Vintage Us Cable Tv Soul Clips From The 60's On Dvd Compilations

[Derek Pearson]

One night last week I bobbed over to see my old mate Craig Butler to try and talk him into buying some records he didn't know he wanted.

 

He was flicking through a DVD that had just arrived from Kev Fev in Norwich.

 

The quality was a touch on the grainy side but we marveled at seeing The New Yorkers perform "Ain't that news" and Tommy Turner of El Bam fame singing away as casual as you like.

 

Then it sorta dawned on me later - and you know how we soul boys love to make lists - what are the main 'must buy' DVD compilations?

 

Did all major US cities at that time host some sort of 'new music for the hip young kids' type TV programmes that went out on cable I believe?

 

Or was it just a handful of specialist music on TV shows that were spread out, dotted about all over the states but because they were broadcast via cable anybody could pick it no matter where you lived.

 

Some names have just sprung into my mind such as "Bandstand" and "It's The Beat"......but don't quote me on that.

 

It really is amazing to see some of the artists we revere performing as teenagers their latest up and coming hit single or so they hoped.

 

And yet despite the countless hours and hours of broadcast the market doesn't seem to be awash with these compilations.

 

Is it because purely and simply only a small percentage of the precious footage has survived over the years? 

 

Maybe a lot of footage wasn't deemed important enough in say the seventies and was simply erased or taped over or lost?

 

Didn't a similar thing happen over here in the UK to early episodes of Top Of The Pops that were unbelievably taped over. Didn't Morecambe & Wise shows suffer a similar fate? 

 

Come on please reply and tell me more about these shows perhaps from people that collect these DVDs.

 

Derek

Edited February 8, 2014 by Derek Pearson

[Pete S]

I've got hundreds and hundreds of these clips, I must have 5 dvd's full just from Shindig, and that doesn't include official reissues and rebroadcasts.  At one time this stuff was the holy grail but nowadays, it's all out there on youtube.  At one point, must be 6 years ago, I put over 300 rare artist clips on youtube and they removed the lot without warning, after that, I totally lost interest.