Radio programme
Sounds of the 70s
is the name of BBC radio programme, currently broadcast on Sundays on
BBC Radio 2
, with the
Sounds of the Seventies
name also having been used by BBC Television for a number of themed music compilations, now repeated on
BBC Four
.
Sounds of the Seventies
(Radio 1)
[
edit
]
The original
Sounds of the Seventies
was a
Radio 1
programme broadcast on weekdays, initially 18:00?19:00, subsequently 22:00?00:00, on during the early 1970s. Among the DJs were Mike Harding,
Alan Black
,
Pete Drummond
,
Annie Nightingale
,
John Peel
(who alone had two shows per week), and
Bob Harris
(who started presenting the show on 19 August 1970 by playing
Neil Young
's "
Cinnamon Girl
").
[1]
For contractual reasons one of Peel's two weekly shows was known as
Top Gear
, but the format and content of the show on every weekday were in essence identical for most of the early 1970s.
Unlike most other Radio 1 programmes,
Sounds of the Seventies
concentrated on albums rather than singles, and rock music rather than pop. Sessions recorded exclusively by the BBC and featuring major musicians of the day were a regular feature; the
Musicians' Union
insisted that "
needle time
" ? time given to playing recorded music ? should be limited.
In 1974 the Thursday show was replaced by a show without DJs known as the
Thursday Night Sequence
. Album tracks were played without interruption or introduction, and Pete Drummond gave the artist's name, album name and track name after the piece. It had sound effects such as footsteps or a match lighting up just before the DJ spoke. The programme, also known as "The Sequence", was produced by John F. Muir, with his name in stereo, sounding John (left channel), F (left and right channel), Muir (right channel)
In early 1975
Sounds of the Seventies
was dropped. In September of that year the loss of a nightly slot for progressive rock music was restored by the introduction of the nightly
John Peel Show
, which initially broadcast from 23:00 to 00:00. Peel carried on and expanded the practice of hosting exclusive sessions by major musicians. The
Peel Show
format lasted until Peel's death in 2004.
Theme tune
[
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]
The theme tune for the programme was usually a
George Martin
piece known as "Theme One", played in baroque style on a church organ. It was the version by
Van der Graaf Generator
. Martin had written the piece some years earlier as a theme tune for Radio 1. Variations included Mike Harding's use of the central guitar solo from "
Heartbreaker
" by
Led Zeppelin
, and Alan Black's regular closing theme, which was the piano and voice coda from "Pilgrim's Progress" by
Procol Harum
.
Steve Harley:
Sounds of the 70s
[
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]
In 2000, another programme with the name
Sounds of the 70s
, but unrelated to the original, began broadcasting on
BBC Radio 2
. Hosted by
Steve Harley
, the thirty-minute programme featured rock and pop tracks from the 1970s. In 2008, following several series, the show was dropped from the Radio 2 schedule for a year. The last programme was aired on 27 March 2008.
[2]
Sounds of the 70s with Johnnie Walker
[
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]
A new series of
Sounds of the 70s
began on Sunday 5 April 2009 with DJ
Johnnie Walker
, broadcasting on Radio 2 as part of the station's retro music output, which also includes
Sounds of the 60s
(formerly hosted by
Brian Matthew
, now hosted by
Tony Blackburn
).
Sounds of the 70s with Johnnie Walker
runs from 15:00-17:00, and has regular features such as
Johnnie's Jukebox
[3]
which adds an "essential" seven inch single each week to the list, and as of 2023, featured more than 500 tracks in its archive.
[4]
Other features include
One Of A Kind
and
Better Than The Original
[5]
On 11 April 2021,
Sounds of the 70s
was cancelled due to the death of
Prince Philip
death. On 10 January 2022, Bob Harris announced he was returning to the programme, after more than fifty years away, by sitting in for Walker on the episodes to be broadcast on 16 and 23 January.
[6]
Other similar series (BBC Radio)
[
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]
In addition to
Sounds of the 70s
and
Sounds of the 60s
,
[7]
Sounds of the 80s
formerly hosted by
Sara Cox
, now hosted by
Gary Davies
.
[8]
[9]
[10]
was brought forward in the BBC Radio 2 schedules from 22:00
[11]
and is now broadcast at 20:00 on Saturdays, while the 10:00 to 00:00 slot was given over to
Sounds of the 90s
with
Fearne Cotton
.
[12]
[13]
Sounds of the Seventies
(BBC Four)
[
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]
As well as the radio programmes, BBC Television also made two series of shows under the title
Sounds of the Seventies
,
[14]
which was broadcast originally by BBC2 in 1993 (with
Sounds of the 70s 2
being made in 2012) and repeated by
UKTV
's
Yesterday
channel in the 2010s.
[15]
The programmes are used regularly as schedule filler by BBC Four, with the programmes sometimes cut down to 10-15 minute runtime.
[16]
[17]
Sounds of the Seventies
compiled 1970s performances from the BBC's music archives, taken from programmes such as
Top of the Pops
and
The Old Grey Whistle Test
, with each programme compiled around a music genre or theme, such as the "Rock 'n' Roll Revisited" episode which featured acts whose sound owed a debt to the sounds of the late 1950s and the "Anarchy on the BBC" edition which featured
punk
acts. The series also used some short clips used to set the scene of the 1970s theme being used that week.
Series 2:
Sounds of the 70s 2
(2012)
[
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]
Other similar series (BBC Television)
[
edit
]
Sounds of the Seventies
followed on from
Sounds of the Sixties
[29]
which was first broadcast on BBC2 on 5 October 1991, with an episode called "The First Steps" which featured performances from acts such as The Beatles,
Gerry and the Pacemakers
and The Rolling Stones, along with puppets Pinky & Perky doing the Twist. Due to the nature of the BBC's 1960s
Top of the Pops
archive, the series compiled each episode from a wide range of BBC programmes such as cutting-edge pop show
The Beat Room
[30]
and children's programmes like
Blue Peter
and
Crackerjack
, with some short clips used to set the scene of the 1960s theme being used that week.
On 12 January 1996, an eight-part series called
Sounds of the Eighties
[31]
[32]
was first shown by BBC2, with the first episode featuring
Duran Duran
,
Culture Club
,
ABC
,
Bananarama
and
Kylie Minogue
. Both the 1960s and 1980s series have been repeated many times on BBC Four, with the programmes also being used by UKTV's Yesterday channel as part of their Saturday night music programming block.
[33]
[34]
[35]
[36]
In the late 2010s,
Sounds of the 80s with Gary Davies
had an hour long video version of the show simulcast by BBC Radio 2 and BBC Television (via the Red Button on
Freeview channel 601
), with pop stars from the 1990s and early 2000s (like Louise
[37]
and Dido)
[38]
picking their favourite 1980s hits.
See also
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]
References
[
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]
- ^
"Bob's very first BBC broadcast"
.
- ^
"Sounds of the 70s"
. BBC Online.
- ^
"BBC Radio 2 - Sounds of the 70s with Johnnie Walker - Johnnie's Jukebox"
.
- ^
"BBC Radio 2 - Sounds of the 70s with Johnnie Walker, Johnnie's Jukebox Celebrates Its 400th Entry!"
.
- ^
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0015c1b
- ^
"Bob returns to his old stamping ground, BBC Radio's "Sounds of the 70s"
"
. BobHarris.org. 10 January 2022.
- ^
"BBC Radio 2 - Sounds of the 60s with Tony Blackburn"
.
- ^
"BBC Radio 2 - Sounds of the 80s with Gary Davies - Episode guide"
.
- ^
"BBC Radio 2 - Sounds of the 80s with Gary Davies, Party like it's 1982!"
.
- ^
"BBC Radio 2 - Sounds of the 80s with Gary Davies - Available now"
.
- ^
"BBC Radio 2 - Sounds of the 80s with Gary Davies, Dave Stewart from Eurythmics joins Sara Cox to remember the 80s"
.
- ^
"BBC Radio 2 - Sounds of the 90s with Fearne Cotton, It's All-Request 90s, and you're the DJ!"
.
- ^
"BBC Radio 2 - Sounds of the 90s with Fearne Cotton - Available now"
.
- ^
"BBC Four - Sounds of the Seventies - Episode guide"
.
- ^
"Sounds of the 70s | Yesterday Channel"
.
- ^
"BBC Four - Sounds of the Seventies, Shorts, the Moody Blues, Faces and David Bowie"
.
- ^
"BBC Four - Sounds of the Seventies, Shorts, Roxy Music, Queen and Elton John"
.
- ^
"BBC Two ? Sounds of the 70s 2 ? Episode guide"
.
BBC
. Retrieved
11 January
2022
.
- ^
"BBC Two - Sounds of the 70s 2, Arthouse Glam - Get in the Swing"
.
- ^
"BBC Two - Sounds of the 70s 2, Reggae - Stir It up"
.
- ^
"BBC Two - Sounds of the 70s 2, Troubadours ? Peaceful Easy Feeling"
.
- ^
"BBC Two - Sounds of the 70s 2, Guilty Pleasures - Love Will Keep Us Together"
.
- ^
"BBC Two - Sounds of the 70s 2, Rock - the Boys Are Back in Town"
.
- ^
"BBC Two - Sounds of the 70s 2, Soul: Keep on Keeping on"
.
- ^
"BBC Two - Sounds of the 70s 2, Disco - Ain't No Stopping Us Now"
.
- ^
"BBC Two - Sounds of the 70s 2, Rock 'n' Roll Revisited - Get It on"
.
- ^
"BBC Two - Sounds of the 70s 2, Punk - Anarchy on the BBC"
.
- ^
"BBC Two - Sounds of the 70s 2, New Wave - Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick"
.
- ^
"BBC Four - Sounds of the Sixties, Original Series, the First Steps"
.
- ^
"BBC Four - Sounds of the Sixties, Original Series, 1964-66: The Beat Room"
.
- ^
"BBC Four - Sounds of the Eighties"
.
- ^
"BBC Four - Sounds of the Eighties, Episode 1"
.
- ^
"Sounds of the Sixties | Yesterday Channel"
.
- ^
"Sounds of the Sixties | Yesterday Channel"
.
- ^
"TV listings guide"
.
- ^
"TV listings guide"
.
- ^
"BBC Radio 2 - Sounds of the 80s with Gary Davies, Louise"
.
- ^
"BBC Radio 2 - Sounds of the 80s with Gary Davies, Dido"
.
External links
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]