Humble Pie - March 20, 1973
In another connection to Peter Frampton, his previous band Humble Pie had played for the program in an episode a few years earlier. In March 1973, Steve Marriott led Humble Pie through a couple of great songs in the studio. Frampton had already left that band by then, so it was Clem Clempson on guitar instead. He made a more than adequate replacement with his rhythm guitar work.
Humble Pie is a great example of the top bands the program featured but avoiding many of the singles chart acts. Their brand of rock blues lent themselves to a more serious music audience, which is very much where OGWT was aimed. To soften the usual harder and heavy guitar sound of the band and add a touch more blues to the music, Marriott had added the Blackberries to the band's lineup.
They were made up of three superb backing singers, Venetta Fields, Clydie King, and Shirlie Matthews. Blackberries featured on a superb version of the Ike and Tina Turner favorite, “Black Coffee” on the show. The three added voices helped make it an even more bluesy sound. Marriott also added some lyric changes from the original and the full band made this a caffeine-free boost to the senses. Humble Pie also added a version of The Top Tones hit “Twist and Shout” for their two-song segment.
Queen - Live from the Hammersmith Odeon December 24, 1975
This was one of the special live in concert shows. Queen featured in a very special version indeed. They were performing live on Christmas Eve 1975 from the Hammersmith Odeon, London. In addition to the Christmas Eve excitement and being broadcast live on the BBC, this was an amazing time for the band.
Their single “Bohemian Rhapsody” had smashed its way to number one in the UK. The band's extraordinary album A Night At The Opera burst into the UK charts at number two just a couple of weeks before. Within a matter of days after this TV broadcast, it hit the top spot. And of course, there was so much to follow all that over the years.
I remember vividly watching this show on our TV at the time. I’ll confess to having a small cassette recorder at the ready, a plug-in microphone pointed at the TV, and asking my parents to keep quiet, on Christmas Eve. My tape was labeled after as Queen Live in ‘75 and eventually wore out from being overplayed. The concert was released as a live album in 2015, A Night at the Odeon - Hammersmith 1975.
It was an amazing show, the band already had a stunning set list from several top albums. They opened with “Now I’m Here” and blasted the audience with more great rock tunes beyond that. It was also one of the very first times “Bohemian Rhapsody” was performed live. We were all keen to see how such an extravagant-sounding song would work live, Queen pulled it off spectacularly.
That live album, which followed many years later, ensures we can still hear how good the band was live even at that still relatively early stage. It was a brilliant show and an OGWT highlight. If you want to know more, have a listen to the album, or there’s a brief discussion on Brianmay.com between May and presenter Harris about the evening.