Earth Recordings are to release “Bert Jansch at the BBC” (Out on 4th November), a limited edition 4LP/8CD set with a 40-page book containing 147 rare & unreleased tracks – live on-air spots, sessions & full concerts originally broadcast from the BBC.
The expansive book includes contributions from broadcasters, producers & performers inc. Lauren Laverne, Jools holland, Stuart Maconie, Mark Radcliffe, Johnny Marr, Bernard Butler & more…
Bert At The BBC is an extensive limited edition collection, featuring rare and unreleased tracks including live-on-air spots, pre-recorded studio sessions and full concerts straight from the BBC vaults, that delves further into this legendary performer’s canon. Bert Jansch was the very essence of folk music, providing inspiration for everyone from Paul Simon and Neil Young to Led Zeppelin and countless folk revivalists.
The release features radio and TV sessions from 1966 to 2009 meticulously researched by Colin Harper, author of Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British folk and blues revival (Bloomsbury, 2000) and the Bert Jansch estate. It includes his first and last performances for the BBC with a host of fellow performers including John Renbourn, Jacqui McShee, Johnny Marr, Bernard Butler, Ralph McTell, Danny Thompson, Mary Hopkin, Altan and many more.
An unparalleled limited-edition collection that contains a lavish 40-page book tracing the recordings from Bert’s earliest moments at the BBC for Guitar Club, Top Gear, Night Ride and at the Cambridge Folk Festival through to spots on Round Midnight, Folk On 2 and with Bob Harris, Jools Holland, Liz Kershaw, Tom Robinson, Mark Radcliffe and many more.
Twenty broadcasters, producers and collaborators including Lauren Laverne, Jools Holland, Stuart Maconie, Mark Radcliffe, Bernad Butler and Johnny Marr, contribute at length to the booklet, with great affection for this gentle, maverick genius.
Listen to Whiskey Man (Guitar Club, Light Programme, 1966)
and Blues Run The Game (Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music, 2009)
Bert At The BBC is released as a 4LP collection, featuring 48 tracks and a download with over eight hours of extras spanning 1966–2009, including BBC4’s St Luke’s concert (2003), and a complete Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh concert (2004) for BBC Radio Scotland. There will be a special 8CD set containing 147 tracks also encased within a coffee-table sized book.
Bert’s story on the BBC runs from the end of the Home Service/Light Programme era into the digital age.
Bert At The BBC is an epic collection and enduring trail, 45 years in the making.
Pre-Order Pre-Save (out on 4th November – digital album releases 1 October): https://earthrecordings.lnk.to/BertJanschAtTheBBC
“Bert Jansch was that rarity, a musician who really did deserve to be regarded as a legend.” Robin Denselow, The Guardian
“I once heard a reporter asking him how he would describe himself. He said, ‘I’m just a song writer, I just write songs’. He was certainly that, but oh so much more.”
Jacqui McShee
“His work, poetry and unique style are his legacy and I am proud to have had the opportunity to have had him as a friend, and that would have been enough, but I also had the chance to play music with him too.”
Ralph McTell