Text "At the Beeb" (Michael Kuhn)

November 30, 1985, marks one of the greatest days in the history of BBC Radio One: it was the day of the fabulous "Stones At The Beeb" broadcast - "At The Beeb" is the BBC program that features rare recordings made by famous artists exclusively for the BBC. On 30 Novermber 1985 the Stones had their run - it was high time! Although the broadcast barely lasted one hour it was one of the finest shows you could imagine. Apart of some tracks previously available on the BBC BROADCASTS bootleg there were six completely unknown songs! But let's go by turns:

1. Short introduction by the show's presentator, Andy Peebles. He says that "in two years of broadcast for the Beeb the Stones recorded 42 songs. Ten of them remain unreleased on records."

2. (02:03) Come on (Chuck Berry)

This is a completely different sounding version than the official one. It especially stands forth by Brian's amazing work on the harp and by Keith's cool guitar break in the middle of the song - but also by the funny falsetto-backup singing! I really don't know why the Stones, especially Mick, always have said they hated the song.... really, no idea.

3.Short comment by Andy Peebles who says the song was recorded during a BBC session in 1963.

4. (02:24) Memphis, Tennessee (Chuck Berry)

The known Saturday Club version. The song's surely not a revelation but who cares - I like it anyway.

5. Andy says the song "was performed on their radio debut for Saturday Club on 26 October 1963." And this implies that either this date is wrong (what I dare to doubt) or the date given on the bootlegs and in the BBC Stones Story which say it was recorded on 5 October 1963. (cf. entry 8.)

Then Andy changes the topic and starts talking about the letter Brian had written in January 1963 to apply for an appearance on BBC's Jazz Club program (a copy of this letter was included in the Rolling Stones Official Fan Club's "Collector's Kit", by the way). The BBC auditioned the group on 23 April 1963 and the tape was then played to the production panel who decided, as they wrote in a letter to Jones, "the performance was not considered suitable for our purposes."

6. (01:10) Bill Wyman interview (items 6, 9, 12, 29, 32, 34 and 43 are all parts of the same interview, recorded in autumn 1985 especially for the "At The Beeb" show)

"I don't know who went to that audition. I know Brian, Mick and Keith went and I think they got the two people from Screaming Lord Sutch's band... called Ricky Fenston, he was also known as Ricky Brown, the bass player - quite good, I think - and Carlo Little, the drummer... and I think Ian Stewart took the day off, but me and Charlie didn't, we worked. They probably played lots of fast Chuck Berry numbers and things, I don't know."

7. (02:19) Roll over Beethoven (Chuck Berry)

In my incompetent opinion this is the best version ever recorded - all those Chuck Berry- and Jerrey Lee-versions just have no ounch. In comparison to this version they all are nothing but lame. Luckily been bootlegged before!

8. According to Andy Peebles "Roll over Beethoven" was "performed on Saturday Club in October 1963. The Producers of Saturday Club, Jimmy Grant and Bernie Andrews, were obviously keen to use the Stones because despite failing their BBC audition the group was invited to back visiting blues artist Bo Diddley and to do a spot of their own. A tape of their broadcast was played to the production panel and this time they received favourable reports."

Peebles' comment leads me to the following conclusion (cf. 5.): If the Bo Diddley broadcast (on which only Brian, Bill and Charlie were involved, by the way) took place before the broadcast including "Roll over Beethoven" (and "Memphis, Tennessee" ?) and the latter was aired on 26 October 1963, the date 5 October 1963 must be the date of the appearance with Bo Diddley....

Leaving us Stonesfans alone with such earthshaking problems Andy continues: "This was an important breakthrough for the Stones and as well as returning to Saturday Club they appeared on Light Programme shows like Go, Man, Go! and the Joe Loss Show." (perhaps "Come On", cf. 2. stems from one of these shows?)

9. (01:03) Bill Wyman interview (cf. 6.)

"Radio was vital for promotion, you know. So then - what was there on radio? There was Saturday Club which we tried to get on, there were few lunch time things, Easy Beat - but I don't remember we ever did that, you see - and that was it, really. I mean there really was no possibility to promote yourself, so we had to kind of go for what was going and Joe Loss had a lunch time... there was a facility there, you see. There was on every Joe Loss Band show, Lunch Time, it was like Worker's Playtime kind of thing, you know - just that's what it was and we did that three or four times, I think."

Though it's not absolutely sure, the next song ("Not fade away") whose date of origin is unknown to us, seems to stem from one of those Joe Loss lunch time things, probably in early spring 1964.

10. (00:19) Bill Wyman interview (cf. 6.)

Bill remembers the Stones' early repertoire: "We just did some Chuck Berry songs for kids who wanted to dance, you know, just uptempo things. We did a lot of Bo Diddley things which were medium or slow tempo. We did Jimmie Reed songs which were dead slow, we did Howlin' Wolf stuff and Muddy Waters stuff which was also pretty slow... We needed those Chuck Berry tracks, sou know, just uptempo things."

11. (02:07) Not fade away ()

The song is much rougher play than the official version - much hand-clapping and Keith really lets off steam. Good version

12. Short and meaningless comment by Andy Peebles.

13. (02:04) Down the road apiece (Tony Raye)

This is the same version as featured on the BBC BROADCASTS bootleg (not to be changed with the version on DON'T LIE TO ME which has no piano). Great, as usual!

Until now the song was supposed to be a rehearsal from a session for BBC TV 1's Top of the Pops but why then Andy's permitted to air it on radio? If the interview with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones (of which a part was aired by Top of the Pops, cf. 37.) was used in a Saturday Club broadcast so why not also "Down The Road Apiece" and the other tracks? By chance there was a Saturday Club broadcast with contributions by the Stones on 6 March 1965! And the recording session was on 4 March 1965 - only by accident? I don't think so...

14. Outro (possibly by Brian Matthew)

15. On 9 May 1964 one of the most unusual and impressive BBC Stones sessions was broadcast: a program simply called "Rhythm & Blues" was heard on Network 3, the mid-sixties equivalent to BBC Radio 3. It featured live-sets by the Rolling Stones and by Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames and was a chance for BBC engineers to experiment with stereo broadcasting.

16. (00:46) Ian Grant interview

The producer of the Rhythm and Blues show was Ian Grant: "They had to broadcast on two separate channels, that was the only way. And so the Third Programme, or Network 3 as it was called, had television sound for use. That meant you had to move your radio near to your television and place it eight feet apart at the suitable angles and sit in the middle and you got this stereo image. Before the broadcast they put this little announcement sayongJust to qualify the system: have you got your television sound? This is the left speaker, this is the right speaker - so if you've got your left and right it's great! And they played the tape and that's what happened. And I sit at home listenin' to my broadcast in stereo [laughs].

17. The programme was recorded at the BBC's Camden Theatre, now the Camden Palace, and went out at 9:30 in the morning when back in 1964 television sound could be temporarily hi-jacked for a stereo broadcast.

18. Intro by Long John Baldry

19. (02:30) Route 66 (Bobby Troup)

This is a truly charming live version and it must be said that this concert on 19 March 1964 (numbers 18 thru 26) is surely the Stones pre-1969 show with the best sound! First the played songs are really the cream and secondly - can you imagine that? - there is nearly no screaming!

20. Long John Baldry

21. (03:46) Cops and robbers (Elias McDaniel)

The one and only know version of this original Bo Diddley song. The version previously available was in mono and taken from the 1973 BBC Stones Story.

22. Long John Baldry

23. (02:45) You better move on (Arthur Alexander)

Another previously unknown version. Pay attention to Keith's guitar!

24. Long John Baldry

25. (02:52) Mona (Elias McDaniel)

Another Bo Diddley song and it contains lots of screams - but by Mick Jagger, not by the audience - like "Heeeeeeeeey Mooona!" and "Oooooooh Moona!" Excellent! And rough.

26. Outro by Long John Baldry

27. Andy Peebles' comment.

28. (00:55) Ian Grant interview

Grant is talking about the "one-piece catsuit" Mick Jagger wore in the Rhythm and Blues show.

29. (00:48) Bill Wyman interview (cf. 6.)

Bill says it's not true. He says until 1965 Mick never wore women clothes and such things. Not even shirts! Just clothes a little more colorful than normal.

30. (03:37) Everybody needs somebody to love ()

This song comes from the same radio and / or TV session as "Down the road apiece" (cf. 13.) and it features a fantastic piano intro played by Ian Stewart. The rest are just nice "You you you's" as on every other version.

31. In 1964 the group's steady rise in popularity continued with two number ones. Britain's leading group was of course THe Beatles but the Stones began to challenge them for their position. And for many fans they represented a more dangerous and aggressive alternative. The popular press was horrified by their increasingly anti-establishment stance. And in November 1964 the BBC was also alarmed by their behaviour when the Stones failed to show at for three sessions for which their manager Eric Easton had signed contracts.

32. (00:45) Bill Wyman interview "He signed contracts when we were on tour in America, said we would appear and he didn't check with us. And we tried to be very tough with our management and have the final say and not to be run by somebody, you know, as lot of bands were. We did try to keep that independence and it was a bit of a breakdown between us and Eric Easton at the time - in fact he was being superseded at the time - and he persisted in signing these contracts and booking us on those gigs without telling us. And then we got back to England about a week before, saying You're doin' that that that. And we were saying No, we don't. We haven't agreed to do and we haven't signed anything. It's your problem, you know. And that's what it was, really. But of course it always comes back to the performer, so we suffered."

33. Light Entertainment booking manager Pat Newman wrote in the BBC memoir what he would quote "dilly love to impose sanctions of some sort to discourage further behaviour of this kind" and suggested denying the group any exposure, including the playing of their commercial gramophone records. Further memos flew around until it was eventually agreed that Stones records should be banned from the airwaves. In one memoir, dated 20 January 1965, it was stated that "the need for special precautions has passed". Menawhile the press printed that the ban had been imposed although, according to the BBC archives, this was not the case. However, as they became more successful the Stones began to regard radio sessions differently.

34. (00:45) Bill Wyman interview (cf. 6.)

"We didn't really care so much then... it was no more so vital to be on radio. We toured America twice and we were startin' to make it there. We were bigger in France than anyone, really the biggest band in France and Germany, bigger than the Beatles were, because they weren't regarded in the same way as us. Those kind of countries that all the fans were me..boys, you know, instead of girls. Not screamers but actual boys. And Holland and places like that. So we didn't really care that much. We were on the road and it wasn't so important to get that exposure on the radio. And we didn't want to mess around with those bureaucratic people, they really were old-fashioned... ideas and... you know, very boring people to work with."

35. (03:13) The last time (Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Just "The last time". From the same session as "Down the road apiece" etc (cf. 13.).

36. Andy Peebles announces the next item as an interview by Brian Matthew on "Saturday Club".

37. (01:18) Mick Jagger and Brian Jones interview by Brian Matthew

Brian Matthew gets two answers by Mick Jagger and two by Brian Jones. Exactly this interview, but missing the first answer, was also featured on Top of the Pops (01:03).

38. On Monday, 30 August 1965, the Rolling Stones appeared in a BBC radio show called "Yeh! Yeh!".

39. (02:58) Mercy, mercy (Don Covay)

The song includes a spoken intro by the guy who presented the Yeh! Yeh! show. This is the version that until now was thought to originate from Saturday Club, 18 September 1965 (though it may be the song was used for both broadcasts).

40. (00:51) Mick Jagger interview

41. (03:11) Cry to me ()

The backing vocals (sung by girls???) feature a great echo! All three cuts (39. thru 41.) originate from that Yeh! Yeh! show on 30 August 1965. This means either that they were aired as well on TV as on radio (like the songs from 4 March 1965) or "Mercy, mercy" doesn't stem from the Saturday Club on 18 September 1965, while "Cry to me" would have been aired a second time on 1 October 1965 in Top of the Pops... quite complicated anyway.

42. Even on their last BBC radio session, recorded in August 1965, the Stones were keen to perform songs which were not released on record.

43. (01:01) Bill Wyman interview

"That was one facility you had when you were doing these shows: you could try out numbers, you know. We used to do principally record stage numbers at the time, whatever we were doing on stage it was easy to. We knew what it sounded like, we could get pretty much near to what we really sounded like on the radio. And then we'd see around and say: What number could we do?"

About the following number, "Fanny Mae", Bill says: "I remember suggestin' that one with Mick. I came up with that idea and him, too. And in fact he said to me: Can you remember the lyrics? I think he just sang the same verse always because he couldn't remember the second verse!"

44. (02:16) Fanny Mae ()

45. Andy Peebles says that in the same show as "Fanny Mae" the song "(I can't get no) satisfaction" was featured - now the question is again: which show? Saturday Club on 18 September 1965, or Top of the pops on 1 October 1965?

46. (00:24) Mick Jagger interview The questions are asked by the guy who presented the mentioned show.

47. (03:52) (I can't get no) satisfaction (Mick Jagger / Keith Richards) This is a bad version, not sounding as it should. Bad bad bad.

48. Says Andy Peebles: "Satisfaction from the Stones' last session for BBC [which was in August 1965 as we know from entry 42. - maybe on 20 August if you compare to the book Endless Disease]. We'll leave you with an instrumental recorded for the General Overseas Service [when? where?], now called World Service. It was introduced by Alexis Korner."

49. Intro by Alexis Korner

50. (01:42 - incomplete) 2120 South Michigan Avenue (Nanker Phelge)

This is quite a nice version. But unfortunately only 1 minute and 24 seconds can be heard undisturbed. The remaining 18 seconds are drowned by evil Andy Peebles who announces the next At the Beeb broadcast - featuring Roxy Music! Oops!

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unreleased article written for Charlie is Good Tonight Nr. 5 (1986)