Tribute to a great show
Late on Saturday afternoons in our family home in Harlow New Town, I’d sit down to do my Geography homework for what seemed like a whole school year starting in late 1972.
Our teacher, Miss Theaker, would always set us the same task : make a summary of the chapter we had studied in class, then hand this in for correction so she could see we’d done the chapter. Welcome to O-level Geography.
How long she actually took to read all these notes through, with occasional ticks in the margin and spelling slips to correct, was beyond me. This was the way of things. It was a fairly mindless task, from which I remember little or no content except that it was all about North America.
I worked with the radio tuned to the Dave Simmons Soul Radio Show every Saturday from 5.00 to 6.30 pm, just before the evening In Concert programme, which was also a great source of surprises.
Simmons did not broadcast anything from the normal BBC Radio 1 playlist – so no problems with songs which would irritatingly lodge in your musical memory, and play on an unwanted mental loop for hours, and sometimes days. His show was different, playing and reviewing mainly new releases by soul, rhythm and blues, blues, reggae and African artists.
At this point, black music was a niche genre, unrecognized for its greatness, even though all the ingredients were clearly there, so a lot of what Simmons played and said went over my head, for a while at least. He was talking to adults, many of them soul fans getting ready for their Saturday night out, who wanted to know what was new. Among the artists, there were names I knew from the pop charts, but many I didn’t. James Brown was in the latter category, never having featured on any UK pop charts I’d seen. That seems hard to believe now, but this was where I heard him first.
Over the weeks, other names became familiar. Simmons not only played new single releases and album tracks, he also gave a careful statement of information concerning labels and sometimes catalogue numbers. What was that? I visualized people writing all this down, then going into record shops and asking for these records. I was impressed. He also made it clear that much of his material came directly from the US, opening up the idea of import records to me for the first time. I learnt that Al Green was on Hi Records in the US and distributed by London Records in the UK; that Little Richard wasn’t just a rock n roll artist and that he recorded on Specialty which had been a key label to the growth of black music; that the Philly Sound wasn’t just a marketing term, as the daytime Radio 1 DJs used it, but a whole new black sound created by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff.
I didn’t need to know all this, of course. It didn’t help with my Geography homework. However, it came into my personal space at a time when music was becoming a secret garden that I was exploring more and more. At school, a group of us had started reading the music papers, and while reading them often told us lots about the rock and pop artists we already knew, Simmons was helping me to create completely new connections. We were principally rock fans, and rarely missed a gig at Harlow Technical College. Going to see Stan Webb’s Chicken Shack play live at the Tech, we laughed together about stuff like Donnie Elbert‘s falsetto on Little Piece Of Leather.
But, in my secret life, I knew that this 1972 UK chart hit was a re-release from 1965 which Northern Soul fans loved. I also knew that with that combination of piano, hand clapping and Donnie’s voice, the song had a groove all its own.
Back to the roots
There were two regular features that particularly caught my ear on the show. The first of these was Back To The Roots, where Simmons would play a blues or a gospel song, explaining that these were the roots of today’s soul music, thereby revealing that all music was somehow connected to what went before it. This was a thrilling way to learn new things. I could believe the soul connection, but also hear the rock connection, as I was introduced to Leadbelly, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mahalia Jackson, Muddy Waters and many more over the weeks. This alerted me to previously unseen elements in music, so when I saw the cassette of The Story of the Blues Volume 1 in the WH Smith sale bin, rather than just sifting past, I bought it before somebody else did.
I also studied it closely, discovering Robert Johnson, The Memphis Jug Band, Elmore James, Memphis Minnie and Bessie Smith in the process. Not to mention the Fra-Fra Tribesmen from Ghana.
Meanwhile back in the States
The second regular feature on the show I loved was Meanwhile Back In The States. This was a weekly spot where DJs at US-based independent radio stations who would give us their top 10 tunes. Suddenly, we were even further from the national BBC playlist, and entered the world of what local record sales somewhere in the USA enabled the DJ at an independent station to rate as good.1
As I rambled through my Geography homework, I visualized lights coming on all over the map of the USA, as radio towers sent this music out to innumerable listeners. And those station names full of Ws, Ks and acronyms were attached to the name of the town or city. Click here to listen Simmons explaining that stations east of the Mississippi River start their station call signs with ‘W’, and those west of the Mississippi with ‘K’. Of course there were historical reasons behind the naming system but, for me, it was like learning a new language. Simmons would either chat with the DJ, some of whom were obviously pals, or just give them the mike across the waters so they could tell us about their favourites.
From such sources came my first contact with Joe Tex, Candi Staton, The Spinners, The Delfonics, and The Chi Lites, while underlining the status of James Brown who was reverently referred to as the Godfather of Soul. Most of these names would break into mainstream music in Britain at some point, of course, but I always remembered where I’d heard them first – and where I would hear them last, when their UK hits were over and done with. Simmons followed artists like Ann Peebles who had no UK hits after I Can’t Stand The Rain but who kept on composing and recording.
At the age of 16, Dave Simmons had given me the key to a door which opened onto a new world. It took me while to realize that Charlie Gillett‘s Honky Tonk programme on BBC Radio London was doing similar work in connection with rock n roll and country music.2 And I would have to wait until Alexis Korner’s Blues and Soul Show on Radio 1 in the late seventies for anything as far-reaching in terms of unknown source material as Korner explored what would be later known as World Music.
Of course, all of the above experience was where I discovered how music and musicians, just like songs and styles, are interlinked. This is the debt I owe to the Dave Simmons Soul Show. It also gave me the tools for my exploration of tango from 1995 onwards, when I would progressively listen away from the music I grew up with. I knew that, if I wanted to understand how a musical genre worked, I had to observe and remember song titles, composers, band leaders, while also paying attention to dates and the way a musical genre evolved at specific times. I will be writing about tango more extensively soon.
To finish, I’d like to give a shout for a YouTube channel called Getting Mighty Crowded which has posted a whole series of recordings of the Dave Simmons Soul Show from 1974 on line so you can experience it for yourself. I have put together a playlist of the 1974 shows in chronological order to enhance your listening. These recordings put you right into the mood of the programme and confirm its role as a review platform. The last two elements on the playlist are of the final broadcast from December 1974 when the show was taken down by Radio 1. It’s a very relaxed farewell and quietly moving, because Simmons was clearly sad to leave, but rightly proud of his legacy. This article is modest proof that his message lives on.
For your Geography homework, you’ll have to ask Miss Theaker.
- Check out Meanwhile Back In The States through the great compilations uploaded on the YouTube channel Getting Mighty Crowded ↩︎
- Click here for an interview by Charlie Gillett from a 1978 Honky Tonk programme with progressive country artist Joe Ely. The sound quality isn’t perfect but it’s listenable, and shows the quality of Gillett‘s expertise. ↩︎
A new recording from The Dave Simmons Soul Show from April 26, 1974 has just turned up on YouTube thanks to Getting Mighty Crowded:
https://youtu.be/Qw_R8lZ5p4Y?si=DN68eLPMVHHfKSrj
This one gives you a feel for the programme in its review mode. Simmons lets the music do the talking as he spins through the new tunes. Give it a listen and a like. And subscribe to Getting Mighty Crowded in case something new turns up. Oh, and I have added the show to the playlist referenced at the end of the article.
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Hi Gerry. I have the “Getting Mighty Crowded’ channel on You tube, so very interested to read about how the show broadened your musical horizons. I rarely heard the show myself because I had a weekend job at the time, but being into soul / R&B people would often mention it to me. A couple of years ago a friend asked if I had a cassette deck they could borrow to play their box of dusty old cassette tapes of Dave Simmons radio shows – instead I offered to transfer them to CD ( and obviously keep a copy for myself!). After listening I thought they were worth sharing on the internet.
Interesting that you mention Charlie Gillet – for me, his Sunday lunchtime ‘Honky Tonk’ show opened the door to the early origins of soul and R&B, and a taste of Rockabilly and Cajun which were terms I hadn’t heard before. Would love to hear recordings of those shows!
To maintain my credibility with mates, I still kept up with contemporary radio stuff, but I gradually discovered that buying current releases from Boots or WH Smiths couldn’t match the excitement of getting on the train and heading to places like Vintage Records off Caledonian Road to rummage (or ‘dig’ as I think the hipsters say these days!) through second hand singles and US imports of older stuff.
I could go on, but to quote the comment by Felix Meyer above I think I may have just “filled up your blog with flowery texts like many blogs today do” !
PS Thanks for creating the Playlist on You Tube. I see you unearthed a post on another channel that I hadn’t got. Due to tape damage and deterioration, I’ve really only got Dave Simmons snippets left, but I might compile them into a montage some time in the future
Hi Chris. Great to hear from the man whose YouTube channel confirmed that I didn’t just dream all that stuff about the Dave Simmons show ! You did a seriously good job editing those recordings and they helped me to reshape the article, so many thanks for that.
Your comment triggered numerous trains of thought. One of these set me thinking about the importance of cassette recorders when they magically entered our lives in the 1970s. They opened up so many possibilities about making your own sounds collection at a time when reliable sources of good music on air were limited. I occasionally recorded the BBC “In Concert” programmes off the radio using a mini-microphone with a sign on the bedroom door saying “Recording in progress”! My parents didn’t have a video recorder, so I also occasionally made audio recordings of things directly off TV, giving them a background buzz which authentified the source. All of these have long since disappeared. Maybe the photos we now take on our phones are an extension of that activity taken to another level. Of course, with cassettes there rapidly came a moment where you ran out of available blank tape and had to decide what you were going to record over in order to create more space. Perhaps that should happen sooner on phones too.
Soul and R&B were styles I very much connected to the Simmons show as I was growing up, but I now realise how well-crafted the show itself and the music it shared actually were. Your comment on Charlie Gillett encouraged me to look for a link to one of his Honky Tonk shows for the post, and I came up with a long interview with musician Joe Ely from 1978 which I’ve added it as a footnote. See what you think.
Finally, your story about the excitement of going into London in search of new music reminded me of my experience of learning how to ask for Bob Dylan bootlegs which I mentioned in a recent post connected to his biopic. There was a thrill to rummaging which I will never forget.
We all need those new horizons. Let’s keep in touch.
Hi Gerry. Thanks for your response. Sounds like we had similar experiences with capturing broadcast music. For the Charlie Gillet Sunday lunchtime broadcasts I moved from bedroom listening on my smallish radio cassette (pre boombox days!) to commandeering the family music centre (remember those?) in the lounge so I could listen on the big speakers, which meant shutting myself without being disturbed. I did record a maybe 5 or so onto cassette, but have to confess to not taking care of them over the years and eventually binning when they became unplayable.
Your mention of TV reminded me of a friend who had a good quality reel-to-reel and used to sit with a mic in front of the TV recording every Old Grey Whistle Test. (The downside being that nobody else had a reel-to-reel )
Before anyone reading this thread dismisses it as just a couple of old blokes getting nostalgic about the old days, for me it really highlights how lucky we are in the digital age where we have so much music easily available, and the technology to capture it. If anyone had described this future to us back in those distant 70s we wouldn’t have believed them. (A man on the moon, Yes. But unlimited access to just about anything ever recorded ? And you can access it through your phone ? And the phone is battery-powered and small enough to put in your pocket, so you can take it anywhere – and cheap enough that everyone has their own. Sounds like something out of The Jetsons!).
Thanks also for the Dylan link. I am definitely a believer (still waiting for ‘Chronicles Volume Two). I had a quick scan of your piece, and realised I’ll have to put some time aside to read it properly. Haven’t seen the movie yet, but I see it didn’t get much love at The BAFTAs. Probably didn’t suit whatever agenda they feel they have to work to. Wallace & Gromitt did OK though !
Hi Chris. Many thanks for the awesome video posted on your YouTube channel! I have reposted this article with the video as the visual. Thanks for shining a light.
And I look forward to the post of the remaining fragments from the Dave Simmons Show. I’m sure there are some gems in there.
Hi Gerry. I see you’ve tweaked things to give the Dave Simmons content a higher profile on your site 🙂
I’ve modified the recent ‘Update’ video so it no longer has the full URL link to your Simmons page – looked like it had been used by some of those automated bots to post junk messages in the ‘Comments’ area – not the sort of traffic anybody wants !
Thanks for making the change. My repost of the article was to make it easier for people to find following your update video. It certainly brought new readers – always important to spread the word on good music, and your uploads of the Simmons show do give a nice boost to certain moments of the day.
As for the bots and their comments, it’s a case of constant gardening to keep things looking lively… but tidy!