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Topic History of: Wonderful funeral/memorial for dear Bernie Andrews
Max. showing the last 5 posts - (Last post first)
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ATB |
www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/be...tingale-2065269.html
Bernie Andrews
By Pierre Perrone
Monday, 30 August 2010
In the late 1980s, after record companies had reissued many
of their best-sellers on compact disc, they began
contemplating the release of the BBC sessions recorded by
major acts such as the Beatles, the Who, David Bowie, the
Jimi Hendrix Experience, Fairport Convention and Led
Zeppelin.
The only snag was that, in the 1960s and early 1970s, it had
been BBC policy to wipe and reuse the expensive tapes.
Thankfully, the radio producer Bernie Andrews had had the
foresight to squirrel away or make copies of many of the
original recordings he had himself overseen when producing
shows like Saturday Club and Top Gear for the Light
Programme, and the evening output of Radio One after the
launch of the station in 1967. He also amassed a huge record
collection, purported to have included every single issued
in the UK between 1964 and 1975, which was later purchased
by Elton John. Something of a maverick, Andrews didn't
always see eye to eye with BBC management but he was
fiercely loyal to the presenters he worked with, most
notably John Peel and Annie Nightingale.
Born in 1933, Andrews was brought up in Eltham, south-east
London. He did his national service in the RAF and worked as
a telephone engineer for the Post Office before joining the
BBC as a 24-year old. His arrival coincided with the
corporation's reluctant decision to occasionally cater for
teenagers with the introduction of Saturday Skiffle Club,
soon renamed Saturday Club. Andrews progressed from tape
operator to producer and established an instant rapport with
the new breed of pop acts, the Beatles especially.
In December 1980, when John Lennon was interviewd by Andy
Peebles in New York a couple of days before he was murdered,
he had fond recollections: "I remember sessions with Bernie
Andrews, he was a good producer on Saturday Club, we did
some good sessions with him. We did a lot of tracks that
were never issued on record, stuff from the days in the
Cavern and Hamburg, "Three Cool Cats" was one we did. I
heard some of the tracks recently, somebody must have
pirated them in America you know Bernie."
Andrews understood how much pressure musicians were under
when recording a session for BBC radio and made the
necessary allowances. If the groups needed a bit more time
to deliver, so be it, even if it meant the occasional
overspend. In April 1963, the Rolling Stones failed their
first BBC radio audition but Andrews arranged for drummer
Charlie Watts and bassist Bill Wyman to back Bo Diddley on a
subsequent session for Saturday Club. By September the
Stones were appearing in their own right, and taped four
more sessions the following year. They also guested on Top
Gear, which started on the Light Programme in July 1964.
Bizarrely, Top Gear was discontinued for a while but revived
at Radio One with Peel presenting, first with Pete Drummond,
then with Tommy Vance or Mike Ahern, and eventually flying
solo from February 1968, a personal victory for Andrews, the
programme's producer, who had championed Peel, a former DJ
on the pirate Radio London, from the outset, despite
misgivings by BBC management.
At the time, the Musicians' Union only allowed American
singers to do sessions if they were backed by British
players but Andrews succeeded in recording Captain Beefheart
and his Magic Band by pretending they were a troupe of
magicians, and therefore a variety act. Andrews and Peel
also featured the then underground Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd
and Tyrannosaurus Rex, who all went to become multi-million
sellers. "We use groups that aren't all that acceptable or
easy to listen to. By and large, our material is not
suitable for any other programmes because it needs listening
to," Andrews said at the time.
However, in April 1969, Douglas Muggeridge, the controller
of Radios 1 and 2, broke up what he felt was too cosy a
partnership, pairing Peel with John Walters, though after
initial suspicion these two got on just as famously. Andrews
bided his time producing Radio 2's Music While You Work
until he was assigned Nightingale, whose arrival at the
all-male Radio 1 in January 1970 represented a radical
departure. Andrews nurtured Nightingale's transition from
journalism to broadcasting and helped her develop into an
engaging presenter. They also survived a few run-ins with
management.
In August 1973, Nightingale previewed the Rolling Stones
album Goats Head Soup and featured the last track "Star
Star". As she recalled in Chase The Fade, her book about the
1970s, when she told Mick Jagger at a party at Blenheim
Palace the following evening, he did a double take. "'You
played WHA-AT?' Mick immediately rounded up other Stones and
said: 'Hey, she played "Star Star". We'll give you a special
prize.' I didn't know what the fuss was all about, the fact
that 'Star Star' had Mick singing 'Starfucker' all the way
through the song. Once you knew, you could hear the words as
clear as day. But I was blissfully ignorant, as was Bernie,
who had also listened to the track."
Muggeridge gave Andrews a carpeting but the producer took
Nightingale's side and argued that it had been an honest
mistake. He even solicited the opinion of strangers by
dragging them in off the streets to listen to the track. No
one heard the offending word. Both Andrews and Nightingale
were on thin ice as they had also previously featured "A
Souvenir Of London", a Procol Harum track that turned out to
about VD, but were let off as BBC TV News had also used
"Star Star".
Andrews felt he could take on the BBC "suits" because of his
dedication to the job and the time and effort he put into
his programmes. When producing Annie Nightingale's Request
Show in the late 1970s he developed an uncanny ability for
spotting the "phoney" cards scribbled by record company
employees rather than the genuine requests, and occasionally
set his and his presenter's mind at rest by checking
listeners' addresses in the phone directory.
A colourful character, Andrews kept an aquarium in his
office, and once wore flippers to complain to management
about the damp in a BBC building. He took early retirement
in 1984 but spent countless hours listening to the radio. He
lived in Spain and in Dorset, where he enjoyed gardening.
Bernard Oliver Andrews, radio producer: born London 17
August 1933; died 11 June 2010. |
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JK2006 |
Good old Bernie - even when dead he points intelligent observers at the bizarre media coverage of things - a wonderful obituary (by Jeff Griffin, I believe) has been trimmed and butchered to provide the Sunday Times (can't give you a link to that I'm afraid due to the Murdoch firewall) with a suitably catchy, hooky, zany obituary leaving the eccentricities but cutting the humanity.
Jeff's tribute...
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/cult.../Bernie-Andrews.html |
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JK2006 |
Lovely obituary by Annie Nightingale in today's Guardian.
Bernie was one of the friends who came to visit me inside Her Majesty's Estate.
Love to Moira, Clive. |
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clive Banks |
[
Saddened to hear this news, as a young radio plugger Bernie's office was refuge from the less interested for a young man who just wanted someone at radio to hear the music with open ears ,
Bernie was always in the office after hours, irreverent ,funny caring a lovely person always remembered with love
Clive .. |
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Bumps |
Not only did those who paid tribute speak movingly of Bernie, they also got us all laughing at some of the tales of Bernie's idiosyncratic ways.
He was indeed a wonderful, if sometimes, irritating, man. I loved him dearly and will miss him very much ... that's easy to say, about missing someone, but it doesn't begin to sum up Bernie.
Johnny Beerling sums him up nicely here:
www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1276890960 |
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