BBC Study Records – 1969-73

A Quick Study

One of two sub-labels from the early years of BBC Enterprises’s main record label, the study records were issued initially via mail-order only to schools, colleges and universities. As the name suggests these were study aid. More accurately these were classroom materials which teachers would use to augment and enliven lessons, rather than simply reference works. Later the study records were available to the general public. It can seem hard now to delineate between what makes something a study record and a main label release based on content alone. Particularly in the early days, many of the BBC records were drawn from historical and sociological archive material, broadcasts of lectures, programmes about the natural world, hobbies, fitness, all sorts of music including a dollop of theory and a variety of children’s programming – all of which would and did find use in educational settings. Throw in drama and you have sound effects in use too! It might be easier to filter out the records which were not appropriate for educational institutions. The majority of study records were though drawn from BBC Schools Broadcasts, and it’s this marks them out, in general, from main label records. There are, of course, several exceptions to this rule.

Study records were not issued in direct support of broadcasts either. In some ways, this would be nonsensical because the broadcast was to be listened to at the time, so issuing a record beforehand would partly negate the need for the broadcast. The intention was to release some of the more popular, in-demand material so that it might be used beyond the scheduled broadcasts and repeats and allow greater flexibility for teachers. BBC Publications issued support material for mostly language courses, which were aimed at adults learning at home and were accompanied by books. The programmes, books and records formed a whole course and there was minimal profit for the BBC. Whereas, the study records were a money-making exercise, albeit a low-key one, and issued in response to what had become popular as broadcasts.

John Reith’s three values for the BBC were to inform, educate and entertain. Therefore, its broadcasts for schools and colleges were taken seriously. It’s natural then that some commercial outlet should be found within BBC Enterprises for this high-quality material. This manifested on the BBC Label in 1969 as Study Records. This sub-label had its own catalogue numbering, price code and label design, to mark it out from the main label. Initially, it was also only available to its target market on the not unreasonable assumption that broadcast material of this type was only of interest to education institutions.

The catalogue is pleasingly simple, with just one missing entry and consistency throughout. The catalogue is identified by the RESR prefix. This signifies the Radio Enterprises (RE) label as the main catalogue, although this was already defunct by the time Study Records appeared, and Study Records (SR). The numbering is as expected running from 1 to 33 with the inconsistent use of Mono ‘M’ and Stereo ‘S’ suffix in the latter years.

With the exception of the missing number (31) it’s possible to acquire a complete set of Study Records but by no means straightforward. Many of the releases are now rarely seen and it’s presumed that many of those sold were disposed of by the schools and colleges they were purchased by with no thought of passing them into the second-hand market. It’s possible that number of the original pressings were very low too, although all were available on the catalogue till 1973. Certain releases are particularly sought after by collectors with special interests which further increases demand and prices for the small numbers still in circulation. On the whole, Study Records were a niche and expect to pay more and spend longer hunting them down.

The reissuing and repackaging of some Study Records on the main label means that several are more widely available in another form. It’s only these reissues where cassette format releases are found and all the Study Records labels were only available on LP records. Some minor changes seem to have appeared on sleeve designs as the main label transitioned from the BBC label to BBC Records branding, but I’ve only seen one example of that. Other variations are uncommon, adding certain quality of purity, which with consistent designs adds to an allure for the collector.

I assume overseas sales were also part of the overall picture, but I only know of Gandhi Man On Trial (RESR 4) being issued (by Polydor) in India.

Also a key to the popularity with collectors is the design of the Study Records sleeves. The first tranche were sleeved in unique designs, much like any other release. With the absence of any obvious reference to the label’s identity these could have been released on the main label. Perhaps, given that the first four were not from schools and colleges broadcasts this had been the intention. The graphic simplicity of the concentric circles background design by Roy Curtis-Bramwell for Movement, Music & Mime (RESR 5) was then adopted as the basis for a standard template for numbers 8-18. This created a matching set of records, all with different eye-ctahcing coloured circles. The design was also used with the ‘e’ for enterprises BBC label design for the Decimal Points (REMO 46) release on the main catalogue. In 1971 the sleeves switched to another bold graphic – the harmonograph. This motif was used across the BBC Records catalogue on the the labels, but a whole suite of different harmonographs were deployed to give each of twelve Study Records their own. In fact the one used for Metered Music (RESR 25) was an upside down mirror of the main-label’s logo.

Study Period

There are three main phases of the Study LPs. Within those, there are other splits or differences. These trace the changes within that era.

Unstudied

The first bunch of seven Sudy LPs arrived in 1969 and came with individual sleeve designs. These are mostly three-colour printing, but they make the most of it. These largely sport the boxed BBC logo of the era and the ‘e’ for enterprises BBC label.

I know of at least one reissued with the BBC Records logo on the sleeve and the first, Pilgrim’s Progress (RESR 1) forgoes the company logo on the front sleeve. Although all seven have the (RE)SR price code, which presumably stands for Study Record, none of them state that they are Study Records or mentions that anywhere on the sleeve.

All of them do have ‘A Study Record’ on the label though. The label design is almost unique to the Study records. It’s orange and brown (bronze?) colour scheme is particularly redolent of that era. It pre-dates the orange and brown WHSmiths logo though, which came out in 1972.

In 1970 the BBC handbook mentioned the sub-label.

‘Study’ records, available through mail order and designed for schools and universities, include a broadcast version of Bunyan’s ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’, a Gandhi centenary record, an LP on sex education and discs on music and literature.

BBC Handbook, 1970

BBC Study Record(s)

The next batch appeared in 1970 and adopted a standardised sleeve design template. Each has a different colour, but all feature matching concentric circles graphics taken from Movement, Mime And Music (RESR 5). That record appears to be the inspiration for this design, altered to include the ‘e’ for Enterprises with boxed BBC logo from the labels. The circles were also used for Decimal Points (REMO , which was a BBC Records release from 1970. It’s identical in design to the Study records of the same era, but the Distribution Industry Training Board logo, MO price code and main label catalogue number, not to mention red/gold label, mark it out as being separate to the Study LPs. It’s just another example of how the BBC labels could not manage a consistent approach to their releases.

At least these Study records were now consistent. The stylish layout is formatted as follows. Top left above the circles is the title in large Beton typeface followed to the right by a smaller subtitle in Helvetica. The catalogue number is top right of the sleeve and beneath that the sub-label naming. This clean, clear design is an obvious take on the International Typographic Style AKA Swiss Style whilst the concentric rings are a nod to op-art with their geometric simplicity representating of the bands of a record, which almost seem to be spiraling out if you eye catches them in movement.

The template layout idea is not entirely carried over to the back sleeves. The BBC label era releases are as varied as other BBC releases from the time, including photos, diagrams, drawings and text, but all use the monochrome, plus single colour, of the front. The variety of approach here perhaps indicates that originally these numbers 8-12 had their own special designs, which were later dropped or never seen through. Roy Curtis Bramwell is credited for all of these. For the first five records in this phase the design uses the same Beton font for titles and basic black text. Movement, Mime & Music 2 is the only one to get any photos and there’s another quirk there as the title on the back is ‘Mimes To Music’. It seems this was created at a different time to the front of the sleeve! The sleeve design credit is also dropped at this point too, which suggested someone else was using Roy’s template. Overall though this template would have kept costs down and the simplicity of the graphics may have been cheaper to print too, with that eventually being extended to the back sleeve.

Another anomaly is that company logo. RESR numbers 8-12 sport the BBC boxed logo on the front sleeve and the back. Then numbers 13-18 retain the BBC boxed logo on the front sleeves but start using the new BBC Records logo on the back. This change marks the transition in 1970 from the BBC label to BBC Records. The actual labels remain as before though, in yet another contradictory piece of branding.

Whereas the catalogue numbers 1-7 were each identified as ‘A Study Record’ on the label only, now the sleeves carried the sub-label name too. Well, sort of. The BBC label releases use that logo to herald this as a ‘BBC STUDY RECORD’. A kind of sub-subtitle. The latter BBC Records releases seem to get the idea right though, using the space in the template to proclaim that this is the sub-label ‘BBC study records’.

Given that we have the SR price code and numbers plus the ‘A Study Record’ label legend in common, these are clearly all from the same catalogue or sub-label. It only seems to have occurred to them to print that on the sleeves more than a year after starting it off!

The Study Records series announced in 1969 now contains nineteen titles. This series is available through mail order only from BBC Records, London, SE99 at a cost of 30s. for each record, post
paid. Study Records are designed for schools, universities and libraries and are based on either School Radio broadcasts or General Service programmes relevant to the ‘0’ and ‘A’ level curricula and to university courses. Already over 13,000 copies have been sold from the series.

BBC Handbook 1971

BBC Study Series

The third and final run was released on the BBC Records label from 1971 to 1972 with one final record in 1973. For reasons that will probably remain obscure forever the sub-label would now be known as the BBC Records Study Series. The standard design template was changed to a company sleeve – the iconic harmonograph motif was also used on the main label. Each sleeve again came in its own colour and unique harmonograph picked out in white. All those sleeves also use a matt instead of a gloss finish. There seems to have been a further attempt to keep the costs down here as the whole sleeve is monochrome with all back text printed on white in eth colure of the front sleeve. Although the occasional graphical element is included there’s generally more space given over to detailed track listings and notes.

This new design was the work of Andrew Prewett who would go on to become the head of design at the label for many years. The harmonograph motif was used on the BBC Records catalogues for 1971, 1972 and the Doctor Single (RESL 11) in 1973. This was its last hurrah as the label branding changed again at the start of that year. The harmonograph would rise again to inspire Ghost Box records’ Julian House in his design for parts of their very own Study Series of 7″ releases between 2010 and 2013. In 2021 the band Spare Snare missed a CD compilation ‘The Complete BBC Radio Sessions 1995 – 2018’ with a design based on an audio file waveform motif and Prewett’s Study Series template. The CDs themselves carried a design based on the BBC Sound Effects Centre 7″s design, which is another classic modernist design from the BBC.

All the LPs in this phase (save one exception*) retain the original orange and brown/bronze label design with A Study Record legend from 1969. This is despite the switch to the yellow with red harmonograph logo on the main label and the Roundabout sub-label releases (check this!!)

*Anomalously, Time & Tune (RESR 23) stands alone with a crimson and gold BBC ‘e’ label. This may have been a simple mistake as that colourway was typically used on the main label and it’s the only Study record with this logo.

School’s Out!

Amongst the purity of the harmonograph sleeves sprung two outliers on the Study sub-label. They share the SR price code and numbering of the others, but there’s a sense of wanting to return to the freedom of the first phase.

New Life by Good News (RESR 29) was released in 1972, and features pop-rock band of Salvationists. The ‘popular religious’ music was taken from BBC Religious Broadcasts to Schools and would have been seem as a safe outlet for the insatiable demand for pop music that the kids had in this era. It shares the concept of making religion palatable to the long-haired, post-sixties generation of kids with the ‘Folk In Worship’ mini series which ran on the main label and out into the Study Records with Songs For Assembley (RESR 15) and back out again (see reissues and exchange students below) At first glance this could be a main label release with it’s glossy, full-size colour photo front sleeve and no mention of the Study Series. Only the catalogue number and familiar label mark it out as being A Study Record.

The final release in the Study Series came out alone in 1973 after a very quiet 1972 for Study records. The writing must have been on the wall for this sub-label, or at least a rethink, as ten releases in 1971 was pared back to just three the following year, with New Life breaking away from the sub-label branding. The 31st Study release was scrapped altogether with only a rumour that it may have been reserved for a Words & Pictures animated insert called Sam on Boffs’ Island (ref. Top Of The Box Volume 2, Tim Worthington).

On the other hand, the Roundabout sub-label was reinvigorated in 1972, so there may just have been a matter of prioritising that catalogue after a fallow period. Indeed, there was still value in the Study records as the update in the 1973 BBC Handbook states.

As part of the distribution re-organisation, BBC Study Records were made available in retail shops as well as by mail-order. Their wider availability was a subject of a major advertising campaign aimed at parents, children and students.

Evidence of that advertising is still to be found but the BBC Records Catalogue for 1973 still carries a full list of Study record. A couple have slipped off the roster by this point and another added in (See reissues and exchange students).

Reissues & Exchange Students

Whilst the sub-label was abandoned in 1973 some of the records lived on in the main label as reissues and there were main label releases which seemed to by on an exchange trip from the Study records.

Reissues

Let’s look first at Characters From Dickens (RESR 16, 1970), which was reissued as LP REC 186 and as a cassette (MRMC 021) in 1974 on the main BBC Records label. This is not a straight reissue though, as a sleeve note explains: “

“This is a reissue in stereo, with added dramatic effects, of a BBC mono Study record RESR 16.”

There’s another curious thing about this reissue though. In some sense it was also actually part of the Roundabout sub-label! If you peruse the back of the reissue sleeve you will see that it lists all of the Roundabout releases under the heading “Other Roundabout releases”. As there is no context for that “other” and no other Roundabout records to be other than, Characters from Dickens must be a Roundabout Record. Exhibit B in the case is that the 1973 BBC Records catalogue lists CFD under the ‘Roundabout Series For Children’ section. Indeed, it is listed as Roundabout 20! Obviously something changed as the catalogue number is not a roundabout one, nor does it say it’s Roundabout anywhere else on the sleeve.

Rather less interesting is that Into The Storm (RESR 3) was reissued with a small alteration to the front sleeve. The BBC label logo was swapped out for the circa 1972 BBC Records one. This is the only such example I’ve found and probably indicates only that they needed to re-press this one more often than the others and decided to bring it up-to-date at the same time.

Gandhi Man On Trial (RESR 4) had to wait till 1983 before it saw a reissue. More accurately it was used as the basis for a new record, Gandhi – His Life and Philosophy (REH 466).

The Seasons (RESR 7) was rediscovered by an associate of Johnny Trunk who later reissued it on his own Trunk Records label.

Songs For Assembly (RESR 15) made the transition from Study record to full label release in 1974. This became More Folk In Worship (REC 176). This was a stereo reissue.

The U. S. A. (RESR 17) was issued in 1970, as was Talk About America (REC 70). Both these Alistair Cooke disquisitions on the United States were bundled together as Talk About America (BBC 51)

Nursery Rhymes (RESR 26) had a second life as A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go (REC 224) in 1976 and was also available on cassette (MRMC 039). This reissue reordered the tracks.

Some British Accents & Dialects (RESR 27) was given a new lease of life, reappearing in 1974 as English With A Dialect – and Irish, Scottish and Welsh accents (REC 173) it was joined by English with an Accent (REC 166), which despite the gap between catalogue numbers seem to have come out at the same time.

Finally, Time And Tune No.2 (RESR 32) was reissued as a cassette-only in 1975, reusing the subtitle of the LP Adventure Stories In Words & Music (MRMC 022). There was a short run of educational/kid targetted casettes in the catalogue here with the following set

• Chacters From Dickens (MRMC 021 )
• Adventure Stories in Words and Music (MRMC 022)
• What Can I Do (MRMC 023)
• Come On and Sing (MRMC 024)

These resissues hung around throughout the seventies and some into the eighties with AFHWGAW and English With A Dialect both still in the 1988 catalogue.

Also Available & Exchange Students

In some ways the Study records lived on in 1974 through these repackaged reissues. English With An Accent and Songs Of Praise For Young Folk also seem like they would have been on the sub-label had it continued. But then there had been studious records on the main label even whilst the Study records got their own catalogue.

The first 7 records don’t acknowledge each other at all. A Pattern Of Islands provides an extensive list of records ‘Available From Your Record Shop But Not Directly From BBC’. That means it excludes any mail order records, which is what the Study records were at that point in time. Almost all of the records listed could pass as Study records though, with a plenty of classical music, poetry, wildlife, history, reminiscences, science and so on. The first record to carry an also available sleeve nbot is MM&M 2 (RESR 13) which is obligated to mention MM&M 1 (RESR 5).

This opened the way for Stories For Assembly (RESR 14) to provide the first full list. That list actually ran beyond the release to RESR 18, which indicates that all of the BBC Records label group in that second phase were released at once. The list was also included on 16, 17 & 18. This list is headed “The Complete List of Study Records Avaoilable From BBC London S.E. 99 Is As Follows:”. The complete list, note. And it is complete, with all the RESR catalogue numbers from 1-18. There are nineteen records listed though. The nineteenth being Ten To Eight (REMO 43). So, is this part of a complete list of Study Records? I mean to say, it can’t be, can it? None of the label or sleeve markings carry any Study Record legends and the catalogue number isn’t right either. I think they were just being helpful and pointing out that this collection of straight readings from the bible was worth a look.

In fact, Ten To Eight was visiting the Study Records faculty before the BBC Records days. The staff catalogue Records On The BBC Label of 1970 lists the Study Records from 1-12 and Ten To Eight. The first BBC Records catalogue from later in 1970 does not list any Study Records but does include Ten To Eight in the Spoken Word section. Study Records would not appear to be in the 1971 catalogue either (although I still need to track down a copy of that to be certain) but in 1972 it made a return.

In addition to the Study records list, and a bit of unusual aserisking, Songs Are For Singing (RESR 18) sensibly points out that you can buy God Rest You Merry (REC 86) which also fetaure the Saint Martin Singers.

The third phase of harmnograph-themed Study Series records largely eschew the ‘also available’ lists. Metered Music (RESR 24) has monochromatic images of the two MM&M releases with the heading “Two Other Vera Gray BBC Records”. Nursery Rhymes (RESR 26M) has an actual “Also Available” for Time & Tune (RESR 23) and Singing Together (RESR 25). Accents & Dialects (RESR 28) lists three non-Study records from the main label though., Frank O’Connor Speaks (REGL 2), Bernard Shaw – Some of His Broadcasts (REB 32) and The Many Voices of Peter Ustinov (REB 26). All of these feature accented English (the first two, Irish) and make sense as companions to the Study disc. The last two parts in the Study Series, 32 & 33 also list other Study Records, but let’s get back to records not in this catalogue.

The 1972 BBC Records catalogue has a section for Study Records. This lists all the records up to 28. And 30. But not 29. RESR 29 is New Life, and as noted above this sort of fits with the Young Folk In Worship mini-series but shunned Study Series branding. However, the list in the catalogue does have a record in between 28 and 30. Chantons Pour Passer Le Temps (REB 82) is a collection of French folk songs performed by Jan Rosol. And, to quote the sleeve notes “He visits Universities, Colleges, Schools and French Clubs all over Great Britain and the Channel Islands. He also broadcasts regularly in BBC Schools Programmes”. So, this is an exchange Study record indeed. New Life does not appear in this catalogue, as it was probably not released yet, but its place in the Study Series seems to have been taken by CPPLT – why? As these recordings were taken from BBBC Schools Broadcats sit was probably considered more aligned with the Study Records than the Popular Music. The provided song sheet in French does indicate some kind of educational intent though. Or maybe they just had more space in the Study Records section!

The mystery/confusion continues into 1973 though. The catalogue for that year again replaces New Life with CPPLT at the 29 position in the list. Ten To Eight is still in the catalogue but again as part of the Spoken Word section. New Life seems to have been release in late 1972 but deleted before the 1973 catalogue. Moreover, the catalogue insists that CPPLT is the 29th record in the Study Series contrary to all other evidence. OK, they might have just copied over from the 1972 catalogue, but, really? It does seem that they wanted to tell us that CPPLT really was supposed to be a study record.

Whilst I’m here, I might as well point out that the missing release in the study Series – RESR 31 – is still missing in 1973. It really does seem to have never been released though, not even on the main label, becuase they could have listed it here, just like CPPLT. We can only speculate what a Sam On Boff’s Isalnd record would have been like.

Anyway, the next catalogue that I’m aware of is the 1976/77 edition. It appears that during the Polydor era on 1973-76 catalogues were not favoured and on their return under the PYE Records deal they came back. By this time the only Study records left in the catalogue were the resissue from the intervening years.