Many thanks to Raoul
and his trusty scanner
As
an interesting exercise, I (Mary) decided to compare the chart placings of
some of the records featured in the Radio Scotland Super Fifty at the time
of Raoul's visit to the Comet, w/c 09/07/67, with their positions in the Big
L Fab Forty.
Super
Fifty # 1: She'd Rather Be With Me – Turtles
The Turtles topped the
Fab Forty for one week on 25th June, but by July 9th, had disappeared from
the Big L chart
Super
Fifty #5: Here Comes the Nice – Small Faces
This single entered the
Fab Forty on June 4th at #17, but by the following week, it had vanished without
trace
Super
Fifty # 17: Royal Blue Summer Sunshine Day – Bystanders
The Merthyr Tydfil band
(who also covered Keith's 98.6) although storming the Scotland chart,
were noticably absent from the Big L Fab Forty. Royal
Blue Summer Sunshine Day
appeared as a climber for just one week on June
4th 1967.
Super
Fifty # 38, down from 30: Tracks of My Tears – Johnny Rivers
No sign whatsoever on
Lil's playlist for the popular US blue-eyed soul singer
Super
Fifty # 44: Carol Cartoon – Eye-ful Tower
('B' How About Me – Polydor 56734, issued 21/07/67)
A 'New-Vaudeville Band'-type
novelty disc, Carol Cartoon remained a total stranger to Big L listeners
Even comparing just a
handful of the two stations' listings from one date in July of '67, the charts,
although both unsurprisingly bear scant resemblance to the national sales-based
listings, are amazingly different.
It's worth mentioning
one other track that was being aired on Super S in July of '67, yet ignored
by Big L (although, being somewhat psychedelic, I'd be surprised if it failed
to find its way into Peelie's Perfumed Garden)
A Woman
of Distinction by Caleb
Should
you own a mint-condition copy of this single, take care of it. It sells for
around £2000! Caleb Quaye and one Reg Dwight were both members of Long
John Baldry's backing band, Bluesology, long before Caleb issued this one
solo single. The reason for the high value of this piece of vinyl is that
the session keyboard player is reputed to be the aforementioned Mr Dwight.
Also on the session is drummer David Hynes from Mirage, a Hertford band championed
by Chuck Blair.
***************************
And
here's an update from Raoul about the Caleb single
Hi Mary
I have read your recent updates and I have a little piece of trivia about
the Caleb single that Tony Allan played during this particular show. He actually
intended to play the other side, (if my memory serves me well, it was called
Baby Your Phrasing Is Bad), but he puts the wrong side on the turntable,
spins the record, says, "In the shaping form of the Caleb..." (or something
like that), hears his mistake, turns his microphone off, swears a lot, turns
the mike on again and says, "....and A Woman Of Distinction". I clearly
remember all this !
Raoul
What
a brilliant memory! Raoul is spot-on about the 'A' side being called Baby
Your Phrasing Is Bad, as well
***************************
April,
2004, feedback from Michael Toms, one of 242's 'southern listeners'.
Hi Mary,
After your
session on Pirate BBC Essex over the weekend I had my first look at the RL
site. One thing I noticed on the bit about Radio Scotland was the following.
Peter Alex's
1966 book 'Who's Who In Pop Radio' claimed that as well as covering Scotland
and Northern Ireland, the station's reception area included 'Northern England
down to Cambridge.' (It is believed that Cambridge has since relocated to
the south of the country.)
I know that
the claims for coverage of all of the stations in that book were debatable
(I still have a copy) and Cambridge was never "oop North", but I have to say
that I was at the time living in East London (Ilford to be exact) which is
even souther than Cambridge, and I was a regular listener to Scotland in the
evenings. I clearly remember listening to Stuart Henry. Stuart of course had
the unenviable distinction of being violently sea sick whenever he went near
a boat, and finished up taping his shows on land - a bit like most of the
shows on Luxembourg.
Although
I was a fan of RL (having previously listened to Veronica and Caroline), particularly
of T "The Knees" W and Kenny & Cash, my evening listening tended to be Radio
Essex, 270 or Scotland. I used to have loads of tapes of RL, especially John
Peel's "perfumed garden", but sadly they are long gone. I do still have though
a load of RL jingles on cassette, including Big Lil and London My Home Town.
These, needless to say, are stored in a safe place.
As soon
as a new station was announced, I always tried to tune in - I remember many
weeks of listening to the Yellow Rose of Texas before England/Britain went
on air. I also heard Sutch, 390, City, Invicta and others.
Congrats
on the site, and on the performance at the weekend. It bought back so many
memories listening to Dave Cash, Pete Brady, Mike Ahern, Paul Burnett and
"Tatty" Tom Edwards amongst others.
Regards,
Mick
