pic: BBC
Tom Ravenscroft's Campervan of Vinyl Dreamers was a thirty minute radio documentary first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2015 in which Tom Ravenscroft "takes up residence in an old campervan for a journey into the pioneering DIY music world of the 70s and 80s when the first private pressings were made." During the programme Ravenscroft interviews people from the period who were involved in recording and producing such pressings, which at the time often involved huge investments of money. Most of the pressings have been forgotten or fallen into oblivion, although some have been re-discovered and become priceless collectables.
Links to Peel[]
Apart from being presented by Peel's son, the programme also features an interview with Tom Morley of former session artists Scritti Politti, strong advocates of the 'DIY' record production ethic, 'home-pressing' their debut single (Skank Bloc Bologna) and even going so far as to handstamp each label and design and fold each sleeve by hand. According to Morley they took one of their singles to the BBC to be given to Peel, who, to the group's great surprise, played it soon afterwards and eventually invited them to do a session ("the holy grail" cit.) for his show. Two short Peel voiceovers are included in the narrative although it's not clear as to whether they specifically refer to Scritti Politti.
External links[]
- BBC Radio 4 programme web page - the programme is part of the Seriously... documentaries archive and as such remains online (as of June 2018).
- Mixcloud (Falling Tree Productions)