November 2013 – Page 2 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Look! Hear! Concert – School Sports

This audio is from a concert for the regional arts show, Look! Hear! recorded in Cannon Hill Park in Edgbaston, Birmingham. The band is called “School Sports”, who were popular on the pub rock scene at the time.

Look! Hear! was presented by Toyah Willcox, Chris Phipps and John Holmes. The producer was Roger Casstles, who went on to create The Clothes Show.

Thanks to Peter Poole for making the audio available.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:

Stuart Gandy: ‘Good memories of this programme, one of the first I ever worked on in TV ops.’

Alastair Yates: ‘I have nervous memories of being responsible for putting this opt on air from the Pres. Studio.’

Gary Jordan: ‘After doing a bit of digging the concert was known as “Lark In The Park” Produced by BRMB’s Robin Valk on 25th-29th August 1979 and featured bands like, Slender Loris, Rainmaker, Little Acre, Ruby Turner, City Boy, Fashion. The Specials and School sports who had changed their name from Hooker, who then changed it again to Mean Street Dealers.’

Steve Saunderson: ‘I was on one of the cameras ( Film ). I think I’ve still got a badge somewhere in a draw with my old ID Cards that show this cool cameraman with lots of hair and a beard. Who was that bearded man?’

Rosie Critchlow: ‘I had a Look! Hear! badge, brought home from work by my Dad.’

BBC Press Release about the future of Birmingham

This statement about the future of BBC Birmingham was released today (21/11/13) by the BBC.

Phillips 1/4″ machine

The photo is of a Phillips 1/4″ audio editing machine, apparently from Radio Stoke.

The following exchange took place on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:

Keith Brook: ‘Ah, the Phillips ¼” machine. Absolutely the best editing machine ever!! Most came with a dark green BBC waste basket on the right!!’

Pete Simpkin: ‘Keith are we speaking of the same machine..the Phillips I know and hate was in a grey box and was very good at stretching and spilling tape whilst editing. The official green BBC waste box I am sure was on the trolley mounted TR90 which really WAS the best editing machine!…or am we both suffering from Tempus Fugit.’

Keith Brook: ‘Pete, I’ve been searching for a picture of the Phillips beast but TR90 does ring a bell. I first used them in local radio in the late 60s and then when I arrived at Pebble Mill as a cameraman, they were at the back of Studio B gallery. They had a slanted shelf on top for scripts. The best part was that you marked the tape on a pillar and then just dragged the tape to the block. The brakes came off as you pulled the tape making editing very quick. Some of us just used our fingernail to push into the pillar, thus saving valuable seconds. Is that the one?’

Pete Simpkin: ‘Yes that’s the Phillips!’

Keith Brook: ‘The reference to the waste bin on the right hand side was that journos, in typical last minute haste to make the story appear important, would throw me a 5″ spool with their piece and a bad carbon copy of the link before rushing into the studio.’

Pete Simpkin: ‘One of my dislikes of the Philips was that one election evening I was intake tape operator and had just recorded a declaration and was splicing a leader on to it when the producer called for the replay immediately, because of the floppy take up on the machine as I attempted to line up the start again, I nicked my finger with the razor blade which I was still holding and as the declaration was replayed there was blood pouring out of the head box!!’

Keith Brook: ‘Just to the right of the pinch roller is the marking post, with a line in it, that you refer to when you’ve waggled the sound about to find the edit point. You make a china-graph mark on the tape and, thanks to the lovely braking system on the Philips, you can easily drag that mark to the edit block which is just under that guy’s hand. You cut it at 45deg on the block and leave the right hand part there. Now, you can easily pull the left hand, incoming tape with your hands and listen until you’ve reached the next edit point. Mark it, pull it to the block, stick some editing tape over the join and you’re done!! Some of us pre-loaded 1″ strips of editing tape onto the backs of our hands for speed. Journos weren’t very good at this, or anything else for that matter, and cut on the end of the outgoing sentence and the beginning of the incoming sentence. Leaving the breath in before or after the edit made it sound much more natural and didn’t take up any extra time.’

Paul Freeman: ‘That is STILL my favourite reel-to-reel machine: I bought one on Ebay a while back but, not being an ex-BBC m/c it lacks the framing and top shelf for keeping your script on, and the pegs to hold the leader and sticky. If you didn’t bite your nails it was easy to edit on this without a chinagraph, you picked up the tape in both hands, lining your rt thumb-nail with the pillar mark, and transferred it to the edit block lining your thumb-nail with the line on the block – Simples! Wish I had one of these machines I also need the Philips pre-amp set for it if anyone ever comes across one. Curiously, it seems the neon record light, and the sleeve around the red button are BBC mods too.’

Keith Brook: ‘Yes, the thumbnail trick was a good one, but I just kept the tape running after I’d stuck my nail in and that gave me enough tape to pull over to the block.’

Pete Simpkin: ‘Any sweat…sorry perspiration…. on your fingers would have covered the coated side and made the joins audible because of the loss in top frequencies as the tape passed over the repro head!’

Keith Brook: ‘Pete, we used white gloves at Radio Merseyside. Didn’t everybody?’

Paul Freeman: ‘Pete, either we had tape stock which wasn’t susceptible to sweat, or we had preternaturally dry hands! Besides, who’s touching the edit? I’m handling it 8 inches either side ! The only person I ever saw wearing white gloves was Milton Hainsworth, and that was to grip the film to remove the chinagraph marks as he rewound the make-up, usually at far too few minutes before TX!’

Keith Brook: ‘Most of this discussion is about editing on the Philips. Here’s a close up of the marker post we keep talking about. See? It even has a groove for Paul Freeman’s finger nail!!

Delia Derbyshire editing on the Phillips 1/4″. Photo from Keith Brook

Keith Brook: ‘Here’s a picture of Delia Derbyshire, the wonderfully talented lady who created the Dr Who theme from Ron Granger’s original notes.’

Pete Simpkin: ‘OK Keith if the Philips tape M/C gave us Dr Who’s theme what can I say! Great discussion though!’

Paul Freeman: ‘One of the great things about these machines was their simplicity: both in loading and function, important factors in news operation. They laced up so fast it was quite possible to go from a tape in a box (or more likely with a page of cue jammed in it) to pressing the play button in under 2 seconds. In a REAL emergency, you didn’t even need to spin it onto the take-up spool, you could spool it unto the floor – something you couldn’t do with those wretched Studers, and you certainly couldn’t lace a tape onto a Leever-Rich in under about 5 seconds. They were tolerant of small inserts (like a 30″ sound bite, for instance) on standard 5″ spools whereas many of the other machines would snatch if it wasn’t on a ‘W’. All in all, a shining example of something fit-for-purpose.’

Studio 6 – Presentation Suite

Thanks to Peter Poole for sharing this facilities list for Radio Studio 6 at Pebble Mill, which was a self-op studio, used for Radio 2’s night time programming. It was quite a nice studio and sometimes used by audio unit for SM driven shows. It had a small kitchen to keep the presenters happy.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:

Pete Simpkin: ‘I believe it was used by Alex Lester for his very early morning show on R2.’

Andy Walters: ‘Those two studios were replicated in the Mailbox and are now used mainly by the Asian Network. Studio 6 and 6+ could work as two independent studios and did the last live radio programmes to come out of Pebble Mill running as late as December 2004 I think (Local Radio and Asian Network were the first to leave in Summer 2004). The sound desks went to Cardiff prison for the fledgling prison radio project. The digispot system was upgraded to a basic RCS playout system as used in some commercial radio stations. I think Janice Long used 6+ and Alex Lester used the slightly smaller 6. Radio 1 at Yalding House also used those Eela sound desks until 2005 as did the Asian Network in Leicester when they were based at Epic House.’

Chris Marshall: ‘You’re right Pete, it was primarily used for R2 overnights. Alex Lester, Annie Nightingale, Mo Dutta, Katrina (she of the waves) er, I can’t remember any others! R2 we’re always hugely suspicious of the digital play out system, believing that anything other than DJs playing their own CDs was the work of the devil. We always were way ahead of our time. Trying to recall the name of the consultant (and subsequently producer) who set it up. Robin Valk, I think? And in the day, we used it mostly as an editing suite, I think. Can’t remember recording in there.’

Kulwant Sidhu: ‘Remember it well. Often in there with mo dutta on the early Saturday and Sunday morning shows for R2.’

Children in Need

Marie Phillips_0004

Photos from Marie Phillips, no reproduction without permission. Marie Phillips was the Midlands Children in Need organiser at this time.

Here are a couple of photos of the Children in Need fund raising trailer, at Pebble Mill on Children in Need night. The vehicle would tend to be parked at the front of the building, attracting as many visitors as possible, for the regional broadcasts.

The lower photo is from 1990, and includes: Melissa from the Press Office, Pauline Logan from the Press Office who sadly died at a young age a few years ago, Marie Phillips, Jeanette Read who was Barry Smith’s Secretary and when she retired, worked for Marie for a couple of days a week. It used to be so manic at Appeal Time that Marie and Jeanette became known as Stan and Ollie which they still call each other to this day.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:

Marie Phillips: ‘Appeal Nights were such fun and a wonderful opportunity to meet fundraisers as well as funded groups. CIN was my life for nine happy and fulfilling years. My “real” job was administering the Midlands and East donations once grants had been allocated by our dedicated Appeals Committee and making sure that the money raised by the public was used effectively and properly. I had amazing support from so many people at Pebble Mill who never turned down my frequent begging requests for help with events and merchandise sales (£100,000+) and visits to funded projects. Yes, Jean, Great times and the best times.’

Siobhan Maher Kennedy: ‘I got a big break from CIN night ..I think 1986 or 87 I was allowed to present some of the BBC Midlands sections as i was a researcher on a 6 month contract for Mike Fitz and we went live on national tv for one and I got a job at CBBC in London to be a presenter in children’s pres.Oh but that’s a very long run on sentence…I never do that on Telly lol!’

Ruth Kiosses: ‘Loved CIN parties on the front of PM. Busiest week of the year for wardrobe, costume vans galore arriving from Wales Farm Road In London. Always great fun though.’

Jean Palmer: ‘Loved CIN at Pebble Mill raised lots of money in the club Sue Lowe, Angie and myself doing a turn on the stage. the best one was our take on the three degrees. great night. great times.’

Peter Poole: ‘Pebble Mill always put on a great show. I remember the funfair on the front lawn. This attracted a large crowd. Plenty of money for CIN and great PR for the BBC. Many viewers told me the Pebble Mill opt-out was the best bit. The BBC needs good PR these days. Such a shame that Birmingham no longer does a CIN opt-out like the old days.’

Mary Sanchez: ‘I worked on many CIN s at PM – what epics! Front /back lawns – fire engines / helicopters landing on field by bar ….sooooo busy, brilliant – must dig out some photos – I have one somewhere of all floor staff in space outfits …(?!)’

Patrick Flavelle: ‘My first gig at Pebble Mill – supporting David Nelson, a cracking producer. Met some celebs and tasted live telly for the first time….happy days!’