John Peel's Top Gear, Saturday 27th. December 1969, 15:00 - 17:00

There's Christmas crackers, celebrity guests (some of them even genuine), an appearance from Miss Top Gear and, by the sound of it, a jolly time being had by all as Top Gear celebrates the er, bit between Christmas and New Year in truly festive style. Also featured: the pick of the year's session tracks, interviews (most of them hilariously inept) with Dick Heckstall-Smith, Robert Wyatt and Sandy Denny (pictured with JP opposite) and a very, let's say "competitive" chat with Pete Drummond.

Many thanks to Mick Capewell at the ever-excellent Marmalade Skies for supplying the tape of this show. (There's definitely a "Mick's tape" pun to be made there, but for the moment I can't be arsed.) For all you musos, here's the steps I used to rip the tape:

Maxell UR120 tape --> Pioneer DC-X88Z tape deck/amplifier --> headphone socket --> Stereo jack leads --> ADSTech Instant Music --> USB --> Toshiba laptop --> PolderbitS Sound Recorder and Editor --> Audacity --> LAME --> Kat's Karavan --> you

Feel free to pipe up with any suggestions if you think I've gone about capturing and encoding this all wrong, as I'm still relatively new to this. Oh and I did try to use Audacity to get rid of the tape hiss, but the end result was horribly metallic-sounding so I've left it well alone (apart from normalising).

(You may notice that this program does not, as promised in Peelie's intro, feature anything by the Keef Hartley Band. I can only assume that whatever track of theirs Peel was planning to play got bumped, because they're not mentioned in the outro. Certainly the show appears complete, with perhaps a little bit missing from the middle of the news bulletins.)

Total running time: 1hr56m. Files are 192K MP3.


PART 1 (29:20) Listen/Download (divshare). Alternative link (megaupload)

• Johnny Walker handover
• Miss Top Gear ("Pat Campbell of Nottingham") turns on the studio lights(!)
• Top Gear theme
• The Rolling Stones - Live With Me
• The Plastic Ono Band - Dizzy Miss Lizzie
• Richie Havens - High Flying Bird (session)
• Chat with Dick Heckstall-Smith
• Colosseum - Lost Angeles (session)
• The Incredible String Band - This Moment (session)
• News

PART 2 (30:18) Listen/Download (divshare). Alternative link (megaupload)

• News (continued)
• Juicy Lucy - She's Mine/She's Yours (session)
• Michael Chapman - Postcards Of Scarborough (session)
• The Family - Cat And The Rat (session)
• Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Orange Claw Hammer
• Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Wild Life
• Roy Harper - Tom Tiddler's Ground
• Chat with Robert Wyatt

PART 3 (27:33) Listen/Download (divshare). Alternative link (megaupload)

• The Soft Machine - The Moon In June (session)
• Griffin - What A Day It's Been (session)
• Tyrannosaurus Rex - A Day Laye (session)
• Chat with Sandy Denny
• Fairport Convention - Farewell, Farewell
• News

PART 4 (28:49) Listen/Download (divshare). Alternative link (megaupload)

• News (continued)
• Joe Cocker and The Grease Band - Lawdy Miss Clawdy (session)
• Banter with Pete Drummond
• Led Zeppelin - What Is And What Should Never Be (session)
• Blodwyn Pig - It's Only Love (session)
• The Beatles - Mean Mr. Mustard
• Viv Stanshall no-show
• Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - Sofa Head (session)
• Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - Give Booze A Chance (session)
• "Disinterred 33 1/3": The Firehouse 5 - Running Wild
• The Fairport Convention - Jigs & Reels Medley (The Lark in The Morning/Rakish Paddy/Foxhunters' Jig/Toss The Feathers) (session)
• Top Gear theme