First viewed : 12 March 1983
This programme was making a comeback after a five year break. It was first broadcast in January 1977 featuring folk rockers Renaissance. The idea was that BBC Two would broadcast at least part of a concert at the same time ( mid-evening on a Saturday ) that Radio One would broadcast it in stereo. The Radio Times entry always included instructions on how to position your speakers ( if, unlike me, you had them ) for best effect . The venue for the 1983 season was always the Regal Theatre, Hitchin.
Having looked through the list of performers I'm pretty sure the only one I saw was A Flock of Seagulls in March 1983. I remember watching it with my sister who felt sorry for them because they got such a rough ride in the music press
At the time the band had just enjoyed their biggest UK hit "Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You ) and were still a big deal in America. They had a new album, "Listen", in the can so the set was understandably weighted towards giving the new songs a hearing. Like U2 , A Flock of Seagulls- only had one top notch musician in guitarist Paul Reynolds ; drummer Ali Score could have been replaced by a drum machine with no loss of flexibility were it not for the fact he was the singer's brother.
I remember being a bit disappointed at the time. "Wishing" was played early in the set and the new material sounded a bit turgid so my interest in the band started to wane from this point. Having watched it again though it actually holds up pretty well. Perhaps we were a bit spoiled for good music back then.
The series was discontinued after one more season in 1984.
No comments:
Post a Comment