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Playback publications 2016
Playback Magazine information and news service for the visually impaired.
Containing original recordings of items of interest to the blind and visually impaired
and recorded monthly On Cassette, Daisy CD, USB Memory Stick and British Wireless
for the Blind (BWFB )Sonata Service.
Scottish Sunday Mail is recorded weekly by kind permission of the publisher, Its
available on Cassette, USB Memory Stick, and BWFB Sonata Service.
Scottish Daily Record. A weekly compilation of this popular daily newspaper available
on Cassette, USB Memory Stick, and BWFB Sonata Service.
Scottish Memories Magazine is published monthly giving a look back at Scottish
History. Contains reminiscences of times past, very popular with our listeners.
Available on Daisy CD, USB memory Stick, Cassette and BWFB Sonata Service.
Playback Recording Service for the Blind
Registered Charity SC 001189
ABC Audio News published bimonthly contains information for those interested in the
subject of HiFi and audio. Available on Standard CD and BWFB Sonata Service.
Which Magazine Consumer magazine with reviews products and services, informing
you of the best buys and naming the worst performers, Available on Cassette
Box & Fiddle News for those interested in Accordion and Fiddle Music, with lots of club
news. Available on Cassette and USB stick.
Jewish Telegraph published every two weeks on CD with news and information for
those in the Jewish Community in Glasgow.
SAGDO Newstape an information and news tape for Guide Dog owners, produced by
Brian West and distributed by Playback.
The Playback service record and distribute a number of individual newsletters for
various Organisations, International Glaucoma Association, West of Scotland National
Federation of the Blind, Glasgow branch of National League of the Blind, National
Trust for Scotland, Scottish Opera, various programme notes for Kings and Theatre
Royal in Glasgow, and many more.
Audio Library will restart when the digitising of recordings is completed
Playback Recording Service for the Blind
17 Gullane Street
Glasgow G11 6AH
Telephone 0141 334 2983
e.mail [email protected]
www.play-back.org.uk
Registered Charity SC 001189
1976- 2016
In The Beginning
A recording service for the Blind was established in 1958 by the Glasgow Tape
Recording Club, who produced, every two months, on reel-to-reel tape, a
Magazine of information and documentary-type items of general and local
Interest. At that time, it was distributed to around 60 blind and visually impaired
people who owned a reel-to-reel recorder, most of whom lived in the Glasgow
area. Even then, however, some copies were sent to other parts of the
country.
In 1975, Donald Anderson approached the
Glasgow and West of Scotland Society for the
Blind to ask if they would help finance an
expanded tape recording service for the Blind,
they agreed, also gave financial support as
well as a room in their premises at 276
St.Vincent Street in the heart of Glasgow. The final edition of the Glasgow
Sound Magazine was sent out in April 1976.
With a number of subsequent improvements to the St.Vincent Street
'studio' (including the luxury of a new carpet), we were ready to record the first
edition of Playback Magazine for May 1976.
With the professional help of Iris
Robertson-Brown, a studio manager with
the BBC, the first edition began to take
shape and was christened, fittingly, with an
inaugural message recorded by Mr.
Gordon Mackinnon, president of the
Glasgow and West of Scotland Society for
the Blind. The first edition was distributed
to 260 people on Cassette and its
completion was a proud moment for Donald Anderson, who had put so much
work into establishing the service.
Volunteers the backbone of the service
Margaret Cowie reading from her Braille script
Tuesday Team, Malcom, Mary, Gordon, David’s & Ivan,
Royal visit from Princess Anne, interviewed for Playback
David Tanner & Margaret Cowie reading
John Green talks to Stevie Chalmers and Bobby Lennox, Lisbon Lions
Hugh Gray talks to Glenda Jackson for Playback
The service has always been volunteer based and one of the founder
members Peter Fraser was very much the driving force for the development of
the service since 1976. By 1979, the service had grown to the extent that it
became difficult to organise on a totally voluntary basis. By this time, the
Social Services previously run by the Glasgow and West of Scotland Society
for the Blind, now Visibility, had been taken over by Strathclyde Regional
Council.
Volunteer night out in 1994 to Celebrate MBE for Peter Fraser
Donald Anderson, with the help of others, approached the council to establish
a full time post at the Playback service. In June, 1980, Peter Fraser was
appointed co-ordinator of the service. This appointment gave Playback the
opportunity to develop and record more publications, also to reach the original
aim as mentioned by Gordon McKinnon at the start. ‘An Expanded recording
service for the blind and visually impaired’. In those early days the Cassette
Magazine was the main source of information. For the visually impaired,
Playback Magazine alone had a circulation of 4000.
Management & Development
Reading Sunday Mail in the early days
As a result of 40 years of providing audio information to the blind and visually
impaired, Playback now has a comprehensive archive which is in the process of
being reproduced in a digital format, providing a rich aural history for future
generations. Thanks go to the Blindcraft Trust in Glasgow for providing the
financial assistance and support to carry out this work.
Thanks go to the volunteers who continue to support the service, without whose
help Playback could not exist. Volunteers have come from all walks of life,
teachers, broadcasters, retired police, actors and individuals with a good voice
willing to assist the service as a volunteer. Some of them have served us for
over 25 years and many have given years of service to the organisation.
Of the future, we continue providing a service to our visually impaired friends to
their requirements in whatever format preferred, at the moment material is
available on Cassette tape, Memory Stick, on line through our website and
through the British Wireless for the Blind on line Sonata Service.
Playback Recording Service for the Blind became a registered charity in
August, 1987 and has its own management committee appointed at their
Annual General Meeting. The service continues to be supported by the
Glasgow City Council through their social work services. Also in 1987 a second
full-time position was established and Ian Glover joined the team. He left the
service in 1993 and John Green was appointed to fill the position. Since then,
John has continued the development of the service.
The audio library contains over1,000 titles spanning a wide range of subjects.
Some of the titles, particularly a number of Scottish books, have been recorded
by our volunteer readers, this service is now in the process of being digitised
and in the future all books will be available on line and on memory stick.
People like Jimmy Logan, Johnny Beattie, Alasdair Alexander, Pamela
Paterson, James O’Hara, John Cavanagh and Billy Connolly Lavinia Derwent
are just a few of the professional broadcasters who have recorded for
Playback.
Since 1976, the Reading Service has provided a wealth of information in audio,
We pay tribute to the large number of volunteer
readers past and present who have recorded a
variety of material for individuals and
organisations. Leonora Smart is one of those
stalwarts who has read anything from instruction
books for washing machines, knitting patterns,
and books for students at college or university.
We have recorded guides for the Burrell Gallery
in Glasgow, the Glasgow Garden Festival and
many theatre guides for Glasgow, and Perth.
The service is free to visually impaired people, but a small charge is made or a
donation asked for, from commercial organisations. We hope we have made a
significant contribution to access to information for a large number of Blind and
Visually Impaired people in the past 40 years. The Playback Magazine alone
has recorded over 6000 programmes. Our volunteer readers have recorded for
Sunday Mail, Daily Record, Scottish Memories, Which Magazine, ABC Audio
News, Box & Fiddle, Jewish Telegraph, plus many other newsletters for
organisation and individuals.
Playback Magazine continues to be the main information publication of the
service, providing news, information and entertainment to thousands of
people, mainly in the West of Scotland, but also throughout the United
Kingdom, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In the past information
has been sent to a blind Student of English in Glasgow's twin city, Rostov on
Don!, with other listener’s in Malawi and Macedonia. With our on line service
all our publication are heard world wide.
Peter Fraser received the MBE in 1994 for his work with the service, he retired
in 2002 but is still actively involved as a volunteer
Secretary for the Charity and Producer of Playback
Magazine.
John Green is the full time Manager, his post is
supported by Glasgow City Council, John looks after
the day to day production of our regular publications
plus other material from the Playback Service.
For a couple of years we had Aly Smith as our
assistant recording service manager, when he left to
take a post in Blind Welfare. Andrew Tonner also
assisted with the audio library service for a few years
on a part time basis, now we just have 1 full time
person and the rest of the service operates on a voluntary basis.
In 1993 Playback Service was presented with the
Grimshaw Award by the National Federation of the
Blind and in 2013 they also received the Paul Otten
Award from the Federation.
In addition, Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall presented
Playback with a Caithness Glass Bowl for the work
carried out by the Playback Service in recording their
monthly Event Guide. The volunteer reader involved,
Leonora Smart, was similarly honoured .
What has Playback Achieved in 40 years?
The Playback Service has helped develop and
promote a number of services over the past 40 years, one of them is Audio
Description in the theatre. Alan Sturmey a volunteer presenter on Playback
Magazine visited USA and interviewed the founders of Audio Description in
USA, that was in the 1980’s. As a result of Alan’s interview, the Citizen’s
Theatre in Glasgow, with the help of Playback’s producer Iris Brown, started
audio describing many of its productions during the1990 Glasgow City of
Culture year.
Iris developed the service and provided
training for describers all over Scotland.
One of her highlights was describing an
outdoor performance of Macbeth in
Inverness. Later Audio Description
Scotland was formed and this service
continues to provide a valuable service to
the visually impaired.
Playback still records many information
guides for the theatre and Scottish opera
provide a comprehensive CD for its major
productions, all recorded at Playback Studio in Glasgow.
The Playback Service has also provided training and workshops for other local
talking newspapers and organised local and national conferences.
Playback was an early partner in the formation of a Radio Station specifically
for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Playback provided the studio space and
some financial support to get the service up and running. It started as VIP On
Air, but with the development of the service and the provision of staff and
training by RNIB, the name was changed to Insight Radio and continues to be
at the forefront of providing a worldwide service on line and many other
platforms. In 2016 the name became RNIB Connect.
A number of individuals and organisations have had the support of the
Playback Service, lots of local talking newspapers were assisted by Playback in
the early days, Cue & Review, Strathkelvin Talking Newspaper, Inverclyde TN,
Renfrewshire Sound, East Kilbride TN, CARROT, Lochgilphead TN, are just a
few of the many Talking Newspapers supported by the Playback Service in the
early development of TN’s
Some of the service users, our listeners, have commented on the extra support
they obtained after a follow up of information they received from Playback,
many have commented on how much of a lifeline the service has been and
continues to be. Some of their families have commented on how better
informed their visually impaired family members are through our newspaper
service. Here are just a few of the quotes from letters we received.
‘Thank you for the recordings of the Daily Record, the readers spoke so
clearly’
‘I would just like to thank you for all the work that goes into these
recordings, it gave Margaret much enjoyment over the years’
‘My mother passed away last week, she greatly appreciated your recordings over the years’
‘I am writing on behalf of my husband Robert to let you know how much
he appreciates these recordings .
‘These recordings are a lifeline to me, thank you’