BBC Sessions 1969‐1972

Published Tuesday, December 27, 2022.

The following info is provided by Prof. Stoned:

Humble Pie - BBC Sessions 1969-1972 [A Prof. Stoned Comp 2021]
16bit/44.1khz (CD Quality)

Session #1

01. Natural Born Bugie
02. Sad Bag of Shakey Jake
03. Heartbeat
04. Desperation
05. 'Steve Marriott interview'
06. Natural Born Bugie (alt. take)
07. 'Peter Frampton interview'

Recorded: Maida Vale studio 5, Delaware Road, London UK, Sunday 17 August 1969
Broadcast: BBC Radio 'Symonds on Sundays': Sunday 24 August 1969
Producer: Paul Williams
Presenter: David Symonds

Session #2

01. 'Peel intro 1'
02. Shakin' All Over
03. 'Peel intro 2'
04. Sad Bag of Shakey Jake
05. Walk On Gilded Splinters

Recorded: Maida Vale Studio 4, London UK; Tuesday 09 September 1969
Broadcast: BBC Radio 'Top Gear'; Saturday 27 September 1969
Producer: John Walters
Engineers: Tony Wilson & Bob Conduct
Presenter: John Peel

Note: This session was thought to have been lost forever in any form, until suddenly, out of nowhere, the Johnny Kidd fan club dropped this very good & complete off-air recording at my office. We cannot thank them enough! And what a treat it is; there is an exciting 8+ min cover of the Johnny Kidd anthem and an embryonal version of the Dr. John tune which by the next year had evolved into a live powerhouse. The sound quality is more than decent for a fan recording this old, but there is some radio interference (static ans hiss) during Tr. 04/05.

Session #3

01. Four Day Creep
02. Big Black Dog

Recorded: Aeolian Hall studio 2, Bond Street, London UK; Monday 27 July 1970
Broadcast: BBC Radio 'DLT'; Sunday 09 August 1970
Producer: Paul Williams
Presenter: Dave Lee Travis

Note: 'One Eyed Trouser Snake Rhumba' was also recorded and aired but does not seem to have survived in the archives or as an off-air recording.

Session #4

01. 'Yet another Sunday'
02. Four Day Creep
03. 'Not a groovy DJ program'
04. I'm Ready
05. 'You should investigate'
06. Live With Me
07. 'Rock-solid rolling forward feeling'
08. Stone Cold Fever
09. 'Not familiar with the line-up'
10. Hallelujah I Love Her So
11. 'Wandering about'
12. Walk On Gilded Splinters
13. 'Stamped address envelope'
14. Sad Bag of Shakey Jake
15. 'Harrowing story'
16. One Eyed Trouser Snake Rumba
17. 'Current single'
18. Big Black Dog

Recorded: Paris Theatre, Lower Regent Street, London UK; Thursday 10 September 1970
Broadcast: BBC Radio 'In Concert'; Sunday 20 September 1970
Producer: John Muir
Engineer: Hugh Mcdonald
Presenter: John Peel

Note: Sourced from an off-air recording of a repeat broadcast on 23 September 1970, which had a 1-min interruption during 'Live With Me'. This minute has been restored from the commonly found 1997 bootleg "On Stage" which is a recording of the initial broadcast on the 20th in lesser quality. The BBC recording does not seem to have survived in the archives; it has never been aired again since 1970 and it has been absent from any official release so far. Despite its poor quality, "On Stage" has always been popular among fans and it’s not hard to hear why: this is the group at their peak. It rivals -if not betters- the Fillmore album. This new remaster is not up-to-par with the sound quality of the other sessions here but it trounces the atrocious sounding recent unauthorized issues "Born Under A Bad Sign - Live London 1970", "On Air 1969-1970", "The Sunday Concert" or any other edition out there.

Session #5

01. Rolling Stone (edit)
02. Four Day Creep
03. The Light
04. I Don't Need No Doctor (edit)
05. Four Day Creep [Stereo]
06. I'm Ready [Stereo]
07. Rolling Stone [Stereo]
08. The Light [Stereo]
09. I Don't Need No Doctor (complete but from flawed off-air source)

Recorded: Kensington House Studio T1, Shepard's Bush, London UK; Monday 1 March 1971
Broadcast: BBC Radio 'Sounds of the Seventies'; Friday 23 April 1971
Producer: John Muir
Engineer: John White
Presenter: Alan Black

Session #6

01. 'Intro'
02. Road Runner
03. Sweet Peace & Time

Recorded: Maida Vale studio 5, Delaware Road, London UK, Monday 07 February 1972
Broadcast: BBC Radio 'Sounds of the Seventies'; Thursday 17 February 1972
Producer: Malcolm Brown
Engineers: Mike Harding/Mike Franks
Presenter: Pete Drummond

Note: Dave Clempson has replaced Peter Frampton on lead guitar. 'C'mon Everybody' was also aired but is missing.

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Total time: 2h39m46s
All tracks are Mono except where indicated

Research & Mastering: Prof Stoned
Special thanks to Hallucalation, Mover & Johnny Kidd fan club.

v1.0: 02-10-2021
v1.1: 24-10-2021 (stereo tracks added to Session #5 & Session #6 added)
v1.2: 27-12-2022 (Session #2 added, Session#1 Tr 02/03/06 newly remastered from lossless sources; Tr 06 poor vocal/band balance repaired using demix pro)

Note:

A long overdue project! Humble Pie did some pretty great BBC stuff but all we have gotten so far is a long out-of-print single CD. The Band of Joy CD was produced in cooperation with the BBC and was mastered from vinyl sources, as no tape sources seem to have survived in the archives. The mono recordings come with stereo surface noise, distortion and all the intro chatter has been removed, along with the music which the DJ talked over.

The good news here is that this edition betters the sound quality of the old CD considerably and expands it with quite a few extra session tracks, all of the original announcements restored and -finally- a decent sounding version of the legendary Peel concert. The bad news is -despite extensive research- most of the sources are not of optimal quality. If you can provide lossless quality transfers of BBC transcription discs of any Humble Pie from this era, please do contact me.

Sources:

- Natural Born Boogie ‎(CD, Album, Comp) Band Of Joy BOJCD010 UK 1995
- 'digital transfers from BBC transcription discs'
- 'various fan-made off-air tapes'