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UK members?

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Me too!
Ken Bruce on his morning BBC radio 2 show the other morning introduced 'a lovely song from the Carpenters'........ which was Superstar. Yes, they get played regularly, but not enough! Michael Ball on his Sunday show a couple of weeks ago played 'only yesterday'. he said the good thing about karen carpenters voive is that she sings low enough for us blokes to be able to sing along in the same key!
I think The Carpenters popularity carried on a bit longer here in the UK. Calling Occupants got to number 9 i think? Also the greatest hits of 1990 - only yesterday - was number one for quite a few weeks and sold REALLY well.....
 
Me too. Based in London. Yeah, the Brits pretty much stuck with them through to the end of their active career. Singles '74-78 got to No2 in early '79, MIA got to 12, and VOTH got to 6.
 
Here's another Brit !

BTW Paul O'Grady on his BBC radio 2 show is doing a triple feature on the Carpenters in a couple of weeks time.
 
I'm a Brit but live abroad these days. I caught on to them during their first big renaissance since Karen's death, they spent I think it was 16 weeks at #1 in 1990 with 'Only Yesterday - Their Greatest Hits'. Happy times.
 
I'm in the UK too. Berwick upon Tweed! Saw the Carpenters perform in the 1970s and even got to meet them a few times. I'm lucky to have been just about old enough to do that. :)
 
Hey guys! Love this thread talking about UK fans! Tell me, are there specific UK-based Carpenters fan sites or discussion forums/groups?!
 
I'm living in the UK, have been a fan of Richard & Karen since 1970. I was lucky enough to see them play live twice. During their first UK tour in 1971, they played at the Colston Hall, Bristol, and in 1976 they played at the London Palladium. Would love to be able to go back in time and watch those concerts again.

If you want to watch a bit of vintage Carpenters, TCM HD (Sky Channel 317), are showing The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show and includes a performance from Carpenters. The show is being aired this Saturday 1st Feb at 04:10 am.
 
I'm from the UK too.

I live in Brighton on the south coast.

The Carpenters do get a reasonable amount of radio play, mainly on Radio 2 and also Magic 105.4 but it tends to only be the same few tracks.

Also, did anyone hear "Close To You" used in Coronation Street after Hayley's funeral? It was pretty much ruined by the cast singing along to it and we only got about half the first verse, but it was still good to hear a Carpenters track used in a major soap.
 
I haven't watched Coronation Street for a number of years but glad to hear the Carpenters got played. Fresh Meat was the last time I heard them on tv.
 
Hi from the UK. Have been a fan since almost the beginning. First single bought was Goodbye to love, first album A Song for you. Saw Carpenters onstage at Birmingham Odeon in Feb 1974 and twice at Birmingham Hippodrome in 1976. I still have the tickets. They are played all the time on Smooth radio and very often on local BBC radio station. Their popularity here appears to be soaring at the moment. Even heard Karen singing excerpt from California Dreaming on TV documentary about Harrow School the other night. You'd have to watch it to fully understand its inclusion on that but I'm sure it will spark interest as she sounded so fantastic. Disappointed there is nothing to look forward to with unreleased stuff but eternally grateful for what does exist.
 
Yes I'm from the UK too, and was a member of the fanclub in the 70's, my introduction was when my Dad bought the Singles 69 to 73 home one day and it blew my mind at aged 7, I remember being allowed to stay up late way past bedtime aged 10 to watch Live at the New London Theatre in 76 on the BBC aged 10 (remember no video recorders in those days) I remember exactly where I was and who I was with when I heard of Karen's death aged 16. I'm 47 now and love their music as much as ever, although I enjoy many types of music I always come back to Karen & Richard. I transcribed an hour long interview of Ray Moore with Karen and Richard rec0rded in 1981, on here a few years ago its well worth seeking out if you have not seen it.
 
Was anyone else a member of the UK Carpenters Appreciation Society during the early 90's run by Marilyn Botheras?
 
So while I have all you UK'ers in one thread....the Bruce Forsyth Christmas Show Dec 1978 when Karen appeared to perform, "Merry Christmas Darling", "I Need to be in Love", "Please Mr Postman" and the duet of them singing "Winter Wonderland/Silver Bells/White Christmas" did any of you see this when it first aired on tv over there? In addition...why do you feel that this special has never been re-aired or appeared on any DVD or digital format?

The video version from this special of "Please Mr Postman" did appear on a bootleg DVD, Carpenters A Video Biography which I found to be really strange but the video was in great condition, so somehow that video was preserved in excellent format or copied from a re-broadcast.

Can any of you shed any light on this long lost special and what are the chances of somehow getting this re-aired on say the BBC?
 
I don't post very much on here but I can shed a little bit of light re the Bruce Forsyth special.

Back in 1978, Bruce defected from the BBC to ITV (LWT to be precise which was a regional TV company). Before he moved to ITV he was a very successful host of The Generation Game which got HUGE ratings back in the mid 70's and ITV poached him with the promise of more money and a bigger budget - hence Bruce Forsyth's Big Night was born which aired on Saturday night's in primetime. It wasn't successful and got low ratings (low for the late 70's anyway) whereas Bruce's replacement Larry Grayson made The Generation Game even more successful on BBC 1 and Bruce was left to linger on ITV.

Onto Karen's appearance on the show, it aired on Christmas Eve 1978 and in that week there was a BBC strike (there were several TV strikes in the 70's) and basically there was only one TV channel - ITV. BBC 1 and 2 came back on the air around Christmas Eve time. Also, certain regional TV companies were off the air for the entire Christmas period and were unable to see any television at all.

I doubt this will see light of day again. Repeats of old TV shows are limited to drama and comedy, although there are one off occasions where a light entertainment special is repeated. It would be great to see it on DVD but again I doubt it will happen.
 
Thanks kc4eva.....do you or anyone know of how we might contact anyone that would remotely have a clue about re-running this special on the BBC. Since I don't live in the UK I really have no idea how this works or even know much about the BBC but don't you all feel that if this show were to ever be re-broadcasted that it would appear on the BBC? I wonder if Bruce has an email or facebook page to reach out to? Maybe at this point it's moot but wow...what a program that is so special to have never been re-broadcasted.
 
I think if anything were to happen it would be for clips to be shown on BBC4 (a kind of arts version of the BBC). That's the station that the Como Special aired on this xmas. Come to think of it, they might even show the whole episode, since I think it also had Bette Midler on it, so it would certainly draw in the crowds.

After thought, I wonder if Midler and Carpenter had their sequences taped the same day. Funny if they had to share a green room.
 
Well it was made for ITV which was completely different to the BBC. It's available on a website called ITN Source which holds A LOT of archive material.

Here's a link http://www.itnsource.com/en/clipdet...24&libref=9L99465&s=bruce+forsyth+carpenters#

Sadly it's unable to be accessed even with login credentials, the only way one would be able to watch would be to pay for it via ITN Source. I don't know how much it would cost. I agree, it's a real shame that this hasn't seen light of day since.
 
Oh, was it. . .sorry, completely forgot your previous email kc4eva. . .yeah of course it was. . .in that case. . .no it'll never be screened because having an "itv arts" channel is kind of a contradiction in terms.
 
I keep seeing 'Singles 1969-81' on the supermarket shelves, as part of a promotion for Valentine's Day. That awful Annie Leibovitz photo glaring out at the customers. Eeek! After all the years Carpenters had image problems, had they learned nothing by the time this came out? Thank goodness I got the alternate version while it was still around.
 
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