Author: Colin Grimshaw

I’m Colin Grimshaw. Although I took early retirement at the start of 2011 I was asked to continue to run the Video Archive Blog and keep adding material on a regular basis. Now, working from home and occasionally from Imperial, I will have more time to recall the background details to the videos you will be seeing. Since the late 1960’s I’ve been recording all sorts of things related to Imperial College. This is in the form of magnetic tape, but more importantly videotape. Although the College Archives holds thousands of pieces of paper in the form of documents, books, journals, manuscripts, etc, its collection of sound and visual recordings (videotape and film) is surpassed by the videotape archive collection...

Freshers’ Fair: 1982

Two years before today’s video was made, STOIC was still operating in black and white. So, it’s a pleasure to release this 1982 video in colour. Lawrence Windley went around Freshers’ Fair and spoke to a few people taking part. And we once again meet Tim Bell from City and Guilds, who appeared in a previous video all about Pedal Cars. Some of the freshers do look a little dazed, I must say. Maybe the afternoon was a little too early for them, or perhaps the cheap beer was kicking in?

Colin Grimshaw April 2025

Ethos Opening: 2006

I’ve managed to save this video before it was lost forever. It is one of many videos that were hosted on the old video server previously used on the College’s website. I had just asked what had happened to the old server when I was informed that it was about to be fully decommissioned and scrapped within a few months.

Fortunately, common sense had already prevailed, and YouTube was accepted as the most obvious platform for uploading videos, leaving the old server unused. These early videos were in a variety of different formats, including RealPlayer and Windows Media. Transcoding this particular video from the RealPlayer format into a format compatible with YouTube was an almost impossible task. The image resolution is not great, but it’s the best I could achieve.

The video shows the opening of the Ethos Sports Centre in 2006. I haven’t been able to find any general photos that might have been taken, so only the video remains. A notable attendee was Sir Roger Bannister, whom I was pleased to meet after his speech.

Colin Grimshaw March 2025

Imperial Concert Band: 1986

A regular feature on the Imperial calendar was the appearance of the Imperial Wind Band, but as in this video, it had just been renamed as the Imperial Concert Band. Strangely though, back some 10 years (Felix advert above) in 1976 they were called the Imperial College Wind Ensemble. Maybe changing some instruments required a name change?

Andy Mitchell spoke with Don Monro about all of this just after a performance had been given in the original Mech Eng main entrance. Right at the end we get to see the 1985 performance of the 1812 overture on the steps of the Queens Tower recorded in colour.

Colin Grimshaw February 2025

 

Sailing Club: 1986

Another gem from the archives of STOIC’s News-Break programme. This time we go back to Spring 1986 when they went on location to report on the Imperial College Sailing Club. This is the only time that the Sailing Club was featured in the archive. I am pleased to see that the club is still going strong (unlike STOIC) and can be found on the Union website and also on their own Facebook page.

I’ve done my usual troll through the archive issues of Felix and the earliest item about the club can be found in issue number 62 from May 1954. The report tells us that the Sailing Club won the University of London Championship for the fourth year in a run! It also tells us an intriguing story about having to buy a lorry to transport the boats when they went to Ireland. You can read that Felix report in full if you go to the issue which is linked up above.

Colin Grimshaw January 2025

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures: 1974


50 years ago on this very day I was with Professor Eric Laithwaite at the Royal Institution in London. We were recording a section of the 1974 Christmas Lectures Programme Number 3 “Jam Yesterday, Jam Tomorrow”. I’ve covered what we did in a previous 2017 post, but this time I’ve dug deep into my own archive for an extra gem that has never been heard before. I’ve also found the original tape that is on the Revox tape-recorder seen over on the left hand side so that we can hear it a little better. I say better, in fact that tape is actually falling apart, with the back-coating peeling off the plastic tape, it was a nightmare to transfer.

I won’t go back over what I’ve already written in that previous post but will fill a few more details into what happened these 50 years ago. The tape that was commissioned from the BBC Radiophonics Workshop contained a huge amount of stuff that we never did use. I think the Producer of the Christmas Lectures simply gave them a brief to come up with a load of stuff featuring sounds that were backwards. They seemed to go overboard with speech at various speeds forwards and backwards and it was not what we really needed, so was not used. The one track from them that we did use was a Palindromic music sequence where, in the live lecture, I pointed out where the backwards and forwards started and stopped. Interestingly, although the sections you can hear below are technically forwards and backwards in truth they are not. The Radiophonics Workshop simply created the music and ran the notes forward, but when in “reverse” it’s the musical notes played in a reverse order not actually the sound backwards.

When it came to my “Happy Christmas” recording, that was truly me speaking the sounds that I heard backwards. I had to mimic my original sound recording when I heard the words coming out backwards. This is the difference with the Radiophonics music recording.

Both Professor Laithwaite and I had some extra fun with the whole speaking backwards experiment. In the week leading up to the actual lectures we had a visit from BBC Radio 2 host John Dunn (1934-2004). He had a daily show called Late Night Extra and he wanted to feature what was about to happen during lecture 3. I stayed up very late on the night of the broadcast and captured it for posterity. I doubt many will have already heard it.

The lecture was broadcast on BBC 2 on New Year’s Eve, December 31st 1974. College was actually open and running that day, so I stayed late for the transmission which I recorded onto videotape. I subsequently got my own DVD copy from the BBC’s original master videotape which is still held in their archives. Incidentally, I was also involved with the original 1966 series that Eric Laithwaite presented called “The Engineer in Wonderland”. Those tapes were sadly wiped by the BBC but in this photo you’ll see me indicated over on the right hand side.

Here I am with Professor Eric Laithwaite about to play my backwards recording.

 

From the original master audio tape here I am with that recording, but this time I’m letting you hear what it sounded like when it was recorded and before then being played backwards to come out forwards (are you still with me?) Keep an eye on the caption at the top where you can see when it changes direction.

 

This is the original Radiophonics recording of  their “Palindromic” music.

 

John Dunn from BBC Radio 2 Late Night Extra on 19 December 1974.

Colin Grimshaw 28 December 2024

Silwood Park unseen footage: 1981

Back in 2010 I posted a blog about Silwood Park and I included the small joint documentary that we made between STOIC and the TV Studio. In a recent batch of tapes being digitised I found a short promotional clip for the documentary that Tracy Dudley (Poole) had made; the clip was in an edition of News-Break on 29 April 1981 . The interesting thing about this clip is that there are shots that were not used in the final edited version that’s linked up above.

So, let’s go back some 43 years to see that short footage, unseen until now.

 

Colin Grimshaw December 2024

STOIC on BBC Radio London: 1974

From my personal archive I’ve dug up yet another piece of college history. Way back in 1974 the then Chairman of STOIC Mark Caldwell (photo right) and myself, were interviewed on BBC Radio London. You may wonder what the connection is between STOIC and BBC Radio London. Well, the very first Chairman of STOIC was Andy Finney who just happened to also be heavily involved in radio. From student TV to local (and also national) radio, Andy had a very full career in many areas of broadcasting. But on this occasion, he remembered his connection with Imperial and getting STOIC off of the ground in 1970 and wanted more people to hear about it.

On 4 November 1974 Mark and I went up to the then HQ of BBC Radio London in Hanover Square. Although we did video record the interview it’s still stuck on one of the Ampex One Inch videotapes that we’re still hoping will be funded to be transferred into digital. However, I do still have the audio recording as it was broadcast live and that’s what you can hear today. Andy mentions “TOPIC” which was the very first regular news programme made by STOIC. Its name changed to Lunchbreak and finally to News-Break.

So, going back 50 years, here is Andy Finney speaking with us both, live on BBC Radio London.

Colin Grimshaw 4 November 2024

Inter-CCU Swimming Gala: 1986


In February 1986 STOIC reporter Mark Salisbury left the warmth of the TV Studio to venture over to the Sports Centre in Prince’s Gardens North Side. The advert in Felix (up above) shows what the event was all about. Sadly there are no interviews with anyone taking part.

What you’re seeing is of course the old original sports centre which was pulled down and replaced by Ethos which was opened in April 2006. For an indication of the changes to the pool have a look at Varsity Day 2008 which we recorded at Ethos on 27 February 2008.

Colin Grimshaw October 2024

Jez report & update: 1982

Amazingly, Jez (more correctly Jezebel) was only featured on STOIC eight times between November 1979 and May 1984. Today’s item from November 1982 is different because it includes part of the time that Jez appeared on the BBC’s Blue Peter programme earlier that year in February. You can read all about that appearance on page 3 of Felix from February 1982. Duncan Batty from RCS Motor Club was outside in the cold talking to STOIC’s Mark Simms (see Felix bottom page 3) about what had been happening to Jez since that time.

The picture at the top is of me with camera, with my colleague Martin Sayers with microphone on 26 June 2008. This was outside the college main entrance during the retirement party for Rector Sir Richard Sykes. Jez was on duty to greet Sir Richard and Lady Sykes and to take them on an unforgettable evening ride.

Colin Grimshaw September 2024