A Fabber Christmas than promised!
By: Martin Lewis
So much for the official information given in advance to consumers and the media by the BBC!
The BBC
radio special
"A Beatles
Christmas"
aired today (Monday December 27th 2004) and it was a fabulous
broadcast. But much to the surprise of listeners (including me!) - the program
had only partial resemblance to the information about the program given out in
advance on the BBC's official website and in its official press release!
The BBC actually
under-promoted a show that had ultra-rare material of interest to all core
Beatles fans.
Like every other member of the public and media, I had no reason to believe that the information given out by the BBC would be so much at variance to the actual program. So the informational note that I wrote for this website on December 19th was based on the data provided by the BBC. Little did we know that the show actually contained material much more intriguing than the content that had been advertised.
The official BBC website and the official website of the program-makers production company two weeks ago both posted information stating that the program would be primarily based on the seven "flexi-disc" records issued between 1963 and 1969 exclusively to members of the official Beatles fan club.
And that led me to speculate that the BBC must have received special dispensation from Apple to air the material. (The BBC is a publicly-licensed organization and it would never risk exposing itself to legal action from Apple by broadcasting large amounts of material that had not been released commercially without prior approval to do so.)
But while the radio special made several mentions of those seven discs (especially in the first 35 minutes of the two-hour show) and featured an excellent interview with Beatles press officer Tony Barrow who had written and coordinated the recording of the early discs there was comparatively little of those vintage recordings actually featured in the show. There were a few brief spoken-word soundbites mainly from the early discs. A very brief splash of the lads singing a Christmas carol... And of course there was the commercially-released version of the 1967 song "Christmas Time Is Here Again" (Track 4 of the "Free As A Bird" single from 1995).
However the show was NOT a disappointment, quite the reverse. While a program based solely on the Fan Club records would of course been fairly interesting to us fans - the actual program that was broadcast was actually much more fascinating than the described show.
Instead of using the Fan Club records as the Beatles content for the program - the show actually drew extensively on material originally recorded for various BBC Radio programs that had aired in the Christmas period in the years between 1963 and 1969 much of it very rarely (if ever) heard since then. In that respect the material was actually much fresher to the ears than hearing just the widely-bootlegged Fan Club records again.
Of especial interest was the material from the Christmas 1963 and 1965 editions of the BBC's weekly radio program "Saturday Club" and the Beatles' own 1963 Christmas radio special. There was a lot of musical larking about by the lads - including spoofing their own songs, Christmas carols and something that sounded suspiciously like a throwaway affectionate dig at Freddie & The Dreamers - who were of course always regarded as a tongue-in-cheek novelty act!
Singer Lulu narrated this new special. It also featured interviews with some of the artists who had been support acts in the two Beatles' Christmas stage shows that took place in London in the winters of 1964 and 1965. We heard from 1964 emcee (and Australian comedic singer) Rolf Harris - and from Chris Dreja of The Yardbirds (one of the support bands on the 1965 show lineup).
We also heard from Mancunian singer Elkie Brooks - who sang in the 1965 show. Elkie Brooks had enormous UK success in the 1970's though only a cult following in the US. (Trivia notes: Elkie was co-vocalist with the late Robert Palmer in the early 70's rock-soul band Vinegar Joe. And her brother, Tony Mansfield, was drummer in Billy J. Kramer's backing band - The Dakotas.)
There were also a few sound bites from Paul reminiscing about the origins of the Christmas Fan Club records generously crediting Tony Barrow with the inception of the discs. The date and origin of that interview was not noted. It sounded recent to my ears. Perhaps others can shed light on it.
Lulu spoke a little of what the Beatles had been doing during the Christmas period of each year from 1960 onwards. The Beatles content heard in the show consisted broadly of four types of material: Interviews given by the Beatles to BBC radio programs that had been originally broadcast around various Christmases between 1963 and 1969. Music specially recorded for those BBC shows (including some enjoyable recordings NOT used on the "Live At The BBC" album.) Some commercially-released Beatles records including some early and live material from the "Anthology 1" album. And some very funny interchanges with BBC radio hosts such as Brian Matthews (a name and voice familiar to Beatles fans from the "Live At The BBC" album) - and of even greater interest - extended unedited sequences with fellow Liverpudlian Kenny Everett.
(Everett was a former pirate radio DJ who joined BBC Radio in 1967. His rapport with the Beatles was so great that he was entrusted with recording and editing their 1968 and 1969 Fan Club records. Those were the last two records made at a point that the Beatles were reluctant to gather together to record ensemble greetings for their fans.)
We heard the Beatles larking around with Rolf
Harris singing back-up vocals on a specially-rewritten Beatle-themed parody of
his hit novelty song "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport" and we heard John and Paul
improvising radio jingles for Kenny Everett to use on his weekly BBC radio show.
The banter and musical shenanigans all took place for the benefit of the BBC and their British fans, so - like the Fan Club records - they are rife with intrinsically British cultural references. The jokes make frequent reference to radio and TV shows that would only be known by Brits who were around in the 1960's. By way of example there is a brief parody of the BBC TV panel show "Juke Box Jury." So some of the throwaway gags will naturally be fairly incomprehensible to those not familiar with the source being spoofed. But the good nature and natural humor of the Beatles is infectious even without understanding each and every reference. What is most enjoyable is the sound of the Beatles playing around musically in the studio. A spoof medley of their hits is an especial delight.
The one mystery is how the official advance description of the program was so far adrift from the actual program and how that fact may impact the possibility of a commercial release of the Fan Club records. An Apple-sanctioned broadcast of the discs which the BBC's advance publicity strongly hinted at might have signaled an openness by Apple to such a release. The fact that there was almost certainly no sanction of the program by Apple perhaps lessens the likelihood of that.
The BBC is not noted for commissioning and promoting programs that are greatly at variance to the announced content. Which gives rise to the suspicion that perhaps the program content changed at the last minute owing to objections expressed by Apple.
On the other hand - the program that aired really did not sound as if it had been hastily re-edited to take account of some material suddenly being withdrawn. It sounded like a well-constructed, well-written show which intentionally drew heavily from the riches discovered in the BBC's own archives. That had to have taken careful combing through the BBC vaults and the scheduling of interviews with the key participants (such as Rolf Harris, Tony Barrow, Elkie Brooks and Chris Dreja.) All that takes much more time than just a couple of weeks.
Since the official advance description of the program promised a 2-hour show based specifically on the Fan Club records (with no mention of the vintage BBC Radio shows) - one can speculate as to what happened.
It is possible that the programs makers planned to make the radio program they originally described pre-sold it to the BBC on that basis promoted it in advance as such and then at some point discovered that the Fan Club records could not be freely broadcast as they had supposed and were forced to change the content of the program.
Perhaps they discovered for themselves that airing the Fan Club records on the BBC would require Apples permission. Perhaps Apple became aware of the planned show and notified the producers accordingly.
If that was what happened it was a blessing in disguise since it may have been the cause of the producers broadening the scope of the program to discover and incorporate the much rarer BBC archive material.
However they clearly forgot to update the original program description that they had prepared and it was that misleading description that was released to the public and media by the BBC in mid-December.
But if it transpires that the BBC material and the recollections about the two Beatles Christmas stage shows (1963 and 1964) were ALWAYS planned for the special then the producers and the BBC are guilty of a sizable promotional faux pas.
If the program description they issued had accurately depicted the breadth of its scope and the rarity of much of its content it might have made the show much more press-worthy and thus it would have reached a much wider audience.
I have left a voicemail for my dear old pal Tony Barrow (we go back 34 years!) seeking more information about the creation of the program and will report back when I hear from him.
Published December 27, 2004