But no he was introducing my favourite all time band Barclay James Harvest. I can't remember the last time I heard BJH played on the BBC apart from repeats of old John Peel and Bob Harris shows.
But here they were with their song "Hymn." BJH have a cult following and have been going for well over 50 years. They originate from Lancashire and the original band consisted of John Lees (my all time favourite guitarist), Les Holroyd, Mel Pritchard and Stuart "Woolly" Wolstenholme.
It was great to hear them on the radio but I have to say that Hymn is one of my least favourite tracks and I don't think it is representative of their music. Their early 1970s output would be clearly defined as classical progressive rock. My favourite all time track by any band/artist is Mockingbird which first appeared on their Once Again album - their second.
Whilst always struggling for recognition in the UK, they were absolutely huge in Germany and in 1980 played a free concert in front of the Reichstag in West Berlin to an estimated audience of 250,000. They were the first Western rock band to perform an open air concert in East Germany over two years before the fall of the Berlin wall. They played Treptower Park in 1987 to over 170,000 people.
Mind you they did get into hot water when they played concerts in South Africa during apartheid and I believe this resulted in them being put on a black list by the University of East Anglia.
Recently I bought the book "Barclay James Harvest Every Album, Every Song." It catalogues every one of their songs with the stories and meanings behind them. It's one of a series of bands and artists featured in this series. Check them out on the internet if you are interested but others that appeal to me include: The Who, Yes, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Moody Blues and Jethro Tull.
As for BJH's "Hymn" the book has the following to say:
"Starting gently with acoustic guitars, the song builds steadily to an inspirational peak, augmented by massed twelve-string guitars, organ and horns."
Apparently it has always been assumed that "Hymn" is a Christian Anthem or Christmas Song (hence it being played on Radio Two). But there are more unsavoury aspects to it. It was originally entitled "Hymn For A White Lady" and referred to the slang name for cocaine. That's not to say that the song is unwholesome as it is also a warning of what can happen with cocaine abuse and as such can be construed as an anti-drugs song.
John Lees remains one of my favourite songwriters and Woolly Wolstenholme one of my favourite keyboard players of all time. Sadly Mel Pritchard died in 2004 at the age of 56. Wolstenholme took his own life 10 years ago tomorrow after suffering from severe depression for many years.
Sadly a major rift took place between John Lees and Les Holroyd. At one point their albums suffered from their sharing writing credits. Unfortunately Holroyd's songs are nowhere near as powerful as Lees'.
As a consequence there are now two versions of Barclay James Harvest - John Lees' Barclay James Harvest and Barclay James Harvest featuring Les Holroyd. This kind of thing has happened in the past to a number of bands - Wishbone Ash springs immediately to mind.
I even managed to unearth a cutting of my review on one of the band's concerts in Norwich for the Eastern Evening News. I noticed that Wolstenholme's name is spelt wrong, as is Holroyd.
As for Pop Master - well that's not something I will ever take part in due to absolute fear. I often listen and take part from home and the problem is that on one occasion I scored 30 points out of a possible 39. On another I scored three. So if I went on I could make an absolute fool of myself. Mind you making a fool of myself wouldn't be a new experience.
"I'm in Norwich. Working at the Norfolk Family History Society must be the easiest job in the world. Everyone here is related."
Just one correction though - everyone who "works" at the NFHS is an unpaid volunteer.