rebroadcast of an early-70s session; on this occasion it was from Sounds Of The 70s (recorded on October 18 1971). On April 28 1981 a BBC memo was circulated stating that Wishbone Ash’s ‘new’ agent was John Sherry at the Kings Road address of before. Phil Banfield’s details were to be deleted. A request for a contract was sent by Miss Kenney to Accounting Services of April 29. The fee was £102.80.
Simon Bates Show
Rec: 17/5/81
TX: 25/5/81; repeated 1/6/81
Producer: Paul Williams
Track: Get Ready
Note: On May 21 1981, Dave Brown, Head of Promotion at MCA Records, wrote to Paul Williams at BBC Radio 1: ‘A special session was set up by Wishbone Ash on the 17th May for the Mike Read Show at which the following musicians were present: Andy Powell, Laurie Wisefield, Steve Upton, Claire Hamill and Jo
hn Wetton on keyboards. A copy tape of the session is enclosed herewith containing the following title: “Get Ready”.’
Someone has crossed out ‘Mike Read’ and written above it ‘Simon Bates’, adding the broadcast dates. The contract was issued on May 26, confirming this to be an ‘own studio’ session and adding the band member names as provided. The fee is £128.50 plus a repeat fee of £64.25. On July 1 John Sherry wrote to one Maggie Gibbs at the BBC, explaining that he’d amended the contract, replacing John Wetton’s name with that of Trevor Bolder. As he says, ‘It’s hard to keep pace nowadays!’
In Concert
Rec: 2/6/81
TX: 4/7/81
Producer: Jeff Griffin
Location: Hammersmith Odeon
Tracks: The King Will Come / Lady Whiskey / Where Is The Love? / Living Proof / Underground / Warrior / Loaded / Kicks On The Street / Blowin’ Free / Get Ready
Note: The contract was issued on April 29 1981; the fee was £250 ‘special’. Wishbone Ash on this occasion was Andy Powell, Laurie Wisefield, Claire Hamill, Trevor Bolder, and Steve Upton. The above 58:20 track list is from the ‘Programme as Broadcast’ information. The Transcription Discs for US syndication added three tracks from the show and dropped five from this UK broadcast.
On May 1 John Sherry wrote to ‘the Chief Accountant, BBC Radio Accounts’, asking that all cheques for payments are made to ‘Wishbone Ash Limited’ and sent to the Kings Road address. Presumably all these alternative agency names and addresses that had been floating around had been causing problems.
On April 13 1982 (and again on June 1) an internal memo circulated, headed ‘Notification of Obsolete Address’, with the following instruction: ‘A cheque recently sent to [Wishbone Ash, Upper Richmond Road] has been returned by the Post Office with the following comments: GONE AWAY. We suggest this address is deleted from your records.’
An alternative address (one of the many that the administrative corners of the BBC had accumulated by this time) was suggested: ‘J. Sherry Ents., 27 Dryden Chambers, 19 Oxford Street, W1’, with the caution to ‘please note that this does not represent a direct instruction from the contributor’.
The Friday Rock Show
TX: 2/3/84
Presenter: Tommy Vance
Producer: Tony Wilson
Note: Once again, Tommy was unearthing gems from the vault. This time he repeated three of the four that had previously been rebroadcast on his show: Top Gear (recorded on July 5 1971) and two episodes of Sounds Of The 70s (October 18 1971 and May 31 1972). A letter was written on March 12 1984 by Jackie Jenney, Light Entertainment Booking Assistant, to Accounting Services (Radio): ‘Please would you arrange for the artist / group to receive a repeat fee for this contribution, payment to be based on a current fee of £136 each session (3).’ The contact address she suggested was ‘c/o John Sherry (Wishbone Ash Ltd.), Queens Theatre, 51 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1V 8BA’.
Five months later, on August 4, Steve Upton (on behalf of the group) wrote, from Grainger’s Farm, to the ‘Programme Accountant, BBC Radio’: ‘We recently received a payment from you of £204 in connection with BBC Radio repeat fees for Wishbone Ash. I am writing to ask for the VAT due on this amount and enclose an invoice as appropriate.’
This may not at first seem connected to the Friday Rock Show repeated sessions of March 2 1984, but Jackie Jenney had asked for the fee to be £408 (three times £136). Someone had obviously decided to give the band exactly half of that figure.
On September 17, an internal note to Miss Heritage at Light Entertainment (which is amusing, given that Wishbone Ash were on the way to being categorised as a ‘Heritage Rock’ act) asked her to change the contact info for Wishbone Ash from John Sherry to ‘Wishbone Ash Ltd, Grainger’s Farm, Brentmoor Road, West End, Woking, Surrey’. The note specifies: ‘Delete: John Sherry’.
On May 22 1985, things were changing again. A note to Miss Truscott at Light Entertainment asked her to change the band’s contact details from Grainger’s Farm to: ‘Wishbone Ash c/o David Potts, Tristar Management Ltd, 15–16 Newman Street, London, W1P 3HA’. The note also updated the band’s personnel, with Trevor Bolder and Claire Hamill deleted and Mervyn Spence added.
The Friday Rock Show
Rec: 24/5/85, 2:30–6pm and 7:30–11pm
TX: 5/7/85
Presenter: Tommy Vance
Producer: Tony Wilson
Engineer: Dave Dade
Studio: Maida Vale, Studio 5
Tracks: Cell Of Fame / People In Motion / Love Is Blue / Long Live The Night
Line-up: Andy Powell, Laurie Wisefield, Mervyn Spence, Steve Upton
Note: The session log, used by Ken Garner in In Session Tonight, lists Mervyn as ‘Melvin’ Spence, although the contract gets it right. The contract was issued on May 22 1985, at which point the broadcast date was TBC. The fee was £360, specified as £180 for each of the two sessions. The fee had certainly gone up since the previous year, when Jackie Jenney’s letter had mentioned the standard fee as being £136. Perhaps Tommy and Tony were being generous to the band; perhaps they hoped to get enough material for two different session broadcasts. Either way, this was to be their last studio session for BBC national radio. The tracks ran to 16:52 duration and are retained by BBC Sound Archive, although with a proviso that ‘this material must not be used without prior copyright clearance’—the same proviso as one attached in the Sound Archive database to the 1976 Glasgow concert tracks that Wishbone Ash had supplied to the BBC. There seems no reason for that proviso to attach to this session, which was recorded on BBC premises, and for which the band were handsomely paid.
In Concert
Rec: 4/3/88
TX: 9/4/88
Producer: Pete Ritzema
Location: Hammersmith Odeon
Tracks: Living Proof / Genevieve / The King Will Come / In The Skin / Phoenix / Blowin’ Free / Jail Bait / Bad Weather Blues
Note: Curiously, there is no documentation extant for this broadcast at WAC. However, the ‘Programme as Broadcast’ is extant in the BBC Sound Archive, with the approximately 51:30 track list above. The show itself occupied a 58:55 slot, so presumably seven minutes of intro and outro speech was involved. Jamie Crompton played second guitar on the first set of this show (from whence come ‘Living Proof’ and ‘Genevieve’) which was early in the band’s reunion period; Ted Turner came on for the second set. ‘In The Skin’ is on Tracks (Talking Elephant, 2002).
The US syndication, as usual, had a different selection from the show:
Tangible Evidence / Living Proof / Genevieve / No More Lonely Nights / The King Will Come / Throw Down The Sword / Clousseau / In The Skin / Blowin’ Free / Jail Bait
The setlist of the complete show was as follows:
Set 1: Miles Copeland Intro / Tangible Evidence / Living Proof / Genevieve / No More Lonely Nights / Real Guitars Have Wings / Room 602 / Underground
Set 2: The King Will Come / Throw Down The Sword / Clousseau / In The Skin / Phoenix / Blowin’ Free / Jail Bait / Bad Weather Blues
Look North (BBC Yorkshire TV)
Rec: ?
TX: 7/11/96
Presenter: Martin Kelner
Note: This was a five-minute presenter-led piece for BBC Yorkshire that included clips from the 1971 OGWT and some new clips of the then-current band rehearsing, performing, and being interviewed at Leeds Irish Centre, along with vox pops from fans. The piece was pegged around the presenter being a fan from the 70s who used to see the band live at Leeds as a student, and was now catching up with them again decades later.
BBC Sound Archive Holdings
The BBC Sound Archive (which holds only material extant on tape, not Transcription Disc) contains the following Wishbone Ash concert material from radio: 1972 In Concert; 1974 In Concert; 1976 Glasgow Apollo/John Peel Show tracks; 1978 In Concert; 1979 Year Of The Child set (radio version); 1980 In Concert (two versions); 1981 In Concert; 1988 In Concert. These are all sourced from the UK ‘Programmes as Broadcast
’, save for one, the 1978 In Concert, which has been sourced from Transcription Disc (presumably the tape copy was wiped at some point).
The Sound Archive also contains the following TV material: OGWT, 1971 (including outtakes); OGWT, 1972 (partial); Stackridge & Co, 1972; OGWT, 1977; Year Of The Child, 1979 (TV version); Look North 1996.
The only studio session material in the Sound Archive is the 1985 Friday Rock Show session and the six early-70s tracks used on the CD Live At The BBC (Band Of Joy, 1995), namely:
‘Blind Eye’—Sounds Of The 70s (recorded April 21 1971)
‘Lullaby’—Sounds Of The 70s (April 21 1971)
‘The Pilgrim’—Top Gear (July 5 1971)
‘Jail Bait’—Sounds Of The 70s (October 18 1971)
‘Blowin’ Free’—Sounds Of The 70s (May 31 1972)
‘Throw Down The Sword’—Sounds Of The 70s (May 10 1972)
It appears that these six tracks were added to the Sound Archive as a block in 2000, hence taken from the CD. The CD was clearly a selection of tracks taken from Transcription Discs. From the information in the section below, it’s clear there are at least two further BBC studio session tracks from the 70s which have never been released: ‘Warrior’ and ‘The King Will Come’, both recorded on April 18 1972 for Top Gear.
BBC Transcription Discs
Transcription Discs in the 60s and 70s involving exclusive pop/rock sessions and concert recordings were cut for two reasons: for reuse on the BBC World Service (principally Brian Matthew’s Top Of The Pops, not to be confused with the British TV show of the same name); or for syndication to foreign radio stations, principally in America, such as In Concert recordings. Often these discs would come with notices to destroy them after a certain date, the contracts with each artist involved having contained information on the number of rebroadcasts and the period within which they were allowed.
The BBC Worldwide catalogue of In Concert programmes available for license from other stations lists five discs/programmes for Wishbone Ash, which can be matched to the In Concerts the band did for each of the years in question: 1972, 1978, 1980, 1981, and 1988. As explained above, the band declined permission for the 1974 In Concert to be syndicated to the USA, hence it was never cut to Transcription Disc. Similarly, they prohibited syndication of the 1976 Glasgow Apollo concert, which was recorded privately by the band for license to The John Peel Show in early 1977.