A rummage through the Sound Effects library by William Grierson. Released 5th August 1983 on LP (REC) and cassette (ZCM). The cover illustration is by John Farman – History In A Hurry etc. – and sleeve design by Mario Moscardini.

On File

In the BBC Records file in the written archive, all that remains apart from the Reptoire sheets (covering basic inof like release date, tracklist etc.) is a note from Grierson to Peter Harwood – Group 4 SMs – suggesting a meeting in the third week of January to “pick your brains”. In particular, he wants to know if, apart from the ‘Comedy’ effects in the catalogue, Harwood has “any others secretly lurking”. Then there are several relevant pages (44-46) photcopied from the May 1982 BBC Sound Effect Index catalogue where someone, presumably Grierson, has marked up various comedy entries.

The two things of any interest at all here are: that not all the marked effects from the index were used; and there must have been more “secretly lurking” because it seems that several effects on the album are not from the catalogue. Moreover, those secret effects are still not in the comedy section sound effects library availble today. As far as I can hear.

Unused effects include the ‘Pig Feeding Computer – Electrical: Pig Feeding Computer.‘, which sounds kind of funny on paper, but was listed under the computer effects in 1982. It is not a funny sound and may have just caught Grierson’s eye as it was on the same page as actual comedy effects. Also passed over was ‘Telephones: Comedy – High speed telephone gibberish – 1967 (7E, reprocessed)‘, which is a comedy classic, but just may not have fitted in with any of the sections.

Left out too was ‘Trains: Comic – Train crash – 1967 (7B, reprocessed)‘, which might, I supose have been considered in poor taste. The same might be said of ‘Indians: Comedy – Studio whooping – 1967 (7C, reprocessed)‘ which wasn’t used.

‘Bubbles: Comedy – Continuous bubbling sound – 1972 (7M, reprocessed)‘ didn’t make the cut, probably because it was too similar to the bubbling sounds on Off Beat Sound Effects (REC 198, 1975). And ‘Animals: Comedy – Half a dozen werewolves – 1972 (7L, reprocessed)‘ had already appeared as ‘3 Werewolves Howling’ on Death and Horror Sound Effects (REC 269, 1977).

Sleevenotes

BBC Records have produced a superb total of twenty seven sound effects albums. So having recently covered the serious subjects of Sci-Fi (REC 420) and three volumes of Death and Horror (REC 269, 340 and 452) we thought we would delve into the realms of funny peculiar and funny ha-ha! Thus “Comedy Sound Effects”.

Or, to put it another way: ‘It has been eight years since Off Beat Sound Effects and as we annoyed Roy Maynard by not paying him properly for the success of that, and he didn’t want to do another one for free, we’re finally back with part two!’ There is some communication in the Off Beat file on that spat. When both albums went to a CD release in 1991 Off Beat was Volume 2 to the this album’s Volume 1, so they can be considerd a pair, really.

Almost all these effects have been taken from the world famous BBC Sound Effects Library. It is this library that BBC Producers use to enrich and enhance their programmes and where an instant supply of cars, ships, footsteps, airplanes etc. are available on disc for the use of!

Yes, almost all. There were twelve 7″ discs dedicated to comedy effects in the library. This is the mono EC 7x range running from 7A to 7M (with there being no 7I). Below, I’ve done my best to find all the effects that came straight from the catalogue, but there are still a lot, around two-fifths, which are not accounted for. As most of the EC 7x discs were over ten years old or more by the time this compilation was created the Sound Effects Library had almost certainly gathered even more comedic noises, even though they were not adding them all to the catalogue available on disc. Some sounds seem be additional varaints of others. The Impact Ryhthms of EC 7A may be just selection from a tape with more of the same and Giierson was indeed able to find more “secrectly lurking” on the reel. The whole album is mono too, so there could have been some stereo material presented as a single channel here.

Tucked away in a small corner of the card index of the Library is a little section entitled “Comedy Sounds”, the sorts of which can be heard on this album.

I don’t know if it was “tucked away” and the catalogue is alphabetical by subject, so you can easily find the comedy section. That said we do get some stuff which was not in the generally available catalogue, so the card index probably had more details on some of the older material on 78s, which hadn’t been transferred to microgroove records, and new stuff kept on tape only.

Rest assured that these effects have all at one time or other been used on many a BBC production, both for radio or television, indeed, many have featured on actual BBC Records such as The Goons, Round the Horne, Fawlty Towers and Not The Nine O’Clock News.

So, this comment indicates that nothing was specially created for this record. What’s less clear is what was created for what show and then added to the library and what was later used on another show from the library. Or indeed what was taken from another collection and added to the BBC Sound Effects library. At least this gives some idea of where effects may pop-up and that you can hear them on other BBC Records. Now, there’s a cross-referencing challenge! A further thought is that if all these sounds have been used on programmes, but not all were in the standard catalogue, then the real library was and is mush deeper than it seems.

Anyone who has bought Sound Effects before will relish the prospect of dubbing, editing and assembling their own soundtrack, whether for stage production, cine-film or home video. Do not hesitate to double up the lengths of recordings, play them at the wrong speed, anything to suit yourself, and if one feels a little self-indulgent a complete listen through is bound to raise a laugh.
Happy listening!

Compilation: William Grierson

And the usual boilerplate about how to use the effects…

Let’s get into it then! What follows below is an attempt to locate every effect on the BBC Sound Effects library website, the sound effects library disc it came from, when it was used originally or later by BBC programmes and in some places where it’s been used outside the BBC. This will remain a work in progress and I strongly welcome any suggestions of where effects came from and where they were later used.

Side 1

1 Human

• 1 Bleches And Burps (4) 0:11 ???
• 2 Raspberry (2) 0:12 – ???
• 3 Men Snoring 0:31 – 7F 1967
• 4 Drunks Snoring 0:55 – 7F 1967
  • This has swapped naming with previous effect when compared to the library’s names
• 5 Man Drinking Bath Water 0:21 – – 7F 1967
  • In the catalogue as ‘Man drinking bucket of cold cocoa’
• 6 Wheezing And Coughing 0:20 – 7H 1968
  • There is a typographical error on the BBC SFX website dating this as 1980. Earlier catalogues date it as May 1968, which is when the EC 7H disc was released.
  • This sound is used on the final regular Goonshow, The Last Smoking Seagoon (1960). It was released on BBC Records with The Way of the West (1959) as Goon Show Classics Vol. 9 (REB 44, 1982)
  • This effect was earlier catalogued as ‘Several men coughing’ on the 78 disc Effects For The “Goon Show“(19 G 22, 1962). Many of the effects from this disc were reproduced on EC 7H.,

2. Fights

7 Tum Biff 0:05 – 7A 1967
8 Brawl 0:27 – 7E 1967
9 Pub Bust Up 0:34
10 Chinese Swordfight (With Rifle Shots) 0:33 – 7E 1967
11 Mad Dwarf Fight 0:19
12 Flights Of Arrows (One Lands) 0:31 – 7M 1972

3. Footsteps

13 Squeaky Feet, Door Opens And Closes 0:21 – 7G 1968
14 Feet Approach Door, Door Open And Close, Depart 0:09 – 7G 1968
15 Feet Approach, Explosion 0:12 – 7G 1968
16 Footsteps To Water, Then Splash 0:10 – 7G 1968
17 High Speed Run To Distance And Return 0:16 – 7G 1968
18 Run To Distance 0:06
19 High Speed Reverse 0:09

4. Crashes

• 20 Explosion And House Collapse 0:15 – ???
• 21 Wowing Crash 0:09
• 22 Desperate Entry 0:16
• 23 Almighty Prang 0:11
• 24 Trays Dropped Down Lift Shaft 0:08
• 25 Cars Crashing With Horns 0:31 – 7C – 1967
• 26 U.F.O. Colliding With Church Spire 0:26 – ???
  • Used by Big Audio Dynamite on V. Thirteen (Strummer-Jones, 1987)
• 27 Complete Collapse 0:36

5. Laughter And Applause

28 Laughter (Weak), Small Group 0:13
29 Laughter Small Group 0:37
30 Applause Small Group 0:20
31 Maniacal Laughter 0:19
32 Positive Laughter 0:13
33 Applause And Cheers 0:25

6. Animals

• 34 Donkey 0:23 – 7L 1972
  • This sound is from the sound effects disc Columbia YB-20 (1946) and appears to be a man making the noise but adding a raspberry at the end of each bray.
  • In the version here the raspberries seem to have been removed,
  • It’s better known to Goon Show fans as Fred The Oyster because it was originally used for the sound of Fred the Oyster opening his shell
  • Spike Milligan loved this sound and explained later that the raspberry sound is a real thing donkeys or in fact mules do
  • “I remember these mules used to do this to cool their lips in India. They’d blow sandfuls(sic) of shrivelled raspberries. They used to collapse me – they still do. They still paralyze me. Whenever that happened I was helpless. The thought that the mule was doing it, not knowing how funny it was.”
• 35 Horse 0:26 – 7L 1972
  • Columbia YB-25 1946?
• 36 Human Sheep 0:40
• 37 Sad Dog 0:07 – ???
• 38 Silly Moos 0:10 – ???
• 39 Munching Crocodile 0:26 – ???
• 40 Flying Rattlesnake Landing 0:11 – ???
• 41 Cat With Hiccoughs 0:10 – ???

Side 2

7. Bizarre

• 42 Batter Pudding Thrown 0:06 – 7A 1967
  • “Spike once had an idea (sometimes more than once) and it is alleged that he asked the canteen lady at the Camden Theatre for a custard. She obligingly made one for him. Whereupon he removed his sock, poured in the custard and ‘splodged it against the wall. Unfortunately, it didn’t sound like the arrival of a batter pudding and the original jelly-splosh sound effect was obtained from soggy wet paper bags, half-full of water. (Pessimists would prefer them half-empty) Such is art, and there’s more where that came from”. JOHN BROWELL. Goon Show producer
  • In fact, this effect is not heard on the show. Instead, we hear a whoosh effect (EC 7D, 1967) for the throwing of the batter pudding
• 43 Horror Toilet 0:14 – ???
• 44 Gas Stove Dropped 0:10 – 7C 1967
• 45 Tree Sag And Crash 0:15 – 7K 1972
• 46 Cork Pop And Guzzle 0:11 – 7C 1967
• 47 Radiophonic Stomach 0:13 – 7K 1972
• 48 Orgy (With Whips And Screams) 0:31 – 7K 1972 –
  • During Major Bloodnok’s gastric overture this effect can be heard during The Last Goon Show Of All (REB 142, 1972)
  • Although the catalogue claims that this is from September 1972, The Last Goon Show Of All was recorded in April of that year and you can see a grams operator with an array of red and white labelled discs ready to go. Maybe this was played off a tape though.
  • This sound is now titled ‘Raucous party with smashing glass, screams, footsteps and whipping sounds’ in the catalogue. It used to be called ‘Standard Orgy’.
• 49 3 Handed BBC Typist 0:40 – 7K 1972
• 50 Piano Dragged Along 0:46 – 7B 1967
• 51 Wild Boars Having Tea 0:27 – 7L 1972
• 52 Comic Old Banger 0:52 – 7F 1967
• 53 Flying Angel 0:35 – 7F 1967

8. Birds

54 Electric Woodpecker 0:25 – 7K 1972
55 Daddy Owl 0:10 – 7K 1972
56 Mummy Owl 0:07 – 7K 1972
57 Gobbling Goose 0:19 – 7M 1972
58 Irish Nightingale 0:34 – 7L 1972
59 Smoked Herring Gull 0:08 – 7L 1972
60 More Or Less Normal Chicken 0:26 – 7L 1972
61 Indisposed Chicken 0:11 – 7L 1972
62 Mating Cry Of The Lesser Spotted Ooja 0:25 – ???
63 Neurotic Duck 0:39 – 7L 1972

9. Impacts A

64 Door Breaking Down 0:40
65 Bursting Beer Bottle 0:06
66 2 Glass Crashes 0:09
67 Razz Rhythm Clang 0:08 – 7A 1967
68 Whiz Clong 0:05 – 7A 1967
69 Wallop Clang Twang 0:06
70 Razz Razz Bang And Jangle 0:06 – 7A 1967
71 Jangle Flong 0:07 – 7A 1967

10. Impacts B

72 Clong Bong Doyoyoing 0:06 – 7A 1967
73 Whoosh Bing Bang Doying 0:06 – 7A 1967
74 Doying Pop Doying 0:07 – 7A 1967
75 Bong Doying 0:10 – 7A 1967
76 Bubbly Wubbly 0:15
77 Twang Yang 0:05 –
78 Twangs 0:18

11. Space Age

79 Rocket Ship Taking Off 0:50 – 7D 1967
80 Rocket Ship Antics 0:23 – 7D 1967
81 Rocket Ship Landing 0:32 – 7D 1967
82 Martian Computer 0:17 – 7K 1972