Rock Goes to College

Last updated

Rock Goes to College
Directed byJohn Burrowes
Presented by Pete Drummond
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of series4
Production
Producer Michael Appleton
Release
Original network BBC2
Original release22 September 1978 (1978-09-22) 
19 March 1981 (1981-03-19)
Related
Jazz Goes to College

Rock Goes to College (RGTC) was a BBC series that ran between 1978 and 1981 on British television. A variety of up-coming rock oriented bands were showcased live from small venues and broadcast simultaneously on television and radio during a 40-50 minute live performance.

Contents

It was a follow-on to the mid-1960s BBC series Jazz Goes to College . [1]

Concert venues

The venues were small university, polytechnic or college halls holding a few thousand people; often tickets were given to the Students' Union to distribute for free. The bands chosen were also, in some cases, bands which did not have a mainstream following at that time[ citation needed ] although many went on to be very successful.

A BBC DJ would also be present to introduce the band for the television audience.

Innovation

The original broadcasts were transmitted on television as well as Sight and Sound in Concert; a BBC initiative to provide simultaneous pictures on BBC2 and stereo radio broadcasts on BBC Radio 1, as stereo television broadcasts and receivers did not exist at the time. It allowed rock enthusiasts to enjoy the event with an improved sound quality.

Recordings

Original recordings of at least some of the Rock Goes to College series still exist and some legal releases have been made available, on DVD or CD, either as the concert in its entirety or as part of a compilation. UK Gold has re-broadcast some of the programmes (in stereo on television) in 2006 as has BBC Four and UK Arena in the late 1990s.

In some cases, the radio broadcasts contained additional songs to those broadcast via the television including pre-broadcast/warm-up tracks.

Concert listing

Many performances have been bootlegged from the original tapes or from public television/radio broadcasts. All references to availability on DVD here refers to legally produced and sold articles.

Episodes

Original Broadcasts 1978 (14 episodes)

  1. Mary of the 4th Form
  2. Introduction - Peter Drummond
  3. Me & Howard Hughes
  4. I Never Loved Eva Braun
  5. Don't Believe What You Read
  6. Rat Trap
  7. Kicks
  8. Joey's on the Street Again
  9. Living on an Island
  10. She's Gonna Do You In
  11. Like Clockwork
  12. She's So Modern
  13. Looking After No. 1
  1. Ugly
  2. I Feel Like a Wog
  3. Bring on the Nubiles
  4. Burning Up Time
  5. Hanging Around

The concert is aborted when The Stranglers walk off stage, refusing to play to elitist audiences, after a dispute when an agreement to make tickets available outside of the college was not honoured. [4] [5]

  1. Only Arsenic
  2. Hung on You
  3. Rich Kids
  4. Burning sounds
  5. Holy Holy
  6. 12 Miles High
  7. Forever & Ever
  8. Marching Men
  9. Lovers & Fools
  10. Strange One
  11. Empty Words
  12. Ghosts of Princes in Towers
  1. May You Never
  2. One World
  3. One Day Without You
  4. The Dealer
  5. Certain Surprise
  6. Big Muff
  7. Anna

"Whole Lotta Rosie" available on the AC/DC compilation DVD Family Jewels . "Problem Child", "Sin City", "Bad Boy Boogie" available on the compilation DVD set Plug Me In . Introduced by Pete Drummond.

  1. "Live Wire"
  2. "Problem Child"
  3. "Sin City"
  4. "Bad Boy Boogie"
  5. "Whole Lotta Rosie"
  6. "Rocker"
  7. "Let There Be Rock"
  1. Court in the Act
  2. Lady Eleanor
  3. Winter Song
  4. Make Me Want to Stay
  5. Kings Cross Blues
  6. Meet Me on the Corner
  7. Run for Home
  8. Brand New Day
  9. We Can Swing Together
  1. Hello There
  2. Come On, Come On
  3. Stiff Competition
  4. Guitar Solo/Jam
  5. Ain't That a Shame
  6. Need Your Love
  7. I Want You to Want Me
  8. California Man
  9. Surrender
  1. New Precision
  2. Superenigmatix
  3. Possession
  4. Dangerous Stranger
  5. Islands of the Dead
  6. Lovers Are Mortal
  7. Panic in the World
  1. Ride on Josephine
  2. Cocaine Blues
  3. It Wasn't Me
  4. I'm Just Your Good Thing
  5. Madison Blues
  6. New Hawaiian Boogie
  7. Who Do You Love
  8. No Particular Place to Go
  9. Johnny B Goode

Original Broadcasts 1979 (8 episodes)

  1. Just What I Needed
  2. Good Times Roll
  3. I'm in Touch with Your World
  4. My Best Friend's Girl
  5. Moving in Stereo
  6. All Mixed Up
  7. Night Spots
  8. Bye Bye Love
  9. Don't Cha Stop
  10. You're All I've Got Tonight
  1. Tonight 3:44
  2. I Think We're Alone Now 2:59
  3. Hard to Get 3:00
  4. I Never Thought It Would Happen 3:06
  5. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend 3:40
  6. Hey Royse 2:19
  7. Promise Me 3:42
  8. Hold Me 3:14
  9. Fallin' in Love 2:08
  10. Arcade Queen 2:34
  11. Please Please Me1:51
  12. Walk Don't Run 2:23
  13. Rock 'n' Roll Is Dead 3:15
  1. Shin Kicker
  2. The Mississippi Sheiks
  3. Do You Read Me
  4. Brute Force & Ignorance
  5. Fuel to the Fire
  6. Shadow Play
  7. Cruise on Out
  1. Can't Stand Losing You
  2. So Lonely
  3. Fall Out
  4. Hole in My Life
  5. Truth Hits Everybody
  6. Message in a Bottle (first live performance and not released as a single)
  7. Peanuts
  8. Roxanne
  9. Next to You
  1. Salmon Song
  2. Unzipping the Zype
  3. Hurdy Gurdy Man
  4. 1988 Aktivator
  5. Unidentified (Flying Being)
  6. It's All Too Much
  1. Sample and Hold
  2. Beelzebub
  3. The Sahara of Snow (part one)
  4. The Sahara of Snow (part two)
  5. Forever until Sunday
  6. Back to the Beginning
  7. Adios a la Pasada (Goodbye to the Past)
  8. 5G
  1. When Will You Be Mine
  2. Atlantic Avenue
  3. A Love of Your Own
  4. I'm the One
  5. Walk on By
  6. Feel No Fret

Original Broadcasts 1980 (12 episodes)

  1. Look Sharp!
  2. Baby Stick Around
  3. Sunday Papers
  4. One More Time
  5. Friday
  6. It's Different for Girls
  7. Don't Wanna Be Like That
  8. Happy Loving Couples
  9. I'm the Man
  10. Got the Time
  11. Is She Really Going Out with Him?
  12. Come On
  1. Do the Dog
  2. Monkey Man
  3. Rat Race
  4. Blank Expression
  5. Rude Boys Outta Jail
  6. Doesn't Make it Alright
  7. Concrete Jungle
  8. Too Much Too Young
  9. Guns of Navarone
  10. Nite Klub
  11. Gangsters
  12. Longshot Kick de Bucket
  13. Madness
  14. You're Wondering Now
  1. Day of the Eagle
  2. The Ring, Bridge of Sighs
  3. Too Rolling Stoned
  4. The Shout/Hannah
  5. Daydream
  6. Victims of the Fury
  7. Little Bit of Sympathy
  1. Shadow of a Doubt
  2. Anything That's Rock 'n' Roll
  3. Introduction - Peter Drummond
  4. Even the Losers
  5. Here Comes My Girl
  6. I Need to Know
  7. Luna
  8. Stories We Could Tell
  9. Refugee
  10. Breakdown
  11. American Girl
  1. Going Down to Laurel
  2. Romeo's Tune
  3. Complications
  4. Down by the Sally Gardens
  5. What Kind a Guy
  6. Steve Forbert's Midsummernight's Toast
  7. Thinking
  8. The Sweet Love That You Give Shure Goes a Long Long Way
  9. Say Goodbye to Little Joe
  10. You Can Not Win If You Do Not Play
  11. Medley: Nadin, Pokeseller Danny, You Can Not Win If You Do Not Play
  1. Sailing Ship (instrumental)
  2. Wild West Show
  3. Can You Face It?

Original Broadcasts 1981 (11 episodes)

  1. King
  2. Strange Fruit
  3. The Earth Dies Screaming
  4. Little by Little
  5. I Think It's Going to Rain Today
  6. Food for Thought
  7. Tyler
  8. Signing Off
  1. Kicks
  2. Anticipating
  3. Days Are O.K. (But the Nights Were Made for Love)
  4. Closets & Bullets
  5. Whose Problem?
  6. Total Control
  7. Party Professionals
  8. Cry Baby
  9. Envy
  10. Danger
  11. Conroy Guy
  12. Wondering
  1. Bad for Me
  2. We
  3. Nurds
  4. The Troubles
  5. My Sick Mind
  6. Hallelujah Chorus
  7. Hammond Song
  8. Mr. Sellack
  1. The Ocean
  2. 11 O’Clock Tick Tock
  3. Cry - The Electric Co.
  4. Out of Control
  5. Gloria
  6. I Fall Down
  1. Unchain Your Brain
  2. Mr Universe
  3. No Easy Way
  4. Trouble
  5. Mutually Assured Destruction
  6. On the Rocks
  7. Vengenace
  8. New Orleans
  1. Big Muff
  2. Some People Are Crazy
  3. Grace and Danger
  4. Save Some (For Me)
  5. Eibhil Ghail Chiuin Ni Chearbhail
  6. Couldn't Love You More
  7. Amsterdam Rock
  8. Johnny Too Bad
  1. Israel
  2. Spellbound
  3. Arabian Knights
  4. Halloween
  5. Christine
  6. Night Shift
  7. Red Light
  8. But Not Them
  9. Voodoo Dolly
  10. Eve White/Eve Black

Bootlegs

In general, many of these performances will have only have been shown a very limited number of times on TV and in some cases only once. Very few of these concerts seem to have made it to legal DVD (such as the Bill Bruford, both John Martyn and a sample of AC/DC).

Bootlegs exist created from original TV (although very few domestic video recorders were around at the time) and radio broadcasts (through cassette tapes) as well as subsequent repeats. In particular, the AC/DC, Specials, Robin Trower, Ian Gillan, Cars, Police and U2 DVDs, CDs and tapes are commonly found advertised on trader's sites.

Some of the shows, such as AC/DC and The Police, have been recently broadcast on VH1 Classic on the show BBC Crown Jewels.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Martyn</span> British singer-songwriter and guitarist (1948–2009)

Iain David McGeachy, known professionally as John Martyn, was a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Over a 40-year career, he released 23 studio albums, and received frequent critical acclaim. The Times described him as "an electrifying guitarist and singer whose music blurred the boundaries between folk, jazz, rock and blues".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I Am the Walrus</span> 1967 single by the Beatles

"I Am the Walrus" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1967 television film Magical Mystery Tour. Written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney, it was released as the B-side to the single "Hello, Goodbye" and on the Magical Mystery Tour EP and album. In the film, the song underscores a segment in which the band mime to the recording at a deserted airfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Live Aid</span> 1985 benefit concert

Live Aid was a multi-venue benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, as well as a music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, a movement that started with the release of the successful charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in December 1984. Billed as the "global jukebox", Live Aid was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, attended by about 72,000 people, and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, attended by 89,484 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yazoo (band)</span> British synthpop duo

Yazoo were an English synth-pop duo from Basildon, Essex, consisting of former Depeche Mode member Vince Clarke (keyboards) and Alison Moyet (vocals). The duo formed in late 1981 after Clarke responded to an advertisement Moyet placed in a British music magazine, although the pair had known each other since their school days.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilko Johnson</span> English musician (1947–2022)

John Andrew Wilkinson, better known by the stage name Wilko Johnson, was an English guitarist, singer, songwriter and occasional actor. He was a member of the pub rock/rhythm and blues band Dr. Feelgood in the 1970s. Johnson was known for his distinctive guitar playing style which he achieved by not using a guitar pick but playing fingerstyle. This enabled him to play rhythm guitar and riffs or solos at the same time creating a highly percussive guitar sound.

<i>Blackadder Goes Forth</i> Fourth series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder

Blackadder Goes Forth is the fourth series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder, written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, which aired from 28 September to 2 November 1989 on BBC1. The series placed the recurring characters of Blackadder, Baldrick, and George in a trench in Flanders during World War I, and followed their various doomed attempts to escape from the trenches to avoid death under the misguided command of General Melchett. The series references famous people of the time and criticises the British Army's leadership during the campaign, culminating in the ending of its final episode, in which the soldiers are ordered to carry out a lethal charge of enemy lines.

Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night is a 1988 Cinemax television special originally broadcast on January 3, 1988, starring triple Hall of Fame inductee rock/pop singer/songwriter Roy Orbison and backing band TCB Band with special guests including Bruce Springsteen, k.d. lang and others. The special was filmed entirely in black and white. After the broadcast the concert was released on VHS and Laserdisc. A live album was released in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Armatrading</span> Kittitian-English musician

Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading, is a Kittitian-English singer-songwriter and guitarist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Jones (singer)</span> Musical artist

Paul Jones is an English singer, actor, harmonicist, radio personality and television presenter. He first came to prominence as the original lead singer and harmonicist of the rock band Manfred Mann (1962–66) with whom he had several hit records including "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" and "Pretty Flamingo". After leaving the band, Jones established a solo career and notably starred as a deified pop star in the film Privilege (1967). He presented The Blues Show on BBC Radio 2 for thirty-two years, from 1986 to 2018, and continues to perform alongside former Manfred Mann bandmates in the Blues Band and The Manfreds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Broomfield</span> English documentary film director

Nicholas Broomfield is an English documentary film director. His self-reflective style has been regarded as influential to many later filmmakers. In the early 21st century, he began to use non-actors in scripted works, which he calls "Direct Cinema". His output ranges from studies of entertainers to political works such as examinations of South Africa before and after the end of apartheid and the rise of the black-majority government of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dermot O'Leary</span> English television presenter

Seán Dermot Fintan O'Leary is an English television and radio presenter, who currently works for ITV and BBC Radio 2. His radio career began when he worked as a disc jockey at Essex Radio, but he is best known for being the presenter of The X Factor (UK) on ITV, a position he held from 2007 until its final series in 2018, with the exception of 2015. Since 2021, O'Leary has presented ITV's This Morning on Fridays, school holidays and bank holidays alongside Alison Hammond.

<i>Family Jewels</i> (video compilation) 2005 video by AC/DC

Family Jewels is a compilation DVD by the hard rock band AC/DC, featuring the group's music videos, live clips and promotional videos from 1975 to 2008. It was released by Albert Productions and Epic Music Video on 28 March 2005. The first disc contains videos from the Bon Scott era (1975–1980), such as the band's first TV appearance and a performance on television ten days before Scott died. The second disc contains material from the Brian Johnson era up to 1991.

<i>No Bull</i> 1996 video by AC/DC

No Bull is a live video released by AC/DC in November 1996, filmed on Super 16mm at Madrid's Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas on 10 July 1996 during the Ballbreaker world tour. It was directed by David Mallet, produced by Rocky Oldham, mixed by Mike Fraser, and edited by David Gardener and Simon Hilton; production company was Serpent Films.

The Sinceros were a new wave and power pop band from London, England, who recorded two albums for Epic Records, The Sound of Sunbathing (1979) and Pet Rock (1981). Both albums were released worldwide and achieved moderate commercial success.

Miles Tredinnick, also known as Riff Regan, is a rock musician, songwriter and a stage and screenwriter. In the 1970s, he was the lead singer with the British rock band London. Afterwards he went on to write comedy plays for the stage. He has also written scripts for Frankie Howerd, including the television special Superfrank! and the stage comedy Up Pompeii!

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Being Boiled</span> 1978 single by The Human League

"Being Boiled" is the debut single by the British synthpop band the Human League. Composed by Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, with lyrics by Philip Oakey, it has been released several times since 1978, finally becoming a UK top ten hit in 1982.

<i>The Kids Are Alright</i> (1979 film) 1979 rockumentary

The Kids Are Alright is a 1979 rockumentary film about the English rock band the Who, including live performances, promotional films and interviews from 1964 to 1978. It notably features the band's last performance with long-term drummer Keith Moon, filmed at Shepperton Studios in May 1978, three months before his death.

<i>Plug Me In</i> 2007 video by AC/DC

Plug Me In is a DVD box set released on 16 October 2007 by Australian hard rock group AC/DC. It includes rare performances of the band. The standard two-disc set contains one disc of performances from the Bon Scott era and one from the Brian Johnson era. The three-disc set includes Between the Cracks, featuring performances from both eras. The performance of "Shoot to Thrill" from the Summit, Houston, TX, October 1983 is on both disc two and three.

<i>At the BBC</i> (Siouxsie and the Banshees album) 2009 box set by Siouxsie and the Banshees

At the BBC is a live box set containing three CDs and a DVD by alternative rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, released in June 2009 by record label Universal International.

References

  1. BFI.org
  2. BFI.org
  3. "The Stranglers: Rock Goes to College". Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 8 September 2007. (a fansite)
  4. BFI.org
  5. "The Stranglers: Rock Goes to College". Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 8 September 2007.
  6. BFI.org
  7. Live at the Reading University, U.K. - Rock Goes to College by The Rubinoos , retrieved 11 April 2019