Over the weekend I managed to wrestle the remote controls from Sarah for a few minutes and watch two programs of my own choosing!!

The first was one of the Classic Albums series and was about the making of the Pink Floyd classic Dark Side of the Moon. Love it or hate it – it’s an institution. I’ve owned three copies of it over the years, two vinyl copies (the first one wore out) and a CD. I have so far resisted the urge to buy one of the recent remixed versions. Add to this a couple of live versions, an ambient trance re-mix and a reggae cover-version called Dub side of the moon!

I remember the first time I heard it, in about 1977 when it was only a few years old. I asked my brother to ask a girlfriend’s brother if I could borrow some Floyd LP’s. My brother old me he had heard some of Dark Side but it was just a load of “funny noises”. Thankfully I didn’t listen to him! (And he came to love it too)

The album was recorded in 1973 and much of the program was taken up with explanations of how the sounds were achieved. Early sequencers, tape loops (often wrapped around broom handles) tapes recorded and played backwards etc. Hours were spent setting the clocks to all go off at the same time!!

The album was made at a time when experimentation in the studio was possible; bands would spend hours, sometimes even days getting the sound they wanted. The Grateful Dead once asked for the sound of thick air and on another occasion lined up four tape players to mix the sound from different performance of the same song, slowing them down or speeding them up to match the tempos. Pink Floyd and the Beatles spent months in the studio at the end of the 60 and beginning of the 70’s.

Led Zeppelin once hired a mansion and set up the drumkit on the landing of the stairs in the great hallway - they then recorded it by hanging two microphones above it to get a big drum sound. It’s sad to think that now all of these effects can be done on computer in a fraction of the time and sound processing electronically can give the effects you want. Odd though that albums don’t achieve the classic status of DsotM anymore!

The other program was called Folk Routes and was part of BBC Four’s Folk Britannia series. It was the second part of a three part series covering the history of British Folk music and covered the 60’s and early 70’s and the beginnings of folk rock. I had to endure cries of “Oh my God Banjos quick turn it off” and other such comments from Sarah though.

My introduction to folk music came when a new kid turned up at school. Mike Welbrock was the son a vicar who had moved from Basingstoke to Sunderland bringing with him a guitar and a huge knowledge of folk music. He became a friend and introduced me and my friends, who were mostly listening to rock music, to a whole new spectrum of music.

Mike introduced me to the music of John Martyn, Nick Drake, Roy Harper and Ralph McTell among many others. It was also because of him that I went to my first folk gig, which was, I think, Dave Swarbrick and friends at the Sunderland Empire.

The program contained clips and interviews with the very besk of the British folk scene and I was actually quite amazed about how many of them I had seen:

Fairport Convention, Bert Jansch, John Martyn, Lindisfarne, Danny Thompson, Martin Carthy, Donovan, Robin Williamson, Mike Heron, Clive Palmer and the Incredible String Band, Steeleye Span, Roy Harper and Richard Thompson

Of course I would have loved to have seen Nick Drake or Sandy Denny but it was not to be.

Part 3, Between the Wars is on BBC 4 this weekend and includes Billy Bragg, The Levellers, The Pogues, The Waterboys and the Men they couldn’t hang.