THE STORY
One of the episodes of (I think) Thin Air (1988) was dubbed at the old BBC facility at Ealing, which, of course, was in turn the original Ealing Film Studios. In those days you always had what was called a GRAMS operator, whose job was to play in anything required off disc, because vinyl was still the principal medium for sound effects then.

The GRAMS operator for our dub was Doc Cox. Now Doc was a legend at the BBC, not least because he was, in addition to being on the staff as a sound man, a presenter for the Esther Rantzen show That's Life. I also knew that for years Doc had worked under the name of Ivor Biggun, and had had a couple of minor hits in the late 1970s.

Doc Cox, Paul Jones & Andy Roberts

On the second day of the dub, Doc presented me with a cassette of the Liverpool Scene, live in 1969, playing at a teacher training college in Bromsgrove in Worcestershire. He had been the sound man for the gig, and had recorded it, and remembered I was in the band. We stayed in touch for a while, and some time later he asked if I'd play a gig with his band Ivor's Jivers, at the Swan in Fulham, in (I guess) 1989 or 1990. He explained that the Jivers played anything that was on the Stones first 2 albums.

I was happy to oblige, and even happier when I found out that Paul Jones was guesting as well. I had met Paul in his Manfred Mann days, when I was working with the Scaffold, and over the years we had run into each other in both theatre and film situations. By the time of this gig he was a leading the Blues Band.

All I remember of the gig was that it was well received, high energy, and someone sent me a few pix, of which these are two. That's Doc with the glasses left of frame in the photo above.

ANDY ROBERTS

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