The bizarre world of BBC Records and Tapes: “Absolutely fascinating”
In many ways, a BBC record label makes perfect sense. With a global reach and a well-won reputation for championing music from all over the world, you’d think the blueprint for success would already be in place. But when there actually was a BBC record label, the subsequent 300-odd releases stand together as one of the most bizarre discographies ever put together. This is the story of BBC Records & Tapes: the sometimes weird, sometimes wonderful, always random record label that operated between 1967 and 1991.
“It put out the most bizarrely diverse set of records I’ve ever seen,” Tim Worthington, who wrote a book on the label, told the BBC in 2017. “Nothing that comes out has any correlation to what came before or after it, and sometimes you just think, ‘Who on earth thought anyone was going to buy that?'”
The early years of BBC Radio Enterprises, as it was known before 1970, are exactly what you might expect from a label with lots of content but little industry experience. Early releases included albums by The Goons, the comedian Marty Feltman, astrophysicist Sir Bernard Lovell delivering a lecture on the size of the universe, and clips of children from around the UK talking. Yes – just clips of children from around the UK talking.
Mystifyingly, these early releases didn’t go on to dominate the charts. To figure out what they were doing wrong, the BBC decided to hire someone with industry experience, which led to Philips Records executive Roy Tempest taking over in 1973. It’s challenging to say the label’s output suddenly grew any more savvy under Tempest’s tutelage.
They doubled down with more albums by The Goons, put out recordings from the Morecambe & Wise show and kicked off what would become one of its trademarks: sound effect albums. The 1975 release Off Beat Sound Effects is a pretty good snapshot of what these releases generally looked like. With track names like ‘Metal And Glass Crash,’ ‘Slow Creak,’ ‘3 Quick Creaks,’ ‘Duck Talk’ and ‘5 Separate Whooshes,’ it must surely go down as one of the greatest LPs to never reach number one.
Yet when Tempest sailed away in 1976 to pursue a career as a songwriter, it kicked off somewhat of a golden era for BBC Records & Archives. Between 1977 and 1979, they hit the charts on five separate occasions before their biggest win to date arrived in 1981, in the form of a classical music release (composed by Ennio Morricone) that soundtracked a show about the politician Lloyd George. It sold half a million copies and reached number two in the charts. “In the office we didn’t think much about it at the time,” says Mehmet Arman, the label’s business manager at this time. “It was BBC Wales’ wish to put it out, so we did. Then suddenly, it was the best day ever.”
Yet this chart’s success didn’t mean the label abandoned its principles – whatever they were. Random sound effect albums and TV show soundtracks continued to underpin their content over the years, although nobody particularly seemed to like them. But BBC Records’ golden year finally arrived in 1986. They hit the top five with a release from the cast of Grange Hill and the top four with Eastenders’ Anita Dobson. Then they scored their one and only number one with ‘Every Loser Wins,’ a song performed by Eastenders character Simon ‘Wicksy’ Wicks after being jilted at the altar in the show. It went on to become the second-best-selling single of 1986.
But that would prove to be the peak for BBC Records and Tapes. Other record labels were starting to grumble that it had unfair advantages, such as plugging their records to millions of people listening on the radio and watching on TV. Just five years after releasing ‘Every Loser Wins,’ the label quietly closed down to little or no fanfare.
It’s difficult to say whether it left any kind of legacy. Although many of its bizarro releases are now the type found in charity shop vinyl sections, they also put out obscure John Peel selections from the BBC Archives and magical performances from the Old Grey Whistle Test. Maybe more than anything, it provides a fascinating snapshot into the trends and fads of the ’70s and ’80s. “Its releases tell you what was actually popular; what people were thinking about; what they were hoping for,” says Tim Worthington. “It’s absolutely fascinating.”
