YMG/Weekend on the BBC

Young Marble Giants on the BBC
Screen shots, video clip and text provided "from third generation copies of Young Marble Giants and Weekend TV appearances" by Steve Rees. (All images and clips property of the BBC.)

a) Young Marble Giants on Something Else, August 26, 1980

See a RealVideo clip of "N.I.T.A." from this broadcast.

The YMG shots are from a BBC TV program called Something Else, broadcast around 1979 or 1980. Something Else was a weekly broadcast, each show made by the "youth" of a different UK city. Each show featured a local band and a UK band. YMG appeared on the Cardiff show, along with The Damned.

YMG played two songs, "N.I.T.A." and "Wurlitzer Jukebox!" I had a ticket to see the filming of these performances. I had been living 15 miles from Cardiff, but moved 150 miles away just before the filming. I would have had to take two days off school to get to the studio. We were doing some very important trigonometery on those days - trig that I have used every day of my life since then - so I didn't get to go.

I'm told they were very nervous and "N.I.T.A." had to be recorded after sending most of the studio audience home. If I remember rightly, the TV appearances were recorded after the band had recorded Colossal Youth for Rough Trade, but before the LP had been released. This was an interesting time. It's no secret that YMG played to Cardiff audiences numbering in the tens, but at this time, people into local music knew YMG were going to be the next big thing. Rough Trade were THE label at the time.

Phil playing a Hayman 40/40 Bass. Stuart Moxham once commented:
"On the subject of gear (and there would only be singing without it), Phil's beloved bass, which he still has, although it was inadvertantly ruined by having its electrics put 'right' years ago, is a Hayman 40/40 and he did the customising himself." There's a song called "Hayman 40/40" on the Young Marble Giants' Salad Days CD.

I always remember Stuart playing a Rickenbacker guitar - the one shaped like the Rick bass. On this TV show, he is playing a guitar I had never seen before. I asked him about it: "As for the guitar used for the BBC video -- if it wasn't my ubiquitous Rickenbacker then it must have been a Dearnaley one-off, built by Dave of that name out of Splott, Cardiff, my old mate and of course the only other person to have played on any YMG recording. I did use one of his guitars (possibly the same one) for a rare overdub, on "Colossal Youth."

ymg6.jpg (11668 bytes)

b) Weekend on Old Grey Whistle Test, 1982

	These photographs are taken from a video of Weekend playing on BBC TV's Old Grey Whistle Test. They performed "Drumbeat For Baby" from the La Variete LP and "Leaves of Spring."
I couldn't get a very good shot of Spike. He spends most of his time standing in the shadows. You can just make him out on the right of this shot seen on the right.