BBC Grand Prix Intro - 1979

[ronnycnc]

Title song?

[krakenwave]

@ronnycnc

Fleetwood Mac, the ending.outro from "The Chain", taken from their 50-million-copies-sold, cocaine-and-divorce-fueled album "Rumours" (1977) - which also has "Don't Stop [Thinking About Tomorrow]" and "Go Your Own Way"on it. "The Chain" is the only song ever credited to all 5 members. John McVie and Mick Fleetwood weren't songwriters but they came up this bass line and accompanying guitar, which they tacked onto the end of the title song (even though it sounds more like an intro).

[IqbalM]

Was this the first time the BBC used the chain for its F1 coverage?

[RedhotIta1]

@IqbalM I ever thinked was 1977 First time not 79

[mercerallison]

oh hang on obviously i was wrong about the bbc this would have been on way after my 1979 bedtime!

[krakenwave]

@mercerallison

South Africa runs 2 hours ahead of GMT. Bearing in mind the Europe viewing figures, Grands Prix generally like to get going in the early afternoon. This race was broadcast live as part of BBC1's Grandstand on that Saturday afternoon.

[mercerallison]

to reply to logom0: i should imagine the present government of SA are not big F1 fans, its one of the less savoury aspects of F1 that noone in the sport ever boycotted a SA gp during apartheid, the grand prix was never run afterv the end of white rule. To their credit the BBC never used to show this race, kylami is a top circuit though, in those days ecclestone was boss of Brabham, AND FOCA. Did you know he entered the Monaco gp 1958 as a driver but failed to qualify!

[drlargepants]

@mercerallison F1 ran there in 1992 & 1993 IIRC

[stewbhoy1980]

0.19 sorry! lol

[logom0]

That is Bernie Ecclestone!

Why dont they do the formula grandprix at south africa anymore?

[stewbhoy1980]

is that Bernie Ecclestone at 0.53?

[NewYankee01]

bastard what i am saying. that confirms im a senile old fart. i meant kyalami

[NewYankee01]

i agree but zandvoort has been spoilt now

[alzeNL]

@NewYankee01 Used to be a MASSIVE circuit, Spa is too near i guess and too good to compete with Zaandvoort now.

[Fropo]

too cool.

[dunkiep]

What were they doing having a Grand Prix in South Africa in 1979??? I thought they were in the middle of an international sports boycott.

[archer4721]

The South African GP in the days of apartheid took place until 1985!

[alexholowczak]

The FIA maintains political neutrality, so it didn't matter. Well, it does nowadays, I assume it did in the apartheid era.

[dunkiep]

That really is a cop out though. By abstaining you're effectively opposing a boycott. I know people can be a bit naiive about these things, but do you remember the stick the cricketers used to get for going over there? I'm really surprised it didn't cause more fuss.

[DavidTL]

Apartheid ended in 1995, not 1985.

[LordFlagg]

They're was evident support for boycotting the SA GP (which should have been boycotted earlier IMO) - just Jean-Marie Balestre sat on the fence, political neutrality... even James Hunt once launched into condemnation of apartheid and GP Racing live during a BBC commentary (wish I could find the clip).

[f1hp93]

Wow, this is really cool. Is there an even older intro anywhere?

[Mazadara]

That was a different race. This is two years later

[maximesisclass]

i remember this race. it was the day that guy got run over and killed but cant remember his name. i had it on video somewhere

[f1hp93]

you mean van vuuren?

[archer4721]

The race where sadly the marshal and Tom Pryce got killed was actually two years before this particular race.

[trent7176]

Great

[wak4life]

Why use anything else? This music is perfect for F1!

[fishflake1209]

Remind me again: how do the various generic techno loops serving as the Formula 1 theme music on channels around the world capture the drama and spectacle of Grand Prix racing better than this?

[akhristov]

They're not various generic techno loops... Look up The Chain by Fleetwood Mac. What you hear here is the last part of the song.

[fishflake1209]

No, the generic techno loops are what passes as theme music today. I know this is Fleetwood Mac.

[akhristov]

Oh, sorry.