09 May 1970

== Show ==
; Name
*Top Gear
; Station
*BBC Radio One
; YYYY-MM-DD
*1970-05-09
; 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.
*Peel sounds happy and is in a jocular mood, making a number of witty comments - although occasionally the humour sounds a bit forced, as if he's trying to compete with producer John Walters.
*No room for guest poets on Top Gear, but Peel plays a track from an album of Brian Patten reading from his work, "accompanied by someone called Graham Layden on guitar". Layden was on the bill of the "Liverpool Love Festival" Peel attended at the UFO Club in summer 1967 and went on to have a career in the music business in the 1970s as singer, songwriter, record plugger and producer. Peel may have known Layden, who at the time was a record promotion man who tried to get new releases played on BBC Radio One, hence his remark when introducing the Patten track. Layden also had a songwriting partnership with Nicky James, who did a single Peel session in 1973. More details on Graham Layden here. 
*After reading that Top Gear was "a programme which set trends" JP decides to start a new one, by being the first to play a Christmas record this year - a blues from a reissue album on the Sussex-based Flyright label, founded by a group of blues enthusiasts associated with the magazine Blues Unlimited.
*Tracks from new but subsequently famous albums by the Rolling Stones, the Who and Van Morrison.
*Peel mentions that a highlight of the Pop Proms was a performance by "a group called Curved Air" in his intro to their first session track.
*A rare appearance in a Peel playlist for Tom Paxton, one of Elektra Records' most popular artists in the UK but not a special favourite of the DJ. Nevertheless he praises the single "Forest Lawn" and the LP Tom Paxton 6
*JP strongly recommends the Last Poets album, but says the track he includes is the only one he can play, because the other tracks contain “certain words” and he can’t even say most of the track titles on the air.
*No mention of Liverpool FC this week, but Peel observes that a football record is near or at the top of the singles charts. but doesn't say who it was by ("Back Home" by the England World Cup Squad). He also says he read a Zigzag article on Ian Matthews and finds it hard to believe that the singer used to play for Bradford City
== Sessions ==
*Curved Air #1 First broadcast. 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.
*Roy Harper #4 Repeat. First broadcast 03 January 1970. Recorded 1969-12-15.
**I Hate The White Man not played.
**Available The BBC Tapes Vol. 1 (Science Friction)
*Medicine Head #1 Repeat. First broadcast 10 January 1970. Recorded 1969-12-15.
**Ooee Baby not played.
**No known commercial release.
== Tracklisting ==
*File 3 begins
*start of show and intro #
*Southwind: Boogie Woogie Country Girl (single) Harvest HAR 5019 @2 (few seconds on #1)
*Curved Air: Screw (session)
*JP enjoyed last night’s gig at Wollaston, Northants – dedicates next record to Big Bob and everyone who was there
*Rolling Stones: Stray Cat Blues (LP – Get Yer Ya-Yahs Out) Decca SKL 5065 (JP: "release date is quite uncertain on that")
*John B Sebastian: How Have You Been? (LP – John B Sebastian) Reprise RSLP 6379 (Peel recalls spending an evening with Sebastian and the other members of the Lovin’ Spoonful at a cinema in Oklahoma City, watching The Greatest Story Ever Told)
*Medicine Head: Walkin’ Blues (session) #2
*Roy Harper: Don’t You Grieve (session) ) ("written by the legendary H., could it be Henry, Ash"  - an alias used by Roy Harper for some of his compositions)
*Who: Substitute (LP – Live At Leeds) Track 2406 001 @3
*John reminds us that Pete Townshend called him an incorrigible bore in Radio Times (he mentioned this in 28 March 1970) ) but despite this he still plays Who records @3
*Van Morrison: Into The Mystic (LP – Moondance) Warner Bros.WS 1835 ("for my brother Alan... Simon Stable walks around with copies of this LP grafted to his head")
*3:30pm news; Cambodia - US and South Vietnamese forces moving up Mekong River : Presidient Nixon leaves White House to speak to young anti-war protesters in Washington on eve of major demonstration; smaller anti-war demo in London; US naval attaché in Cape Town goes missing;  Australian attempting to cycle around New South Wales gives up after 300 miles due to mice bites
*Curved Air: Vivaldi (session) #4 ("JP: named after the former heavyweight boxing champion of the same name")
*Tom Paxton: Forest Lawn (7") Elektra 2101 002
*Mentions a place in Los Angeles where you can hold a funeral for your car
*Medicine Head: His Guiding Hand (session) #3
*Stone The Crows: Raining In Your Heart (LP – Stone The Crows) Polydor 2425 017
*Roy Harper: North Country Girl (session) ) (Bob Dylan’s “Girl From The North Country”, complete with an exaggerated Dylan imitation by Harper in the first verse)
*Disinterred Thirty-Three and a Third jingle
*Dr. West's Medicine Show And Junk Band: The Eggplant That Ate Chicago (LP – The Eggplant That Ate Chicago) Page One POLS 017 (Group included Norman Greenbaum who’d just had a number one hit with “Spirit In The Sky" – this was a single which got some UK pirate radio airplay in 1966. Peel calls out “reggae, reggae” and takes it off before the end) 
*Last Poets: On The Subway (LP – The Last Poets) Douglas Douglas 3 (US release)
*Incredible String Band: The Letter (LP: I Looked Up) Elektra 2469 002 (JP: I like that…nice sort of conversational thing that the Incredibles seem to be getting into, which is good”)
*Medicine Head: Goin’ Home (session)
*Denny Gerrard: Native Son (LP – Sinister Morning) Deram Nova SDN 10
*Wild Man Fischer: Dream Girl (LP – An Evening With Wild Man Fischer) Bizarre/Reprise 2XS 6332
*Recommends Rolling Stone article on Captain Beefheart ("there are only forty people in the world, and five of them are hamburgers")
*Trees: Nothing Special (LP – The Garden of Jane Delawney) CBS 63837
*Curved Air: Hide And Seek (session)
*4:30pm news; Clashes in West Berlin over US action in Cambodia; missing US diplomat in South Africa turns up; Kenya to withdraw from Commonwealth Games if South African cricket tour not called off
*Matthews’ Southern Comfort: Ballad Of Obray Ramsey (single) UNI UN 521
*Groundhogs: Soldier (LP – Thank Christ For The Bomb) Liberty LBS 83295
*Roy Harper: Forever (session)
*Hop Wilson: Merry Christmas Darling (LP – Chicken Stuff Houston Ghetto Blues) Flyright LP 4700
*Medicine Head: Be Blessed To Your Heart (session)
*Brian Patten: Unisong (LP – Brian Patten Reading His Poetry) Caedmon TC 1300
*Stefan Grossman: Pigtown Fling (LP – Yazoo Basin Boogie) Transatlantic TRA 217 ("for the de la Gilhooleys of Shipton, Yorkshire")
*Brett Marvin & The Thunderbolts: Dust Me Broom (LP – Brett Marvin And The Thunderbolts) Sonet SNTF 616 @2
*snippet #5 "Do your thing, John" JP - "I did" - Peel is responding to an exclamation on the Brett Marvin track - group were known for using comedy as a part of their act, and this is a less serious "Dust My Broom" than usual
*end of show #6 "be nice to one another, as they are in Wollaston, Northants for example"
*File 3 ends
*Tracks marked @ available on File 1
*Tracks marked # available on File 2
== File ==
;Name
*1) J P Tracks only reel 2.mp3
*2) J P Top Gear 09 May 1970.mp3
*3) J P Top Gear 09 May 1970 (complete).mp3
;Length
*1) 0:54:59 (44:54-53:01)
*2) 0:14:59 (to 00:30, 00:43 on unique)
*3) 1:58:38
;Other
*Many thanks to Tim for digitisation and upload
*1) Mainly Spring 1970 Mix Reel
;Available
*1) Mooo
*2) Mooo
*3) Mooo
Category:1970
Category:Peel shows
Category:Top Gear
Category:Peel Shows (Incomplete)
Category:Available online