I Mean Nothing to Her

Below is a video chronology of BBC radio broadcasts featuring Dance Bands from March 1932 to June 1932. All recorded by F.O. Brown and recovered from ECKO disc.

- Ambrose and his Orchestra from the Mayfair Hotel 5th March 1932

- Henry Hall and BBC Dance Orchestra from Studio 8A of Broadcasting House 15th March 1932

- Ambrose and his Orchestra from the Mayfair Hotel 2nd April 1932

- Jack Harris and his Band from Grosvenor House 19th April 1932

- Henry Hall and BBC Dance Orchestra from Studio 8A of Broadcasting House 21st April 1932

- Peter Fielding and his Band from West End Restaurant, Edinburgh 24th May 1932

- Jack Hylton and his Band at the London Palladium 30th May 1932

- Roy Fox and his Band at the Monseigneur Restaurant 8th June 1932

Greenbank Records, Plymouth, England

Royal Variety Show

This year’s Royal Variety Show took place in November in the presence of Prince William and Catherine. It is to be broadcast by ITV in the lead up to Christmas. The show has been among the most watched programmes in British TV history. With 24 million viewers the 1965 programme was the 6th most watched ever. Only EastEnders, Coronation Street and Only Fools and Horses have had more viewers. The show is a cherished institution and has left memorable moments in broadcasting.

With this legacy behind it, could these two lost 85-year old EKCO discs hold the earliest recording of the show?

The two lost ECKO discs produced "off-air" by my grandad F.O.Brown labelled "Command Performance" dated 30th May 1932. 

That show was broadcast live on the radio by the BBC on the 30th May 1932 from the London Palladium where the royal audience was King George V and Queen Mary (Prince William’s great-great-grandparents!) According to the Royal Variety Charity, an original 1932 programme is missing from their records. But could the EKCO discs confirm who performed that evening?

A rare photograph of the show during the 1930s with King George V and Queen Mary, when it was called the Royal Command Performance.

For several months I couldn’t answer this. The grooves appeared too worn or contaminated with foreign material. I was using the Ortofon 2M 78 stylus with a 2.6mil radius tip (see “The EKCO Radiocorder”). Perhaps a larger tip would sit higher up the wall where the damage or contamination might be less? After much searching I ordered a Nagaoka MP-110 from Japan with a 4.0mil tip and recovered the following samples (which are edited to remove surface noise).

The first sample is my grandad introducing Jack Hylton’s dance band performing a trendy medley of tunes (see also “Calling All Stars, 1937”). By referencing the date and place my grandad certifies it as an authentic live recording.

The second sample also features my grandad playing compere. Here he introduces actor/crooner Jack Buchanan. He sings the song “Goodnight Vienna” which was taken from a 1932 romantic film of the same title. This originated the phrase people used to describe something final.  The BBC commentator can be heard interrupting the broadcast to confess he announced the performance “a little too early”.

Scots-born Buchanan always played the English Gentleman

These melodious samples are fashionable for 1932, qualities not shared by others below!

"Any old iron? Any old iron?

Any, any, any old iron?

You look neat. Talk about a treat!

You look so dapper from your napper to your feet

Dressed in style, brand-new tile

And your father's old green tie on

But I wouldn't give you tuppence for your old watch and chain

Old iron, old iron."

This is music hall legend Harry Champion bellowing the final chorus to “Any Old Iron”. Born William Crump in 1865, Champion used rapid-fire rhythm and rhyme. He called it “quick singing”. Today we might call it something else.

The quality is poor because Champion was not a crooner. He never had use for a microphone. Any records Champion made saw him shout down a mechanical horn. So this could be the only sound of him performing on stage before an audience.

Newspaper cutting from 1915

Champion was popular until 1918 and the end of WW1. The arrival of jazz and swing then saw him forgotten. But it seems the Great Depression led to his revival in the years before WW2.  By 1932 the 67 year-old found himself broadcast on the radio, popular once again despite his theatrical methods.

The final sample shows that the revival in music hall was not limited to Champion.  Here is Vesta Victoria. She found fame as far back as 1892 when she sang “Daddy Would Not Buy Me a Bow Wow”. Here she sings “Waiting at the Church” which again suffers for want of a microphone. A clear performance can be enjoyed in this 1977 episode of TVs The Muppet Show.

Kermit And Miss Piggy sing Waiting at the Church from the John Cleese episode in Series 2

These days we have wireless access to whatever media interests us. Yet many of us use it to watch variety shows performed before participating studio audiences and streamed live on digital services, which allow the shows to be easily shared and archived on social media platforms like YouTube above. This ensures the echoes of variety now carry much further than the early wireless broadcasts and my grandad's records ever could.

Broadcast by ITV and drawing up to 17m live viewers alone, the winner of Britain's Got Talent is automatically selected for the Royal Variety Show

Greenbank Records, Plymouth, England

Calling All Stars

The MP3 above was produced on 19th March 2017 from the aluminium EKCO disc entitled “Ambrose Medley” dated 25th December 1937. This is a remarkable medley of songs which was broadcast “live” on Christmas Day by Bert Ambrose and his Orchestra.

Bandleader Bert Ambrose with American songstress Evelyn Dall in the Mayfair Hotel. In 1936 she married his manager while enjoying an adulterous affair with the man himself.

During the 1930s Ambrose switched between the Embassy Club and the Mayfair Hotel, returning to the Mayfair in 1936 under a contract that allowed broadcasting. So it is not certain whether the performance took place in the Mayfair or BBC Broadcasting House.

The age-worn EKCO disc of 25/12/1937 next to my grandfather's copy of "Eleven More Months and Ten Days More" bought from James Beaton's Gramophone House.

The first song is country ballad “Eleven more months and ten days more” about a lad’s adventures in jail after conviction for drunkenness. An HMV pressing from my grandfather’s collection of 78s confirms Ambrose recorded it 6 years earlier in 1931 at the Mayfair with crooner Sam Browne. But the 1937 singer is NOT Sam Browne, resembling “cheeky chappie” George Formby instead. This is a mystery since there is no evidence the legendary Lancashire comic ever performed with Ambrose nor ever sang that song. So this must be presumed an impersonation.

Bronx bombshell Dall clashed with English girl-next-door Lynn. When bra-less Dall bounced on stage, duff notes popped out the band. After a show she would drink whisky and play poker with the chaps while Lynn got the bus home.

The second song is the seductive “Serenade in the Night” which Ambrose recorded on the Decca label in 1936 at the Mayfair with Sam Browne. But for the second time the singer is NOT Sam Browne. Only two ladies are known to have sung with Ambrose that year. One was the brassy Evelyn Dall who recorded the song "Jeepers Creepers" in 1939, the other was 20 year old Vera Lynn who Ambrose had just discovered. The plaintive vocals cannot be Dall's so they can only be a young Vera Lynn's. Her future fame would be secured with Ambrose.

Crooning was a new soft style of singing only made possible by the microphone.

The third song is a novelty jazz number “Gimbal hits the Cymbal” performed by Ambrose’s Jewish drummer Max Bacon in his Yiddish accent. Ambrose and Max previously recorded it at the Mayfair on the Decca label in 1933.

An advertising poster for the film “Calling All Stars” with release date 1st March 1937  

Although the medley appears improvised, a lost British Lions film of 1937 suggests not. “Calling All Stars” is a “musical” of a type which was popular after the arrival of “talkies” by showcasing the talents of radio stars for a cinema audience. Ambrose, Dall, Browne and Bacon all headlined the film’s cast, noting Lynn had yet to join the band. A film transcript from Graham Newnham at www.pathefilm.uk reveals all three tunes featured in the movie. This suggests that Ambrose simply re-performed the film’s songs as a medley for the national BBC radio audience that Christmas, albeit with "newbie" Vera Lynn replacing Sam Browne.  Her association with Ambrose brought her more than fame since she would marry one of his instrumentalists. It seems incredible that 80 years later Vera Lynn will turn 100 tomorrow. Her rendition of "Serenade in the Night" was never released so it is likely we are the only people alive to have heard her sing it ... apart from herself of course.

Greenbank Records, Plymouth, England

Dreams of Empire

The MP3 above was produced from the EKCO disc entitled “Ramsey McDonald” and dated 24th May 1932. It is an extraordinary recording of my grandfather praising appeasement Prime Minister Ramsey McDonald as he broadcasts a speech from his home on “Empire Day”.

The illegitimate son of a ploughman from Lossiemouth, McDonald was Britain’s first Labour prime minister. In 1932 King George V asked him to form a National Government to deal with the Great Depression.

McDonald refers to the Dominions of the British Empire, which had been granted independent legal status by the Statute of Westminster the previous year. This statute acted upon the 1926 Imperial Conference of British Empire where it was declared that the United Kingdom and the Dominions were ...

"... autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations. ..."

King George V (front, centre) with his prime ministers at the 1926 Imperial Conference. Standing (left to right): Monroe (Newfoundland), Coates (New Zealand), Bruce (Australia), Hertzog (Union of South Africa), Cosgrave (Irish Free State). Seated: Baldwin (United Kingdom), King George V, William Lyon Mackenzie King (Canada).

But McDonald’s idealistic dreams of Empire leave no echo today, as if removed from history or taken from an alternate one. Our perception of pre-WW2 history is polarised by the prism of the war. King George VI is a stoic survivor of the London Blitz. Edward VIII is an exiled Nazi-sympathizer. Churchill is the greatest ever Briton. But like Neville Chamberlain, MacDonald is another naive politician who failed to foresee the inevitable. He imperilled us in the face of Nazism so we consign him to oblivion.

Commando comic was popular reading among the boys in our small town, where Scouts, Boys Brigade and Army Cadets gave us our extra-curricular activity.

We judge pre-war politicians even by our use of language. But they were not pre-war or inter-war. They were just politicians of that time. They did not know war was guaranteed by rising political extremism and militancy in Europe. Our judgements are distorted by hindsight, which itself may be distorted by misplaced nostalgia and false myths.

The war is a “blip” on the growing curve of our Anglo-American and European prosperity, which has been rising since the turn of the century. There is no evidence it has influenced the long term trend.

The myth of the "post-war economic miracle" implies that the war itself contributed to our prosperity today but there is no evidence for this. Few economic factors influencing the growth of modern industrialised nations can be advanced by conflict between them. Useful material resources may be obtained by seizure or colonisation (bold). But it is unclear WW2 distributed much resource to the allied nations except the USA and the USSR (who raced each other to acquire Nazi Germany's military technologies).

Telecommunications, electronics and computers

Domestic labour saving devices and consumer products

Agriculture, medical care and health

Physical obtainment of energy sources or raw materials including land

New synthetic materials, chemicals and sources of energy

Increased human resource, social mobility, urbanisation, women’s liberation and education

Engineering advances in construction, exploration, mining, transportation, manufacturing, mass production and automation

Tolerance to global impacts elsewhere

Furthermore there is no reason why the useful spin-off technologies developed in war would not have developed during an alternative peace. Technologies are owed to our ever advancing science along with our tolerance to their global impact. The evidence of the trends is that this advance continued despite the war and not because of it.

Alan Turing’s computing paper of 1936 (re-issued). The war did not give Turing his ideas. It gave him resources and a peer community he could have found elsewhere. In 1938 it was Princeton, USA and not Bletchley Park, England where he built his first electromechanical computer. In the absence of war he would likely have stayed there, advancing the field with John Von Neumann.

In the alternate world where European politics remained moderate and war avoided, prosperity would not be decreased. Instead British prosperity would be increased by the avoidance of wartime losses and national debt repayments. Perhaps in this world Ramsey McDonald is more sympathetically remembered and “Empire Day” still commemorated.

An alternate Nazi-free world depicted in the 2004 film “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”.

Greenbank Records, Plymouth, England

An Empire Calls

In the history of public broadcasts there can be few as notable as the one recorded "off air" by my grandfather onto the EKCO disc below. This is the first royal Christmas message delivered by King George V in 1932 and one of the first broadcasts made to the British Empire. Received by an estimated 20 million listeners across the world and with many HMV records pressed, this metal disc may yet be the only original recording that has survived.

What impact did this message have on those overseas listeners? To them the King was a head on a coin, an artist’s portrait, a photograph reproduced in newspaper print, a silent projection in a huddled cinema. Hearing this mythological figure speak to them in their homes in India, Canada, Australia and Africa, thousands of miles from the British Isles, would have thrilled and astonished.

The King’s short message followed a carol service broadcast from a church local to his Sandringham estate. The EKCO disc contains almost the entire 3 minutes, but his voice is attenuated and obscured by noise. This noise is due to impact with the aluminium grain but may be worsened by dirt. The attenuation may be due to wear from repeated play or poor amplification or reception during the original recording. The MP3 below represents best effort to present the King’s closing words. First is a clear HMV record downloaded from iTunes followed by the original EKCO recording including my grandfather’s authenticating remarks.

Quality aside, the EKCO record is still discernible and shows the King’s “plum pudding” voice extraordinarily well suited to the occasion. His reputation as a stubborn technophobe lends the ground-breaking broadcast even greater appeal. Did "Grandpa England" (as our Queen once called him) believe the BBC had packed his subjects into little box microphones so he could speak to them?

Like light mirrored from a window pane, shortwaves (10 to 187m) will scatter off the atmosphere at a large enough angle of approach.

Or perhaps he knew his voice was being sent on a new shortwave signal and bounced off the sky to defeat the earth’s curve and find the far side. For the science had repercussions far more magical. It would make meteorologists out of the BBC engineers in Daventry, now to follow sunspot activity as avidly as the latest valve technology from Marconi. Meanwhile in Broadcasting House new recording technology would be used to enable repeat BBC news broadcasts across each of the Empire’s time zones.

The Blatterphone was an early reel-to-reel tape recorder with whom BBC operators shared an odd sado-masochistic relationship. Notoriously unreliable it would often shred its steel tape before whipping its attendant with the razor sharp remnants.

No longer would those bowler-hatted BBC controllers just be dreaming of their listeners in the Home Counties as they returned home daily from Broadcasting House ... but also those in Bombay, Brisbane and Canada.

2016 saw the 50th anniversary of the BBCs World Service relay station on Ascension in the mid-South Atlantic. Could any radio broadcast carry an echo more remote than that?

Greenbank Records, Plymouth, England

Surfing The Earlynet

The BBCs early radio network offered the world's first public wireless service. The early 1930s were ground-breaking years for medium wave radio. New high power regional transmitters were replacing the city based stations of the 1920s. The first one began transmitting from Borough Hill near Daventry, replacing the stations in Birmingham and Nottingham covering the Midlands. Other transmitters followed suit covering London and the South, the North, Scotland and the West. These would broadcast both the National Programme produced in BBC Broadcasting House (see “Brave New Home”) and a Regional Programme produced in local studios. Situated on remote hilltops for maximum reach they increased the BBCs audience dramatically. Culturally they crystallised the country’s regional identities, defining a nation’s self-image thereon.

The circles represent transmitter reach, noting the reach of 5XX (blue circle) reflects the new evidence of F.O.Brown's 1932 recordings below

Because European agreements restricted the BBC to ten MW band allocations, only five twin-wave transmitters were planned. The fourth was Westerglen near Falkirk, known to be operating by September 1932. Since this was received in Edinburgh, my grandfather’s EKCO discs may provide evidence of its airdate. Indeed the MP3 below suggests a broadcast of the Scottish Regional Programme from Westerglen on 30th June 1932.

Shortly after 9pm that day my grandfather records the BBCs National news which would have been relayed on all BBC transmitters. He then introduces the BBCs Scottish Regional news from Edinburgh. This would only have been radiated by the Westerglen transmitter indicating that it had started operating by 30th June 1932.

"When the station is in full operation - about 3 months hence - dual programmes will be transmitted" The Glasgow Herald, May 21st 1932

Turning to the BBCs Long Wave broadcasts, this relied on a single transmitter 5XX operating from Borough hill since 1925. Reputedly 5XX replaced an oak tree which had marked the centre of England (the “Dane Tree” planted by an occupying 11th Century Viking army at the furthest point from any sea).

The above functional block diagram has been compiled from recollections of BBC engineering personnel available on the website www.bbceng.info

The world’s first public serving LW transmitter, 5XX had been broadcasting the BBCs National Programme since 1930. In his 1998 book “Daventry Calling the World” engineer Norman Tomalin gives its reach to have been 150 to 200 miles, leaving its Northerly reception short of Newcastle and Scotland.

The other side of this disc contains a speech made by the Prince of Wales at the opening of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre earlier that same day (see "Modern English")

Despite Norman's estimates, the above EKCO disc suggests 5XX had greater overland range. This contains an “off air” recording of organist Reginald Foort playing from the Regal in Kingston-on-Thames on 23rd April 1932. This was received in Edinburgh sometime after 4:45pm that day, even though the Scottish Regional Programme was carrying Alex Freer and his Band from the Plaza Ballroom, Glasgow (see archive Radio Times listings below).

On the left is the Scottish Regional Programme schedule, which departed from the National Programme schedule (on the right) at 4:45pm after that day's FA Cup Final

The conclusion may surprise. Not only did a Scotsman prefer cinema organ from England, but prior to Westerglen's dual programme transmissions in June, he could only have heard it on LW from 5XX. This gives 5XX an overland reach of 270 miles, exceeding the upper 200 mile estimate of Norman Tomalin. 5XX ceased LW broadcasts in 1934 so perhaps Norman's knowledge did not benefit from operating experience.

Remnants of 5XX, these Marconi water cooled valves were lost in 1992 but have now been found and displayed in Daventry's Town Council Museum

Today Borough Hill with its broadcasting past has re-entered folklore. Only a few concrete anchors remain to signify the aerial army that once camped there. Nature has returned a new oak tree to mark England's centre, providing an eerie echo of the poem which was written for the opening of 5XX all those years ago (see below).

Greenbank Records, Plymouth, England

Modern English

The MP3 above was produced on 31st October 2016 from the aluminium EKCO disc entitled “New Shakespeare Theatre” dated 23rd April 1932. This is a very early outside BBC radio broadcast of a speech made by Edward, the Prince of Wales at the opening of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon. The signal was transmitted to BBC Broadcasting House in London on a GPO (General Post Office) land line and broadcasted “live” on the BBCs pre-war radio network. From there it was captured “off air” by my grandfather F.O.Brown using his antenna, “radiogram” and EKCO “radiocorder”.

Edward, Prince of Wales

Following F.O.Brown’s introduction, only about 2 minutes of the speech is recorded. But it is enough to show Edward’s talent for public speaking and broadcasting. Extolling both the technical virtues of the new theatre and the language of Shakespeare, Edward incites nationalist feelings of nostalgia, pride, nobility, pageantry and heroism. Referring to the overseas gifts received after the destruction of its predecessor by fire, he even cites the theatre as an international inspiration.

The opening ceremonies started as early as July 1929 when 600 freemasons marched through the town after anointing and laying the foundation stone.

Yet for all the oratory, Edward cared little for theatre and even less for ceremony. Having flown to Stratford in his plane he is reported to have headed off to the airfield before the opening performance was finished. Furthermore, despite the male dominated ceremonies, the new theatre was actually the creation of a young woman.

A rare image of Elisabeth Scott

Serious in ways Edward was not, Elisabeth Scott is considered the first woman in the country to design a building of public importance. Aged only 29 she entered and won an international competition to design the new theatre. Her sensible straight-line geometries contrasted with the previous ill-fated “Merrie England” ornamentalism. Unsurprisingly her creation was rejected by the more conservative. That included Edward Elgar, who even rejected his post as the new theatre’s music director.

But despite its early reception the theatre has endured. Those who might have hated it then, cherish it now. Grade II* listed, it is described by English Heritage as representing the “best modern municipal style of architecture comparing favourably to other brick-clad contemporary buildings such as Battersea Power Station”. Strangely the comparisons between the two buildings run deeper. For while Elisabeth was designing the theatre, her second cousin Giles was designing the pride of the London Power Company. Furthermore, both Scotts now appear in the new 2015 British passport design, alongside their iconic creations and the ubiquitous Shakespeare.

Meanwhile Edward, who became the king that was never crowned, the most photographed celebrity of his time, seems to have left nothing concrete behind ... a collection of images, his ethereal radio broadcasts and his mythical romance with Wallis. Perhaps those are the only echoes left by people who are famous for ... being famous.

Empty echoes of celebrity

Greenbank Records, Plymouth, England

A Brave New Home

Echoes of 1932 are a series of the earliest recordings my grandfather made in 1932. This was a landmark year in the history of public broadcasting. After BBC Broadcasting House began operating it hosted the world's first TV broadcasts, the first "world service" broadcast and the first royal Christmas broadcast. The purpose of this series is to use my grandfather's recordings to explore this new world. The first is "Brave New Home" covering the first ever radio broadcast from Broadcasting House on 15th March 1932.

Echoes of '32 ... Extraordinary Entanglements

Before introducing that broadcast, Broadcasting House itself requires introduction. As the first public broadcasting facility in Britain it provided an ideal "Home" for the BBC. Driven by function and technological constraint, its design included unconventional and innovative features.  Instead of a stairwell and atrium, the core of the building housed a complexity of windowless studios, listening rooms and concert halls. It was a self-contained world which required heating and ventilation of ground-breaking capability. Located down in the basement, that system featured anti-vibration mounts for its pumps and acoustic baffles for its ducts, with steam pipes to heat the air in winter and water sprays to cool it in summer. Meanwhile the top floor housed all the studio amplifiers in a single control room, allowing economic use of the valves and avoiding any need to distribute the batteries that supplied them.

The room that never slept ... the control room at BBC Broadcasting House

Self-contained like an ocean liner, the outside of the building is similarly streamlined. Only a pair of statues above the entrance break its clean lines. These are the characters Prospero and Ariel from Shakespeare's play The Tempest. Prospero is an exiled magician served by Ariel his messenger of the air. Together they signify the modern magic of broadcasting.

Prospero and Ariel located above the entrance to BBC Broadcasting House

But Broadcasting House was not the only new model of modernism with which The Tempest shared parallels that year. Also produced in 1932, the futurist novel "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley is the story of the outcast son of a woman left abandoned among aborigines. Self-educated in the works of Shakespeare, John is rescued by his mother's modern civilisation, just as Prospero's daughter Miranda is rescued by her father's. Both exclaim "O Brave New World" at their salvation. Both outbursts are later proved ironic. For John discovers that the material benefits of an urbanised and industrialised future have come at the cost of his heroic Shakespearean values. His "Brave New World" harbours a "slave" population, subjected to selective breeding and infantilised by diversionary thrills and drugs. 

"Mobile Connectivity" has democratised broadcasting and can empower us enormously but can also isolate us from nature and leave us vulnerable to blind populism, "groupthink" or the vanity of our own egos when we could be educating ourselves from our own direct explorations and observations

It is reported Huxley was inspired by a visit to the Billingham chemical plant in Teeside so it follows his controlling technology is biochemical. But what if he had visited the new Broadcasting House in London instead? Perhaps he would have enslaved his population using the audio-visual technology more familiar today. The first broadcast from the BBCs new "home" is known to have been "live" music. That should give us some comfort since we are probably justified in thinking that music and song are benign forms of entertainment whose gentle enslavements endure and remain welcome. Below an image of the EKCO disc which may contain it, labelled "New BBC Band" and dated 15th March 1932.

The labels are etched with the words "New BBC Band", "Home" and "15/3/32"

The 15th March 1932 is known to be the date of the first radio broadcast. But little else seems known other than it was by Henry Hall and the BBC Dance Orchestra. This EKCO disc contains little voice-over introduction but it certainly contains "live" dance band music which meets expectation. Side 1 contains the song "Home" followed by the opening to "Rio de Janiero", while Side 2 contains the song "Sycamore Tree" followed by an introduction to "Blue of the Night". Below is a sample of "Home" after which there is a hesitant voice-over introduction to the next song. This matches critical reviews of the first broadcast which describe the band leader Hall as being nervous throughout.

Familiarity with "Home" may have an unlikely source, but one which provides authentication. Below is a link to a scene from a Stanley Kubrick film called "The Shining".  Set in the haunted Overlook Hotel, the same gentle melody and vocal can be heard contrasting with the menacing dialogue.

This is the section of the movie where Jack meets the former caretaker of the hotel ... who proceeds to tell him how his son "...needs a good talking to..." and how he "corrected" his daughters & his wife. Creepy.

The film soundtrack shows it to be the song "Home" as recorded by Henry Hall and the Gleneagles Hotel Band. This is the band which Hall is known to have led at the Gleneagles Hotel just before taking up his post as band leader at Broadcasting House. This leaves little doubt that he took the song with him for that first broadcast. So the fact that he now forever leads a phantom band playing "Home" in a hotel ballroom not only authenticates my grandfather's recording, but renders it a suitably haunting elegy.

Greenbank Records, Plymouth, England

The Chancellor Makes a Killing

This EKCO disc is a unique recording of my grandfather introducing a radio broadcast made by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin on 1st July 1932. In his broadcast Mr Baldwin refers to chancellor Neville Chamberlain and 3.5 million “War Loan” letters. Emphasis is placed on the logistic feat and the tone is upbeat. But in truth these letters dealt a financial blow to many. For this was an occasion where Britain effectively defaulted on its debts. Furthermore the creditors left indebted were not a foreign power but the British people themselves.

It is 1932 and the global economy is mired in The Great Depression. Confidence in the markets has fallen, along with investment and borrowing. The Gold Standard has fixed the allowable level of cash in circulation to the state's reserves of bullion. This has limited the money supply from central banks. The resultant deflation has encouraged investors to hold onto money and refrain from lending. Global trade, consumer spending and business has shrunk. The result has been unemployment with economies needlessly languishing at low GDP for want of cash flow.

Unemployed workers from the industrial regions march on London in protest

During the banking crisis of 2008 the Bank of England was free to inject cash to avoid deflation, stimulate growth and prevent recession becoming depression. But in 1932 Chamberlain's attention was on the deficit between Government spend and revenue from tax. He saw the “War Loan” accounted for much of it. This loan comprised Government bonds which were sold to the public to raise finance for WW1 in 1917. Popular with the patriotic investor they delivered a 5% annual return over a 30 year term ending in 1947 when the loan would be repaid. These bonds were legally binding but Chamberlain saw he had an opportunity to loosen them.

Firstly the Government held the right to repay the loan early or re-issue the bonds at a lower return subject to consent. Secondly, returns everywhere were poor so bond-holders had few options making them more pliable. Thirdly, the bond-holders were British people. Patriotic duty was why many people had bought them in the first place. Finally the pound started falling against the dollar. This would disincline bond holders from foreign investment.

Bond certificates were issued with coupons which would be cut out and exchanged for cash at the Post Office

So Chamberlain went to the banks and financial firms. He persuaded them to accept re-issued bonds on behalf of their bond-holding customers.  These would have a reduced return of 3.5% and there would be no redemption date on which the loan had to be repaid. His private meetings were accompanied by a public media campaign emphasising patriotic duty. Bonuses were also offered to those who consented early.

In truth the “perpetual” bond would take almost 30 years just to deliver the loan back with huge losses in its worth against inflation. My grandfather realised this as did the Chairman of the Midland Bank. He is reported to have lost a peerage on account of his refusal to comply. Instead he forced the Bank of England to step in and purchase his customer's bonds. But generally Chamberlain's campaign was a success. Many holder's were swept up in a tide of patriotism and peer pressure.

Full title reads: "£2,000,000,000 Debt Conversion - biggest in World's History. 15 million conversion forms printed & despatched 12 hrs after announcement was made by the Chancellor in the 'House'." London and on a ship in the English Channel. C/U sign reading "Urgent - War Loan Conversion Forms".

The question of whether Chamberlain did the “right thing” is unanswerable. Wealth was transferred from many private coffers to the Government’s. Was the money then spent in a better way? With WW2 looming and the need for national rearmament perhaps it was. But with less money in the pockets of many people perhaps the economy took longer to recover. Perhaps if he'd maintained the "War Loan" the Chancellor would have been able to reduce the deficit by encouraging the economy, reducing unemployment and increasing GDP and tax revenue. In any case it is ironic that a Conservative chancellor should nationalise a large amount of private wealth in the manner expected of a Communist state.

And what eventually became of the "perpetual" bonds? Well in 2015 another Conservative chancellor George Osborne finally redeemed them. By then the bonds had been traded for decades in the city and were owned by a few banks and firms. The final settlement is reported to have amounted to £1.9billion. And how did the chancellor raise that capital?  With interest rates staying low he was able to sell a new set of bonds giving even lower returns.  So 83 years after Chamberlain he was able to pull off a similar trick to reduce Government spend.

“This is a moment for Britain to be proud of. We can, at last, pay off the debts Britain incurred to fight the first world war. It is a sign of our fiscal credibility and it’s a good deal for this generation of taxpayers. It’s also another fitting way to remember that extraordinary sacrifice of the past.”

George Osborne echoes Neville Chamberlain

Greenbank Records, Plymouth, England

God Save The King!

The MP3 above was produced on the 27th August 2016 from the aluminium EKCO disc entitled "King George Sixth" dated 12th May 1938. This disc is an original recording of a "live" radio broadcast made by King George VI to the Empire following his coronation earlier that day. With "The King's Speech" and "Ding! Dong! This is London!" this completes a trilogy concerning George VIs accession. Just over half his 8 minute speech was captured. As in "The King's Speech" about 30s lost as my grandfather swopped the sides of the disc.

The coronation introduced a number of firsts, both in protocol and in media coverage. The procession was the world's first outside event to be broadcast live by television. The coronation service in Westminster Abbey was the first to be broadcast live by radio. It was also the first to be filmed and shown later in cinema newsreels. Regarding protocol it was the first coronation to reflect the 1931 Statute of Westminster and the equality of law of the Dominions. This meant the King swore an oath to uphold Protestantism in the UK only.

It was also the first coronation to be attended by an already crowned Queen. This was Queen Mary the widow of George V. She did not relinquish her crown to the new Queen Elizabeth. Instead Elizabeth received a new crown, set with the Koh-I-Noor diamond taken from Mary's crown. During WW2 George VI would later add to the jewel's legend by hiding it at the bottom of a lake 20 miles from Windsor castle.

In other ways the coronation was similar to those for George V and Edward VII. BBC coverage focussed on the pageantry, inspiring patriotic feelings of pride, awe and adoration. So perhaps it was left to a young French magazine journalist to introduce the most significant first.

Henri Cartier-Bresson had become inspired by surrealism and adept at street photography. His aim was to reveal meaning in the reflexive acts of strangers. As the cavalcade came past he chose to point his camera away and take photographs of the public instead.

So rather than ordered and ornamental his pictures are organic and chaotic. There is humour as people flout social convention in need to pay homage. Old ladies are hoisted onto the shoulders of servicemen while others sit on the street munching their lunch. By comparison the Royal assembly gaze serenely, Gods from on top of Olympus.

Bresson is now recognised as the father of photo-journalism. Spontaneous photographs of ordinary strangers give visceral insight into world affairs. A naked girl runs screaming from a napalm attack. A drowned boy lies face down on a beach. A sailor kisses a nurse amongst a jubilant crowd. Emotionally exploitative? Courageously revealing? There is no denying their influence on public opinion.

Later Bresson would help establish a photo agency with the goal of providing photographs "in the service of humanity". Of course they would also serve the sales of magazines like LIFE and TIME. But perhaps his pictures remain the sincerest echo of that coronation, pulling aside the country's mask to reveal faces that would see hardship and loss in the years ahead.

Greenbank Records, Plymouth, England

Keep Smiling

The MP3 above was produced on the 30th July 2016 from the aluminium EKCO disc entitled “Reginald Foort” dated 4th July 1938. This is a recording my grandfather made of a BBC radio broadcast from organ maestro Reginald Foort. Once voted Britain's most popular radio star ahead of Gracie Fields , Reginald was the BBCs first full time theatre organist. Between 1936 and 1938 he gave a regular show which was broadcast from St George's Hall, Langham Palace.  Each performance was characterised by his beguiling signature opening tune "Keep Smiling". In this recording Reginald acknowledges his listener's requests before playing the popular "Skater's Waltz" by  Emil Waldteufel. The recording has been edited to remove noise and do Reginald Foort's velvet tones justice. A "before and after" MP3 is provided below.

Although much noise has gone a regular "graunch" remains at the start of the recording. This is an artefact of a "wobble" in the disc which is worse at the outer edges and diminishes towards the centre. Fortunately by the time Reginald is heard the "graunch" has disappeared.

Splendid chap Reginald Foort ...

The 1930s were the organ's golden age as it enjoyed a stream of enhancements. Electro-pneumatic action liberated it from mechanical constraints and expanded its range. It's popularity rose even though "talkies" had replaced the silent films it accompanied in the cinemas. So Reginald now decided to employ all these advantages and go on a tour of Britain with a wondrous organ of his own design.

Titles read: "Pathetone - presents - REGINALD FOORT WITH HIS NEW WONDER ORGAN". Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. High angle shot of Reginald Foort playing on his new organ. He turns to camera and explains how strong and powerful the organ is and talks of how it needs a team of 30 men to dismantle it and pack it up for transportation to the next show.

A description of this melodious leviathan can be found on the website of The American Theatre Organ Society (ATOS). This provides tantalising if somewhat obscure glimpses ...  "His final design had 5 manuals (keyboards) and 27 ranks (sets of pipes) ... Weighing in at 30 tons, the organ had 27 ranks distributed on nine steel frames, each self-contained with its own windchests, regulators and tremulants ... They had to travel with six different blower motors - to account for the different electric system throughout Great Britain ... a staff of fifteen that included four truck drivers (who rapidly became organ experts), three organ builders, two electricians, and two stage riggers"

Sponsored by Macleans the toothpaste ...

Over the war years Reginald and his convoy toured Britain tirelessly, raising morale in the country's bombed towns and cities. In Liverpool the show continued through an air raid, despite fire breaking out in the theatre and the disparagement of a music critic who felt the "staged" pyrotechnics and sound effects overwhelmed the classical harmonies.  Even the rationing of diesel and the RAF commandeering his trucks didn't stop Reginald. Instead he downsized his repertoire and continued his tour by train. Only after the BBCs own organ in London was destroyed by bombs did he decide to end his tour so that he could give the country his own.

Reginald re-united with his organ

Remarkably, more than 30 years after their separation, Reginald and his organ would be re-united across the Atlantic: in 1975 in a restaurant near San Diego where it had been installed following refurbishment at the Moller factory of its origin; then in 1979 (the year before he died) when it was donated to the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. On each occasion his American admirers invited him to the dedication concert. Touchingly that final performance moved the man who kept Britain smiling during the war years to tears.

The Compton organ at the Stockport Plaza

Over a decade afterwards it seemed that the new multiplexes of the 90s would replace all the modernist cinemas of the 30s, converting them into bingo halls or pubs or demolishing them for flats or offices. But hearteningly many of these amazing buildings have now been listed and protected. Furthermore some of these Odeons, Hippodromes and Palaces even maintain fully restored electric organs and are open to public view and sometimes theatre performance. A list of these can be found at the link below. And so it seems that, in spite of the odds, the echo of Reginald Foort will continue for some time yet ...

Greenbank Records, Plymouth, England

Ding! Dong! This is London!

The MP3 above was produced on the 20th July 2016 from the aluminium EKCO disc entitled “Abdication of Edward VIII” dated 6th January 1937. This is a BBC broadcast which makes an announcement ...

“Ding! Dong! This is London! A quarter of an hour ago the Prime Minister came to the bar of the house and handed to the speaker a message from His Majesty the King”

But this is a lie because it is not a "live" broadcast. The presenter is not a reporter nor a newscaster. This is not a newscast. Instead it is a narration of the previous year's events.

The narration uses dramatic reconstructions with voice actors and incidental music. Edward VIIIs letter of abdication is read out but his abdication speech (broadcast "in a private capacity") is missed out. On the other hand George VI is proclaimed with a triumphal fanfare and his speech concluded by a jaunty rendition of the national anthem. This broadcast is an early docudrama.

"March of Time" A CBS Newsreel from the 1930s

Wikipedia defines “A docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of radio and television programming, feature film, and staged theatre, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events” (the word did not enter common use until the 1960s)

The 1930s "newsreels" shown at the cinema contained the earliest docudramas. But while a film-goer could not confuse cinema with "live" events what of a radio listener? Even astute listeners of the BBCs announcement might think another crisis was at hand. Perhaps American audiences would later sympathise. In 1938 they would hear Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" broadcast. Fictitious events were portrayed as happening "live", in this case a Martian invasion. Despite that absurdity some listeners phoned the police. An outraged news media demanded tighter broadcasting regulation. But instead Orson Welles was rewarded by RKO pictures with a contract to make a movie. This became the greatest film ever made about the power of the media, Citizen Kane.

It seems likely that reports of a "panic" were exaggerated by the newspapers to prompt a regulatory clampdown on their rival radio counterparts

Over 50 years later the BBC would echo the Orson Welles' broadcast with 1992s "Ghostwatch". This was a recorded TV programme which was broadcast as if it were "live". It featured the supernatural abduction of TV presenter Sarah Greene and the demonic possession of Michael Parkinson. 30,000 concerned calls were received from the public in the first hour. But in this case no one in the BBC was rewarded with a movie contract and the programme has never been re-shown in the UK since.

"Mr Pipes" attacks the Ghostwatch studio ...

Returning to the BBCs 1937 broadcast, its purpose was not to provide news. It was to grab the listener's attention with the "live" pretence and enforce a narrative. Edward VIII abdicates and precipitates a crisis which is resolved by George VI. The broadcast is designed to strengthen George's position at the beginning of his first year of reign.

There is evidence that many people sympathised with Edward VIIIs position during the crisis and that George Vs succession might be weak. His public speaking difficulties would not have eased the government's concern

There is nothing untrue in the BBC broadcast. It is not fictional but neither is it balanced. The actual events involved real people in a complex situation where there were many factors social, moral, legal, political and personal. By ignoring Edward VIIIs reasons and the role of the Government the broadcast qualifies as propaganda.

Below is another narrative based on the crisis. In this one the Government threatens resignation in response to Edward VIIIs intentions. This precipitates the crisis.

This narrative echoes the romantic myth of Edward and Wallis, as the English gent paired with the modern spirited American. Beloved by Hollywood the glamorous romance has echoed down the century influencing many dramas: Edward and Mrs Simpson (1978); The Woman He loved (1988); Wallis and Edward (2005); Any Human Heart (2010) and W.E. (2012). But this transatlantic romance is just as distorted as the BBCs broadcast. It is quite likely the free-spirited Wallis left the country on the expectation that Edward would remain, then was trapped into marriage when he abdicated to join her.

Despite the Hollywood obsession with Wallis and Edward, The King's Speech (2010) did finally return the spotlight upon the neglected King George. Perhaps at last this was an echo of the original BBC 1937 broadcast.

Greenbank Records, Plymouth, England

The King's Speech

The MP3 above was produced on the 3rd July 2016 from the aluminium EKCO disc entitled "King on Xmas 1937" dated 25th December 1937 (see photo). This disc is a remarkable original recording of King George VIs first christmas radio broadcast to the Empire. There was no christmas broadcast the following year so this was his last christmas message before Britain declared war on Germany in 1939. It was also one of the final records my grandfather F.O.Brown made due to the wartime need for aluminium in aircraft.

Sandringham, Norfolk

As the King spoke at 3pm from Sandringham in Norfolk his words were broadcast live by radio and almost instantly recorded by my grandfather onto the metal disc using his garden antenna, hand-built radiogram and EKCO "radiocorder" (see link below) at his home in Greenbank in Edinburgh

Greenbank, Edinburgh (the first modern houses designed for domestic electrical supplies, appliances and light)

He also recorded the preceding BBC announcement transmitted from Broadcasting House, London featuring the three afternoon chimes of Big Ben and an orchestral rendition of the national anthem. No other recording of that BBC announcement may exist. No other original recording of the speech may exist. No one alive today heard it until July 2016.

Broadcasting House, London (opened 1932)

The disc is 78rpm allowing a few minutes of play each side. About 30s of the message was lost while my grandfather switched the sides. The final 30s was also lost as the second side ran out. Those missing parts can be heard on the British Sound Library website below (after about 30s and again after about 3mins 40s). The first missing 30s cover a reference to his father King George V and the final 30s cover the King's general wishes of wellbeing.

The British Sound Library recording is from a record produced by His Master's Voice. This was one of many 78rpm shellac records pressed from an original metal "master", itself taken from an original wax "mother" unlikely to still exist. The shellac record is less noisy but it misses the BBC broadcast announcement. My grandfather's EKCO disc is quite different. It is noisier but its modulations represent a direct imprint of King George VIs voice in a way that no pressed record can emulate.

His Master's Voice "78" (sold to the public with profits given to charity)

The MP3 recording has not been edited other than to "join" the two sides of the disc. It is noisy and has an honest unpolished power. It is striking in its gravitas and solemnity. The anthem is slow and melancholic. The King's intake of breath and his verbal struggle feels a heavy burden. His allusions to "emnity", "duty" and "fear" are foreboding.

Fittingly the MP3 production was also a struggle. During trials the tone arm skated continually and the record would not play for more than a few seconds. Skating is caused by frictional force pulling the arm inwards. My first approach was to try to reduce it by lowering the tracking force (weight) then compensate for the residual with anti-skating bias. But in the absence of weight the sound was poor and the stylus tended to jump. Furthermore the skating would just re-occur after about 30s.

The diagram below attempts to describe the physics. The equations seem easier than the words. In summary the skating "force" on the tone arm varies as it swings inward during play. This is partly because the friction reduces as the velocity of the needle in the groove reduces. But the situation is more complicated since the direction of the force acting on the arm changes as it moves. The net effect is a variable skating "force"  which cannot be corrected using a fixed anti-skating bias. In short, if it is corrected somewhere on the record then it will just re-occur elsewhere.

Trials involving dynamic adjustment of the anti-skating bias seemed to allow extended play. It therefore seemed possible that a numerical model might allow adjustments to be optimised to avoid skating while allowing greater tracking force and improved sound. Thankfully while considering that prospect I chanced upon a can of WD40 in the kitchen. The sight broke any willpower I had not to meddle with the 80 year old metal surface. I grabbed the can, sprayed it liberally over the disc, wiped off the excess fluid with a soft cloth, put the disc back on the platter, popped the stylus on and waited. The rest turned out be history. WD40 may well be one of most commonly known fix-its. But its use in lubricating King George VI's voice seems so novel it is unlikely even his speech therapist would have thought of it.

Greenbank Records, Plymouth, England

WD40 ... admittedly an American invention

How to Record 1932

Among my grandfather's records are a number of strange metal discs. After a few months of investigation I recovered a sample on the 19th June 2016. The MP3 below has been produced from it. The first sound I heard was the voice of my grandfather. He introduced himself from his room on the 22nd November 1932. I felt vertigo in the face of the chronological gulf separating us. My 32 year old grandfather was now speaking to the son of the daughter of the woman he would marry the following year.

Broadcasting is about transmission through space but recording is about transmission through time. My grandfather considered this. He first introduces himself and the date. He makes no assumption as to who he might be talking to or when. His subject is instructive (one way) and he speaks in plain English without jargon. Did he intend to transmit "himself" as much as the instruction? If not then why not just write the instruction down? The title "How to Record" may have referred to more than just the use of his microphone. Perhaps the further meaning (how to record oneself) was his final joke.

Our "selfie" acts of recording are now commonplace if not a cliche. We send aspects of ourselves into the future so that we can re-encounter our younger selves repeatedly. Yet we can only control these encounters for as long as we live. Even then control is not certain. The experiences of celebrity and social media demonstrate this. After death all control is lost. Our recorded aspects then become chrononauts on an uncertain voyage whether we like this or not.

So if we cannot avoid these voyages then is it possible to prepare for them? This question may not concern anyone for whom death is final. But it may concern those who have belief in a spiritual afterlife and desire to "watch over" their family. Perhaps Buddhist teachings could help them. In Buddhism enlightenment is achieved by meditation, a technique which enables dissociation of mind and body. Could an enlightened chrononaut dissociate his mind from the present to envisage a voyage into the future after his death? Such technique might help him anticipate his future cross-temporal encounters with friends or family. It might help him choose a suitable vessel i.e. medium on which to record. The Buddhist monks of Tibet maintain audio records over centuries by oral tradition and by using simple musical tones and percussions. This is without the apparent benefit of recording media which would otherwise be the vessels for their voyages. Do they have techniques to help?

Perhaps so but mental training is unlikely to be enough. Buddhist culture is stagnant and technologically simple. Without dependency on media there can be no physical deterioration in time and obsolescence is avoided. By contrast Western science has produced rapid technological change with complex reliance on media. A record has become a magnetic reel, a cassette tape, a compact disc and now a host of uncompressed and compressed digital file formats ranging from WMV to MP3. Western science and monetarism has produced astonishing advances in instant fidelity but at the cost of future obsolescence. How can we possibly anticipate the advances in technology that may soon render our chosen media "unplayable"? This question will become critical if our technology ever allows us to record human consciousness (or an aspect of it). This would leave the question of a spiritual afterlife somewhat less significant.

Returning to the present, whatever our beliefs or thoughts, perhaps the sensible approach is to apply basic principles and precautions whenever we record ourselves with posterity in mind. In 2016 I encountered my 32 year old grandfather voyaging from 1932 and the experience was enlightening, inspiring these thoughts. Whatever my beliefs it "feels right" to transmit him onward with due care and consideration, if not for him then for those he may encounter. This site plays some part in that.

Greenbank Records, Plymouth, England