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Great / so nothing unavailable after all !

The reference Rob makes to the 17 April 1963 Light Programme broadcast of Parade of the Pops was, in fact, the final of 10 appearances the Shads made on the show, from the first date on 4 January 1960 up until that point. They were featured 5 times in 1960 alone.

Bill

I am puzzled by this release. Christopher Chen, on Facebook, has announced that most of the tracks are taken from TV shows and have been mixed into true stereo. OK.....I am not the greatest expert on Cliff Richard's TV shows (1970 onwards). BUT...I do know that an awful lot of them are missing, presumed wiped / destroyed. There is audio for some of them - but not of studio quality. Moreover - the track listing, by my reckoning - is mostly 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969 (ie before Cliff's 70s TV Heyday). You want more- the track listing matches (almost exactly) the surviving tracks in the BBC Sound Archive. BUT...they are ALL BBC Radio broadcasts. Christopher maintains that these tracks are NOT from BBC Radio. So.....I am mightily confused!!!! Surely...he must somehow be mistaken???? Can anyone shed any light on this???

Chris's actual words: " To be released on July 2021, the double CD digipak boxed set of Cliff Richard - LIVE ON AIR 1966 till 1970.
An 8-page booklet with all TV recording tracks digitally remastered. Along with these live recordings there are some interviews on there as well.
A top notch remastering in Stereo from the TV recording master tapes never released before even in poor bootleg revamping CD."

I mean, I am buying it anyway. I asked Chris about the source material (my point being that these surely must be from BBC Radio and not from TV??). He replied: "Rob, there are both but more TV shows tracks than radio broadcast tracks in that double CD. Sound remastered & enhanced in stereo. A great value for fans...Bye bye bootleg recordings..." So...this is why I am perplexed!!!

These tracks in stereo seems very unlikely, since stereo radio and TV recordings weren't available back then. I think it became available in the 1970's.

iefje wrote:These tracks in stereo seems very unlikely, since stereo radio and TV recordings weren't available back then. I think it became available in the 1970's.

The shows with Cliff were recorded at the BBC Television Theatre. They were once a week and because I was on a shift pattern* I worked on every other show. The sound was very definitely mono at that time, as it was in the other BBC studios. From memory, stereo desks were gradually added in the 1980s as the studios were refurbished.

*The 'AP' shift was based on 12-hour days. In a fortnight, I'd work Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. That's 84 hours in a fortnight or a 42-hour week.
Ray

I strongly believe that the information about TV recordings is a misunderstanding.

Those tracks are mainly taken from BBC Transcription Discs where they are billed under the "Top Of The Pops" label which was a radio programme for the BBC overseas radio station (never broadcasted in the UK). However, there was a BBC TV program with this title broadcasted in the UK.
In my opinion the misunderstanding is caused by the same name for two different BBC programmes.

I can also confirm that the Transcription Discs are in glorious mono at least until 1970.

A few details which i have at hand without searching further:
The first three tracks were recorded on 15.12.1965, broadcasted on 25.12.1965 in "Saturday Club #377", available on BBC Transcription Disc #115539/115540 under the title "Top Of The Pops #61".
The tracks four to six were recorded on 06.05.1966, broadcasted on 30.05.1966/04.06.1966 in "Let The Good Times Roll"/"Saturday Club #400", available on BBC Transcription Disc #116916/116917 under the title "Top Of The Pops #84".

I hope this is of help.

Ulrich

Ulrich.....I am 100% certain that you are 100% correct. I believe that Chris is genuinely (very genuinely) confused by the references to the BBC Radio 'Top Of The Pops' series of Transcription Discs and inadvertently confusing the title with the BBC TV series of the same name!! That makes perfect sense. I defintely await the 2 CD set with interest. As ever, many thanks Ulrich.

Yes that’s right. BBC World Service had a load of programmes with titles that worked fine around the world but were not necessarily unique in Britain. Top of the Pops with Brian Matthew was cutting edge stuff in its day.

iefje wrote:These tracks in stereo seems very unlikely, since stereo radio and TV recordings weren't available back then. I think it became available in the 1970's.

I was sure it was in the 1980s that NICAM stereo audio for television was introduced, but research surprisingly shows that while it was developed (by the BBC) during the 1980s, and some unadvertised experimental transmissions were made in the second half of that decade, it wasn't until the early 1990s that the NICAM stereo service was officially announced by ITV, C4 and BBC and the rush to buy stereo TVs started.