Banning the Beatles
‘A Day in the Life’ at the BBC and the creation of Radio 1
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.37826Keywords:
Beatles, BBC, Lennon, Marriott, memos, censorAbstract
By 1967, the BBC had lost a significant number of listeners to offshore 'pirate' radio stations such that its administrators developed a plan to split the Light Programme into two channels, one of which would feature pop-music recordings to recapture some of that audience. With legislation moving through Parliament to eliminate the 'pirates', Associate Director of Sound Broadcasting Richard Marriott convinced the Board of Governors to establish what would become Radio 1. In the context of the 'Summer of Love', he moved to reassure the board that the BBC's traditional standards would be maintained. Against a backdrop of drug arrests and a history of songs slipping drug references past censors, Marriott chose the Beatles' 'A Day in the Life' as one of his vehicles for proving that the new channel would uphold the mission to inform, to educate, and to entertain. The decision not to broadcast 'A Day in the Life' coincided with a conservative political rejection of the social changes that have come to characterize the 1960s.
References
Bell, Jack. 1967. ‘The Greatest TV Show Ever… with the Beatles’. Daily Mirror, 19 May: 22.
Coleman, Ray. 1967. ‘The Beatles-Now! They’re Back—with a Great New Album’. Disc and Music Echo, 27 May: 8–9.
Disc and Music Echo. 1967a. ‘Beatles “Drugs” Song is Banned’. Disc and Music Echo, 6 May: 16.
—1967b. ‘Beatles LP Switch, Song Ban, World TV Show’. 27 May: 6.
Leary, Timothy, Ralph Metzner and Richard Alpert. 1965. The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. New York: University Books, Inc.
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Melody Maker. 1967. ‘Beatles Laugh Off BBC Ban: “It Might Help the LP”’. 27 May: 1.
Sandbrook, Dominic. 2006. White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties. London: Abacus.
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Thatcher, Margaret. 1982. Speech to Conservative Central Council. 27 March. The Margaret Thatcher Foundation. http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104905 (accessed July 2017).
Thompson, Gordon R. 2018. ‘“A Day in the Life”: The Beatles and the BBC, May 1967’. In The Oxford Handbook of Music Censorship, ed. Patricia Hall, 535–55. New York: Oxford University Press.
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Media
BBC. Our World. Satellite television broadcast directed by Derek Burrell (25 June 1967).
Beatles, The. ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ (Lennon and McCartney). 45 rpm disc produced by George Martin. Parlophone R 5570 (17 February 1967).
—Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. 33? rpm disc produced by George Martin. Parlophone PMC 7027 / PCS 7027 (26 May 1967).
—‘All You Need Is Love’ (Lennon and McCartney). 45 rpm disc produced by George Martin. Parlophone R5620 (7 July 1967).
—‘I Am the Walrus’ (Lennon and McCartney). 45 rpm disc produced by George Martin. Parlophone R5655 (24 November 1967).
Game, The. ‘The Addicted Man’ (Blake, Gowing and Brown). 45 rpm disc produced by Original Sound Production. Parlophone R 5553 (6 January 1967).
Kinks, The. ‘Dead End Street’ (Ray Davies). 45 rpm disc produced by Shel Talmy. Pye 7N 17222 (18 November 1966).
Lester, Richard. How I Won the War. Film produced and directed by Richard Lester. United Artists, UK (18 October 1967).
Small Faces, The. ‘Here Come the Nice’ (Steve Marriott & Ronnie Lane). Produced by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. Immediate IM050 (2 June 1967).
Strick, Joseph. Ulysses. Film produced and directed by Joseph Strick. British Lion Films (14 March 1967).
Media
BBC. Our World. Satellite television broadcast directed by Derek Burrell (25 June 1967).
Beatles, The. ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ (Lennon and McCartney). 45 rpm disc produced by George Martin. Parlophone R 5570 (17 February 1967).
—Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. 33⅓ rpm disc produced by George Martin. Parlophone PMC 7027 / PCS 7027 (26 May 1967).
—‘All You Need Is Love’ (Lennon and McCartney). 45 rpm disc produced by George Martin. Parlophone R5620 (7 July 1967).
—‘I Am the Walrus’ (Lennon and McCartney). 45 rpm disc produced by George Martin. Parlophone R5655 (24 November 1967).
Game, The. ‘The Addicted Man’ (Blake, Gowing and Brown). 45 rpm disc produced by Original Sound Production. Parlophone R 5553 (6 January 1967).
Kinks, The. ‘Dead End Street’ (Ray Davies). 45 rpm disc produced by Shel Talmy. Pye 7N 17222 (18 November 1966).
Lester, Richard. How I Won the War. Film produced and directed by Richard Lester. United Artists, UK (18 October 1967).
Small Faces, The. ‘Here Come the Nice’ (Steve Marriott & Ronnie Lane). Produced by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. Immediate IM050 (2 June 1967).
Strick, Joseph. Ulysses. Film produced and directed by Joseph Strick. British Lion Films (14 March 1967).
BBC Correspondence
Fox, Roland (Assistant Head of Publicity, BBC). ‘The Beatles New L.P.’. BBC internal memo to Radio Publicity Officer; C.P.O. Tel [Chief Publicity Officer, Television]; Tel. Pub. Org. [Television Publicity Office]; D.P.O. [Director, Publicity Office]; Television Press Officer; All Evening Press Officers; and copied to Assistant Director Sound Broadcasting [R.D. Marriott] and H.P. [Robin Scott, Controller, Light Programme], 19 May 1967.
—‘Untitled’. Memo to H.P. [‘Head of Programming’, Robin Scott, Controller, Light Programme], 24 May 1967.
Gillard, Frank (Director of Sound Broadcasting). ‘A Day in the Life’. Letter to Sir Joseph Lockwood, 23 May 1967.
—‘Gramophone Records’. Letter to Sir Edward Lewis, Leslie Gould, Louis Benjamin, Kenneth Clancy, Roland Rennie, Marcel Rodd, S. Jackson, Dick James, Nathan Joseph, Phil Solomons, Bob Reisdorff, Carlo Krahmer, Jeff Kruger, Isabella Wallich, Richard Baldwyn,
Lionel Segal, Chris Peers, G. Sharp, and R. Isen-King, 25 May 1967.
Marriott, R. D. (Assistant Director of Sound Broadcasting). ‘The Beatles: “A Day in the Life”’. BBC internal memo to C.L.P. [Robin Scott, Controller, Light Programme], 25 May 1967.
Scott, Robin (Controller, Light Programme). ‘The Beatles: “A Day in the Life”’. BBC internal memo to A.D.S.T. [R.D. Marriott, Assistant Director of Sound Broadcasting], 22 May 1967
