At the BBC: The Complete Recordings 1979-1981

All the BBC recordings in one place for the first time • 2CD+BluRay mediabook or 3LP

The Selecter have announced At The BBC: The Complete Recordings 1979-1981, to be released in August.

At The BBC: The Complete Recordings 1979-1981 covers The Selecter’s glory years, from the first of two John Peel sessions in October 1979 (coinciding with their first-on-the-bill slot on the legendary first 2Tone tour, supporting Madness and The Specials) to an April 1981 performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test, recorded months before singer Pauline Black effectively called time on the band by leaving to pursue a solo career and acting ambitions (they’d officially split the year after).

The 30-track set marks the first time that all the beloved 2Tone act’s BBC recordings have been released in one place. The eight live tracks taken from a December 1979 show in Paris supporting The Specials were released on 1992’s BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert CD (which also included the headline act’s set). Five of those Paris tracks featured on the 15-track 1998 compilation BBC Sessions / Live At The Paris Theatre ’79, along with those two Peel sessions and a December 1980 set recorded for Mike Read. And that first Peel session appeared again on 2021’s 3CD edition of debut album Too Much Pressure, while the 1980 Peel and Read sessions were included on the 2022 2CD reissue of second album, Celebrate The Bullet.

Of particular interest then, for fans will be 10 audio tracks from TV appearances on BBC Midlands show Look! Hear! and The Old Grey Whistle Test and – most excitingly perhaps – a Blu-Ray featuring footage of all those performances (plus an extra Look! Hear! take on ‘Celebrate The Bullet’), as well as four Top Of The Pops appearances.

The 2CD+Blu-Ray set comes in DVD case-sized ‘mediabook’ packaging with a 20-page booklet including new 6,000-word sleevenotes by Simon Price (Curepedia: An A-Z Of The Cure, Everything: A Book About Manic Street Preachers).

The 3LP set is pressed on black vinyl and arrives in a rigid slipcase and four-page insert featuring Price’s sleevenotes.