The Old Grey Whistle Test was a British music television program running from 1971 to 1987 on the BBC2 channel which featured interview segments and in-studio performances. The acts were chosen not for chart position, a la Top Of The Pops, but rather for the quality of their songwriting and performing. A good number of very successful artists' first British television appearance took place on OGWT, so its clear that the show was both very willing to take chances on relatively unknown acts and had very very good taste. According to Wikipedia, in a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programs compiled by the British Film Institute in 2000, The Old Grey Whistle Test ranked 33rd. Three volumes of DVDs have been released featuring performances that took place on the show.
I have compiled a few of my favorite videos from the The Old Grey Whistle Test:
1. The Wailers featuring Bob Marley and Peter Tosh performing Stir It Up in 1973. This performance took place one year before Eric Clapton had his only #1 hit with I Shot The Sheriff. The quality of the audio on this video is stunning:
2. John Lennon performs Stand By Me for the show in 1975. Lennon recorded this in a New York studio City because he couldn't leave the States due to his fight with US Immigration. During the song, John gives out a hello to Julian and everyone in England.
3. ZZ Top perform I Thank You and Cheap Sunglasses in 1980. This is a very rare glimpse at the band performing without their trademark cheap sunglasses, which eventually come out in time for the latter tune.
6 comments:
Nice. The 70's had some other great live music-themed t.v. shows, like Germany's Musikladen & Rockpalast.
ahh, the days before Jersey Shore and Gossip Girl...
DS,
Weightstaff
In response to: "The quality of the audio on this video is stunning."
-- Weightstaffer on the "Stir It Up" footage
Maybe a little TOO stunning...It appears that Bob's guitar is not plugged in (1:36). I wonder if the audio backtracks were pre-recorded and they just sang vocals live...
Either way, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh are still the shit.
DS,
Weightstaff
Maybe the engineer was Brian Wilson!
DL
I was also studying the footage pretty closely. It does appear a little too good, but i'm pretty certain it is not the album version that they are playing along to, so perhaps they did record a pre-mixed version and then mimed it for the cameras. Top of the Pops was notorious for this kind of thing.
Great tidbit of info is Island Record founder Chris Blackwell's role in making Bob Marley a star. Besides discovering steve winwood and the spencer (gimme some lovin) davis group, he was the influential figure responsible for taking Bob Marley's "sound" and rounding off the edges for a rock pre-jam band audience. He produced the Catch a Fire record and made Marley global star. He was also the most likely connection between Clapton meeting Marley and later covering "Sheriff" as he was good friends with both.
Everything ive ever read about Blackwell makes him sound like the sort of character that only exists in great fiction, almost mythic. any doubts? Simply read the first few lines of his Wikipedia bio: "Blackwell was born in London to an Irish father and a Costa Rican-born Sephardic Jewish mother. Blackwell's father, Joseph, was related to the founder of Crosse & Blackwell, purveyors of jarred foods and relishes.[1] Blackwell's mother, Blanche, was of Jamaican ancestry.[2] She is considered the love of Ian Fleming's later life, becoming the James Bond author's muse and the inspiration for the character Pussy Galore in Goldfinger.[3] Blanche owned several thousand acres of land near Oracabessa, Jamaica, and sold properties to both Fleming and Noel Coward.[4]
I wonder who will play blackwell in the Marley Biopic?
I'd read that bands chose to play OGWT instead of Top of the Pops because they wouldn't have to mime the performance. But who knows.
DL
It's clearly dubbed. Not necessarily the album version, but definitely pre-recorded. Tosh's solo doesn't add up at all. I'm sure they were all stoned out of their minds, so they get a pass...
DS
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