Disc One: 1. Come On, 2. Memphis, Tennessee, 3. Roll Over Beethoven, 4. Roll Over Beethoven, 5. Don’t Lie To Me, 6. Mona, 7. Walkin’ The Dog, 8. Bye Bye Johnny, 9. You Better Move On, 10. I Wanna Be Your Man 11. Intro, 12. Route 66, 13. Long John Talks, 13. Cops And Robbers, 14. Long John Talks, 15. You Better Move On, 16. Long John Talks, 17. Mona, 18. Not Fade Away, 19. Hi Heeled Sneakers, 20. Little By Little, 21. I Just Wanna Make Love To You, 22. I’m Moving On, 23. Not Fade Away, 24. I Just Wanna Make Love To You, 25. Beautiful Delilah, 26. Hi Heeled Sneakers, 27. Carol, 28. Walkin’ The Dog, 29. Beautiful Delilah, 30. Down In The Bottom, 31. You Can Make It If Tou Try, 32. Route 66, 33. Confessin’ The Blues, 34. Down The Road Apiece.

Disc Two: 1. It’s All Over Now, 2. If You Need Me, 3. Confessin’ The Blues, 4. Carol, 5. Mona, 6. Around And Around, 7. If You Need Me, 8. I Can’t Be Satisfied, 9. Crackin’ Up, 10. Ain’t That Loving You, 11. It’s All Over Now, 12. 2120 South Michigan Avenue, 13. Interview With Brian And Mick, 14. Everybody Want Somebody To Love, 15. Interview With Mick, 16. The Last Time, 17. Down The Road Apiece, 18. Mercy Mercy, 19. Interview With Mick, 20. Cry To Me, 21. Intro To Satisfaction, 22. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, 23. Announcement, 24. Fanny Mae, 25. Interview With Mick, 26. The Spider And The Fly, 27. Finale Time, 28. Oh Baby (We Got A Good Thing Goin’), 29. Let’s Spend The Night Together, 30. Ruby Tuesday, 31. 2000 Light Years From Home.

Disc Three: 1. Mick & Brian Interview, 2. Jumpin’ Jack Flash, 3. Mick Taylor Interview, 4. Honky Tonk Women, 5. Gimme Shelter, 6. Honky Tonk Women, 7. Brown Sugar, 8. Hi Heeled Sneakers, 9. Not Fade Away, 10. Mick Interview, 11. Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, 12. Mick And Brian Interview, 13. Brian Interview, 14. Mick Interview, 15. BBC Report On Hyde Park Show, 16. Mick Taylor Interview, 17. Bitch, 18. Wild Horses.    

It is quite rare to run into a BBC broadcast that features tracks never heard before, but this is what this is: another BBC compilation that will rock our world, it collects all the surviving TV and radio sessions from this era in the best possible quality, newly restored and mastered by former professional technician Dr.Stone. From the accompanying notes: “Demix technology was used for the higher quality recordings to offer you the most complete & best sounding overview as possible. The majority here has been mastered from new and improved source material compared to what was used on previous collections (both official and fan-made) and what was obtained were session details that were previously unpublished. Also, have been located a few previously uncirculated fan-taped sources.

Unfortunately, there is one session of which nothing seems to have survived in any form. Details are as follows: May 9 1964 Open House live broadcast (BBC 2 TV), Put On Your Red Dress Baby 2.43 (squire) / High Heeled Sneakers 1.51 (higgenbotham). Producer: Stewart Morris at Riverside Studios. Clearly the song titles can't be right but it's what the BBC documentation says.

Now a note about mastering with demix technology:

Demix pro was used for spectral extraction. This is believed to be the most revolutionary audio processing tool since ages; it enables to break a mono signal down into 4 dedicated elements: vocals, drums/percussion, bass guitar and whatever remains after. These extractions are of such precision they allow for a realistic reconstruction of a mix.

Why is this useful? Well... the original mix may have flaws that affect the quality of the sound. By nature, the process of mastering is designed to improve upon such flaws by applying equalization and/or processing of dynamic range. But what if one element within a recording needs more treble, while another element is already bright enough? At that point, EQ is not sufficient anymore because your choices will affect both. Of course, mastering does not begin and end with just EQ; there are always other ways of emphasizing or hiding elements in a recording. But spectral extraction allows you to improve upon the sound of one element without 'harming' the sound of all the others and also to re-balance those elements if necessary.

It goes without saying that all tracks that were originally in mono have stayed mono; the goal has not been to change the integrity of the original recordings but to make them sound as pleasing as possible. A perfect mix does not need fixing but nearly all recordings here were made under primitive circumstances and mixed directly to mono while the band performed. Heavy compression was used to keep things in place. If one element suddenly became louder than others, the compressor would slam the recording level back down. This was certainly necessary because the audio signal needed to be as loud as possible for when it was put on the air. Demix allows to mix nearly all the recordings with decent fidelity. Being able to correct balancing mistakes, having the flexibility to mesh the bass guitar and kick drum together nicely and putting the vocals precisely in the mix where they need to be is a great luxury, especially when it doesn't have to be achieved with buss EQ and/or compression. These new masters have a more dynamic, open sound than the source material; the goal has been to stay true to the original feel but with added clarity and depth.”

Now to the material itself, Session 1 presents just the last three tracks, also recorded were Talking About You & Money which are presumed lost. This programme served as a trial broadcast for the Stones. Charlie, Bill and possibly Brian also backed their hero Bo Diddley that same day for a BBC session which included Bo Diddley, Road Runner, Pretty Thing & Hey Bo Diddley. Sadly, no recordings have survived. Session two too has the last track; also aired but presumed lost are: I Wanna Be Your Man, Pretty Thing, Bye Bye Johnny, You Better Move On and I Want To Be Loved. Session three and four are complete, the latter was an experimental stereophonic broadcast: one stereo channel was aired on Network 3 radio and the other simultaneously on BBC One TV. Keith's guitar is on the left channel, Brian on the right. The in-between chatter only circulates as a lossy source but the music has been sourced from 1990s Westwood cd here, marking a significant sound upgrade to previous versions out there. Session five is complete as well. The sound improves during Track 2, it circulated as lossy source originating from YT. The On Air producer used the same source, so it is pretty safe to say that the BBC itself does not have this on file. Sessions six, eight and nine are complete, while Session seven was part of a BBC concert including various other artists. Also aired but presumed lost are: Walkin' The Dog & You Can Make It If You Try. The Stones did a 2nd set later that night which was aired only on TV of which no footage has survived; that set consisted of Not Fade Away, Hi-Heeled Sneakers & I’m All Right. Session ten is complete, note that Track 1 is excellent off-air recording, the rest are very good to fair off-air recordings. Note: Around And Around was recorded by skilled home taper and then-future radioman Leon Tipler (R.I.P.). This has never circulated before and it is without exaggeration a truly essential discovery; much gratitude to Lord Reith for passing this on! Session eleven has only the last track. Also recorded/aired but presumed lost are: Dust My Pyramids (Brian Jones instrumental, length: 0.25s), Around And Around, If You Need Me, I Wanna Love You (bit of a mystery, could be a fastly played I Just Want To Make Love To You) & Mona; this session does not survive in the BBC archives. Session twelve comes from a transcription disc. Note: it was released on TOTP transcription disc #19; also recorded/aired but presumed lost: If You Need Me. Session thirteen is complete, it was released on TOTP transcription discs #45 & #48. The interview bits have been edited with Brian Matthew & Don Moss as the speakers for the transcription disc but this is not how these were first aired. The original interview with Tony Hall from Yeh Yeh can be found in the Completist folder which is on Disc Three. Brian Wiley is listed as producer for the Saturday Club show; Bernie Andrews for the special. Given his track record as the only producer at the Beeb who took an interest in the band during those formative years, it's safe to assume Andrews was the one in charge of the session. Session fourteen is another off air recording: Mick sings over backing tracks of studio versions. Ruby Tuesday has never been circulated before until now, thanks to the mighty Johnny Kidd Fan Club once again for this generous share. Session fifteen was in all likeliness not an actual BBC recording, but an earlier studio version of which the vocals were replaced before release; it was also mixed differently from the final versions. This was the original soundtrack to the self-produced promo video that aired on TOTP. The promo was shot at Kevin Brownjohn’s Studios, somewhere in October 1967. Session sixteen was released on TOTP transcription disc #189. Mick sings over backing track of studio version. However, this was not an actual BBC recording but an earlier studio version of which the vocal was replaced before release. It is the original soundtrack to the self-produced promo video that aired a couple times on TOTP, the audio of which was eventually replaced with the released version. The interview is from 15 May 1968 by John Peel, which was aired on the 19th May on Top Gear. It appears here with Brian Matthew's voice edited in. Session seventeen was taken from TOTP transcription disc #250. The song also appears on TOTP 246,247 & 248 but 250 has most of the intro intact and longest ending, yet the July 10 1969 broadcast has even more of the intro. Mick sings over backing track of studio version which has a different ending to the single version. This was recorded a few hours after Brian Jones' death. Sessions eighteen and nineteen come from film soundtrack. On the former Mick sings over backing track of studio versions. Note that Honky Tonk Woman backing track is a different mix than the 3 July one. On the latter Mick sings over backing track of studio version. Also taped/aired were Bitch and Wild Horses, sadly only surviving with very poor audio quality, although better version were lately discovered. The completist folder includes:

High Heel Sneakers and Not Fade Away from Spa Royal Hall, BBC TV, 11 July 1964, Mick interview from 20 August 1965, Yeh Yeh, Have You Seen Your Mother Baby from 17 December 1966, Top Of The Pops, BBC TV, Mick and Brian interview from 15 May 1968, BBC, Top Gear, Brian interview from 15 May 1968, BBC, Scene and Heard, Mick interview from December 1968, TOTP 217, Mick Jagger interview from BBC Report of the Hyde Park Show from 6 July 1969, TOTP 245, Mick Taylor Interview from July 1969, TOTP 249, then Bitch and Wild Horses from 11 March 1971, Top Of The Pops, BBC TV.

This is a marvellous job that will soon be copied by some label, too bad packaging is too spartan with just the front cover and no back cover, moreover you will have to work out how the tracks shall be split in order to fill the required 3 discs, but that does not diminish the pleasure in listening to this compilation.