Sounds of the 60s

"Sounds of the 60s" is a long-running Saturday morning programme on BBC Radio 2 that features recordings of popular music made in the 1960s. It was first broadcast on 12 February 1983 and introduced by Keith Fordyce who had been the first presenter of the TV show "Ready Steady Go!" in 1963. Since 1990 the presenter has been Brian Matthew (b.1928).

Presenters

Subsequent presenters included Simon Dee (b. 1935), the first voice to have been heard on Radio Caroline in 1964, and, for the greater part of its run, Brian Matthew, who had introduced "Saturday Club" on the BBC Light Programme until 1967. Dee's tenure in 1988 provided a boost to the show and his initial contract was extended. However, he seems to have fallen out with those producing the programme, notably over his wish for it to be based in London rather than Bristol. [Richard Wiseman (2006) "Whatever Happened to Simon Dee?"]

Brian Matthew

Matthew first presented "Sounds of the 60s" in April 1990 and was still doing so in 2008, his place being taken temporarily between September 2006 and February 2007 by former Radio Caroline and BBC Radio 1 disc jockey Johnnie Walker (and, during Walker's own absence in December 2006, by three guest presenters: Sandie Shaw, Joe Brown and Suzi Quatro). Matthew returned on 10 February, revealing that his prolonged absence had been due to a viral infection contracted while in hospital for a routine operation.

Features of the show

Matthew, who made the programme very much his own, turned it into something of a cult, one aspect being its very own slang: "SOTS" (acronymn of the title); "avids" (listeners); "the Vocalist" (the show's producer, Roger Bowman). There were also well-researched features, such as an "A to Z of the Beatles" (recordings of which were repeated during the shows from which he was absent, to maintain his presence in the programme), and "SOTS" T-shirts for listeners whose record requests were played. Although the playlist was almost entirely restricted to music recorded in the 60s, space was found for a time for so-called "roots" records from the 1950s, while recordings from that or earlier decades that re-entered the sales charts in the 60s were also eligible. Throughout the show's run, its theme tune has been the Shadows' "Foot Tapper" (1963). However, in later editions (particularly after the return of Brian Matthew in 2007) "Foot Tapper" has not been played at the beginning of the show and has such a short snatch at the end that it is not always shown on the 'Music Played' page of the BBC website.

Since July 2007 the show's producer has been Phil Swern, whom Matthew has nicknamed "The Collector".

Related shows

For several years Radio 2 carried a complementary show of music from the 1950s, "Sounds of the 50s", which was presented by singer and entertainer Ronnie Hilton. In the 2000s there was also "Sounds of the 70s", a title first used in 1970 for a daily late-night show of "progressive" music on Radio 1. Radio 2's version of "Sounds of the 70s" was presented by singer songwriter Steve Harley.

Notes