25 July 1970

== Show ==
; Name
*Top Gear
; Station
*BBC Radio One
; YYYY-MM-DD
*1970-07-25
; Comments
*Tracklisting below is from Volume 1 of the Decktician Logs. Many thanks to Decktician, Ken Garner for copying and additional information, and Rocker for acting as central HQ.
*In 2020 a reel of the whole show was discovered
*A low-fi off-air recording of the Incredible String Band session had been circulating among fans, with some Peel links. Before their first session track he previews the final gig of their UK tour, with Fairport Convention at the London Palladium - “Norman Vaughan and Bruce Forsyth are taking a rest”, he says, but he likes the idea of their audience turning up and seeing the ISB instead ("very good for them”)
*There are also debut sessions by two bands who made their names in 1970 - Skid Row and Curved Air. 
*Three tracks are played from the forthcoming debut solo album by Eric Clapton, which Peel has been hoping to play for some weeks. He says he finally obtained a copy "thanks to Marc Bolan and his lady".
*Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Ohio" was written (by Neil Young), recorded and rush-released as a protest, after four students had been shot dead by members of the Ohio National Guard at an anti-Vietnam War demonstration at Kent State University, Ohio, on 4 May 1970. Peel mentions that it has been banned on many radio stations in the USA and remarks that if it is a hit, it "would be interesting to know where the profits from that will go..."
*In line with the mood among students and young people in the USA, the Steve Miller Band track also has a protest theme; writer Jon Savage included it in his CD compilation of the music of 1970, Meridian 1970 (Protest, Sorrow, Hobos, Folk And Blues) (2005: Forever Heavenly ‎– FHVN2LP CD 7243 874852 2 8)
*There is plenty of contemporary folk and folk-rock (the Incredible String Band, the Famous Jug Band, Matthews' Southern Comfort, Donovan, Steeleye Span, Mike Hart) on this programme. David Bowie too is in folk-influenced mode (he was doing occasional folk club gigs at this time, as shown in Melody Maker's listings), and even the Faces' track is a cover of a song from Bob Dylan's John Wesley Harding LP. 
*Peel also plays a track by his boyhood hero Lonnie Donegan, as a Disinterred Thirty-Three and a Third - from a budget-price reissue LP on Pye's Marble Arch label..
== Sessions ==
*Skid Row #1, recorded 1970-07-21.
**No known commercial release.
*Incredible String Band #5, recorded 1970-07-20.
**"Dark-Eyed Lady" recorded, but not broadcast until 03 October 1970.
**"Empty Pocket Blues" included on Across The Airwaves: BBC Radio Recordings 1969-1974) (2 CDs; Hux Records HUX 087).
*Curved Air #1 and only (repeat), first broadcast 09 May 1970, recorded 1970-04-28.
**No commercial release.
**A session with a different tracklist was released on "On Air" (Strange Fruit SFRSCD022, 1995) / "Live At The BBC" (Band Of Joy BOJCD 014, 1997) / "Air Waves" (Purple Pyramid CLP 9581, 2012) listed with this date but it was actually a later one recorded on 10 November 1970 and broadcast on Mike Harding's "Sounds of the Seventies" seven days later.
== Tracklisting ==
*Handover to JP from Tom Edwards and intro to show 
*Curved Air: Vivaldi (session)
*Eric Clapton: Let It Rain (LP - Eric Clapton) Polydor 825 093-1
*Skid Row: After I'm Gone (session)
*Incredible String Band: Won't You Come See Me (session)
*Steve Miller Band: Industrial Military Complex Hex (LP - Number 5) Capitol EA-ST 436
*Peel mentions that he gave a couple of hitchhikers a lift, was playing the Steve Miiler Band's Children Of The Future and Sailor on his 8-track player and was surprised that his passengers didn’t know the albums
*Famous Jug Band: The Road (LP - Chameleon) Liberty LBS 83355
*Matthews' Southern Comfort: D'Arcy Farrow (LP - Second Spring) UNI UNLS 112
*3.30 News; New Chancellor of the Exchequer Anthony Barber says he is sure Britain’s problems can be solved, with the right policies; high winds are causing problems around the coast; woman whose dismembered body was found in Cardiff identified;  Commonwealth Games - gold medal in women’s 800 metres for Scotland; motoring message - a 20 ton excavator has fallen into the sea at Kyle of Lochalsh, restricting ferry services to the Isle of Skye
*Faces: Wicked Messenger (LP - First Step) Warner Bros WS 3000
*Incredible String Band: Empty Pocket Blues (session) (sung by "ISB girls" Rose and Licorice. JP: "Harness those voices properly and I think you could probably cut steel with them")
*Elmore James: Hawaiian Boogie (v/a LP - Blues In D Natural) Red Lightnin' RL 005
*Curved Air: Screw (session)
*Disinterred Thirty-Three and a Third jingle
*Lonnie Donegan: New Burying Ground (v/a LP - The Golden Age Of Skiffle) Marble Arch MALS 1287 (JP: "historians should always have a copy of that")
*Skid Row: Felicity (session)
*David Bowie: Memory Of A Free Festival (7") Mercury 6052 026
*Incredible String Band: Flowers Of The Forest (session) (played by JP for the band Forest, who were recently “beaten up by some people”)
*Donovan: Curry Land (LP - Open Road) Dawn DNLS 3009
*Eric Clapton: Lovin' You Lovin'Me (LP - Eric Clapton) Polydor 825 093-1
*Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: Ohio (7") Atlantic 2091 023
*John Simon: Motorcycle Man (LP - John Simon's Album) Warner Bros WS 1849 (US release) (JP: "The Pig's choice for the week")
*4.30 News – The Commonwealth Games end on a high note for the Scots, with gold and silver medals in the 5000 metres, “one of the great races of all time”; horse-racing; Nijinsky ridden by Lester Piggott wins at Ascot; the excavator mentioned in the 3.30 bulletin has been recovered from the water and ferry services are back to normal; warning for motorists of dangerous high winds
*Steeleye Span: Dark Eyed Sailor (LP - Hark! The Village Wait) RCA SF 8113 (JP: “one of those tracks that makes you feel that life isn’t quite so bad after all”)
*Skid Row: An Awful Lot Of Women (session)
*Mike Hart: Elsie Straws Saga (Compilation LP - 49 Greek Street) RCA SF 8118 (JP:” the record is pressed off centre, but that’s part of life’s rich pattern”)
*Plugs free concert tomorrow in Sheffield with Stackwaddy and others, including “Le Trombone Noir, and we know what that means…”
*Curved Air: Hide And Seek (session)
*Incredible String Band: Beautiful Stranger (session)
*Eric Clapton: Slunky (LP - Eric Clapton) Polydor 825 093-1 - Peel ends the show with this instrumental rather than the Top Gear theme
*Start of Jimmy Savile's programme Speakeasy, then tape ends.
== File ==
;Name
*J P Top Gear 25 July 1970 complete.mp3
;Length
*1:59:01
;Other
*Many thanks to Tim for digitisation and upload
;Available
*Mooo
Category:1970
Category:Peel shows
Category:Tim's Tapes
Category:Available online