Gentle Giant,
Studio T1,
Kensington House,
Shepherd's Bush,
12 December 1971

And here's another recent discovery for which we need to give our most grateful thanks to Tim of the Peel wiki. This is one of my many BBC related holy grails and it's an extraordinaire find. Tim very kindly shared a lossless transfer of the reel with me. I'd say the sound quality is pretty good for something this old: it doesn't sound like it was recorded with a microphone near the speaker, but rather that the radio signal was sent directly to tape. The downside is that the recording levels were a bit low, which results in a fair amount of hiss. But hey, we can't really complain too much when something this good finally turns up after 54 years, can we? I speed corrected it, eliminated some thumps and clicks, and changed the EQ a little because it was a bit bright for my tastes, which incidentally resulted in even more extra hiss. If the file size looks too small, it's because these are mono files.

Between 1970 and 1975, Gentle Giant recorded a total of 11 sessions for the BBC. Unfortunately, not many of them were preserved by the BBC, with only five being retained, all released on "Totally Out of the Woods". Of the missing ones, until now, only one more was known to exist, thanks to a high-quality off-air recording that was eventually released as part of the "Unburied Treasure" boxset. After all this time, we can finally add an extra session to the pile of available ones. This one was broadcast twice on John Peel's Sounds of the Seventies program called "Friday Night is Boogie Night", on 07 January 1972, and later on 04 February. This recording comes from the first broadcast. For the repeat, a fourth song, "Funny Ways", was meant to replace "Plain Truth", but it turns out that Peel very likely only played "Giant" and "Alucard", so unless the master tape somehow ends up to be misplaced somewhere, that track will probably remain missing.

It's an interesting session to surface too, because it's the only one they recorded with Malcolm Mortimore on drums, who at the time was barely 19. For this particular radio appearence, the band played a sample of their then current live setlist, mostly featuring songs from their first self-titled album. It's a pretty great performance, typical of the ones found on live tapes from the era: this is Gentle Giant at their most rocking. Mortimore has a different approach to drumming compared to both his predecessor Martin Smith and his successor John Weathers, and he gives the songs a pretty aggressive drive alternating it with some sophisticated drum fills. The rest of the band is also in top form: the vocals sound great, Ray Shulman's bass is mixed high, Minnear provides an excellent solo on "Alucard" and Gary Green is the true star of the session, playing some fiery rocking guitar.

As usual with this band, writing the credits was a hard task: Peel gives the band line-up during the broadcast, but the credits are obviously incomplete. For instance, I'm pretty sure it's Derek Shulman playing bass on "Plain Truth" while Ray soloed on violin, as he did during live performances: it doesn't sound like this session had any kind of overdubs.

This is dedicated to Jack Skelly of the Gentle Giant Tour History webpage, who keeps track of this sort of thing and will no doubt be delighted that something like this was finally found after all these years. Another reminder to check what's hiding in your attics!

Enjoy and here's hoping there's more to come!

01 Alucard [07:11]
02 Plain Truth [07:46]
03 Giant [06:59]
- Total time: 21:58

Derek Shulman: lead vocals, bass (on "Plain Truth")
Kerry Minnear: keyboards, bg. vocals
Gary Green: electric guitar
Phil Shulman: trumpet, saxophone, bg. vocals
Ray Shulman: bass guitar, violin (on "Plain Truth")
Malcolm Mortimore: drums

Original broadcasts recorded by: unknown
Reel acquired and transferred by: Tim Giebel (thanks!!)
Edited, speed corrected and eq-ed by: JacoZappa

Lineage: reel to reel of the original broadcast -> wav -> SF10 (speed corrected, edited, eq) -> flac

A list of Gentle Giant's BBC sessions and their surviving status:

#01 - 21 JULY 1970 (Symonds on Monday, 17 August 1970) - City Hermit / Isn't It Quiet and Cold / Freedom's Child - first two songs survive from BBC master tapes, released on "Totally Out of the Woods"
#02 - 01 DECEMBER 1970 (Mike Harding Show, 08 December 1970) - Hometown Special / Nothing At All / Funny Ways - missing
#03 - 12 DECEMBER 1971 (Friday Night Is Boogie Night, 07 January 1972) - Alucard / Plain Truth / Giant / Funny Ways - fourth song most likely not broadcast, rest survives from off-air recording
#04 - 13 JUNE 1972 (Friday Night Is Boogie Night, 14 July 1972) - Mister Class and Quality? / Prologue / Schooldays - missing
#05 - 08 AUGUST 1972 (Top Gear, 05 September 1972) - Funny Ways / Plain Truth / The Advent of Panurge - off-air recording, released on "Unburied Treasure"
#06 - 11 DECEMBER 1972 (Top Gear, 14 December 1972) - Prologue / The Advent of Panurge / A Cry For Everyone - missing
#07 - 28 AUGUST 1973 (The Sequence, 28 August 1973) - The Runaway / Way of Life / The Advent of Panurge - transcription disc, released on "Totally Out of the Woods"
#08 - 08 DECEMBER 1973 (Top Gear, 04 December 1973) - Excerpts from Octopus / Way of Life - BBC master tape, released on "Totally Out of the Woods"
#09 - 29 MAY 1974 (Sounds of The Seventies, Bob Harris, 01 July 1974) - So Sincere / Aspirations / Playing The Game / The Face - missing
#10 - 10 DECEMBER 1974 (Top Gear, 17 December 1974) - Proclamation / Experience / Aspirations / Cogs in Cogs - BBC master tape, released on "Totally Out of the Woods"
#11 - 16 SEPTEMBER 1975 (John Peel Show, 13 October 1975) - Just The Same / Free Hand / On Reflection - BBC master tape, released on "Totally Out of the Woods"

Keep everything in info file if you are sharing this elsewhere.
Support the artist(s)!
Don't be a jerk: don't sell this!