Lillibullero

james2001 · Wed 06 Jun, 2012 00.38

I didn't actually know they still used the bow bells! It's been around 3 years since I last set up my shortwave radio, but I hadn't heard the bow bells since around 2006, all the BBC WS transmissions I came across just crashed straight into the start of programmes. The V and B-B-C interval signals seemed to vanish from non-English transmissions around the same time, so I just presumed they'd stopped using them! Maybe I've just been unlucky enough to only catch transmissions which didn't use them.

Ste · Wed 06 Jun, 2012 00.54

That recording was from 12010khz at midnight UK time (2300GMT) which is from the East Asia relay station in Thailand. Bow Bells is played every night on that frequency and at the start of the it broadcast is received quite well in the UK but gets progressively worse throughout the hour.

I've heard Bow Bells on the broadcasts from Ascension Island as well a few months ago and the B-B-C chimes on the Hindi programme.

Ste · Tue 14 Aug, 2012 00.25

Is Lillibullero no more?

Not heard during the Olympics at all and it hasn't come back after.

Ste · Sun 19 Aug, 2012 21.23

Definitely gone, I recorded 24 hours of the Africa web stream and it wasn't played once whereas it used to be played about every 4 hours.

Markos · Tue 21 Aug, 2012 06.41

Just noticed this little blog post on Guardian. Here's the key part:

Monkey is told "Lilli" – as it is known in Bush... sorry, Broadcasting House – is only taking temporary leave for the duration of the London Olympics and Paralympics, after which normal (world) service will be resumed. World, you don't need to have your say just yet.

So, with Paralympics ending on September 9, I guess that's when it could or should be back.

Ste · Tue 18 Sep, 2012 10.01

Doesn't seem to have returned from what I've heard on the Africa web stream.

Ebeneezer Scrooge · Sat 16 Feb, 2013 00.35

I meant to post this last year when they released the album, but only remembered when I got it for my birthday.

Bellowhead, who you may or may not have already come across produced a typically rousing version of lillibullero for their most recent album. Fortunately, you don't have to part with any cash to sample this track as their record label have put it up on YouTube in the last few weeks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLHYxoEgrKQ