Wednesday

Top Gear

Those of a certain age who lived in the south-eastern corner of England in the mid-60s will remember the pirate broadcaster 'Radio London' with it's late night programme 'The Perfumed Garden'. The DJ John Peel was the first champion of John Fahey over here, and when he migrated to the new BBC Radio 1 he presented 'Top Gear', where he was able not only to play his own impeccable choice of music, but to have studio sessions with guests.

In 1969 Fahey did a short tour of the UK and appeared on 'Top Gear'. And now I'm able to post the material from that session here as downloads; 'Death of the Clayton Peacock' in particular is a wonderful performance. So here, with thanks to a regular visitor who provided these recordings, are: Bucktown Stomp, The Death of the Clayton Peacock, In Christ the is no East or West, Steel Guitar Rag and Sunflower River Blues.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks for posting these
can't wait to hear them

Anonymous said...

How amazing that these recordings should turn up here after all these years. Of course, this wasn't the only show that jf recorded for the bbc that summer. Tragic that the BBC2 appearance with Joan Bakewell is lost forever

Stephen said...

Olaf, I think we should say that the BBC2 appearance is presumed lost forever. These things have a strange way of suddenly finding their way out of the woodwork.