The Old Grey Whistle Test: encore

Like a moth to a flame, I found myself watching the second pair of OGWT clip programmes tonight, from the mid-1970s.

Thank you, Lord, for Punk!

I’d be hard-pressed to compile a selection of clips of musicians I’d rather avoid than many of those highlighted in these two programmes – John Lennon, Billy Joel (beaut ‘tache, Bill), Richard and Linda Thompson (fetching head gear, guys), Lynyrd Skynryd, Little Feat, Ronnie Lane, Grahame Nash… it goes on and on. And on…

The token musicians for grown-ups hidden among dozens of men urgently in need of an appointment with a barber were Chick Corea and Jackson Browne.

Didn’t OGWT know about Dylan? The Stones? Led Zep?

No more from me on The Olde Grey Fartes Test, a wretched reminder of the very worst of the bad old days.


Gerry Smith



Thanks to Mike Ollier for his comment that:

“I thought it rather amusing that said talking heads espoused this bastion of live music and then the first clip was of a clearly miming Lindisfarne ~ unless Rod Clements was managing to play the bass part on his fiddle as well as the solo!

“These shows have been on BBC Four before, the only new thing was the ‘history of...’ programme preceding them.”