All posts by Paul Rennie

(doc) Seaside (BBC4tv)

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The BBC4TV Timeshift strand of documentaries showed a lovely film about the history of English seaside holidays…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000l9vf/timeshift-series-2-the-great-british-seaside-holiday

There was also a programme about Seaside holiday themed TV, and an episode of the classic TV comedy Hi-di-Hi.

Also, a repeat of Richard E Grant’s two-parter about the South-of-France. Terrific.

I’ve written about the seaside, here

https://www.are.na/block/3697046

(music doc) Rockfield (BBC4TV)

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BBC4TV showed a lovely documentary about the Rockfield recording studio in Monmouth, Wales.

The studio was created at the end of the 1960s by two farmer brothers as a residential studio providing a country oasis of bucolic calm. An oasis in which, ironically, heavy-metal, amongst other genres, flourished. Almost thirty years later, Oasis recorded there too.

The two brothers originally drove to London and met with George Martin at EMI. They came away without a record contract, but understanding that there wasn’t enough recording capacity for the developing music scene in Britain.

The Stone Roses liked it so much, they stayed for almost two years…

You can watch the film, here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000l3vn

Interestingly, the freedom of this residential facility reminded me of Black Mountain College (USA) or Corsham Academy in the UK.