For any serious band in the late 60s and 70s, securing a BBC Radio 1 session and having your songs fly through the nighttime airwaves into the ears of punters and record label executives alike was a crucial part of what was then known as ‘making it.’
begins with sessions from 1970 to 1975, and continues via appearances at Knebworth in 1978 and 1992, 1980’s Lyceum gig, Wembley in 1987, and the Birmingham and at the BBC’s Paris Theatre from March 1972, the supporters are small in number but vocal for their underdog favourites. As their days of trundling around the motorways of Albion are put behind them, from 1975 onwards the roar of the stadium-sized crowds get loud enough to drown out the engines of a large jet, which is by then their regular city-hopping mode of transport when touring the USA. Once cap in hand for any crumbs that might fall from the BBC’s timetable, as the 1970s progressed into the 1980s and beyond, they were gifted radio and TV specials by Beeb producers as befits a band at the top of their commercial powers.
