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Hi everyone,

I've come across this wonderful series on BBC Radio 2! The first one charts the rise and fall of Jack Payne and the BBC Dance Orchestra - the next one is about Gibbons and Noble!

Enjoy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... enry_Hall/

Even though we cannot use the iPlayer for TV programmes here in Holland, probably for copyright reasons, I Am able to listen to the radio! Thanks for the tip. By the way, I've posted a response to your latest youtube movie. I started collecting 78s around your age too.

Peter.

I too istened to this and was glad that bbc i-player works here in NZ too. There is some great archive recordings of on air performanaces and interviews in the show which I have never heard before. The show kicks off with a great version of Happy days are here again which was an excellent transfer and nicely EQ'ed. I thought this would be a treat for the ear as well as the brain. However SOME of the later transfers were poor - with a leaning toward the use of reverb - one in particular has the singer and band sounding like they are playing in a bathroom, others use only minimal reverb but I hate it no matter how subtle its use. Its my pet hate in case you hadn't guessed! I have some of these disks and to hear them with a bit of echo spoilt it a bit for me.Seems strange that they used something like CEDAR processing to remove imperfections and yet still do this. I thought the industry had left behind the use of reverb back in the 80's and 90's. I hope this isn't the start of a new trend.

However having said all that the show was a wealth on information - I just hope the rest are as good.


S-B-H

@SBH - The next one had better be good! It's featuring Noble and Gibbons, I'd love to hear some discussion about Bowlly if we're lucky!

I'm a big fan of both, so I'm really looking forward to that program. They both had impeccable taste. Gibby also was one of the leaders of the New Mayfair Orchestra before Noble took over. If you find a Columbia record by The Masqueraders, that is a Gibbons led band too and well worth buying. Both of them recorded extensively with Bowlly, so yes, it should be a very interesting program.

Here is a link to the second part of this series. It really is good and the radio part of the BBC i-player can be listened to around the world.

The Bands that mattered - part 2: Carroll Gibbons and Ray Noble

The thing I do notice about the transfers used in this series is the use of reverb. I wonder why they do this? They go to the effort of removing clicks and pops, nicely eq the sound and then when they have a nice fresh sounding track then spoil it with reverb. I really hope this isn't the start of a new trend. It sounds bloody awful when done to excess and simply annoying even when used lightly. I am emailing the BBC to make this point as having bands sounding like they are playing in an echoy empty room isn't how they were recorded.

S-B-H

Also - I recorded that programme so when it expires from iPlayer in 3 days and you'd still like to listen, just send me a PM on here and I'll sort out emailing it to you