Bringing back the 60s good times

The Eric Tolley Band with The Mudlarks at the Carfax Assembly Rooms

If you were in your teens or twenties in the 1960s, or if you just love the music and local history, BBC Oxford's occasional series Bringing Back The Good Times is for you.

It is a nostalgic look back at the 60s pop music scene in Oxfordshire told by the people who were there.

Mark Watson presents a two-hour show most Bank Holidays with a mixture of memories and music from the 60s.

The next programme is on 1 Jan 2010 between 1200 and 1400 GMT on 95.2FM.

We will have a chat to and hear a song from Mal Ryder from the 60s group "The Spirits", and have talk to some Banbury musicians about their 60s local bands including The Frenzies, Astronaughts and The Rooks. They also talk fondly of Albert Booth who used to make equipment for them.

We went to the Falling Leaves re-union gig in October for the launch of the book "Rocking in Oxford" and recorded the band playing again, an interview with some of the musicians, and spoke to author Trevor Hayward. You can get a taster by looking at the video on our "Meet the Team" page.

Our star guests on January 1st 2010 are Justin Heyward and John Lodge who talk about their early days in the music business and the start of The Moody Blues. Plus we will have lots of great 60s music by artists who visited the county, the local 60s gig guide, and more of your memories.

On our last show we heard about Oxfords Forum Club in the High Street, talked to two musicians from 60s bands in Banbury, spoke to Mal Ryders Fan Club organiser and local band manager Jim Gannon and chatted to Mike Pender of The Searchers. More of the "Good Times" archive will be appearing here soon.

The picture at the top is of the Eric Tolley Band from Oxfordshire who backed many well-known artists including Top 10 vocal group The Mudlarks on 28 April 1962 when they had a residency at the Carfax Assembly Rooms. We went to the building, now HSBC Bank in Cornmarket, to see if any evidence of the venue was still there, but sadly it is all gone.

Theatre poster from 1964 including Oxford band The Falling Leaves

We have been researching the acts who played at venues like The Carfax Assembly Rooms, The New Theatre, The Town Hall in Oxford, The Winter Gardens, The Essoldo Cinema and The Gaff in Banbury, and the many town and village halls across Oxfordshire.

Of course, the southern half of the county was in Berkshire at the time, but we have included them in this programme too. We had a good response from Oxford, Bicester, Banbury, Abingdon and Wantage, and now we're especially keen to hear from you if you saw bands playing in other places like Didcot, Thame, Witney and Chipping Norton.

Bringing Back The Good Times producer/presenter Mark Watson said: "We were really pleased with the response we got from the first series from listeners from all over the county and the world asking us when the next series would start."

"Thanks to those people who got in touch, we've managed to track down more of the people involved with Oxfordshire pop music scene in the 60s like The Gangbusters from Wallingford who have been playing music together for over 50 years."

The Gangbusters 50 years in music

"Many thanks again to local music enthusiasts and listeners Bob Dainty and Trevor Hayward, who were around at the time and have been busy interviewing and re-living their youth."

If you would like to take part and share some of your 60s musical memories for a future programme, phone [phone] during office hours, write to Mark Watson at 269 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7DW, or email [e-mail]