The Friday Rock Show

Rob1742

I honestly suggest you listen to one. Just google it and you can download whatever week you wish.

It is hard to explain how brilliant it was for me, but even harder to explain why. It was more than just nostalgia, it really hit me in a good way for a variety of reasons.

I really think there was a song that I heard for only the second time ever and I recalled it straight away from that one and only listen almost 40 years ago.

If anyone knows about the Devon based band Severed Head I’d love to know. I listened to their session on one of the episodes and never heard from them again apart from one single they had out.

Reverend

This one?

Rob1742

Reverend said:

This one?

Yeah, they did a four song session on the Friday Rock Show, two of which formed the single. I really liked all four of the songs.

Heavy Metal
Killing The Kidz
God Of My Father
Two Wheel Mistress. 

I really liked the last three songs and God Of My Father is excellent. Would love to know what happened to them and what they are upto now/ 

Chris.B

I can still clearly remember the jingle.....TV Play That Rock And Roll.


www.radiorewind.co.uk/sounds/vancecd_tv_playthat_rock&roll.mp3 

The Friday Rock Show had the privilege of switching Radio 1 to FM stereo, that only happened late on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons - it was like a beath of fresh air after listening to medium wave radio,

The thing that impressed me was the amount of background information that Tommy Vance included in his programme - a proper musical education. 

axisus

I taped three things that I still have from the show:

SRV 83 live at Reading

Marillion session (before they had a record deal)

An interview with the 'new' supergroup ASIA. This was a great fun interview actually, they clearly enjoyed working together. It was interspersed with songs from the as yet unreleased debut album.



Boy do I miss that show ....

Rob1742

Chris.B said:

I can still clearly remember the jingle.....TV Play That Rock And Roll.


www.radiorewind.co.uk/sounds/vancecd_tv_playthat_rock&roll.mp3 

The Friday Rock Show had the privilege of switching Radio 1 to FM stereo, that only happened late on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons - it was like a beath of fresh air after listening to medium wave radio,

The thing that impressed me was the amount of background information that Tommy Vance included in his programme - a proper musical education. 

Wow, I didn’t realise it switched to FM late at night. But I realised something must have been strange about it as when I listened the other night TV says “ on medium wave 275 and 285, and also on FM” He didn’t give the frequency on the FM which I thought was really odd. 

EricTheWeary

Chris.B said:

I can still clearly remember the jingle.....TV Play That Rock And Roll.


www.radiorewind.co.uk/sounds/vancecd_tv_playthat_rock&roll.mp3 

The Friday Rock Show had the privilege of switching Radio 1 to FM stereo, that only happened late on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons - it was like a beath of fresh air after listening to medium wave radio,

The thing that impressed me was the amount of background information that Tommy Vance included in his programme - a proper musical education. 

I have in the back of my mind that jingle was played by Rose Tattoo, I think it's based on the chorus of this:

 

Jaycee

I always listened to it, headphones on through my Sharp SG-280 Hi-Fi Music centre, that I bought from my mums catalogue for about £150 @ £5 per week for 30 weeks =)any one used to do that ?

Saxon alluded to the Friday Rock Show on Demin and Leather "Do you listen to the radio every friday night"   and Stairway was always the listeners favourite at the end of year poll. 

Planet Rock on DAB is a good station to listen to

Chris.B

What a great thread, thanks for starting it @Rob1742 , so many good memories of listening to TV playing that rock and roll on winter's nights........usually in stereo with the headphones - happy teenage days.

I feel old now -but happy!

Redlester

How thick was I at the time? It took me bloody years to work out what "TV on the Radio meant"!!!!! 


Ah yes, the Friday Night Connection. Spotty gits in a bedroom working out something like a 3d crossword puzzle to flummox other spotty gits in bedrooms.

And the Rock War. For some reason, known only to my mind and the curious memory therein, I always remember when Tommy gave it the big build up he had- with the sound of helicopter blades and all sorts- and gravely intoned "The Rock Whore"... 

Great great show. It does prove to my mind that you can't beat a specialist music show presented by a top DJ who really knows his or her music. Peel was totally different- he'd play anything so long as it was 'new' and often 'different'. But TV epitomised that whole approach of give a DJ a bug chunk of time to play a mixture of tracks within a certain genre. Tony Blackburn gets a lot fo stick, but give him his due, he knows his soul and he does exactly the same thing. 



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5SMCcKXhmM

not_the_dj

Massive part of my musical education was from Tommy Vance and the Friday Rock Show. 

Very late 80s to the finish for me. 

I was a winner of a comp on there in ‘92 to go to a pre-release playback of Maiden’s “Fear of The Dark” album, that was in Norwich, TV was there and a few members of Maiden (plus fan club membership etc),

Great memories of that show. 

exocet

Redlester said:

How thick was I at the time? It took me bloody years to work out what "TV on the Radio meant"!!!!! 


Ah yes, the Friday Night Connection. Spotty gits in a bedroom working out something like a 3d crossword puzzle to flummox other spotty gits in bedrooms.

And the Rock War. For some reason, known only to my mind and the curious memory therein, I always remember when Tommy gave it the big build up he had- with the sound of helicopter blades and all sorts- and gravely intoned "The Rock Whore"... 

Great great show. It does prove to my mind that you can't beat a specialist music show presented by a top DJ who really knows his or her music. Peel was totally different- he'd play anything so long as it was 'new' and often 'different'. But TV epitomised that whole approach of give a DJ a bug chunk of time to play a mixture of tracks within a certain genre. Tony Blackburn gets a lot fo stick, but give him his due, he knows his soul and he does exactly the same thing. 



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5SMCcKXhmM

The other thing to bear in mind is that shows like The Friday Rock Show had a production team behind it. There's no doubt that Tommy Vance was a fan / knew his stuff etc but the programme had a really good producer (Tony Wilson?) as well as a budget that gave it access to the BBC Maida Vale studios for the sessions. Not so easy to replicate that nowadays plus quite hard to differentiate against all of the online streaming / podcast variations.

Reverend

EricTheWeary said:

Chris.B said:

I can still clearly remember the jingle.....TV Play That Rock And Roll.


www.radiorewind.co.uk/sounds/vancecd_tv_playthat_rock&roll.mp3 

The Friday Rock Show had the privilege of switching Radio 1 to FM stereo, that only happened late on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons - it was like a beath of fresh air after listening to medium wave radio,

The thing that impressed me was the amount of background information that Tommy Vance included in his programme - a proper musical education. 

I have in the back of my mind that jingle was played by Rose Tattoo, I think it's based on the chorus of this:

 

pretty sure it was Spider. 

Philly_Q

I don't remember the Friday Night Connection being quite as labyrinthine and mind-boggling as some people are saying.  I'm sure I worked it out quite a few times!

Reverend

I discovered FRS in 1982. It was way past my bedtime but I used to take a tiny coke can shaped radio to bed with me and try to stay up until the end.

Looking back, for a lot of NWOBHM bands, their FRS session was the best sound they ever got. 


Did you listen to the radio, every Friday night?

Redlester

exocet said:

Redlester said:

How thick was I at the time? It took me bloody years to work out what "TV on the Radio meant"!!!!! 


Ah yes, the Friday Night Connection. Spotty gits in a bedroom working out something like a 3d crossword puzzle to flummox other spotty gits in bedrooms.

And the Rock War. For some reason, known only to my mind and the curious memory therein, I always remember when Tommy gave it the big build up he had- with the sound of helicopter blades and all sorts- and gravely intoned "The Rock Whore"... 

Great great show. It does prove to my mind that you can't beat a specialist music show presented by a top DJ who really knows his or her music. Peel was totally different- he'd play anything so long as it was 'new' and often 'different'. But TV epitomised that whole approach of give a DJ a bug chunk of time to play a mixture of tracks within a certain genre. Tony Blackburn gets a lot fo stick, but give him his due, he knows his soul and he does exactly the same thing. 



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5SMCcKXhmM

The other thing to bear in mind is that shows like The Friday Rock Show had a production team behind it. There's no doubt that Tommy Vance was a fan / knew his stuff etc but the programme had a really good producer (Tony Wilson?) as well as a budget that gave it access to the BBC Maida Vale studios for the sessions. Not so easy to replicate that nowadays plus quite hard to differentiate against all of the online streaming / podcast variations.

@exocet That's a well made point. I think the production ethos you talk about- all the stuff behind the scenes during the week that listeners didn't have to worry about- made for a high quality 2 hours of radio. 

There are still some decent little specialist shows on BBC local radio. Also some of the digital stations- Jazz FM comes to mind which I commented on in a different thread- produce some great specialist shows along the 'DJ who knows his/her stuff' lines. 

I know Radio 2 still have hour long weekly shows devoted to certain styles but that feels a bit like going through the motions. For me, I just prefer a long form show which sticks to one genre (or related genres) and plays classics, new stuff and current favourite tracks. That was part of the DNA of TV and TFRS, and I think there's lots of life in that format yet for mainstream radio. 

Philly_Q

I think I listened to it from 1979 up to the mid-80s.  Initially on a big old stereo radiogram inherited from my grandfather, it looked like a sideboard - something like the one below.  I don't think the record player section worked, or if it did I don't think we ever used it. 

On Friday nights I used to sit right by the speakers with the volume down low - I don't think my parents disapproved of me listening to it, but my brother would be asleep in the same room.

HerrMetal

Absolutely yes to Thomas the Vance. Alan Freeman on Capital FM on a Monday night in the early 80's anyone?

scrumhalf

HerrMetal said:

Absolutely yes to Thomas the Vance. Alan Freeman on Capital FM on a Monday night in the early 80's anyone?

And before that Nicky Horne's "Your Mother Wouldn't Like It". I learned a lot from his A-Z of Rock.

steveledzep

I listened to Fluff's Rock Show on Saturday afternoons in the seventies.  That's my decade.