Nothing like a good old root around. There are a few nooks and crannies here at AZ London HQ, not to mention things boxed away, and, as I discovered recently, a whole cellar full of goodies too.
These range from old pics, thousands (yes, thousands) of old 7" Singles, an obscene amount of LPs, Tapes, and more more more.
What I did find though was a whole load of videotapes, containing radio shows. Why on videotape ?
Well, stick a tape in, record in long play, and you can get 8 hours, maybe 10, logged in one go, without changing around CDs or MDs, or whatever.
Years back, that's how the guys here 'logged' many shows, both home and abroad.
Many are not labelled, so the mystery lies within, to be investigated over the coming months whenever time allows.
By the same token, many are - so I grabbed some at random, wiped off the dust from the cellar, and played a few bits. Great fun.
So much so, that I will be adding highlights of these AZ Vintage shows from times gone by to our Podcast over the next few weeks, and these vintage offerings will sit nicely alongside our new programmes.
I'll start with the first one I picked up, which was a 'live' broadcast by AZ from the MNO Studios, London, on 14th February 1999.
It ran from 00.00 - 10.00 hrs, and we seem to have most of it, for posterity.
It features, firstly, a 3 hour programme from Johnny Reece, with various chat and interjections from other AZ luminaries around in the early hours, including Gil Legine and Richard Bismarck, who were having a few drinks, answering the phones, and nipping in and out of the studio with callers messages that were coming through.
Then, (and here's a bit of AZ history) the first ever AZ 'live' show from Richard Bismarck.
To finish, it's a'one-off' from one of Reecey's buddies from years gone by, name of 'Howard', who always wanted to do a sort of smoochy Soul type show on the radio. He'd never done a radio show before ! So, he does an early morning Valentines Special, to finish off the broadcast. It's the one and only show that Howard did for us, as he moved abroad shortly afterwards.
So, several hours of vintage coming your way, along with all the new programmes.
Look out for these appearing shortly - I'll split the vintage broadcast up into 1 and 2 hour segments.
Meanwhile, regularly check the Podcast - it's currently being updated 2 to 3 times per week.
Enjoy !
Steve Lloyd PR The Album Zone
