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#The Old Grey Whistle Test
dashes-and-letters · 1 year
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The Who, Relay; Old Grey Whistle Test, 1973
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Joni Mitchell “Chinese Café / Unchained Melody” The Old Grey Whistle Test, 1983.
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krispyweiss · 7 months
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Song Review: James Taylor - “Secret O’ Life” (“The Old Grey Whistle Test,” Nov. 1, 1977)
Sitting on a couch in his - or someone else’s - living room, James Taylor sounds like a consummate studio pro on “Secret O’ Life” from 1977.
Taylor used the informal setting for his appearance on the Nov. 1, ’77 episode of “The Old Grey Whistle Test.’ Just freed from the vault, it finds Taylor singing and playing as smoothly as he did on the studio version that appeared on J.T., as he delivers one of pop music’s most indelible lines:
The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time
Sadly, not too much time passes during this truncated clip, which inexplicably ends just two minutes in. Yet it’s still worthwhile simply for illustrating the purity of an unadorned Taylor doing his thing.
Grade card: James Taylor - “Secret O’ Life” (“The Old Grey Whistle Test,” 11/1/77) - I
9/1/23
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Roxy Music - In Every Dream Home a Heartache
Roxy Music performing "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" live on the BBC program The Old Grey Whistle Test. First broadcast on April 3, 1973.
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gone2soon-rip · 2 months
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ANNIE NIGHTINGALE (1940-Died January 11th 2024,at 83).English radio and television broadcaster. She was the first female presenter on BBC Radio 1 in 1970 and the first female presenter for BBC Television's The Old Grey Whistle Test where she stayed for eleven years.
Nightingale specialised in championing new and underground music, she also led the movement and encouraged other women to become DJs and broadcasters. She was BBC Radio 1's longest serving broadcaster and held the Guinness World Record for the longest career as a female radio presenter.Annie Nightingale - Wikipedia
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velmatv · 1 year
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The Tourists- ‘Deadly Kiss’ - 1979
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gaykarstaagforever · 6 months
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From 1971 to 1988, the BBC2 had a show called "The Old Grey Whistle Test," which invited musical acts to mime singing and performing to their albums B-sides.
Like the whole point of the show for 17 years was "come on and pretend to play music, but only music that is specifically music people only kind of like."
David Attenborough had a hand in this. He thought this was a good idea. And he was RIGHT.
This replaced the two-season show Disco2, which was apparently a normal show featuring bands playing charting hits. Which didn't take off?
I don't know. This was the same era when Dr. Who looked like this:
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If this was what the British taxpayer considered a good use of their money in the 70s, all bets are off, really.
"WHY DID THEY CALL IT THE OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST??"
There is an urban legend that in the 1890s, Vaudeville producers knew a new song was good if they sang it for a grey-coated doorman and he went on to whistle it while he worked. This was the Old Grey Whistle Test.
...I remind you that English TV at the time looked like this:
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rodpower78 · 1 year
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1987 The Cult Whistle Test
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the-new-hip-priest · 1 year
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The Damned // I Just Can’t Be Happy Today [John Peel Show circa. 1979] includes footage from ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’.
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Lecture 19: Pioneering heartland rocker and blues singer Bonnie Raitt performs “Angel From Montgomery,” a hauntingly beautiful song written by her friend, the country folk musician John Prine. This particular version was shown on a British music variety program on BBC2, The Old Grey Whistle Test, on March 24, 1976. For years, Raitt tended to perform on the periphery of the American music scene, drawing fans of folk and country and blues music to modest venues. That changed in the 1990s, when a series of huge hits propelled her to stardom, and suddenly turned music into a much more dependable way to make a living. 
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dashes-and-letters · 2 years
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Joni Mitchell & The L.A. Express at the New Victoria Theatre—BBC’s “The Old Grey Whistle Test” broadcast November 19, 1974.
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krispyweiss · 1 year
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Oh! You Prettier Thing
- Bowie’s ’72 stop on “The Old Grey Whistle Test” gets an HD upgrade
It’s 50 years old, but looks like it could’ve been recorded yesterday.
The young David Bowie and the glam-era clothing notwithstanding, the Starman’s 1972 performance of “Oh! You Pretty Things” on “The Old Grey Whistle Test” looks positively contemporary, thanks to a new, high-definition upgrade.
The music sounds contemporary, too. But that’s simply because the world is just now starting to catch up with Bowie’s early output.
At this rate, people will begin to fully appreciate ★ sometime around 2066.
10/14/22
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Watch "THE TOURISTS - Deadly Kiss (1979 Live)" on YouTube
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