The BBC Sessions
Jan 5, 2021 10:20:34 GMT
Post by Lighthouse on Jan 5, 2021 10:20:34 GMT
VdGG recorded in their heydays 10 BBC studio sessions between 1968 and 1977 and 2 "In Concert" live sessions in 1970 and 1971. Except for 2 sessions for David Symonds (1969) and Alan Black (1971) all were recorded for the legendary John Peel, who remained a PH follower when he had long abandoned most other Prog Rock artists in favour of newer music trends.
I always loved the BBC stuff, as it featured in their live or semi-live approach often rather different sounding versions compared to the ones released on the albums, and even some stuff which never was recorded officially. And I prefer some of the BBC versions easily to the album versions, especially both versions of Darkness and Refugees.
All the BBC stuff which was available in at least acceptable sound quality was released in 2015 completely on the "After the Flood" compilation. Unfortunately up to the early 70s the BBC had not kept every session in their archives, and according to this Italian site (https://www.rockbywild.it/bbc-session-5-van-der-graaf-generator/) of the early sessions only the one from 10.6.1971 could be taken directly from their archive, the other songs from CD 1 were taken then from often bootlegged sources, apparently taped once from radio or found on BBC transcription LPs. I know that some guys with better ears than mine claimed the early stuff all as being of lesser quality, but to my innocent ears only the 68 stuff is not so good, all the other tracks are excellent for me. Even the 3 In Concert tracks sound pretty good.
Octopus, the last track from the 68 session, which was omitted from The Box and After the Flood for its more distorted sound, has meanwhile found an official release on the big Aerosol Grey box, but still in the same a bit crappy sound quality.
Too bad that nearly at the same time of the After the Flood release, with Killer from 12.10.1970 one of the missing tracks was found on another transcription LP, and in excellent quality. A rather interesting version with a strong live feeling, albeit pretty different from the later version from 23.9.1971, and it is a version which also was with only 6:03 min strikingly short. Well, meanwhile the complete session from 12.10.1970 has surfaced in good (but not great) quality, and it turns out that this short version is in fact an edited version, it originally runs for 7:46 min. The short version omits some 10 or 20 sec at the beginning and later the sax dominated instrumental part was completely cut out.
Another new find is the last track from the 23.9.1971 In Concert session, the Theme One/March of the Dambusters medley, which was not on the transcription LP, like the other 3 tracks, and before only available in a rather muffled sounding copy. I think it sounds now as good as the other tracks, maybe even better. And I’m interested how the sound experts compare this one and Lost and Killer from 1970 with the already released stuff.
This leaves now only a few tracks left in crap quality, with the Symonds on Sunday session from 1969 being the only one not available in any form. And the distorted In Concert from 2.8.1970 and the muffled Lemmings and An Epidemic of Father Christmases from 14.12.1971 in sub-quality.
Or has anyone here better versions of those?
I always loved the BBC stuff, as it featured in their live or semi-live approach often rather different sounding versions compared to the ones released on the albums, and even some stuff which never was recorded officially. And I prefer some of the BBC versions easily to the album versions, especially both versions of Darkness and Refugees.
All the BBC stuff which was available in at least acceptable sound quality was released in 2015 completely on the "After the Flood" compilation. Unfortunately up to the early 70s the BBC had not kept every session in their archives, and according to this Italian site (https://www.rockbywild.it/bbc-session-5-van-der-graaf-generator/) of the early sessions only the one from 10.6.1971 could be taken directly from their archive, the other songs from CD 1 were taken then from often bootlegged sources, apparently taped once from radio or found on BBC transcription LPs. I know that some guys with better ears than mine claimed the early stuff all as being of lesser quality, but to my innocent ears only the 68 stuff is not so good, all the other tracks are excellent for me. Even the 3 In Concert tracks sound pretty good.
Octopus, the last track from the 68 session, which was omitted from The Box and After the Flood for its more distorted sound, has meanwhile found an official release on the big Aerosol Grey box, but still in the same a bit crappy sound quality.
Too bad that nearly at the same time of the After the Flood release, with Killer from 12.10.1970 one of the missing tracks was found on another transcription LP, and in excellent quality. A rather interesting version with a strong live feeling, albeit pretty different from the later version from 23.9.1971, and it is a version which also was with only 6:03 min strikingly short. Well, meanwhile the complete session from 12.10.1970 has surfaced in good (but not great) quality, and it turns out that this short version is in fact an edited version, it originally runs for 7:46 min. The short version omits some 10 or 20 sec at the beginning and later the sax dominated instrumental part was completely cut out.
Another new find is the last track from the 23.9.1971 In Concert session, the Theme One/March of the Dambusters medley, which was not on the transcription LP, like the other 3 tracks, and before only available in a rather muffled sounding copy. I think it sounds now as good as the other tracks, maybe even better. And I’m interested how the sound experts compare this one and Lost and Killer from 1970 with the already released stuff.
This leaves now only a few tracks left in crap quality, with the Symonds on Sunday session from 1969 being the only one not available in any form. And the distorted In Concert from 2.8.1970 and the muffled Lemmings and An Epidemic of Father Christmases from 14.12.1971 in sub-quality.
Or has anyone here better versions of those?
