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 BroadcastingRichard 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
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Disc and Music Echo. 1967a. ‘Beatles “Drugs” Song is Banned’. Disc and Music Echo, 6 May: 16.
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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).
