Unofficial Recordings

James H Reeve's Nocturnal Emissions programme quickly gathered a regular loyal listenership. Not all of the listeners though were able to go to sleep that late every night. So lots of unofficial recordings of the programmes were made, and then listened to the following day.

Most of these were taped over, lost or just forgotten about.... but some survived.  Simon Sandiford-Mitchell's entire collection of snippets are in the process of being turned into MP3s.  Obviously most of what was unearthed was the bits where James read out Simon's letters, or where other people mentioned him in their letters, but still makes entertaining listening.  As much as possibe, the clips will be listed in date order.

Below are the ones recovered so far, with relevent information included.  Clicking on the icon takes you to eSnips site where it will start playing, and there is a link there to download the actual MP3 to your computer.

There are currently 10 clips available to download.

TRACK 01

PAUL WILLIAMSON LETTER

Date: Station: Presenter: Contributer: Size: Length: June 1986 Piccadilly Radio James H Reeve Paul Williamson 786 KB 1m 54s Track Info: This is the earliest recording that I have recovered and is definitely from late-June 1986. It is a letter by Paul Williamson of WHGS. It is about computers and how they apparantly will become obselete. It mentions that Paul will start writing more and phoning in as everyone at WHGS is crazed with doing so. Jingles: The track starts off with the "Feel Your Heartbeat, Feel Your Heartbeat... On Piccadilly Radio... 24 Hours A Day" jingle.

TRACK 02

ANDREW HAFFNER LETTER

Date: Station: Presenter: Contributer: Size: Length: June 1986 Piccadilly Radio James H Reeve Andrew Haffner 844 KB 2m 03s Track Info: This is a letter from Andy Haffner about the competition to replace James when he goes on holiday (he was on holiday for the first two weeks of July 1986 and Mike Briscoe - who was also head of programmes at the time - actually took over). Some long-forgotten correspondents get a mention: Mike Dean, The Welsh Git, Roy Acorn and Irate Albert. There's also a mention of James's blue Mazda that had been stolen a few days earlier. Jingles: The track starts with the instrumental jingle that says "Piccadilly Radio" at the end of it.

TRACK 03

SIMON SANDIFORD-MITCHELL LETTER

Date: Station: Presenter: Contributer: Size: Length: June 1986 Piccadilly Radio James H Reeve Simon Sandiford-Mitchell 354 KB 0m 54s Track Info: This is one of my letters about a month after I made my debut. This is the one where I sent him a "Know-It-All Licence". I didn't actually make up the attached printed licence, although he made it sound like I had. It was written in "American" and hence James picked up the mis-spelling of Licence. I think I found it in a box of cereal or something like that and thought - that's James! So I sent it him and here is the result. I mention my age is 13 and 11/12 which means that it must have been late June 1986. Jingles: The track ends with a short "Piccadilly Radiooooo" jingle.

TRACK 04

ASHLEY REECE & ANDREW HAFFNER PHONE CALL

Date: Station: Presenter: Contributer: Size: Length: June 1986 Piccadilly Radio James H Reeve Ashley Reece & Andrew Haffner 673 KB 1m 38s Track Info: This is Ashley Reece's first appearance and also Andrew Haffner's first time on the phone, who both must have been round at the same house that night. The clip right at the start mentions that "Buzz Hawkins has just been through" (the studio) with some callers. It appears that he was doing the answering the phones job at the time. There is light banter with Ashley about Manchester Grammar school being better than WHGS according to James. Andy Haffner explains to James about the infamous "Jim Reeve League Table" that drove all the WHGS people to call and write in. After the point system is explained to James, he guarantees it would be a 0-0 draw. Rita Roe gets another mention and that makes James cut them off. Jingles: There is a quick jingle at the start "Piccadilly Radio" and another at the end that has an instrumental and then finshes off with "Piccadilly Radio".

TRACK 05

PAUL WILLIAMSON PHONE CALL

Date: Station: Presenter: Contributer: Size: Length: June 1986 Piccadilly Radio James H Reeve Paul Williamson 1.16 MB 2m 54s Track Info: This is Paul Williamson's first call to the programme. James mentions the 8 letters from WHGS he had received that day and he rips them up to Paul's disappointment. Jingles: There are two jingles included - the opening one is "Feel The Power - Piccadilly Radio" and it closes with "Straight From The Heart Its Piccadilly - 24 Hours Of Music Each Day - Piccadilly Radio".

TRACK 06

PAUL WILLIAMSON PHONE CALL

Date: Station: Presenter: Contributer: Size: Length: June 1986 Piccadilly Radio James H Reeve Paul Williamson 939 KB 2m 17s Track Info: This is another Paul Williamson call and he has a discussion with James about the chicken and the egg, and then moves on to "how to get a boiled egg into a milk bottle". The clip strangely includes a James Bond clip for some reason near the start. The next caller up after Paul is Roy Acorn, much to James's annoyance. Jingles: The track opens with a repeat of the "Straight From The Heart..." jingle.

TRACK 07

YOU'RE MY SON

Date: Station: Presenter: Record: Size: Length: June 1986 Piccadilly Radio James H Reeve You're My Son 910 KB 2m 13s Track Info: This is part of a lightly contraversial record that James played called "You're My Son" which he explains is by Kenny Rogered - which is a take on Kenny Rogers as it contains lyrics such as "he's a bastard, he's a bastard..." in Kenny Rogers country and western style. Also, he refers to himself as Jim H Reeve in this clip - the only time I have ever heard him call himself that. James also mentions that this was the last programme before he went off on his holidays. Jingles: There is one jingle at the end and it is the one that goes "Piccadilly Radio, Stereo Power, FM 103.... Piccadilly Radio, Music Power, FM 103".

TRACK 08

LETTERS TO MIKE BRISCOE

Date: Station: Presenter: Contributer: Size: Length: July 1986 Piccadilly Radio Mike Briscoe Ashley Reece & Simon Sandiford-Mitchell 316 KB 0m 46s Track Info: This was early July 1986 and James H has gone on his holiday to be replaced by Mike Briscoe.  He reads out some letters from WHGS.  First is Ashley Reece welcoming him and then SSM provides a list of callers to expect and Mr Briscoe then screws them up and throws them in the bin. Jingles: There is a jingle at the end that just says "... the heart of the North West".

TRACK 09

THE WHGS GARDEN FETE LETTER

Date: Station: Presenter: Contributer: Size: Length: July 1986 Piccadilly Radio Mike Briscoe Simon Sandiford-Mitchell  370 KB 0m 54s Track Info: Mike Briscoe misguidedly reads out a spoof letter on Thu 10 July 1986 from SSM about a forthcoming WHGS Garden Fete.  The fete was real, but because I thought he wouldn't read it out, I pretended that the school headmaster had told me to send the letter and the whole school was listening to the programme waiting for the mention.  Any suspicious-sounding content in the letter was purely coincidental, and not noticed by Mr Briscoe! Jingles: The jingle at the end just says "Straight from the heart!"

TRACK 10

ANDREW HAFFNER PHONE CALL

Date: Station: Presenter: Contributer: Size: Length: July 1986 Piccadilly Radio James H Reeve Andrew Haffner 1.4 MB 3m 30s Track Info: This is a call from Andy Haffner. This is from late July 1986 after Jim had come back from his holidays. It is mentioned that James took over from Phil Wood's 10-1am slot at the end of January 2006. Andy tries to convice James to give prizes away on his programme. It mentions that James gave t-shirts away when England were playing their World Cup matches (June 1986). James also mentions going strawberry picking in Whitefield and making jam. Jingles: There is a bizarre Piccadilly jingle at the end of the track that goes "24 Hours Of Stereo Music, The Heart Of The North West Beating Each Day, Sit Down Relax, You'll Always Be Welcome To Stay".

More coming soon....

Last Updated: Wed 13 December 2006