K M Videos

[PhilK]

Does anyone have any information on what happened to this excellent video company? I have a number of their meetings recorded at Mildenhall from 1982 - 1987, and wondered if they were still around as I'd like to obtain some more.

 

I believe Rob McCaffrey who posts on here used to do some commentary work for K M Videos, and they often featured excellent mid meeting interviews with the like of Billy Sanders and Michael Lee. Quality stuff

 

Any info greatly appreciated

[shoestringtours]

I can remember trying to track down KM video a few years back and got in touch .They had quite a catalogue in storage but didn't really offer any help,but did offer to let me into their warehouse to search for tapes.

If you get any luck then I wold love to know.

[PhilK]

I can remember trying to track down KM video a few years back and got in touch .They had quite a catalogue in storage but didn't really offer any help,but did offer to let me into their warehouse to search for tapes.

If you get any luck then I wold love to know.

 

 

I take it you didnt take up there offer to visit their warehouse?

 

Where were the based out of interest?

[Vincent Vega]

Anyone know what happened to B & J Videos who done Stoke and Long Eaton? Ken Partons interviews were superb.

[Paul]

Paul Bonner was the main man at KM Video's,certainly I got that impression. As posted send Rob McCafrey a message, he was and still is a excellant commentator,far better than Tony Millard!

[RobMcCaffery]

Paul Bonner was the main man at KM Video's,certainly I got that impression. As posted send Rob McCafrey a message, he was and still is a excellant commentator,far better than Tony Millard!

 

There's a scan of a tenner on its way to you Paul - very kind.

 

I'm interested to hear that KM keep an archive but then it has been many years since I've been in touch with them. Paul Bonner indeed was the proprietor.

 

The story might be of interest.

 

For those not aware KM obtained the contract to supply the cable TV channel Screen Sport with speedway programming from the start of the 1984 season. I'd started with them on various sports apart from speedway in the winter of 1981/82 and went on to deal direct with Screen Sport as speedway and stock car presenter, plus various odd sports that came our way (backwards DAF racing, Dutch kick-boxing - I kid you not). When I left them in 1986 I lost touch with KM who I understand went on to supply football goal action to ITV stations.

 

Once the Screen Sport deal started a firm called Video Anglia were soon brought in to bolster the operation and it was they who had the masters for the broadcast meetings with KM carrying-on doing usually one camera work for video purposes and with clips being used on my news programme. VA went under a few years back and I suspect most of the ScreenSport masters with it.

 

Screen Sport hit financial problems when the UK cable networks, authorised in the mid-80s simply didn't get built. It wasn't for another ten years until these networks were built, usually by American companies. At the same time until the launch of the high-powered Astra satellite in 1989 you needed a very expensive 3m diameter dish system to get the station via satellite.

 

The station had been funded by American TV networks and when they saw that the industry was stalling - quite simply too few people could watch the programmes to make the station viable then they pulled the plug and handed their interests over to WH Smiths who unsurprisingly went for cuts. One was my studio news programme and with little indication that there was any commitment to speedway or prospect of financial stability I left.

 

KM and Video Anglia continued to supply programmes using Julie Richardson and Clive Fisher before the speedway coverage switched to Sweden's Tommy Rander. By then the Astra satellite was up and running with its multi Sky channels and Screensport was there with them. The birth of Sky Sports though left the station in limbo and it was eventually absorbed by Eurosport.

 

 

I have precious few copies of my work. Indeed there's probably more on the Speedway On Disc website or You Tube than I've got. Last time I checked with Ken Burnett he seemed to have quite a list. Sadly I loaned a few out years back and never saw them again. Included was our review of the 1985 speedway season and if anyone has a copy of that one I'd love to see it in particular.

 

I've messaged Phil K and will be sending him a copy of one of the few tapes I've got - Hackney Kestrels v Mildenhall from 1984 - the first NL-level meeting at Waterden Road and the first to be shown on Screen Sport.

 

It's sad really - we were so busy making programmes that I simply didn't have the heart to ask them to do copies of meetings for me. It's all a long time ago and in fact it's now nearly 25 years since I last commentated on a race, as opposed to announcing.

 

If anyone out there enjoyed the work I'm pleased - that's what it was all about at the end of the day although I wouldn't have minded some fame and fortune ;-)

 

Regards,

Rob McCaffery.

[RobMcCaffery]

I take it you didnt take up there offer to visit their warehouse?

 

Where were the based out of interest?

 

Last I knew they were in Hoddesdon but that was a few years back.

 

Rob McCaffery.

[PhilK]

Many thanks for the information on KM Videos Rob, and your kind offer of a copy of the Hackney v Mildenhall meeting! It is much appreciated.

 

Backwards DAF racing and Dutch Kick Boxing hmmm, and some say Speedway is a minority spot

 

The commentaries certainly were very good on them and leave todays excitable shouting style of commentating in the shade, also there were excellent interviews. One meeting I have features interviews with a young Michael Lee and the late Billy Sanders who at the time was a mentor for the young Aussie Dave Jackson, great memories!

 

A PM is on the way to Ken!

 

 

Edited October 22, 2009 by PhilK

[Bradford Ace]

 

Got a few KM productions off ebay & they are excellent. Shame nobody seems to know the whereabouts of the owner as i'd love to get my hands on some other meetings from the 80's as somewhere there must be hundreds of old tapes lying around gathering dust!!!

 

Barely any footage about from The Shay where i first watched my Speedway which is a huge shame as i would love to see some old meetings from there.

 

I do have one production in b&w that has 5 Halifax meetings on from 80-83 but only one is from the Shay that was Halifax v Sheffield. The coverage isnt too good on that one but its the only real footage i have apart from a couple of other clips.

 

If anyone stumbles across other Halifax coverage then let me know as i'd love to get copies. Got one meeting from themat the old Belle Vue from 82 thats decent enough but for some reason nobody seemed to bother filming at the Shay!!!!

 

[RobMcCaffery]

Got a few KM productions off ebay & they are excellent. Shame nobody seems to know the whereabouts of the owner as i'd love to get my hands on some other meetings from the 80's as somewhere there must be hundreds of old tapes lying around gathering dust!!!

 

Got one meeting from themat the old Belle Vue from 82 thats decent enough but for some reason nobody seemed to bother filming at the Shay!!!!

 

I can confirm that we very rarely, if ever filmed at the Shay, but then KM were a London-based outfit and pretty much the only serious player in the initial speedway video market of the early eighties. It was a long way to Halifax ;-)

 

By the time we moved into the Screen Sport days we were pretty well locked-into National League coverage so The Shay wasn't a priority.

 

Of course we did feature the Dukes away quite a lot to compensate and I did get to interview Kenny Carter many times. It was always a challenge, usually preceded by the question "You got that tape ready with all my races on yet?"

 

Oddly we did get to Belle Vue a fair bit and I remember the commentary position well. You may recall that alongside the old referee's box at Hyde Road there was a searchlight platform. Well the camera looked over the top of the searchlight while I had to lie on the floor, peering over the edge of the stadium roof to see the racing. As you can see there are sometimes good reasons why those commentaries may have seemed strained. Messrs Pearson and Millard have it easy I can tell you.

 

When I got involved in the commentary business I had a terrible head for heights - and was extremely shy. I had to learn to lose both problems very fast. With Belle Vue it was very much kill or cure... The other classic was Milton Keynes' Groveway stadium where you had to balance on a chair on the staircase to the ref's box to get onto the roof of the box which of course had no safety rails whatsoever.

 

It was always a relief to get to Wimbledon where you were about four feet off the ground ;-)

 

Reasons that certain tracks were favoured in those early days though were quite simple - distance to travel and how keen the local promotion was to have us there, and that was far from universal.

 

Rob McCaffery

Edited October 22, 2009 by rmc

[moxey63]

I loved KM Videos and indeed have many of their meetings on tape, one being an original of the highlights of the 1982 England v America series, which I purchased off ebay.

 

Think they are something of a cult product now, though I must add that I wasn't impressed back in 1982, when I bought the Hackney-Belle Vue match from them, to find it was less than half-an-hour footage for £20, a lot in those days.

Edited October 23, 2009 by moxey63

[RobMcCaffery]

I loved KM Videos and indeed have many of their meetings on tape, one being an original of the highlights of the 1982 England v America series, which I purchased off ebay.

 

Think they are something of a cult product now, though I must add that I wasn't impressed back in 1982, when I bought the Hackney-Belle Vue match from them, to find it was less than half-an-hour footage for £20, a lot in those days.

 

Mr. Bonner's choice, not mine. It does seem rather high for its day but I kept well clear of that side of things - just a hired voice.

 

Rob McCaffery

[moxey63]

Mr. Bonner's choice, not mine. It does seem rather high for its day but I kept well clear of that side of things - just a hired voice.

 

Rob McCaffery

 

 

Rob

 

I suppose the price was linked to the fact that KM were the only company recording meetings for the purpose of selling to supporters, so I suppose they could name their price. It was a time when video recorders started being more affordable, and now, 20-odd years on, I have got over that £20 outlay!

Edited October 23, 2009 by moxey63

[RobMcCaffery]

Rob

 

I suppose the price was linked to the fact that KM were the only company recording meetings for the purpose of selling to supporters, so I suppose they could name their price. It was a time when video recorders started being more affordable, and now, 20-odd years on, I have got over that £20 outlay!

 

I must admit that I've always thought speedway videos to be highly-priced although in recent years the price seems to be a lot more sensible. Back in 81-3 when I was just doing KM's videos I didn't even have a video recorder myself so I very rarely got to see anything.

 

With Tony McDonald showing there's quite a market for nostalgic books and magazines I suspect there would be quite a demand for vintage video and it would settle quite a few debates over whether the sport and particularly racing has declined since those days. I think anyone who's read my postings elsewhere on the forum will know where I stand on that, but then I do have the advantage of evidence in my video library which may be small but gives a pretty good sample.

 

Rob McCaffery.

[moxey63]

I must admit that I've always thought speedway videos to be highly-priced although in recent years the price seems to be a lot more sensible. Back in 81-3 when I was just doing KM's videos I didn't even have a video recorder myself so I very rarely got to see anything.

 

With Tony McDonald showing there's quite a market for nostalgic books and magazines I suspect there would be quite a demand for vintage video and it would settle quite a few debates over whether the sport and particularly racing has declined since those days. I think anyone who's read my postings elsewhere on the forum will know where I stand on that, but then I do have the advantage of evidence in my video library which may be small but gives a pretty good sample.

 

Rob McCaffery.

 

 

Rob

 

We get the feeling that racing was better in the olden days, but maybe it was just more interesting.

 

Tracks weren't as smooth back then, so riders couldn't go full-throttle for four laps. More skill and throttle control were required.

 

Races seemed less predicable back then, even if there may not have been as much overtaking as we like to remember.

Edited October 24, 2009 by moxey63

[RobMcCaffery]

Rob

 

We get the feeling that racing was better in the olden days, but maybe it was just more interesting.

 

Tracks weren't as smooth back then, so riders couldn't go full-throttle for four laps. More skill and throttle control were required.

 

Races seemed less predicable back then, even if there may not have been as much overtaking as we like to remember.

 

I base my comment on having seen the outside pass become such a rarity. One of the reasons that I fell in love with speedway was seeing riders bravely moving off-line, heading out into the dirt with wide-open throttle and racing.

 

Over the years I saw the real racers in the sport frustrated by finding that when they tried this move they were let down by the track as they simply fell further behind.

 

Now far too often I see racing confined to one tight line, often on the notorious "blue groove" and far too often the only hope of seeing a pass is if a rider slips off this line and leaves a gap on the inside.

 

Much has changed for the better over the years, notably live TV coverage but the outside pass is tragically such a rarity these days. I feel the sport let down those who were prepared to race rather than simply have a "skid" and it is all the poorer for this.

 

Rob McCaffery.

 

 

[moxey63]

I base my comment on having seen the outside pass become such a rarity. One of the reasons that I fell in love with speedway was seeing riders bravely moving off-line, heading out into the dirt with wide-open throttle and racing.

 

Over the years I saw the real racers in the sport frustrated by finding that when they tried this move they were let down by the track as they simply fell further behind.

 

Now far too often I see racing confined to one tight line, often on the notorious "blue groove" and far too often the only hope of seeing a pass is if a rider slips off this line and leaves a gap on the inside.

 

Much has changed for the better over the years, notably live TV coverage but the outside pass is tragically such a rarity these days. I feel the sport let down those who were prepared to race rather than simply have a "skid" and it is all the poorer for this.

 

Rob McCaffery.

 

 

Personally I think the racing was much better years ago than it is now. Newbies criticise people like me for saying it was, saying we’re dinosaurs. But they wouldn't know any different.

I feel despair if, say, in 15-20 years time, the newbies of today are saying that racing was better when they started watching the sport. Imagine what speedway will be like then!

 

[Trap 1]

CAN ANYONE HELP WITH THIS ONE!!

Recordings of boston 1980/81 crayford 1981/82 and peterboro 1983/84

 

 

[PhilK]

I loved KM Videos and indeed have many of their meetings on tape, one being an original of the highlights of the 1982 England v America series, which I purchased off ebay.

 

Think they are something of a cult product now, though I must add that I wasn't impressed back in 1982, when I bought the Hackney-Belle Vue match from them, to find it was less than half-an-hour footage for £20, a lot in those days.

 

I can remember paying that much too! A considerable lump out of my pay back then and probably why I have so few

 

I was researching a piece for the Mildenhall programme on their early history in the 4 Team Tournament last evening, and in the 1981 programme from Peterborough was an advert of K M Videos offering meetings they had filmed between March 28th and 14th June. In total there were 38 meetings so they certainly kept busy back then.

 

Some of the tracks featured included Barrow, Ellesmere Port, Canterbury, Weymouth, Crayford, Wimbledon, Boston plus three Mildenhall meetings Ive never seen! I'm surprised that the owner has not seen a niche in the market here, as I'm sure these defunct tracks would be highly sort of by collectors!

 

For the record 30 minute meetings cost £22, League Cup/16 heat meetings £23 and Test matches/Open meetings £25!

[RobMcCaffery]

I can remember paying that much too! A considerable lump out of my pay back then and probably why I have so few

 

I was researching a piece for the Mildenhall programme on their early history in the 4 Team Tournament last evening, and in the 1981 programme from Peterborough was an advert of K M Videos offering meetings they had filmed between March 28th and 14th June. In total there were 38 meetings so they certainly kept busy back then.

 

Some of the tracks featured included Barrow, Ellesmere Port, Canterbury, Weymouth, Crayford, Wimbledon, Boston plus three Mildenhall meetings Ive never seen! I'm surprised that the owner has not seen a niche in the market here, as I'm sure these defunct tracks would be highly sort of by collectors!

 

For the record 30 minute meetings cost £22, League Cup/16 heat meetings £23 and Test matches/Open meetings £25!

 

1981 was the year before I got involved so I'm surprised to see Barrow and Ellesmere Port listed since we certainly didn't go to places that far away (bar Belle Vue) in my time. I suspect that KM might have had a deal with a local guy to market their work on their behalf.

 

I can certainly vouch for the volume of meetings covered after then though - it was most nights of the week. Bear in mind we also covered football, ice hockey and basketball at that time so either end of the speedway season was downright hectic. I am still recovering from two seasons of being the Crystal Palace FC club video commentator :-( but the ice hockey (Streatham, Richmond, Lee Valley, Nottingham and Durham) was good fun.

 

Once the ScreenSport work started we also had the small matter of weekly stock car coverage to contend with too.

 

Rob McCaffery