BIGDAN Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Hi All, Just found this on BBC teletext news and thought you would all live a good laugh today, enjoy. Regards, Danny "Rock band Led Zeppelin were labelled "old fashioned" and "unconvincing" by BBC producers when the group took part in a radio audition in 1969. Documents from the BBC's archive reveal that producers invited the group to appear on a trial basis only and criticised their performance. However, the group eventually went on to play several sessions for Radio 1. The band, best known for Stairway to Heaven, were one of the biggest bands of the 70s and have sold 300m albums. Onemember of the 1969 audition panel said the band were "not for day time radio - specialist listening only", while another described them as"derivative" and "unconvincing". Sound quality dispute And, according to a third, the group had "an old-fashioned sound". In an interview with BBC 6 Music for a Christmas Day show, Jimmy Page said of the sessions they went on to play: "We'd showcase the material, whatever there was from the album of the time and for the rest of it we would just jam, and that's how urgent and how creative it all was at the time." Documents have also revealed how Page stepped in after Led Zeppelin and the BBC fell out over the sound quality of a 1971 concert recorded for Radio 1. The day after the broadcast, Led Zeppelin withdrew their approval. They wrote to demand that the recording not be made available to the rest of the world. Page eventually ended up remixing the recording. A BBC memo shows the group felt "this will be better technically both for the BBC and for us and it will cost the same amount of money". http://news.bbc.co.u...ent/8417051.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Who cares....but interesting to hear about the Christmas day show. Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
croquet'n'cocaine Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 This has been all over the radio here this morning, but it's only a couple of people who judged them badly. They were still booked and re-booked. As a couple of people said on the radio, every single famous band has been turned down or judged wrongly by someone at some point. They also pointed out that there is no shortage of bands who have been praised as The Future of Rock'n'Roll and then never been heard of again. So it's a bit of a non-story, except for the Jimmy Page programme on Xmas Day (or the iPlayer a couple of days later for most people I expect). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveAJones Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Documents have also revealed how Page stepped in after Led Zeppelin and the BBC fell out over the sound quality of a 1971 concert recorded for Radio 1. The day after the broadcast, Led Zeppelin withdrew their approval. They wrote to demand that the recording not be made available to the rest of the world. Page eventually ended up remixing the recording. A BBC memo shows the group felt "this will be better technically both for the BBC and for us and it will cost the same amount of money". That performance for BBC Radio 1's 'In Concert' at the Paris Cinema in London was originally scheduled for March 25, 1971 but postponed on the day to give Robert's vocal chords a much-needed break. On April 1st they held rehearsal at 3pm, recording 9-10:45pm. The next day Jimmy and Robert supervised the editing of the show into the one-hour format. My notes show it aired April 4th & 7th, (only in mono or contradicted by the news report above?) and Jimmy went to Kensington House - BBC Transcription Studios in Shepherds Bush on May 11, 1971 to oversee mono two-track to stereo mixing of the April 1st 'In Concert' performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dharmabum Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 This article has the actual BBC Audition Report: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article6959424.ece Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryD Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Reminds me of the guy at Decca Records who turned down the Beatles saying "Guitar groups are old news" !Later the same guy signed The Rolling Stones. He didn't want to make the same mistake twice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Go to the BBC6 site- they have PDFs of original documents, including one that Jimmy Page signed. I wonder if he also filled out the form? http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/events/christmas2009/jimmypage/pdfs/page.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Death Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 The band, best known for Stairway to Heaven, were one of the biggest bands of the 70s and have sold 300m albums. Yeah... I think someone needs to do their homework. 300 million albums sold would be roughly 30 million for each album. Zeppelin were great but 30 mill per album great? I don't think so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
widget Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Yeah... I think someone needs to do their homework. 300 million albums sold would be roughly 30 million for each album. Zeppelin were great but 30 mill per album great? I don't think so... That would be 300 million units worldwide. 30 million units for an album worldwide is not unheard of if you consider that Led Zeppelin IV was 30 million plus in the US alone. Don't forget the figure also includes the box sets and Mothership which sold a bucketload, so it's actually more than 10 albums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiss of fire Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Here are the actual links starting on 12/25 for the broadcast with Shaun Keaveny. Episode 1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pd9x1 Episode 2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pxrtn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeppphead Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 F*ck all those critics... really Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveAJones Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Go to the BBC6 site- they have PDFs of original documents, including one that Jimmy Page signed. I wonder if he also filled out the form? http://www.bbc.co.uk...e/pdfs/page.pdf Yes, that is Jimmy's handwriting. This was the March 3, 1969 recording session at the Playhouse Theatre in London, lasting between 2pm and 6pm. 'Communication Breakdown', 'Dazed And Confused', 'You Shook Me', & 'I Can't Quit You' (including 'Nineteen Years Old') were recorded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgio Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 Interesting. I have to say the BBC Maida Vale recordings of early Zep were pretty primitive compared to Zep's own engineering. Very raw and demo like. Many BBC recordings have that "dry" sound - slightly dead in the dynamics as far as I'm concerned. As for being labelled derivative, Zep were up against a multitude of great musicians from that era so I'm not surprised... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cecil. Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 So would this help clear up the BBC check mystery. It was cancelled ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgio Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 So would this help clear up the BBC check mystery. It was cancelled ? I have no reply for that... Another BBC story - the BBC used to have a lack of space for archives and erased bands like the Beatles! They've managed to find some of the recordings, but some were lost... An example here: http://torrentfreak.com/bbc-relies-on-pirate-audio-to-bring-back-lost-tv-show-081214/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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