Solving the BBC Crimble mystery
An update on the Beatles Christmas Show story by Martin Lewis
Well I have now had extensive conversations about the creation of the
British radio special "A Beatles Christmas" with my dear pal Tony
Barrow and also with Des Shaw - the creator/producer of the show. In
my last piece I speculated about why the program as advertised was so
much at variance with the program as broadcast. My primary theory was
that at some point between the time the show was publicly announced and
the time the show was completed - there was a copyright issue that
arose with Apple. And that the subsequent changes in the program did
not catch up with the advance publicity material that had been
previously issued.
There are very few merits I can think of in being as old as I am (!) -
but one of them is that after being involved in the Beatles world since
1967 - one's instincts about the hows and whys of things in the Beatles
world tends to be fairly astute...
It was indeed a copyright issue that arose with Apple that caused the
changes. But - as previously noted - those changes actually brought
Beatles fans some unexpected Christmas cheer.
The story is roughly this. (Diplomatic language has been deployed in
some places where discretion is the greater part of my 37 year
history...!)
The radio program was conceived as a 2-hour special based primarily
about the Fan Club Christmas Records. The idea was to feature the
discs prominently - along with stories behind the writing and recording
of the discs. The intention was to augment the discs with a secondary
theme - some examples of other Christmas-related Beatles material. eg
contributions to various BBC radio shows and recollections about their
1963 and 1964 Christmas stage shows.
The producers of the radio show started out on the project with
specific reason to believe that there was no broadcasting restriction
on the original seven discs. (Extracts from those seven discs are
certainly aired with impunity on American radio every Christmas.)
However - during the course of the production - Apple became aware of
the project and respectfully but firmly informed the producers of its
position that material on the seven discs could NOT be aired on radio
without specific approval. Apple was adamant about this point. Since
the show had already been committed to be broadcast by BBC Radio (which
as a public sector broadcaster has strict rules about copyright) -
there was no way that the show could afford to enter into a dispute
with Apple. And it was too late in the day to cancel the show
altogether.
Accepting this ruling with disappointment - the producers decided to
look in more depth at the BBC material that they had previously
anticipated would simply augment the Fan Club discs. They discovered
that there was a far greater wealth of material there than they had
first thought. The Beatles appeared on several BBC radio shows around
the Christmas holidays - especially in 1963 and 1964 - and there was
much to draw from. There was also some extensive material recorded by
BBC deejay and Beatle pal Kenny Everett for his own radio shows in 1967
and 1968.
There have been quite a few BBC radio broadcasts in the past that drew
on BBC programs from the 1960's - but none of them appear to have drawn
quite so heavily on the original Christmas-themed material. There was
Kevin Howlett's excellent two-hour BBC Radio special in 1982 "The
Beatles At The Beeb" - and his 1988 series of 14 half-hour shows "The
Beeb's Lost Beatles Tapes." There was also a BBC Boxing Day radio
special produced in the 1980's by one "P. Hughes" - also titled "A
Beatles Christmas" which certainly used some of the vintage material.
(For further background on the BBC's Beatles archive - see:
www.beatletracks.com/barchive/beeb.html)
But necessity being the mother of radio producers' invention - there
had never been the opportunity of a two-hour radio special (that's a
full two hours without any commercials) dedicated solely to the topic
of Christmas and the Beatles. So there was an opportunity to go deeper
into the 1960's source material than previous shows had allowed.
While some of the musical material and banter may well have surfaced
over the years on various bootlegs - a large amount of the material had
certainly not been broadcast since its original airing. And the
percentage of the general population that collects obscure Beatles
bootlegs is probably miniscule - so the material that was broadcast was
undoubtedly fresh to the ears of the vast majority of listeners in the
UK and elsewhere.
Incidentally - the Paul McCartney recollections about the Christmas Fan
Club recordings apparently came from a late 1980's BBC radio special
"McCartney On McCartney."
Those who listened carefully to the new BBC special may have heard some
material that seemed to be non-BBC in origin and not officially
commercially released! Giving rise to speculation that such material
could not have been broadcast by the copyright-sensitive BBC without
direct express permission of Apple.
There certainly DID seem to be some such material - but I can tell you
categorically that no official permission was sought nor given for that
material from Apple. Let's just say that it could be described to be
governed by something that radio producers always optimistically
describe as the rules of "Fair Usage"!
There was a scramble to complete the re-jigged program in time for its
December 27th airdate. To the credit of the producers - while the show
certainly differed considerably from the advance description - it did
not SOUND like a last-minute dash. The skill of the writing and
presentation did not give away the fact that the new structure of the
show had actually evolved of necessity comparatively late in the day.
The changed emphasis of the show occurred too late in the day to be
effectively communicated to the outside world - particularly in the mad
rush before Christmas. So the websites of the BBC and the production
company continued to advertise a show that was radically different to
the finished result.
So - that solves the mystery of the Beatles Christmas radio special
that turned out to be both less and more than advertised. I think that
producer Des Shaw and his team did an outstanding job in
less-than-ideal circumstances. It's a shame that those circumstances
precluded the show presenting some material that would have made the
program even better.
There are a couple of chaps (and a couple of ladies) I know who I'm
sure will actually enjoy the final program very much. So I have
arranged to ensure that those four special folks get to hear the show
on CD. Perhaps it might even lead to an expanded version of the
special at some point in the future. I certainly hope so...
Published January 3, 2005
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