ReMorristered

[TJ]

For a while now we've been thinking about trying to give the Morris radio shows in ciculation a bit of an overhaul - patching up incomplete or damaged bits, looking for higher quality copies, that sort of thing. So, if you've noticed anything about the current encodes that needs repair or similar, please say so in this thread. Similarly, if you can do anything to help resolve any of the points raised, please say so in this thread.

For example, Blue Jam S1E1 fades early (I've got a high-quality full recording to hand so can easily sort that myself), Music Show 9 and the Boxing Day Special are both missing a couple of minutes at the start, and I've been told that a couple of the circulating Blue Jam shows are actually in mono (and there must be decent stereo copies out there, surely). If you've spotted anything similar, here's the place to mention it.

Obviously this only applies to Blue Jam, On The Hour and the Music Shows, as there's unlilely to be alternative copies of any of the GLR shows around (although you never know). That said, if anyone has the Why Bother continuity announcements, or Morris phoning in to Danny Baker's GLR show, or any other of the much-sought-after bits and pieces, then please let us know...

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

announcements, or Morris phoning in to Danny Baker's GLR show

Cor, I don't know if I've ever heard that mentioned before, got any background? What did they talk about, did anyone actually hear it at the time?

[Peter Rain]

Chris Morris contributed a set of jingles and trailers to his old GLR colleague's morning show in 2002, having previously appeared as a phone-in guest in 1997, discussing the ease with which he had hired mandrills for use in "Brass Eye"!

[gazzyk1ns]

For example, Blue Jam S1E1 fades early (I've got a high-quality full recording to hand so can easily sort that myself),

The one in the torrent linked to on here is fine, if you didn't know. Heh, that sounds sarcastic, I'm just saying.

I've been told that a couple of the circulating Blue Jam shows are actually in mono (and there must be decent stereo copies out there, surely). If you've spotted anything similar, here's the place to mention it.

Yeah it's episodes 2 and 3 of series 2 which are in mono. The only other thing I noticed whilst having a poke around was that most of series 1, and the first of series 2, haven't got the CaB "bumpers" at the start. I don't know if you were intending to have those included or not.

[Lee]

If there are still those tiny cuts within episode 1, I can fill them in if you like. Let me know.

[TJ]

The one in the torrent linked to on here is fine, if you didn't know. Heh, that sounds sarcastic, I'm just saying.

Is it? Only someone said the other day that it fades during 'In Heaven...', and misses about a minute off the end.

Yeah it's episodes 2 and 3 of series 2 which are in mono. The only other thing I noticed whilst having a poke around was that most of series 1, and the first of series 2, haven't got the CaB "bumpers" at the start. I don't know if you were intending to have those included or not.

I'm ambivalent about that, personally. 2 and 3 you say? I'm sure there must be complete off-airs in stereo out there somewhere (I was told that a couple of series 1 are in mono too), although do everyone's copies suffer from C90-flipping-over syndrome?

[TJ]

If there are still those tiny cuts within episode 1, I can fill them in if you like. Let me know.

Which tiny cuts are they?

I've got a very good off-air of the first broadcast, missing only the first few seconds of Newsbeat (well, everyone fell for it at the time), and some of Be Thankful due to turning the tape over.

[Lee]

The tiny cuts in Be Thankful, Isobel and the outro.

[TJ]

The tiny cuts in Be Thankful, Isobel and the outro.

As far as I know the outro's still cut, but I've no idea about the songs. Can anyone confirm?

Lee, do you have any other complete shows?

[gazzyk1ns]

Right, I've just checked - there are two different sets of encodes going around - ones captured from analogue FM, and newer ones which were captured from digital broadcasts. The analogue encodes were the ones you had on here available for download a while ago - before we had this php board. The ID3 tags credit them to "gus, mark p & dan p". The newer encodes were done by Steve Bass2rez (S1 and 2) and netgit (S3) - and they're the ones which CaB links to now, via a torrent. Me and Weekender also put them up on UK Nova about 7 times before UKN banned them, so people might have obtained them from there.

The S1E1 early fade is in the older encodes from analogue, the new one is fine. The older versions of S2 Eps. 2 and 3 are actually in stereo; but are considerably worse in quality. I suppose you could say it's a matter of opinion but it's not just a case of FM hiss being present on the older ones, the newer ones are far clearer.

Edit: That makes the analogue ones sound terrible, they're really not bad at all. I was also temporarily confused because some sketches actually do have hiss in the background.

[Lee]

The tiny cuts in Be Thankful, Isobel and the outro.

As far as I know the outro's still cut, but I've no idea about the songs. Can anyone confirm?

Lee, do you have any other complete shows?

I've no off-airs, but I've got the original tracks that feature the cuts, and I can easily cut and paste the cut at the end from the intro, as they're identical I think. Any cuts within the music that you have, I could probably sort out.

[TJ]

OK, so it seems Blue Jam's sorted with a bit of mixing and matching (although... does anyone know for certain if the Beth Orton track is included at the end of either encode of 1/4?).

Still looking for anything anyone's noticed in the Music Shows, or if anyone can plug any of the gaps mentioned so far. Also, On The Hour... now that's a tricky one. Series 1 went out more or less uncut on BBC7, but Series 2 went out in the edited versions. With the exception of 2/5, which wasn't repeated and the encode was taken directly from my original off-air, all of the files in circulation have the cut bits restored from those awful hissy MP3s that we did when I couldn't find the original tapes and we knew fuck all about encoding anyway. I've since done a much better set from the original broadcasts (as you can doubtless tell from 2/5), so if anyone fancies having a go at using them to re-plug the cut bits, please let me know. Serious offers only please...

[Garam]

What's the story on Blue Jam 1.6? The one I had was 15 minutes long and had much of the same material as an earlier show. I know that's the one that got faded out because of the bishop sketch, but is there anything else left?

[gazzyk1ns]

OK, so it seems Blue Jam's sorted with a bit of mixing and matching (although... does anyone know for certain if the Beth Orton track is included at the end of either encode of 1/4?).

Both 1/4s are complete right to the end of the outro. I downloaded that Beth Orton track (because I wasn't familiar with it) and it sounds like the BJ version is a weird mix? It's almost lyric-less. Actually you can hear it for yourself, easier than me struggling to talk about a song I'd never heard:

[Link removed because the matter has been resolved]

But yeah, as far as I know, the only improvement the BJs could possibly do with would be stereo caps of the digital broadcasts of 2/2 and 2/3. I wouldn't know about any cuts/edits made when they were repeated on DAB though, if any were made.

[TOCMFIC]

Very curious to know where my encodes come from, as there are no cuts, or missing bits?! And I can't remember who did them for me now. (Geej?) They're definitely complete as far as I can remember.

[TJ]

OK, so it seems Blue Jam's sorted with a bit of mixing and matching (although... does anyone know for certain if the Beth Orton track is included at the end of either encode of 1/4?).

Both 1/4s are complete right to the end of the outro.

Wasn't Beth Orton after the outro, though, covering for 'docrude' being cut from the episode? That's how I remember it, though I could be wrong.

[TTT]

Has anyone got run lengths for the morris music shows currently being torrented? I seem to remember editing 1 or 2 of them after I sent the edited encodes on to Neil.

[gazzyk1ns]

Wasn't Beth Orton after the outro, though, covering for 'docrude' being cut from the episode? That's how I remember it, though I could be wrong.

Ah - I've got no idea, I didn't listen to them when they first went out (or when they repeated them). I was just going by the episode guides on here - the end of the list for this ep. is:

Psychiatrist Sex
Beth Orton - Best Bit
Michael Alexander St John's mistake
Blue Jam Outro

[TJ]

Psychiatrist Sex
Beth Orton - Best Bit
Michael Alexander St John's mistake
Blue Jam Outro

Oh riiiight... well, it's a long story but those episode guides were tampered with without my knowledge, and without Neil realising they had been tampered with (no, it wasn't hacking or anything... as I said it's a long story), so they're not really reliable any more and I really should rejig them sometime. I'm almost 100% certain that 'Best Bit' was after the outro.

EDIT: See, I didn't bill it as 'Michael Alexander St. John's mistake' when I wrote it. And don't get me started on some of those other changed sketch titles...

[Beep Cleep Chimney]

TJ wrote:

OK, so it seems Blue Jam's sorted with a bit of mixing and matching (although... does anyone know for certain if the Beth Orton track is included at the end of either encode of 1/4?).



Both 1/4s are complete right to the end of the outro. I downloaded that Beth Orton track (because I wasn't familiar with it) and it sounds like the BJ version is a weird mix? It's almost lyric-less. Actually you can hear it for yourself, easier than me struggling to talk about a song I'd never heard:

Link (10mb)

Not sure if this makes any real difference to what you're trying to clarify, but the tune that's playing underneath the clip in the link that TJ provided above (the "cut a thin layer of skin off her foot" bit and the Psychiatrist Sex bit) is actually 'The Story Of Light' by William Orbit, and not 'Best Bit' by Beth Orton.  Morris just kept looping the intro to that song for the bed for the "foot/landlord" sketch, and let it run to the end of the track for the Psychiatrist Sex bit.  I remember taping that particular episode when it originally aired and don't remember there being anything after the outro.

[TJ]

Just checked and 'Best Bit' is after the outro on my off-air of the original broadcast. It's also in the original Real Audio encode we had up here years ago, which I think was done from the repeat.

[Beep Cleep Chimney]

I stand corrected then!

[TJ]

Has anyone got run lengths for the morris music shows currently being torrented? I seem to remember editing 1 or 2 of them after I sent the edited encodes on to Neil.

Anyone?

[benthalo]

I've got a very good off-air of the first broadcast, missing only the first few seconds of Newsbeat (well, everyone fell for it at the time), and some of Be Thankful due to turning the tape over.

I did a full repair of episode 1 from two separate off-airs a couple of years ago, so nothing's missing in my copy, and it's stereo as far as I'm aware. I could have sworn I'd circulated it, though. Ah well. I know nothing about download versions as I've never needed to resort to them in the case of Blue Jam. The plan was to do a collection of every single tx and repeat of BJ from off-air sources, with any gaps repaired. Too bloody time consuming for me alas.

[TJ]

I did a full repair of episode 1 from two separate off-airs a couple of years ago, so nothing's missing in my copy, and it's stereo as far as I'm aware. I could have sworn I'd circulated it, though. Ah well. I know nothing about download versions as I've never needed to resort to them in the case of Blue Jam. The plan was to do a collection of every single tx and repeat of BJ from off-air sources, with any gaps repaired. Too bloody time consuming for me alas.

They're mostly very, very good and DAB quality, with the few exceptions noted above.

Incidentally, were there any variations in any of the repeats? I certainly don't remember spotting anything, apart from the restoration of the previously inaudible intro on a series 3 episode, but you never know.

I'd quite like to do as full a Morris Restoration as possible, although as Mr Halo says it's very time consuming and help would be needed. For example, I'd love there to be a full set of music shows with not only all sketches and music intact, but also any relevant continuity ("and now... more on that tortoise!" etc) added in.

[benthalo]

Incidentally, were there any variations in any of the repeats?

Things like continuity at the front and end, and just the sense that I know which broadcast is which, just in case something is spotted down the line. I still haven't forgotten the shock of discovering a cut in a series 4 MWE show, which absolutely no one spotted until three years ago, more than a decade after broadcast. Ditto the revision to an episode of radio KMKY after its first broadcast, which The Mumbler spotted about five years ago. As you say, never think you know it all.

[TJ]

Ditto the revision to an episode of radio KMKY after its first broadcast, which The Mumbler spotted about five years ago. As you say, never think you know it all.

Lordy, that's coming back to me now... wasn't it something from the interview with Marber's 'I rest my case' bloke?

[gazzyk1ns]

Has anyone got run lengths for the morris music shows currently being torrented? I seem to remember editing 1 or 2 of them after I sent the edited encodes on to Neil.

Is the torrent on here now identical to the one upped to UKN by Neil, shortly before we had torrents on here? Because I have that on my HD and so can tell you the run lengths. I think they could be the same versions, because this is tacked on to the end of the .nfo file:

The vast majority of these files were recorded and encoded by bass2rez, and the credit belongs to him.  The captures he made are excellent quality so big thanks to him for all his work on them. We also wish to thank TTT for editing some of the files to put in missing bits. This torrent contains all 24 episodes of the Chris Morris Music Show, with the two-hour Boxing Day show split in  two.

...so obviously they're ones which you did at least some editing to.

[TJ]

Yes, I think they're the same - so info away, Gazzyk1ns...

[benthalo]

Lordy, that's coming back to me now... wasn't it something from the interview with Marber's 'I rest my case' bloke?

I forget at this moment. The MWE cut was a remark about Vidal Sassoon being a ponce, which isn't exactly libellous, from one of the Gulf Experiences. It was cut from the repeat later in the week and no one seems to remember why - probably just to play safe. The only reason I noticed it is because it was crossed through in the final script. It's no more than 2" in all.