469 Rock Goes To College

First  viewed :  28  October  1980

This  seminal   music  programme  ran  for  four  seasons  between  1968  and 1981  which  coincided  with  my  own  personal  "Golden  Age"  for  music  ( as  expounded  elsewhere ). The  snag  was  that  it  was  usually  on  at  very  inconvenient  times  for  me. The  first  season  was  broadcast  late  on  Friday  nights  with  a  repeat  on  Sunday  afternoons  while  the  latter  two  clashed  with  Monday  night's  Coronation  Street  . Hence  I  haven't  actually  seen  that  many  of  them.

As  the  title  suggests  the  series  consisted  of   live  gigs  at  universities  and  polytechnics  usually  introduced  by  Radio  One's  Pete  Drummond  and  broadcast  simultaneously  on  Radio  One  so  viewers  could  take  advantage  of  stereo. The  programme  followed  a  1960s  series  called  Jazz  Goes  To  College  and  used  a  pretty  eclectic  definition  of   "rock" ; I  don't  think  John  Martyn, The  Roches  or  UB40  ever  thought  of  themselves  as  a  rock  act. The  producer  was  Michael  Appleton  who  did  Old  Grey  Whistle  Test   and  like  that  programme  it  kept  a  carefully  neutral  balance  between  the  new  wave  and  the  old.

Most  of  the  artists  featured  were  familiar  to  me  at  the  time,  at  least  by  name,  but  Crawler, Bethnal  and  Live  Wire  remain  a  complete  mystery  even  now. The  most  interesting  - and  likely  to  be  repeated  - ones  were  those  that  featured  a  new  act  on  the  cusp  of  greatness. The  first  one  I  saw - because  some  of  the  most  successful  got  a  one  off  repeat -   featured  The  Specials  at  Colchester  and  was  originally  broadcast  in  January  1980  just  before  the  release  of  the  Too  Much  Too  Young  EP.  It  doesn't  feature  any  material  from  the  second  album  but  captures  them  at  the  peak  of  their  prowess  as  a  live  act  with  the  last  three  numbers  played  whilst  having  to  cope  with  a  mass  stage  invasion. It's  a  reminder  of  what  a  great  front  man  Terry  Hall  was  ( probably  still  is  ) with  his  baleful  stage  presence  and  sardonic  banter  and  how  crucial  bass  man  Horace  Panter  was  to  the  sound.

Individual  episodes  ( probably  not  the  ones  featuring  the  three  bands  mentioned  above  )  still  pop  up  on  BBC  Four  from  time  to  time.