U2 At The BBC - Radio 2 special

[gareth brown]

hey guys Radio 2 broadcast 'U2 At The BBC' last night

Johnnie Walker introduces a portrait of rock greats U2, drawn entirely from BBC archive interviews and performances.

just listening now, starts with An Cat Dubh/Into The Heart from their first BBC session in 1980 never knew they'd done a session so early, but yeah it's available to listen to online til next Tuesday 11pm GMT to anyone in the UK and I'm sure someone will end up recording it and uploading it here but yeah enjoy

 

[gman]

I wonder if them sessions were done for The John Peel Show. Im sure there was recordings done for his show, way back in the day

 

[gareth brown]

they were refused apparently!

edit - here you go, this may be of some interest! it's from a john peel interview

There are undoubtedly groups who would never have made it to the top if it hadn't been for your initial loyalty and encouragement which has meant that you have been - are in - a very powerful position - do you enjoy that power?

Not at all, really, and I don't think you can allow yourself to reflect on it when you're putting programmes and I don't really entirely believe in it anyway, because, and people say there are certain bands and obviously you advance them a little bit and bring them to a slightly wider audience than they previously had, but at the same time there are numbers of bands whose records I've stoutly resisted playing and I've refused to have in session like U2 and the Police and Dire Straits all of whom applied for sessions at one time or another all of whom were turned down by myself and producer John Walters, quite rightly so I think, so if ever I started to think of myself as some sort of kingmaker, I can reflect back on those bands who have become stupendously successful... and Bruce Springsteen.

What, you turned him down?

Not for a session no, but when his earlier records arrived, I thought they were rubbish and no-one else could understand why I felt like this, I thought they were dreadful, I still think they're dreadful as a matter-of-fact and so it's really quite a good thing I think for me to turn against you because it's a guarantee of stupendous success.

 

[gareth brown]

also - here's a link to the radio show if anyone's interested, forgot to paste it in the original post


BBC iPlayer - At the BBC: U2