THE BEAT ROOM
The Beat Room is a British television series presenting beat, rhythm and blues and other pop music, shown on BBC2 in 1964–65. The series was produced by Barry Langford and directed by James Moir. Acts, introduced by an off-screen presenter, Pat Campbell, performed live before an audience. The resident house band was initially Wayne Gibson and the Dynamic Sounds, but was replaced by Peter and the Headlines mid-run. The show also featured a sextet of female performance dancers, the Beat Girls formed from an existing group, the Katy-Dids. In all, 29 programmes were made.The first show, broadcast on Monday 6 July 1964 at 6.35 p.m., featured The Animals, Lulu & the Luvvers, and Millie Small. The show was broadcast on Mondays, with Saturday repeats during the middle of the run. The final show was shown on 29 January 1965.
There was a 75-minute New Year's Eve special in 1964, Beat in the New.
Tapes of all but one of the programmes were later destroyed. The only remaining programme (originally broadcast on 5 October 1964) held by the BBC featured Tom Jones, Julie Rogers, The Kinks, John Lee Hooker, and The Syndicats. This was repeated on BBC4 in 2007.
The Beat Girls were choreographed by Gary Cockrell and co-managed by Cockrell and Valerie Hyman. They are most famous today for providing most of the dancers who formed Pan's People though most joined after the Beat Room period. They were based out of the Dance Centre.
The line-up from July to October 1964 was:
- Ann Chapman
- Babs Lord
- Jo Cook
- Jenny Ferle
- Lynn Wolseley
- Ruth Pearson
This line-up is seen on the remaining publicly available footage of the Beat Girls on the Beat Room performing to "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On".
Jo Cook's period in the group ended in October 1964 due to an allegation of already being under contract; however by the following month she had formed the Go-Jos for Top of the Pops, winning the work ahead of the Beat Girls. Carlotta Barrow replaced her as a regular member, having already done some performances in the group.
Episodes
1
6-JUL-64
First edition, Wayne Gibson resident group, programmes 25 minutes long
2
13-JUL-64
Inez Foxx, Long John Baldry, The Animals, Wayne Gibson resident group
3
20-JUL-64
The Animals, The McKinleys, The Nashville Teens, The Beat Girls, Wayne Gibson resident group
4
27-JUL-64
Kenny Lynch and the Echoes, Elkie Brooks, Georgie Fame, Davy Jones and the King Bees, The Beat Girls, Wayne Gibson resident group
5
3-AUG-64
Manfred Mann, and the Manfreds, Jimmy Powell and the Five Dimensions, The Barron Knights, Wayne Gibson resident group
6
10-AUG-64
Memphis Slim, Manfred Mann, The Untamed Four, Marianne Faithfull, Long John Baldry and The Hoochie Coochie Men, The Beat Girls, Wayne Gibson resident group
7
17-AUG-64
Tommy Tucker, Christine Holmes, The Cherokees, Troy Dante and the Infernos, The Naturals, Wayne Gibson resident group
8
24-AUG-64
Brenda Lee, The Swinging Blue Jeans, Tommy Tucker, Wayne Gibson resident group
9
31-AUG-64
The Hollies, Screaming Lord Sutch, Tammy St. John and the Trends, The Rockin' Berries, Wayne Gibson resident group
10
7-SEP-64
Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, Dave Berry, Lesley Gore, The Pretty Things, Wayne Gibson resident group
11
14-SEP-64
Bill Haley and his Comets, Peter and Gordon, Zoot Money and the Big Roll Band, Sally Kelly, The Wranglers, The Beat Girls, Wayne Gibson resident group. Extended to 30 minutes from this edition on
12
21-SEP-64
Lulu and the Luvvers, The Animals, Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, The Wackers, Wayne Gibson resident group
13
28-SEP-64
Little Eva, Herman's Hermits, Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, The Badd Boys, The Beat Girls, Wayne Gibson resident group
14
5-OCT-64
Surviving episode
15
12-OCT-64
Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, Chris Farlowe and the Thunderbirds, The Beat Chicks, The Roosters, The Beat Girls, Wayne Gibson resident group
16
19-OCT-64
Named 'Beat Extra' Dionne Warwick, Carl Perkins, The Honeycombs, The Nashville Teens, The Hell Raisers, The Beat Girls, Wayne Gibson resident group
17
26-OCT-64
Julie Grant, The Dixie Cups, Little Walter, Peter and the Headlines, The Roosters, The Beat Girls, Wayne Gibson resident group
18
2-NOV-64
Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, Diana Dors, The Breakaways,Sugar Pie Desanto, The Moody Blues, The Rockin' Vickers,The Beat Girls. Switch to Peter and the Headlines as resident group
COLOUR ME POP
Colour Me Pop was a British music TV programme broadcast on BBC2 from 1968–1969. It was a spin-off from the BBC 2 arts magazine show Late Night Line-Up. Designed to celebrate the new introduction of colour to British television, it was directed by Steve Turner, and showcased half-hour sets by pop and rock groups of the period. The programme was a pioneering precursor to the better-remembered BBC music programme The Old Grey Whistle Test (1971–87). Unlike its successor, most of the editions of Colour Me Pop are missing, due to the BBC's archival policy of the time.
14 June 1968 Manfred Mann
21 June 1968 The Small Faces
28 June 1968 Eclection
12 July 1968 Salena Jones with The Brian Lemon Trio
19 July 1968 Fleetwood Mac
26 July 1968 The Kinks
9 August 1968 The Peddlers
16 August 1968 The Tremeloes
23 August 1968 Barry Noble
30 August 1968 Spooky Tooth
7 September 1968 The Hollies
14 September 1968 The Moody Blues
21 September 1968 Unit 4 + 2
28 September 1968 David Ackles
5 October 1968 O'Hara's Playboys
12 October 1968 Honeybus, Clodagh Rodgers
2 November 1968 Eclection, Spooky Tooth, Jethro Tull
9 November 1968 Foggy Dew-O, Lou Prinze and the Bedrocks
16 November 1968 The Nice
23 November 1968 The Alan Price Set, Julie Driscoll and The Brian Auger Trinity
30 November 1968 Giles, Giles and Fripp
7 December 1968 Timebox
14 December 1968 Love Sculpture
21 December 1968 Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
28 December 1968 repeat of Hollies edition
4 January 1969 The Move
11 January 1969 Sons And Lovers
16 January 1969 Pop-Tops
25 January 1969 The Toast
1 February 1969 Chicken Shack
6 February 1969 Bobby Hanna, The Art Movement
15 February 1969 The Equals, Barbara Ruskin
22 February 1969 The Marmalade
1 March 1969 Ten Years After
8 March 1969 World of Oz
15 March 1969 Caravan
22 March 1969 Harmony Grass
12 April 1969 Free
19 April 1969 Jimmy Campbell, Sweet Thursday
26 April 1969 Elastic Band
10 May 1969 Family
17 May 1969 Cats Eyes
31 May 1969 Group Therapy
7 June 1969 Lions of Judah
14 June 1969 Strawbs (who also invited David Bowie along to perform mime to one track "Poor Jimmy Wilson", with his producer Tony Visconti
5 July 1969 Trapeze (at Laf), Samson
12 July 1969 Copperfield
26 July 1969 Orange Bicycle
2 August 1969 The Love Affair, Philip Goodhand-Tait
9 August 1969 Gene Pitney backed by the Mike Cotton Sound
30 August 1969 The Fortunes
GADZOOKS!
Gadzooks! is a British pop music television programme which aired on BBC2 from February to September 1965. It was originally produced by Barry Langford and was a replacement for his previous music show The Beat Room which had run in the same time slot on BBC2 since July 1964.
The programme went through a number of name changes during its 35-episode run, originally being titled Gadzooks! It's All Happening, before changing to Gadzooks! It's The In-Crowd, then finally simply Gadzooks!.
The presenters of the programme included Alan David, Lulu, Roger Whittaker and future Crackerjack! presenter Christine Holmes. Recurring artists who appeared most weeks included Liverpool singing trio The Three Bells, dance troupe The Beat Girls and blind singer & organist Peter Cook (not to be confused with the comedian of the same name), plus a number of special musical guests every week. Notable acts who performed on the programme included The Who, Tom Jones, Manfred Mann, Marianne Faithfull, The Animals, Chuck Berry, Sonny & Cher, The Byrds, The Four Tops and David Bowie (who appeared twice: both times under his real name of Davy Jones).
HAPPENING FOR LULU
Happening For Lulu was the original title of a television series broadcast on BBC1 from 1968 to 1969 hosted by Lulu and produced by Stanley Dorfman. The show's title was changed to Lulu from episode 3, broadcast 11 January 1969. Jimi Hendrix was banned from the BBC after he and his band disrupted the show by changing the song list and continuing on to play after the allotted amount. Subsequent series were titled "It's Lulu!" but the final series broadcast in 1975 was the second to be titled simply 'Lulu'. After her variety show earlier in the year Lulu was now given a more progressive show, in keeping with her own musical tastes.
Johnny Harris was the musical director this time around, rather than the usual Harry Rabinowitz or Ronnie Hazelhurst. Harris' theme for the show was called Lulu's Scene and released as a 45 by Warner Brothers. Pan's People were employed as the dance troupe, rather than the Young Generation, the backing singers were the soulful Sue and Sunny rather than The Ladybirds and the producer was Stanley Dorfman. Lulu was very definitely given an upgrade this time around.
Talking to Disc Stanley Dorfman explained "It's basically Lulu's show. She's going to run it. There will be well-known pop people, new pop names, and some surprise big-name personalities. We want to get a cross section of subjects and not just reflect what's happening in the hit parade."
The Radio Times had announced the show as "The first programme in a new series of music and laughter" while producer Dorfman predicted that the show "will be 45 minutes of live, unscripted, anything-can-happen television". He wasn't wrong.
Her then fiance Maurice Gibb appeared on the first show as did Atlantic Records' band Cartoone in the 'New To TV' portion of the show which would also feature Apple Records' The Iveys on the second show. It would be that second show on 4th January 1969 that would be memorable.
Jimi Hendrix had lost a lump of hash down a dressing room sink plug-hole but managed to retrieve it in time for a pre-show smoke, leading to an erratic, but legendary performance with his band. The shows' producer wanted the band to accompany Lulu on a version of To Sir With Love (or Hey Joe), but after they had performed Hey Joe without her, but they veered off-piste, trashing the song with an out-of-tune guitar and lurching into a cover of Cream's Sunshine Of Your Love, scuppering the intended duet, running overtime, and leading to a BBC ban. Thankfully a BBC video tape engineer saved that portion of the show, re-appearing on the Old Grey Whistle Test a few years' later. Noel Redding later wrote in his memoir “We played past the point where Lulu might have joined us, played through the time for talking at the end, played through Stanley tearing his hair, pointing to his watch and silently screaming at us."
Traffic, Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix and Jose Feliciano were all approached to appear, making this an unusually hot tea-time show, especially for a Saturday.
The following week the show was re-titled 'Lulu', cut by ten minutes and now found her singing the six qualifiers for A Song For Europe, including an early song by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Members of the Music Publishers' Associations suggested songs to a committee who then reduced the number of songs to fifteen. Lulu was then allowed to commission three further songs of her choosing. The selection of eighteen was then reduced to six by a committee of BBC representatives, an association representative and Lulu herself. Her agent Dick Katz tried to explain the cut in the show's length to Melody Maker "This was to allow Lulu to concentrate on the Eurovision songs included in the shows. The show is getting a terrific reaction."
Despite the apparent name change a March 1969 print advert for Blood Sweat and Tears still credited the show as 'Happening For Lulu' when they were due to appear as guests.
Although the intention of this new series was to show Lulu in a contemporary light in the end it would only lead her to Boom Bang-A-Bang.
Lulu‘s star was well-and-truly on the rise in the pop world when she was given her own Saturday night variety show by the BBC in 1968, Lulu’s Back In Town.
Returning to the BBC in 1969 with Happening for Lulu, the Scottish songstress with the big voice also sang six songs under the banner “A Song for Europe” in a search to find the United Kingdom entry for the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest – eventually representing the UK with Boom Bang-a-Bang and tying for first place with Spain, Holland and France.
Lulu was joined on the show by backing singers Sue and Sunny with Kay, Pan’s People and Johnny Harris and his orchestra. Guests included Michael Aspel, Badfinger, new husband Maurice Gibb, Jack Jones, Gene Pitney and The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Hendrix created a storm during his appearance when, a few bars into his latest single, he stopped the music and announced “We’d like to stop playing this rubbish and dedicate a song to the Cream, regardless of what kind of group they may be in. We dedicate this to Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce”.
The band then gave a truly magnificent performance of Cream’s song Sunshine of Your Love as a tribute to Clapton’s band who had announced their breakup that day.
The show was being broadcast live and their performance ran over time, causing the evening news broadcast to be late on the air. The incident would see The Jimi Hendrix Experience banned from the BBC for life but would live on as a moment of rock and roll history unlike any other.
JAZZ 625
Jazz 625 is a BBC jazz programme featuring performances by British and American musicians, first broadcast between April 1964 and August 1966. It was created by Terry Henebery, a clarinetist recruited in 1963 as one of the new producers for BBC Two. The title of the show referred to the fact that BBC2 was broadcast on 625-lines UHF rather than the 405-lines VHF system then used by the other channels. Other programme series included Theatre 625 and Cinema 625. The theme tune for the show was written by presenter Steve Race. Later presenters included Humphrey Lyttelton and Peter Clayton.
The programme began at the end of the dispute between the UK Musician's Union and the American Federation of Musicians. This meant that well known musicians from the United States could come to Britain for the first time since the 1930s. It also coincided with a fertile time for British jazz, with such musicians as Tubby Hayes, Tony Coe and John Dankworth becoming known internationally.
Bill Cotton, then Assistant Head of Light Entertainment Group (Variety) at the BBC, commissioned the first series. Henebery's initial format idea, however, a programme with interviews and profiles, was denied because of budget constraints. The BBC were keen "to turn it around and get something on the screen quickly."
Henebery, a clarinetist by training, had joined the BBC Television Service in 1955 as a sound operator, after several years serving in the Grenadier Guards, interspersed with study at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1958 he moved to radio light entertainment at Aeolian Hall as a producer. He had a growing love of jazz, initiated by his friend saxophonist Ronnie Ross and spent four and a half years with Jimmy Grant producing Jazz Club. He returned to television in 1963.
The first jazz show was a gala presentation of Duke Ellington entitled Ellington in Concert, recorded at the BBC Television Theatre and hosted by Steve Race, the presenter of many of the early programmes. The first part was broadcast on BBC2 on 21 April 1964. The day had been planned as the channel's second night, but after a fire at Battersea Power Station had blacked out all power at BBC Television Centre, it turned out to be the channel's opening night. The second part was aired five days later on 26 April
The second full show was a jam session featuring George Chisholm, Kenny Baker, Tony Coe, Roy Willox, Laurie Holloway, Jack Fallon and Lennie Hastings. A week later the show featured the Tubby Hayes Quintet with singer Betty Bennett. Later Henebery secured such internationally renowned musicians as Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck and the MJQ with Laurindo Almeida. Peterson was booked to play, for an hour, for a fee of £1,000 (equivalent to £20,000 in 2021), at a time when the total budget for the show was £800. Woody Herman later played with his band after having been seen at the Portsmouth Guildhall.
Some outside broadcasts were recorded at the Marquee Club and some from the original CTS studio in Bayswater, and included artists such as Art Blakey, Jimmy Giuffre and Erroll Garner. Other concerts were recorded at LAMDA. When not on the road the show was resident at the BBC Television Theatre, the Shepherd's Bush Empire. Unlike most shows of this era, the majority of Jazz 625 episodes have survived, with shows tele recorded onto 35mm film.
Henebery went on to produce further jazz series for the BBC, such as the 1968 Jazz at the Maltings which was recorded at Snape Maltings, in Suffolk and which opened with a concert by Buddy Rich and his band. After producing Jazz Scene for BBC2, Henebery accepted an offer from London Weekend Television, and embarked upon a long and successful freelance career which took him to Thames Television, the BBC again and finally to Yorkshire Television.
Some of the original programme material has been re-broadcast by the BBC. A run of selected programmes was aired on BBC2 in the early 1990s. In March 2009 BBC Four showed the 30-minute programme episode from 1964 featuring the quartet of pianist Dave Brubeck, introduced by Slim Gaillard, with footage restored and re-edited. Numbers included saxophonist Paul Desmond's "Take Five", the first jazz record to sell over one million copies.
In November 2010 BBC Four showed a one-hour compilation, with presenter Steve Race, featuring John Dankworth and Cleo Laine, Victor Feldman with Ronnie Scott, the Tubby Hayes Big Band, the Johnny Ross Quartet, Annie Ross with the Tony Kinsey Quintet and Bill Le Sage's Directions in Jazz.
Other episodes re-broadcast by BBC Four have included Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, the Thelonious Monk Quartet, the Modern Jazz Quartet, the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet and Oscar Peterson.
Episodes have also been released on VHS and DVD.
In May 2019, Jazz 625 returned to the BBC as a 90-minute live show on BBC Four called Jazz 625 Live: For One Night Only. This show was shot in black and white, and mixed archive clips with new performances from the Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Artists who appeared included Cleo Laine, Gregory Porter and Charlie Watts.
In November 2020, BBC Four broadcast another one-off special called Jazz 625: The British Jazz Explosion featuring new artists from the London Jazz scene and presented by Moses Boyd and Jamz Supernova.
JUKE BOX JURY
Juke Box Jury was a music panel show which ran on BBC Television between 1 June 1959 and 27 December 1967. The programme was based on the American show Jukebox Jury, itself an offshoot of a long-running radio series. The American series, which was televised, aired from 1953 to 1959 and was hosted by Peter Potter, Suzanne Alexander, Jean Moorhead, and Lisa Davis. The series featured celebrity show business guests on a rotating weekly panel who were asked to judge the hit potential of recent record releases. By 1962 the programme was attracting 12 million viewers weekly on Saturday nights.
The concept was later revived by the BBC for one series in 1979 and a further two series in 1989/1990.
Juke Box Jury took a format where a guest panel reviewed new record releases in a 25-minute programme, extended to an hour for some Christmas shows. The format was drawn from that of the US TV series, Jukebox Jury. Host David Jacobs each week asked four celebrities (the 'Jurors') to judge newly released records on his jukebox (a Rock-Ola Tempo II) and forecast which would be declared a "hit" or a "miss" – the decision accompanied by either a bell for a 'hit' or a hooter for a 'miss'. A panel of three members of the audience voted as a tie-breaker if the guests' decision was deadlocked, by holding up a large circular disc with 'Hit' on one side and 'Miss' on the other. Most weeks the performers of one of the records would be hidden behind a screen and emerge to "surprise" the panel after they had given their verdict.
The series was usually broadcast from the BBC TV Theatre, Shepherd's Bush Green, London. Each programme normally consisted of between seven and nine records. Those editions which were pre-recorded normally followed a live transmission, and broadcast in the regular slot.
Juke Box Jury was first broadcast on BBC Television on 1 June 1959. Originally on Monday evenings, the BBC show was moved to early Saturday evenings starting on 3 September 1959 due to its immediate popularity. The series was produced by Russell Turner.
The original panel consisted of Pete Murray, Alma Cogan, Gary Miller and Susan Stranks, who gave a 'teenager's view'. Murray appeared every week for the first 11 episodes, however, generally the panel of judges changed from week to week and mainly featured current stars from music, television and film. The panel normally comprised two male and two female guests, many of whom appeared more than once. Singers Gary Miller and Alma Cogan were regular panelists in the early shows. Actor Eric Sykes was often a panelist and Katie Boyle was a frequent Juror (appearing at least 37 times), as were Lulu and Cilla Black, who appeared twelve and nine times respectively. From 31 December 1966, a regular panel was established for eight consecutive editions. Jimmy Savile, Simon Dee, Alan Freeman and Pete Murray sat in judgment for all these programmes, having first appeared together on 3 December 1966. From 25 February until 1 April, the foursome continued as regular panelists, but alternating in pairs each week, with Savile and Murray appearing together, followed by Freeman and Dee. Among the diverse others from the world of entertainment who appeared were Thora Hird, Alfred Hitchcock, Spike Milligan, Lonnie Donegan, Johnny Mathis, Roy Orbison and David McCallum.
By October 1959 Juke Box Jury had reached a weekly audience of almost 9 million viewers. Bill Cotton took over production of the series during 1960, to be followed later in the year by Stewart Morris and then Neville Wortman, who was to remain the producer until the series ended in 1967.
On 7 December 1963, the panel was the four Beatles, while George Harrison and Ringo Starr both appeared separately later, as did their manager Brian Epstein, who was twice a panelist. John Lennon had already appeared on 29 June 1963. Then on 4 July 1964 the five members of the Rolling Stones formed the panel, the only time there were more than four Jurors on the programme. Keith Richards later wrote of this appearance: "We didn't give a shit.... We just trashed every record they played."
By early 1962, Juke Box Jury had a weekly audience of over 12 million viewers, while the Beatles appearance on 7 December 1963 garnered an audience of 23 million, and news of the Rolling Stones' appearance the following June garnered 10,000 applications to the BBC for tickets for the recording. The attraction of the programme deftly crossed generational boundaries – younger viewers reveling in the appearance of their current pop stars, while older adults identified with the often anti-pop sentiments of the panelists from a non-musical or older background, confirming "adult and youthful prejudices at the same time"'.
In January 1967, the Sunday tabloid newspaper News of the World in a series of attacks on the new hippy sub-culture and LSD, castigated David Jacobs in one article for playing the Mothers of Invention single "It Can't Happen Here" on a Juke Box Jury broadcast in November 1966 as it was 'recorded on a trip', and also blamed two of the jury for voting it a hit. The jury on this occasion included Bobby Goldsboro, Susan Maughan and comedian Ted Rogers. In fact, by the time of the article, the BBC had already cut seven minutes from the 7 January 1967 programme because of drug references in one of that week's chosen songs, "The Addicted Man" by the Game, which had resulted in universal disapproval by the Jurors during an extended discussion. This was part of a new policy for the programme during its last year of broadcast, when a regular panel of four disc jockeys was introduced, with a more detailed discussion of each song.
On 24 December 1966 and again on 5 August 1967 the Seekers became only the fourth band to appear as Jurors in the series, appearing just a few weeks after The Bachelors. The programme had by this time seen a drop in ratings, and from 27 September 1967 Juke Box Jury was moved from its prime place in the Saturday evening schedules and transmitted on early Wednesday evenings, replaced in the key Saturday slot by Dee Time. On November 8, 1967, the scheduled edition of the show was canceled without notice, leading to speculation the show was to end. At the end of 1967, Juke Box Jury was dropped from the BBC schedule because of its falling ratings, and the last broadcast was on 27 December 1967, with original Jurors Pete Murray and Susan Stranks appearing once more.
READY STEADY GO!
Ready Steady Go! (or RSG!) was a British rock/pop music television programme broadcast every Friday evening from 9 August 1963 until 23 December 1966.
"The weekend starts here."
No one could have predicted the influence, or the newspaper column inches that Ready, Steady Go! would have amounted, but a vague announcement about a new show had been made in British weekly pop music magazine Disc in late March 1963, "big new AR-TV show planned for pop fans." Ready Steady Go! had been devised by London-based ITV franchise Associated-Rediffusion to capitalize on the emerging British beat boom and would go on to present and represent everything that was great about British pop in the sixties.
Elkan Allan, head of Light Entertainment for Rediffusion, had commissioned the show, even coming up with its now-famous catchphrase 'the weekend starts here.' However, it would be the pool of young talent, with not much, if any, experience in television that assembled the show, and one of those, future show editor Vicki Wickham, fresh from her placement with BBC radio was now working as a secretary at A-R.
Both TV and radio would provide inspiration for the show. A-R had devised a new dance show in 1963, a sort of follow-up to the long-running Cool For Cats called Step Lively, which in the end it wasn't commissioned, while Elkan Allen had been impressed by the Keith Fordyce hosted BBC radio show Pop Inn, in which pop stars would come in for an informal chat and maybe play an unrehearsed song. Allen had also toured clubs to see how kids danced and dressed, realizing that they would probably be just as much an attraction to a home audience as any of the singers and groups. He rightly reckoned that the home audience wanted to see how teens dressed and danced differently to each song, and that audience would be between 13-17.
In summer 1963 journalist John Gough reported in his weekly TV Times column that a new youth-aimed show was being prepared and invited any teenagers to turn up to participate in the pilot edition. "NEWS for teenagers: Associated-Rediffusion are planning a big new show for you. Its title: Ready, Steady, Go! Its stars: disc jockeys Keith Fordyce and David Gell--plus top recording and film personalities. The programme is to be tried out -- without actually being transmitted--on Friday, July 26. It will go on the screen "live" each Friday from August 9. Any teenagers who would like to be in the studios during the first or other of these swinging sessions should write to Ready, Steady, Go! (tickets), Associated - Rediffusion Ltd., Television House, Kingsway, London, W.C.2." This trial show (it's not known if this was a taped/filmed pilot) was held at The Royal in Tottenham and featured The Springfields. It would give the production team an idea of what to expect when the show debuted. However, the audience had no idea what to expect as the first broadcast show in August not only featured Billy Fury and Brian Poole and The Tremeloes, but also featured Joyce Blair, Joe Loss, Burl Ives and Pat Boone, not exactly the way to start any weekend. It was also the idea to catch stars just before they go to their theatrical engagements in London's west end to pop in for a chat, like BBC's In Town Tonight show from the fifties. Again, hardly the teenagers' catchment area.
TV Times described the debut show in August 1963; "Keith Fordyce invites you to join him and David Gell to meet a host of guest stars from all sides of entertainment including Billy Fury, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, listen to hit discs, see a scene from a recent movie, dance with the teenagers in the studio, find out what's swinging this weekend." This gave the impression of the show as some sort of youth club with elders keeping an eye on the audience. Joe Loss was the judge of a dance contest on the first show which was won by someone doing the twist. This wouldn't last long, it couldn’t. The debut show was given a two page spread in that weeks' TV Times, so the ITV network must have had some expectations of success for the show.
A-R commissioned five shows with a further run if it proved successful. The idea was to hold the main bulk of the broadcast in Rediffusion's basement studio in Kingsway hosted by radio and TV host Keith Fordyce with an audience of 150, while Canadian co-host David Gell would be in the lobby talking to the audience about their current music favorites. A member of the audience would get to play disc jockey and be given a pile of new releases to take home to listen to and return the following week with their choices and predictions, while another would have a chance of winning that week's top fifty singles. Another idea was to blindfold three members of the audience and get them to identify a current chart hit, while the title and artist was displayed on a monitor, but the idea was quickly dropped, as was a weekly piece on showbiz news. There was also a movie spot introduced by actress Polly Perkins, but this too only lasted a few weeks, despite attracting big name stars like Pat Boone and Stanley Baker. Dusty Springfield also helped to commerce for the first few weeks, but the demands of her new solo singing career meant that was always going to be a temporary post.
Initially RSG replaced The Dickie Henderson Show in the schedules, but when it moved to an earlier slot it would be another Keith Fordyce fronted show for A-R that got the chop. Close-Up was a weekly film news and reviews show but was now deemed superfluous if RSG was to cover the same topics.
Despite the inclusion of Billy Fury and others from the Larry Parnes finishing school of credible, but polite British rockers, the show producers' suspected something new was about to happen. By the summer of 1963 full-scale Beatlemania had yet to happen, but the mod scene had been around and making waves in London clubs since the early sixties, so was on the show's doorstep, it just had to be let inside. To further underline a probable change in tastes The Springfields, a trio of home-counties pop-folkies, had a blazing argument backstage at one of the early RSG shows in August 1963, furthering the desire of their lead singer, Dusty, to leave for a solo career and takes things further. Helen Shapiro, Eden Kane and others of the immediate past were invited on to the show in order to fulfill a need for familiarity, but they looked a little staid compared to the new wave of singers like Lulu and Cilla, but they were still having hits, and would continue to do so for another few months.
For the first eighteen months the show was broadcast live, or pre-recorded, in studio nine at Rediffusion’s studio at Kingsway, London. Radio Luxembourg and BBC radio personality Keith Fordyce hosted the show for its first year or so, along with his co-hosts David Gell, and later Cathy McGowan and Michael Aldred, later still by Gay Shingleton and Anne Nightingale. Although it was felt by many that Fordyce was probably too old even then to host a show so obviously targeted at teenagers A-R argued that the show needed experience out front, with Fordyce having hosted Jack Good's Wham! back in 1960 and more recently Thank Your Lucky Stars, so he was considered a safe pair of hands.
The show was a success, but Rediffusion quickly moved it from its prime time-hogging 7.00 - 7.30 pm slot to 6.30 - 7.00 pm from the 13th September 1963 to make way for established quiz show hit Take Your Pick, and then extending its opening hours the following week from 6.15 to 7.00 pm. David Gell's last show appears to have been the 6th September as Keith Fordyce's name is the only one to appear over the following weeks. Perkins co-hosted for a few weeks before being let go and eventually returning to a career in acting. Despite the perceived success in the London area, by 13th September 1963 the show had already been dropped by most of the other ITV stations on Friday evenings. According to a Daily Mirror article only London and Tyne Tees were showing the programme by this time.
It was decided that hiring professional dancers to demonstrate new dances to the home audience would be a good idea, so Patrick Kerr and Theresa Confrey joined the show on the 27th September 1963. Both had been working on cruise ships to and from America so had been exposed to what new moves were being made across the Atlantic.
The show's first producer Francis Hitching and his production team chose an open set design which was a popular concept on British television at the time. The whole studio was exposed to an aerial camera which the show usually started with. A typical opening scene would have the aerial camera staring down on the dancing audience then it would cut to a ground level camera which would be on Keith Fordyce in time for his opening line well, hi there! Cameras would be in full view most of the time, particularly if they were plowing through a crowd of mods to get nearer the stage. The open studio set was first used by A-R's comedy series A Show Called Fred, starring Spike Milligan and directed by Richard Lester, but the style was also adopted and adapted by BBC s That Was The Week That Was in 1962.
The show initially relied on local British acts, but the word got around to agents of visiting American acts that this was the show to do, however as some shows were broadcast live there could be little anyone could do about the diva-like behavior of some of the performers or attention hungry members of the audience. On one occasion singer Dion took offense at the audience dancing around him while he performed and walked out of the studio after just one song. On another occasion a friend and bandmate of presenter Polly Perkins leapt in front of the camera to kiss her, later revealed to be a stunt set up by Perkins' manager without her knowledge or permission. They also held a Beatles look-a-like contest which resulted in 200 look-a-likes infesting the studio for auditions.
In autumn 1963 the show's producers advertised for the post of 'teenage adviser' in national newspapers. A £10 a week magazine secretary from Streatham called Cathy McGowan replied and after a series of interviews and camera tests she was offered the job. Talking to Disc magazine about the job in August 1965 McGowan said "I was working as a secretary on a magazine. Then I saw the ad in all the musical papers for an interviewer for a pop TV show. I said to my mum 'It must be a joke', but I went along, as I've always wanted to be a journalist." Elkan Allan later claimed in his tell-all piece in The People in early 1967 "We interviewed Cathy and found her a bright kid, but nobody thought she'd photograph in a million years. And that voice!"
Both McGowan and Michael Aldred were given 'assistant' credits on the show in the TV Times for the 15th November 1963 edition, so (presumably) on the show's closing credits too. The TV Times for 1st December 1963 featured McGowan in a two page article in which she explained not only her 'teenage adviser' role, but explaining the different factions of mods and rockers. Mods had their own dances as well as fashion, and one of those dances was (allegedly) the Hitler, which the article explained "you cavort with with the right arm held in Hitler like salute." Despite the attention TV Times gave her she might have not actually appeared in front of the cameras until the following week. Michael Aldred, her new screen partner, had briefly shared a flat with The Kinks' Dave Davies, but Davies quickly had enough of Aldred's tantrums and told him to leave.
Keith Fordyce, although a reliable and experienced host, found it tough interviewing some guests, occasionally fluffing it (a notable example being PJ Proby), so it was left to Cathy McGowan to chat to the acts, despite an irritating tendency to say amazing about anything or anyone. So much so that it wasn’t long before people were imitating and spoofing her, but not only her voice and mannerisms. Her dress sense became the standard that girls followed and not long after she found herself advertising clothes and cosmetics. Through her the show was now making a welcome move into the mod scene.
Cathy's fashion style was given a test. Elkan Allan would later claim "I tried an experiment. I made Cathy wear a velvet bow in her hair. That was on Friday. By Monday lunchtime you couldn't buy a bit of velvet ribbon anywhere in London." Cathy's salary was £20 a week for the show, with further £10 a week for clothes, with many of her outfits designed and made by Barbara Hulaniki, later to create the legendary Biba range.
With RSG! Modern British pop music finally had its own outlet. For the first time pop music had broken free from its variety show status into an identifiable slot of its own. No more Arthur Haynes introducing The Rolling Stones, but people who were either knowledgeable or at least used to introducing pop music for a living. The show was NOW.
The show had become very popular quite quickly and anyone within London Underground or bus reach could go along to Kingsway and try to get in or at least hang around outside. However, Rediffusion told the TV Times in October 1963 "Please tell your readers our waiting list is now so long we cannot accept any more applications." Despite occasional police protection for some acts it was still necessary to employ a ruse to get them out of the building. According to Elkan Allen in The People, January 1967 "Eventually we had to ask the London School of Economics, which backs onto our building, to let us use their corridors as an escape route for the artists."
Due to the inclusion of so much R&B the mods made the show their own, but no Parker-bearing slob was ever seen, only well-groomed sharp lookers within their twin-vents or sweaters. For the first time a young audience was seen to be participating, crowding the floor-space by dancing around the edge of the stage or podiums, whereas before the audience was restricted to the seats well behind the cameras. Everyone was a star, the audience as important as the stars on the stage. Despite the usual racially motivated complaints it wasn't unusual to see black dancers in the audience as they were on Top Of The Pops and The Beat Room. Top Of The Pops later used professional dance troupes like The Go-Jos and Pan s People to do a weekly routine, but RSG! had two professional dancers of their own, Patrick Kerr and Theresa Confrey who would create a new series of steps for whatever record was chosen that week. Once the step was demonstrated they would then rope in members of the audience to dance along on the stage. The stage itself was so small that the guitarists had to turn the neck of their guitar to the ceiling, a new pose was born. RSG was also responsible for a minor miracle, a white audience that knows when to clap on the right beat. A new dancer from America, Pepe was also introduced in 1964.
On the 10th January 1964 show Keith Forsyth quite innocently requested that anyone who wanted to be on the following weeks' show should turn up at Kingsway next Monday for an audition to be in the audience. Fifteen hundred teens turned up, leading to crowding, injuries, arrests and the following day's newspaper headlines.
The show not only made stars of pop singers and bands, but also those behind the camera. One of the regular directors from 1965 onwards was Michael Lindsay-Hogg, later to direct The Beatles Let It Be, Adam Faith s Budgie, Brideshead Revisited among others and cameraman Bruce Gowers, later to work as a director for Kenny Everett and making the Bohemian Rhapsody promo clip for Queen in 1975.
The show's opening titles used the catch-phrase "The Weekend Starts Here" and the accompanying theme music would change every few weeks, like fashion itself, using Stevie Wonder's 'Hey Harmonica Man', The Surfari’s 'Wipe Out', Manfred Mann s '5-4-3-2-1' and 'Hubble Bubble', Dusty Springfield s 'Heartbeat', The Animals 'I'm Crying', Wilson Pickett’s 'Land Of A Thousand Dances' among others. In late 1963 Francis Hitchin approached Manfred Mann, and requested a theme. "Can you work out a really lively new composition that we can use as a theme for the programme. Must be exciting, must be easy to recognise. Go away and think about it.. ..'' Tom McGuinness later told Beat Instrumental magazine in 1968 "We got '5-4-3-2-1' out as a single the week before it was used on RSG . .. that was mainly because they hadn't got the film ready to tie in for the opening credits." The show even had its own "chat area for stars' ' where acts would be interviewed away from the loud music and fans.
So successful was the RSG concept that the BBC attempted to counter the show with its own completely networked alternative Top Of The Pops at the beginning of 1964, and also a more obvious facsimile with The Beat Room on BBC2.
Producers decided to extend the RSG empire with the Radio Luxembourg hosted Ready Steady Radio, featuring many of the acts who would appear on the TV show, while in March 1964 a spin-off magazine with articles about the show and full color photographs appeared, which was a novelty since the programme was only broadcast in black and white. An end of year annual was also published.
On April 3rd 1964 the show was extended, albeit by five minutes, now beginning at 6.10 pm. Manfred Mann's "Hubble Bubble" became the show's theme in mid-April, while the same month a request for new teenage boy and girl interviewers drew around six thousand applications. Each application had to come with proof that they have had something published.
Because of the show's success the producers would be given the chance to make one-off specials, the most famous of which was the Mod Ball from the Empire Pool, Wembley in April 1964. Devised by Elkin Allan and Francis Hitching the idea was to hold a show similar to the Chelsea Arts Ball with the money going to the Variety Club of Great Britain. Over 25,000 applications were made for the 8000 tickets, but inevitably the media tried to stir up trouble by suggesting that rockers had applied for many of the tickets and would try to disrupt the show, and there was some evidence of disturbance outside the venue on the night as it would have been in the best interest of the newspapers to continue their campaign of stirring up trouble between the factions. Things were predictably chaotic backstage, so if you needed access you had to give the password "okay pops". Everyone was miming on the night, but since the venue was so cavernous it was difficult to mime exactly in time with the music track. Later in the month the show pitched up at the International Contest for Television Light Entertainment at Montreux, Switzerland, despite the fact that the show had not been ITV's entry for that year. That honor had gone to the more-established Thank Your Lucky Stars' Merseyside special from the year before. However the Mod Ball was subsequently entered for The Golden Rose Of Montreux festival of television by ITV the following year.
West End club favorites Georgie Fame and The Blue Flames played live on the show in March 1964, but in May other acts were allowed to perform live if they wished. Talking to the weekly music paper Disc Francis Hitching, the show's editor said "This will bring more atmosphere into the studio, and give the fans a chance to hear some of the group's regular repertoire, instead of just their latest hit. The immediate problem is to find enough rehearsal time." Among those playing live were rockers Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, proving the show wasn't just a bunker for mods. The show also decided to get rid of the existing seating in the studio, allowing another fifty people to dance.
All the faces in the business appeared on the show, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Yardbirds, David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Donovan, plus any visiting American act sometimes performing live with their own band, or a band provided by RSG. But as usual, Bob Dylan was the show's only significant stay-away, a performance he would repeat for Thank Your Lucky Stars, Top Of The Tops, The Tube, and Later.
A complimentary Battle of the Bands contest Ready, Steady, Win! broadcast on Monday nights appeared in the summer of 1964 and offered a first prize of 1000 of equipment, with a second prize of a 750 van, a third prize of 350 of clothes. The winning band would also be given a spot on the regular Friday show. Initially nearly 5000 applications were made, so to separate the serious competitors from the chancers each group had to send in a demo' disc of which one song had to be an original. Only less than a thousand entrants managed to do this. Show Editor Barry Cawtheray explained to TV Times about asking for discs "We decided against tapes. For one thing they break and then on a tape you can have things like 'Mum' coming in at the beginning and apologizing for 'Rover' barking a bit in the background. With so many contestants we could only spare the time to listen to the actual music." Talking about the groups' clothes he claimed "One group was dressed in ultra-violet suits. When we said we were ready for them to start - all the lights went out. We couldn't make any notes. In fact, we couldn't even see each other. All we could see were these suits shining at us through the darkness. We saw groups in black leather, in brown leather, in purple leather, groups in gold lame, groups in historical outfits, groups with masks and cloaks and eye patches and crutches - there seemed to be no end to it. Wonderful!" Gay Shingleton and Michael Aldred hosted the thirteen-part series, along with Keith Fordyce. Each show featured six groups a week and a guest panel of judges. After the first show was broadcast two of the featured bands The Scene Five and The Falling Leaves were offered recording deals. The finale was somewhat ruined by the inclusion of Bill Haley and Georgia Brown on the judging panel, neither really modern-day pop fans. The Bo Street Runners won the final, but failed to have a hit, leading to a charge that it was all a waste of time. It was notable that the producers' didn't schedule a second series. Band member John Dominick told Melody Maker in December 1964 "It did untold good as far as getting the name was concerned. On the other hand we don't feel It did much good musically. It was a live programme and we weren't at all happy with the sound - in fact we were very disappointed with our performance when we saw a recording of the show." An album of the finalists was released by Decca, but also failed to chart. Michael Aldred quit the regular show to help host the beat contest, but wouldn't return after it had finished. Fifty hopefuls were auditioned to replace Aldred on the regular show, but none were considered suitable, so guest stars were recruited. Brighton-based journalist and band manager Anne Nightingale had met Vicki Wickham backstage at a Dusty Springfield concert and it was Wickham who suggested that Rediffusion give her a screen test. She would be assigned a show That's For Me which began broadcasting in late 1964, but had appeared on RSG for a few editions beforehand.
Writing for Pop Weekly in mid-1964 editor Francis Hitching made note of the ballads which were now becoming more commonplace and since the RSG studio was meant to represent a night club which played dance music it was having issues with this new trend. Dancers had no option but to find a partner or sit this one out, difficult for what was meant to be a dance show.
Many guests who had made previous appearances were invited back for the first anniversary show on 7th August 1964 which was seen by fourteen million viewers. Francis Hitching told Disc magazine at the time that the show had a seven-year waiting list for audience members.
In September 1964 at a Variety Club luncheon Elkan Allen head of Rediffusion Light Entertainment said "When we started 'Ready Steady Go!' a year ago our's was the only programme with kids dancing on it. Now there's one every night. BBC has two copies on. If they'll take theirs off, I'll promise not to run any more beat shows." Tom Sloan of the BBC responded by saying "These remarks suggest that the BBC has deliberately followed the course set by Rediffusion. In fact, BBC began this type of programme with '6.5 Special' in 1957. This was the first show, which had youngsters dancing in the studio, and set the pattern for all its successors. Any suggestion that the BBC has copied Rediffusion's programme, is not only wrong but impertinent."
The viewing figures for the 1963 into 1964 New Year's Eve show was the largest late night viewing figure ever, apart from the General Election results, so it was inevitable that another new year show would follow. Talking about the new show to TV Times Francis Hitching said "This is a programme that wasn't really designed to be watched. We don't care whether they look in or not, so long as their sets are switched on. We hope people once again will use our programme to get their own New Year parties swinging."
By the end of 1964 it was obvious, to the fans at least, that the show was justly successful and important, and it gained the top spot in the New Musical Express Best TV or Radio show, beating Top Of The Pops by about a third.
RSG only ever intended to play new record releases, but in early 1965 they give several slots to a young singer-songwriter from Scotland, Donovan. He would write songs especially for the show, including one about that week's singles chart. Elkan Allan wanted to see how an unsigned artist would be received on the show. It was obvious that Ready Steady Win had too many similar bands, all making the same noise, so Donovan wouldn't have fitted in.
In the Spring of 1965 executive producer Elkan Allan decided to change the show's format by having all the performers sing and play live. With the change of format came a change of location from Kingsway to the larger facilities of Wembley. Along with the facelift from the 2nd April 1965 the show was given a new name, Ready Steady Goes Live! Talking to the TV Times Allen claimed 'Ready Steady Go was starting to go sour on us about six months ago.' The boss of EMI Records Sir Joseph Lockwood was said to be "horrified" by the proposition of his artists performing live and met with Elkan Allen to discuss his concerns. Acts had performed live on the show many times over the previous few months, but the decision was probably agreed to beforehand rather than imposed on them. As Elkan Allen explained to The Stage and Television Today in March 1965 "Because of my own background of working on documentaries, I am personally happier with a show in which the performances are as authentic as possible. But I am the first to recognise that show business is founded on illusion and I have no objection to mining if it is necessary to create that illusion." Record companies had agreed to let Rediffusion have copies of arrangements of each song so it could be replicated live using the studio's musical director. Talking to Rave magazine Elkan Allan said "RSG was becoming a bit samey. Bad mimers positively embarrassed me and it was clear fans felt that mime's a cheat." The magazine held a postal vote to see which the fans preferred live or mimed, but as I've not seen that edition of the magazine the outcome of reader's preference is unknown. Not only would the fans now have to travel to the outskirts of London to see the show produced, but artists would now have to be in attendance from 10.00 am until the live broadcast for rehearsals. Any spontaneous drop-in appearance by any star passing the old studio in the West End was now long-gone, no Faces like Mickey Tenner dancing right in front of the cameras, no trailing camera cables tripping up dancers. Spontaneity had been sacrificed for 'better' sound and freedom of movement for the cameras. The show was made to look professional, like any other light entertainment TV show of the era, but RSG wasn't any other type of show. The club had shut down, but a new bigger venue, a ballroom, was available across town.
The move also stirred up behind-the-scenes changes. Vicki Wickhan would become the show's Editor, Francis Hitching would become Producer, while others, like Keith Fordyce, chose to leave, and some were asked to leave. Also, Patrick Kerr now introduced a new, but short-lived, dance troupe to the show, the Kink-E-Cats. It was obvious that the show which started off aping Discs-A-Gogo was now visually morphing into Top Of The Pops.
Cathy McGowan picks up another presenting job as she begins to host Pye Records' show on Radio Luxembourg, Spin In The New, which begins 23rd March 1965, and for the first Wembley show Cathy McGowan gets the coveted color shot front cover of that weeks' TV Times.
Talking to the NME in February 1965 about artists playing live Vicki Wickham claimed "We would like to have more artists performing live as you have probably noticed, we have lately been trying to put this into effect. But our main problem is inadequate studio space. Even so, artists who actually perform on RSG only receive the same fee as those who mime." Like Thank Your Lucky Stars and Top Of The Pops Ready, Steady, Go! was a 'Special Fee' show, which meant that artists accepted a lower than normal fee in order to come on and plug their new record. Lower than, for example, the London Palladium show where they always would be expected to perform a couple of songs live. However, the move to Wembley had to be approved, and to that end a new pilot show was made. It was also assumed that Cathy McGowan would now have her own male on-screen assistant now that Fordyce was leaving.
Despite the intent to reinvigorate the show several ITV channels decided to drop it before the change, leading to a loss of viewers, while other ITV stations would transmit it on different days. By early March 1965 the programme's makers Rediffusion were the only channel showing it at the intended time slot, with Ulster, Southern, Scottish, Anglia and Grampian playing it on a Sunday. So much for 'The Weekend Starts Here'. TWW ended up showing the more established Thank Your Lucky Stars instead of RSG in this time slot, while ATV had actually dropped the show in late January, only to bring it back in March on Tuesdays at 7.00 pm, then moved to Thursday. A spokesman for RSG told Disc magazine "We had dozens of petitions when the show was cut. One came from a girls' school with 500 signatures."
The decision to move to Wembley was a gamble and to many it took away the intimacy of the previous location, but as Elkan explained to The Stage "I have felt recently that the audience was getting predictable and boring where once it was bizarre and compelling, so I decided that particular argument against moving to Wembley had gone. The audience was now confined to seating (with limited room for dancing) on scaffolding to the right, but there would now be room for 250 members of the audience instead of the comparative airing cupboard studio at Kingsway. A new RSG! Club was formed at this time with around 2000 members from which the audience would be chosen to appear on the show. Talking to TV Times McGowan said "If they don't arrive at the studio looking smart and up-to-the-minute, they won't be allowed on the show and they will lose their club membership." But there's no doubt that the club feeling, one of the most successful aspects of the show, had just been sidelined, but the truth was that the mod scene was fading away.
An orchestra was now employed at the side of the stage, but far away enough not to be able to be heard properly, so a monitor was put on the stage so that the singer could hear them, or that was the idea. The musical director for the first three weeks was Johnny Spence, then Les Reed for three weeks, later replaced by Bob Leaper, while backing vocals were provided by female trio The Breakaways (who later sang backup on Jimi Hendrix's 'Hey Joe'). The new sound equipment needed for a totally live show costs Rediffusion £12,000 with an extra £1000 per show. Most of the backing tracks would be recorded in-house, but sometimes the producers would use Pye Records studios in the West End of London.
Speaking to Record Mirror about the change over to playing live Andrew Oldham said "What strikes me as particularly silly in all this talk about the superiority of a live show to a mimed one is the implication that there is something more Truthful about being live. What's truth got to do with it?" Kink Mick Avory was asked by Record Mirror in April 1965 about the changes at RSG "Really, RSG reached its climax some time ago. Lucky Stars has got more atmosphere, in fact, it's like RSG used to be. The trouble is that RSG has picked audiences. They don't want to hear the groups. They just want to be seen on television. There's no inspiration there to play well live. And anyway the mikes are all in the wrong places at RSG. They're everywhere so they pick up every little sound, whether or not it's made by the group or the audience."
The new look meant Cathy McGowan now effectively led the show with a new co-host, David Goldsmith, but he wouldn't last long, eventually returning to his previous job behind the camera. McGowan took sole control when the show reverted back to its original title on 4th June 1965. However, Patrick Kerr would still demonstrate dances and conduct interviews. Despite it's new by-line 'The All-Live Pop Show' the show by now looked like a circus compared to the more intimate, almost cabaret approach of the previous set up. The new stage had the act playing on the ground level, with equipment on the next level up and what looked like Dansette-type record players with their kids up on an upper level when The Byrds appeared. Now the grown-ups had gone, it was now down to a much younger production and front-of-camera team to make it their own. Although dancers were still there the original mods were all but gone and in the next wave of Mod bands like The Who, The Small Faces and pre-psych Byrds, Lovin' Spoonful, Donovan suede jacket with fringe types.
In April 1965 the producers tried to find another Donovan by hiring Dana Gillespie to appear on several shows, but this proved unsuccessful and she was dropped after her second appearance. The same month saw Hollywood come to Wembley as the Bunny Lake Is Missing movie production team turned up to film The Zombies in a sequence on the RSG set which, in the finished film, would be shown on a TV set in a pub.
Despite indifference from home broadcasters the trend-setting show from London was now getting noticed by broadcasters from other countries, and in the summer of 1965 Gary Smith, producer of NBC's Hullabaloo sees the show and suggest that they swap clips. Whether he was told that Rediffusion had plans to replace the show isn't known.
By summer 1965 Les Reed was the musical director for both ITV's Ready Steady Go and the BBC's Gadzooks.
Controversy hit the show on 23rd July 1965, courtesy of the unpredictable P J Proby, who had been banned by some TV broadcasters in the UK after his on-stage trouser splitting occurrence. Proby had made RSG appearances after that legendary incident, but this time it was he who decided it was time for a ban. Talking to Disc magazine Proby's manager Tony Lewis explained "Proby was contracted to sing three numbers. He even paid for the coach to take his band along for the rehearsals. Then, he had just got through one number and was halfway through the second, when the credits came up on the screen. This is unforgivable. I was furious - and so was Proby when I told him about it afterwards. He didn't know about it at the time. He just went on singing. He has now refused any more shows for Rediffusion." The show's producer Francis Hitching claimed "Proby was not contracted to do a specific number of songs. But we had planned for him to sing three. It was just one of those things. When an artist is the star of the show, he goes on last - and occasionally the show overruns. We are quite happy to have Proby back anytime."
Explaining the decision making process about who to include on the show Vicki Wickham told Disc magazine "As far as The Who, Stones, Animals and Dusty are concerned, we feel they made their names on our programme. It's great the way they phone up and say 'When are we doing another show?' Other artists are picked either by hearing a great record and auditioning the group that made it, or by going to clubs and ballrooms hearing a good artist and waiting for the record to come out then booking them. I pick records with a view to either dancing or to the chart. There's nothing clever about tipping records for chart success that are obvious - like the Beatles. We'd rather be wrong." However, by summer 1965 The Beatles made it clear that they would not be making another appearance on the show anytime soon. Attempting to book the group to promote Help! Elkan Allan told the NME "Naturally we were disappointed, too, when Brian Epstein said The Beatles were not doing any of the pop programmes on this record. It is their decision and we can do nothing about it. We like to feel an appearance on RSG is mutually beneficial to the artist and the programme, but if The Beatles don't wish to take advantage of the system, it is their prerogative to decline our invitation." In fact, The Beatles appeared live on Blackpool Night Out to promote Help! performing several songs live.
Playing live in the studio suited many acts who had a live following. When asked in Melody Maker in July 1965 if playing live attracted them to the show Eric Burdon of The Animals replied “Yes. We absolutely hate miming — the best thing that ever happened to us was when RSG went live. Now it’s like playing in a club — very enjoyable."
Talking to The Stage in August 1965 about the hostess/commere Francis Hitching explained "Cathy doesn't have a regular partner because we like to use a guest star each week. We searched for a long time for the right partner - without realising they were already on the show - as artists, just waiting to be discovered as comperes!" Guest comperes included Michael Crawford, Woody Allen, Eric Burdon, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. However, it was suggested by the Melody Maker in August 1965 that DJ Pete Brady might be invited to audition for the show. On the 20th August show legendary Sheffield nightclub owner Peter Stringfellow co-hosted with Cathy. Stringfellow would continue as a warm-up man for the rest of the show's life.
Despite its flair and verve RSG wasn't wholly original, it had a precedent. TWW's wonderful, but now tragically non-existent Disc-A-Gogo which began broadcasting in September 1961. Despite luring great talent along to the studios in Bristol by late 1965 the producers had decided to move onto a new project, Now!!! Comedy, music and art were all spinning into a wonderful vortex in Britain and while RSG honored all three, maybe a new pre-recorded show (and new title) without an audience would have fit the bill.
Elkan Allan announced at the Variety Club luncheon in September that the show was to be replaced by something "much broader". He explained that "I am taking it off while it is still on top". He said this as he was receiving and award for the show from the Variety Club presented to him by former host Keith Fordyce. The show had also just won the Best TV Show category by readers of the Melody Maker for the second year running.
In September 1965 Disc magazine carried a headline "Ready Steady GOES!" Elkan Allan talking to Disc claimed "I want to see Ready Steady Go finish while it is still at the top. I should hate to see the programme become stale and lose its popularity, and be forced to go because of that." However, only a few weeks before he told Melody Maker "Pop is, an will remain, an important part of every television company's schedules, and there is no question of our dropping the pop shows. Certainly RSG will go on, and it will develop. It may not get the embarrassingly high ratings it got for a period, but it will remain an important part of our programming and an important part of the lives of teenagers of all ages." It was also announced that theatre producer Michael White (later to work with Monty Python and The Comic Strip) will help stage a Christmas show based along the lines of RSG. Working with him will be Elkan Allan, Michael Lindsay-Hogg and Vicki Wickham. The show was expected to run for a fortnight in "a big London theatre" and have the words "ready steady" in the show's title.
In the 9th October 1965 edition of the TV Times Elkan Allan was asking readers to come up with ideas for a replacement show which would begin in the new year. Letters were to sent to 'New Ready Steady Go' via the TV Times address. The public response was swift. From the Daily Mirror. "Don't drop RSG plead fans. Hundreds of teenagers throughout Britain have been protesting since it was announced that the 'Ready, Steady, Go!' show is to be dropped in December (writes Ken Irwin)." "We have simply been snowed under with complaints said a Rediffusion TV spokesman. But, we are not relenting because we think we have a much better show to take the place of RSG, Elkan Allan, Rediffusion's head of entertainment has been telling us about the plans for the new show." It's going to be the swingingest thing on the screen he said confidently "the new show will make more use of film - we will shoot a lot of it out of doors and we will be using cartoons . It was unlikely that the new show will have a regular compere. Unless we get a lot of complaints after the new show begins - on 7 January there is no chance of RSG coming back. Pete Brady's name came up again, this time as a co-host on the replacement show. There was in fact every chance that the show was coming back, but it's reprieve still couldn't convince more ITV stations to transmit it. Talking to the NME in September 1965 Rediffusion's Francis Hitchin explained "The new show will be a lavish production and is more likely to be pre-recorded than shown live. There will be a little audience participation but it will be very incidental compared with the important role teenagers in the studio play in RSG."
By late 1965 it was still being reported that the show was on its way out. In a statement in late November Elkan Allen, head of Light Entertainment at Rediffusion claimed "The fact is that we are recording pilot programmes of several possible successors during the next fortnight and will decide our final plans when we have considered all these". The pilot of a potential replacement 'One-Two-Three' was filmed in December 1965 with Cathy McGowan's involvement. The planned replacement will possibly be only broadcast once a month, with the acts miming. Elkan Allan talking to Disc said "We haven't finally made up our minds yet about the frequency of the new show, but it will be the best pop entertainment we can put on." The Animals had filmed material between 18th to 21st December for the first show of the new series to be broadcast Friday 7th January 1966, while The Walker Brothers and The Small Faces were mentioned for inclusion in the pilot show. There were also plans in place for a new Cathy McGowan show. The reality was RSG had already become a different show, so maybe it would have been more appropriate to continue into 1966 with a new name.
On Tuesday 16th December 1965 Rediffusion call a press conference to announce that the show will now not end at the end of the year, but will be extended until February 1966, but it will be cut to 27 minutes. Elkan Allan would be replaced by American musical director Buddy Bregman, who until recently was working with the BBC. The three pilots that had been commissioned were not to Reduiffusion's taste, so the show was given a reprieve, much to Allan's disappointment, and probably leading to his replacement.
With the axe hovering over their heads now put to one side for the time being the show celebrated Christmas 1965 in true Crackerjack fashion with a pantomime, 'Cinderella' with Cathy McGowan in the lead role and Herman (Peter Noone) as the Prince trying to save her from the wicked Stepmother, played by Pete Townshend and the ugly sisters played by Hilton Valentine of The Animals and Ray Davies. During rehearsals Mick Avory trips up the pantomime horse sending it crashing into a kitchen unit on set, while Keith Moon falls through scenery. The glass from an arc lamp explodes, showering everyone in glass, while Pete Quaife shoots ball bearings from a toy gun at the cast. The New Year's Eve show saw the show return to Kingsway along with guest host Keith Fordyce. Interview clips with some of the stars were played between the programmes on ITV all evening, while the show's producers used 'vidicons', shoebox-sized cameras for more intimate, informal shots of the guests around the studio. They were referred to by director Robert Fleming as "creepie-peepies."
In the new year the show was cut down to under half an hour to make way for popular, but terrible soap opera Crossroads, and also possibly to make the show more attractive to other ITV channels. Another possible attraction for the network was Sandy Sarjeant, the show's first cage dancer who arrived in March. She would now be the focus of attention since Patrick Kerr had left the show. An excursion to France in April might have been used to encourage exports by Global TV, Rediffusion's international sales division. Although it's unlikely the show itself was sold abroad clips from the show were used to bulk out local pop shows in West Germany. The truth was that Rediffusion in London was the only ITV channel showing it at the appointed time of Friday evening, with viewers in the north and north-east seeing it nearly a week later on Thursdays. No other ITV channels would show it anymore. Putting a brave face on it a spokesman for Rediffusion told Disc magazine "Although only three areas are now taking the programme, it does not affect the possible viewing public by more than 20 per cent."
Discussing the idea that pop television had become stale Francis Hitching told Melody Maker in January 1966 "RSG is not unimaginative, because it is a live programme it gives more chance for artists to do something out of the ordinary, not bound by what's happening in the Pop Fifty or what the record companies decide what's best for them. It's a programme doing its best to recreate the best of what happens in a club. For example, we have had numbers that last six minutes which you never get on a single." When asked about the audience participation in the show he replied "Regarding audience participation you can do a show and put on artists in a dramatic way, with lights and scenery, presenting the artist visually with no other element. You can do that for a number of weeks, but the whole spectrum of these dramatic pop shows can't develop. On our show there are no sets and very little scenery, and week by week it changes, because the kids change. RSG now, compared to two years ago is unrecognisable."
Vivki Wickham pulled off something of a coup by booking James Brown for the 11th March 1966 show. Ahead of the transmission Rediffusion promoted the show by playing a 17 minute film of James Brown live in America to journalists at Television House in Kingsway. This possibly might haven been his TAMI Show appearance in 1964. Pete Townshend argued in Melody Maker "Why should James Brown have the whole show? Why didn’t they give him some supporting acts. The sound was atrocious it showed a great misunderstanding of sound. The camera work I liked, but they don’t seem to have much control over sound. They should wake up, because they will destroy pop. It’s a shame about James Brown, it's probably damaged his reputation. As usual the RSG audience performed like a lot of twits."
Even though the show had responded to the threat of Top Of The Pops by having the artists perform live, miming and lip-synching eventually made a return only to have the Musicians Union threaten to block the show if the lip-synching didn’t stop by 31st March 1966.
In Spring 1966 the show was on the move again. A Rediffusion spokesman talking to Record Mirror claimed "On March 25, the programme moves to the new time of 7-7.30 pm. This will give it a larger network." This actually meant returning the show to its very first time slot, back in the summer of 1963. Time slot placement for any show had always been a problem for the ITV network, resulting in the show not always being seen nationally, if at all, resulting in ITV's various stations showing the programme on different days, for example a Friday evening live show in 1966 would then be shown by Granada and Tyne Tees the following Thursday evening. The new time slot meant it had a better chance of being seen by the whole ITV network. The 25th March 1966 edition was the first 7:00 to 7:30 pm show to be fully networked at this time, replacing long-running quiz show Take Your Pick.
By this time the deal that ITV had with the Performing Rights Society meant that any songwriter who had a song performed on RSG or any other networked show would receive 50 per song, compared to 17 per song for the non-commercial BBC.
On 1st April 1966 the show was broadcast from La Locomotion club, Paris, featuring many names from the French chart. Among the local audience were a British couple "representing the best British dress and dance trends" according to Record Mirror, while Cathy McGowan had been taking French lessons especially for the show. A French technical crew were on hand as the usual UK crew were back home working on the general election coverage. After the broadcast the Yardbirds played a live show at La Locomotion.
Despite the noose of cancellation hanging over them the show's producers continue to strive to bring the best new talent to a wider audience. This often meant listening to all new releases sent to them by the record companies. Talking to Beat Instrumental in June 1966 Vicki Wickham claimed "There's an awful lot of listening in fact, between 60 and 70 new releases every week. Everyone involved with the programme gets together to decide which are the best and we spend the rest of the time including weekends putting the show together. We often listen to B sides too, so there are quite a few hours of playing time before we actually get down to the show. We get millions of pluggers coming along with piles of records but we always listen - you never know what might come up".
In order to continue to attract big names to the show several shows throughout 1966 were given over to special guests, performing live sets and introducing the other acts themselves. These included the Troggs, The Who, Otis Redding, The Walker Brothers and Ike & Tina Turner.
In June 1966 they show received a strange accolade as the German-Dutch magazine Musik Parade awards RSG their Golden Arrow as best TV show, despite the fact that only clips of the programme had been shown there.
RSG continued throughout 1966 including a re-launch as 'new style RSG' in June. The new set design looked like a vacated building site with scaffolding and ladders. There were also groups of lights with the show's and artist's names illuminated. However, dancers were still allowed near the stage. Producer Francis Hitching told Record Mirror "The show made a name for itself in the early days by launching new faces. Then came a period when audiences were mostly interested in seeing the established faces. Now we seem to have reached a phase where there is less call for the standard beat and more interest in complicated and unusual backings. This is giving a chance to the young solo singers."
The Musicians Union imposed miming ban came into effect on 1st August 1966, but RSG were ahead of the game with many singers already performing live, albeit with pre-recorded backing tracks.
Mid-August 1966 saw the possibility of devoting an entire show to The Pop Crusade, a package of acts from the Green and Stone management stable from the USA featuring Bob Lind, Sonny & Cher, Buffalo Springfield and The Daily Flash. A camera crew was to film them from the airport into London. Despite the hype it never happened.
From the 9th September 1966 show RSG would now be pre-recorded on Tuesday. Despite a prestigious time slot the falling audiences meant that its days were numbered, and after re-scheduling by Rediffusion it was announced in early November that the show was to be cancelled with the final edition to be broadcast in December. Cathy McGowan's show contract ended on 30th November, so that also might have been used by Rediffusion as a reason to end it when it did.
However, no one had told Vicki Wickham. During the Ike & Tina Turner show, recorded late September, she told Penny Valentine of Disc Weekly "Despite rumours to the contrary 'RSG' will not fold at the end of the year. It has been scheduled for next year, so we are working on plans to turn it into a different sort of show, rounder. Not just one artist after the next." Referring to the live show that had just finished she said "We're going to concentrate on these sort of shows when the artists are good enough. Giving over the entire second half to them. This is the coming thing as far as we're concerned - it's the obvious way for the show to progress." When the penny dropped that the show was not returning Vicki Wickham, talking to Record Mirror's Tony Hall said "All the excitement's gone. It's just not happening the way it used to."
The producers weren't exactly making themselves popular either when on the 28th October 1966 they decided to give The Dave Clark Five top billing over The Hollies, leading to a walk out by The Hollies. Talking to the New Musical Express in late October Manfred Mann told them "We don't want to offend anyone, but that business with Dave Clark topping The Hollies really got me. I don't wonder why The Hollies walked out... Knowing how aware the RSG team is, I just can't understand how it arrived at this decision."
The show had its own backstage secrets, like legendary guitarist Vic Flick from The John Barry Seven, who played on practically every show since the orchestra was introduced. Flick had played the guitar on The James Bond Theme, the Juke Box Jury theme among others.
Rediffusion were keen to keep Cathy McGowan happy by giving her a new show, but despite offers it never materialised. Talking to Disc Weekly about the upcoming demise of RSG she claimed "I'm not really sorry RSG is ending. It is the end of a way of life. It is better to end this way rather than just run down." From a business standpoint McGowan shouldn't have been bothered by the show's demise. By this time she was promoting her line of Dansette record players and had her own cosmetics line which was to be sold in Macy's and Gimbel's stores in the USA, as well as other advertising opportunities during the show's run.
By late-1966 music was fragmenting in Britain. The Who, the Yardbirds and The Animals were no longer covering R&B and blues songs, they were either writing their own songs or covering contemporary folk-song writers. The truth was that The Beatles had stopped coming to the show, but would happily appear on Top Of The Pops, and if the show had continued into 1967 the Stones would stop coming too, and then the Yardbirds, and then The Who and on and on. It had to stop. The party was over. However, the show left us a parting gift, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream and Marc Bolan all made notable appearance on the last few shows. The final show saw many RSG favourites playing medleys or shortened versions of their hits in an attempt to get as many acts on as possible.
Even though the TV show was over Ready Steady Radio continued on Sundays until the end of January 1967, while about the same time Elkan Allan was spilling the beans about the show in a series of articles for The People. In the summer months of 1967 Vicki Wickham became producer for a series of Sunday evening shows at The Saville Theatre in London before taking a job at EMI Records, working at Major Minor Records, and running the indie label Toast Records in 1968. By the early seventies she was in New York managing Patti LaBelle / LaBelle and writing for Melody Maker in 1972 as their New York correspondent. She would become a regular feature of pop archive shows and documentaries throughout the 2000's, and in 2014 conducted one of the last interviews given by George Michael. Polly Perkins had a brief singing career in 1968 with Smith - Bown & Polly Perkins. Cathy MacGowan faded from view, only occasionally popping up, notably hosting one edition of Supersonic in 1975. She later became a showbiz interviewer on BBC1's London early evening news show in the late 1980s, but then took to retirement, choosing not to participate in any of the RSG documentaries on Channel 4 or the BBC.
As the show was finishing Rediffusion's in-house magazine 'Fusion' summed it up, "It was the first pop programme to show teenagers as they really were, acne and all."
When the idea of a new Friday night pop show for Channel 4 was suggested in 1982 Tyne-Tees TV's Malcolm Gerrie was contacted for ideas. Gerrie had been a fan of Ready Steady Go and Channel 4's chief executive Jeremy Isaacs who, when working at Rediffusion in London, had to regularly fight through the RSG crowd every week just to get into the building, so was well aware of the attraction and impact a show like that could have. When making up his first Channel 4 schedule Isaacs included a Friday night slot for such a show. The Tube was the only successor that came close to RSG's legend.
The famous catch-phrase was later re-used by London Weekend Television to announce their opening line-up of programmes in 1968 and in 2019 was being used by BT Sport. From the mid to late seventies The Old Grey Whistle Test played clips of the show, as did Yorkshire's Pop Quest and ATV's Revolver. Seeing this apparent surge of interest in the show Dave Clark made enquiries to Global TV (Rediffusion's international sales company) and bought the few remaining films and a few other pop specials and began to release edited compilations through home video. The Tube's home Channel 4 TV in Britain showed similar compilations in the mid eighties and in late 1989 through the Disney Channel in America. A second series of seven shows were planned for the summer of 1986 in the UK but RSG didn't materialise again until 1993. The sale of surviving shows and clips to BMG in 2016 gaves hope that a new initiative to find remaining clips would result in more being shown. A four disc DVD set from Kaleidoscope in 2023 included all known clips from official sources, barring The Beatles' musical appearances. In March 2020 BBC4 gave over two hours to a superb new documentary and compilation show. Both shows involved Malcolm Gerrie, Geoff Wonfor, Jools Holland and Chris Cowey, all familiar names and faces from The Tube. Sadly, no compilation will ever cover the fact that the vast majority of the shows were not kept, and the majority of the paperwork proving guest appearances etc were also trashed when Rediffusion lost its contract in 1968.
In autumn 2020 the book Ready, Steady, Go! The Weekend Starts Here: The Definitive Story of the Show That Changed Pop TV by Andy Neill, told the full story and is thoroughly recommended.
The show would be best remembered for breaking new acts like The Animals, Them, Lulu, The Who, The Rolling Stones, among others, and was without a doubt the most important and influential British pop music show of all time.
It featured most successful artists of the era, among them the Who, the Beatles, the Hollies, the Merseybeats, the Zombies, Dusty Springfield, the Supremes, the Temptations, the Walker Brothers, the Kinks, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Gerry & the Pacemakers, the Fourmost, the Rolling Stones, Donovan, the Fortunes, Helen Shapiro, P.J. Proby, Otis Redding, Freddie and the Dreamers, the Dave Clark Five, Bobby Vee, the Animals, Cilla Black, Gulliver's People, the Searchers, Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, Billy Fury, Lulu, Marvin Gaye, Gene Pitney and the Beach Boys (who made their first appearance on British television on the show).
It also featured Sandie Shaw, Burt Bacharach, Jerry Lee Lewis, Paul Simon (who would later cite his appearance as his worst experience while living in England), Kenny Lynch, the Small Faces, the Shirelles, James Brown & the Famous Flames, the Yardbirds, Them, Jim Reeves and the Four Pennies.
During the 4 October 1963 episode – The Beatles' first appearance – Paul McCartney judged four teenage girls miming to Brenda Lee's "Let's Jump the Broomstick" (the group had opened for Lee before becoming famous), choosing 14-year-old Melanie Coe as winner. Three years later, after Coe's disappearance made the front page of the Daily Mirror, McCartney used the article as the basis for "She's Leaving Home".
Jimi Hendrix made his first television appearance in Britain on RSG! with "Hey Joe", performing live. After this, his club tour sold out and he was added to a nationwide tour by the Walker Brothers.
Dusty Springfield devised and introduced the RSG Motown Special in April 1965, featuring the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, the Miracles and Martha and the Vandellas, which was a VHS video in the 1980s. The Supremes performed their "Stop! In the Name of Love" dance routine for the first time on the show...and The Miracles closed the show with their hit, "Mickey's Monkey".
The Who proved particularly popular, making the most appearances of any artist – a total of 18 between January 1965 and December 1966. The band had an episode to themselves entitled Ready Steady Who, broadcast in October 1966. The band also released an EP of the same name; despite the title all of the tracks were studio recordings which had been made previously. The Walker Brothers were also popular and had a live edition in 1966 but the tape was wiped, although extracts surfaced on YouTube in 2009.
On 20 March 2020, BBC Four broadcast a documentary about Ready Steady Go!, with original clips, plus interviews with Martha Reeves, Mary Wilson, Paul Jones, Chris Farlowe, Vicki Wickham, Annie Nightingale and Michael Lindsay Hogg.
THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS
Thank You Lucky Stars was a British television pop music show made by ABC Weekend TV, and broadcast on ITV from 1961 to 1966. Of all the show's presenters, Brian Matthew is perhaps the best remembered. Many of the leading pop groups of the time performed on it. As well as featuring British artists, it often included American guest stars.It would appear from the surviving footage that the bands mimed their latest 45. Occasionally a band was allowed to do two numbers (possibly the A-side and B-side sides of their latest single or an EP or LP track); bands of a higher status such as The Beatles or The Rolling Stones would sometimes play up to as many as four numbers.
A typical 1961 programme listing included The Dale Sisters, Adam Faith, John Leyton, The Brook Brothers, Geoff Goddard and Dion.
Audience participation was a feature of Thank Your Lucky Stars, and the Spin-a-Disc section, in which a guest DJ and three teenagers reviewed three singles, was a feature of the show. Generally, American singles were reviewed. It was on that segment that Janice Nicholls appeared. She was a former office clerk from the English Midlands who became known for the catchphrase "Oi'll give it foive" which she said with a strong Black Country accent. After she was dropped from the show she trained as a chiropodist and ran a practice in Hednesford in Staffordshire. Billy Butler was another reviewer.
The Beatles' second national television performance was on the programme, the first being on children's programme Tuesday Rendezvous on 4 December 1962. The first theme song was by Peter Knight & The Knightriders and, later on, "Lunar Walk" by Johnny Hawksworth was used.
The show ended on 25 June 1966, after two thousand artists' appearances. The Musicians' Union was not in favor of such shows because, until the change of policy in 1966, the songs were mimed.
The vast majority of Thank Your Lucky Stars shows are lost. Only a small handful are known to have survived in full, as well as incomplete segments from other shows.
TOP OF THE POPS
Top Of The Pops (TOTP) is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1 January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its history, it was broadcast on Thursday evenings on BBC One. Each show consisted of performances of some of the week's best-selling popular music records, usually excluding any tracks moving down the chart, including a rundown of that week's singles chart. This was originally the Top 20, though this varied throughout the show's history. The Top 30 was used from 1969, and the Top 40 from 1984.
Dusty Springfield's "I Only Want to Be with You" was the first song featured on TOTP, while the Rolling Stones were the first band to perform, with "I Wanna Be Your Man". Snow Patrol were the last act to play live on the weekly show when they performed their single "Chasing Cars". Status Quo made more appearances than any other artist, with a total of 87 (the first was with "Pictures of Matchstick Men" in 1968 and last with "The Party Ain't Over Yet" in 2005). Top of the Pops was first broadcast on Wednesday, 1 January 1964 at 6:35 pm. It was produced in Studio A at Dickenson Road Studios in Rusholme, Manchester.
The first show was presented by Jimmy Savile (with a brief link to Alan Freeman in London to preview the following week's programme) and featured (in order) Dusty Springfield with "I Only Want to Be with You", the Rolling Stones with "I Wanna Be Your Man", the Dave Clark Five with "Glad All Over", the Hollies with "Stay", the Swinging Blue Jeans with "Hippy Hippy Shake" and the Beatles with "I Want to Hold Your Hand", that week's number one. Throughout its history, the programme proper always (with very few exceptions) finished with the best-selling single of the week, although there often was a separate play-out track over the end credits.
Later in 1964, the broadcast time was moved to one hour later, at 7:35 pm, and the show moved from Wednesdays to what became its regular Thursday slot. Additionally its length was extended by 5 minutes to 30 minutes.
For the first three years Alan Freeman, David Jacobs, Pete Murray and Jimmy Savile rotated presenting duties, with the following week's presenter also appearing at the end of each show, although this practice ceased from October 1964 onwards.
The show was taped 52 weeks a year with no breaks. The chart came out on Tuesday mornings and the show aired live on Thursday evenings. This led to a process of difficult weekly planning, rescheduling, booking, and rebooking, as well as pre-recording of acts, particularly of American artists who might be advancing up the chart the following weeks, to ensure that each weeks top 20 would be able to appear on the show. At the BBC in the 1960s and early 1970s, producers and directors did both jobs simultaneously. From 1964 to 1969, Stewart and Dorfman took it in turns to produce and direct, but each spent five days a week getting the show together. At the end of 1969, Stewart left, and was replaced in early 1970 by Melvyn Cornish, Stewart returned as an executive producer in 1971 until 1973. Dorfman directed and produced the series from 1964 until 1971, then continued for five years thereafter as an executive producer.
In the first few editions, Denise Sampey was the "disc girl", who would be seen to put the record on a turntable before the next act played their track. However, a Mancunian model, Samantha Juste, became the regular disc girl after a few episodes, a role she performed until 1967.
Initially acts performing on the show would mime (lip-sync) to the commercially released record, but in 1966 after discussions with the Musicians' Union, mining was banned. After a few weeks during which some bands' attempts to play as well as on their records were somewhat lacking, a compromise was reached whereby a specially recorded backing track was permitted, as long as all the musicians on the track were present in the studio. As a result, Stewart hired Johnny Pearson to conduct an in-studio orchestra to provide musical backing on select performances, beginning with the 4 August 1966 edition. Later, vocal group The Ladybirds began providing vocal backing with the orchestra.
With the birth of BBC Radio 1 in 1967, new Radio 1 DJs were added to the roster – Stuart Henry, Emperor Rosko, Simon Dee and Kenny Everett.
Local photographer Harry Goodwin was hired to provide shots of non-appearing artists, and also to provide backdrops for the chart run-down. He continued in the role until 1973.
After two years at the Manchester Dickenson Road Studios, the show moved to London (considered to be better located for bands to appear), initially for six months at BBC TV Centre Studio 2 and then to the larger Studio G at BBC Lime Grove Studios in mid-1966 to provide space for the Top of the Pops Orchestra, which was introduced at this time to provide live instrumentation on some performances (previously, acts had generally mimed to the records). In November 1969, with the introduction of colour, the show moved to BBC TV Centre, where it stayed until 1991, when it moved to Elstree Studios Studio C.
In the mid-1960s, television was rapidly gaining popularity as a mainstream form of entertainment in the United Kingdom. At that time, there were only two major television channels in the country: BBC TV and ITV. ITV had already established its own music program, known as 'Ready Steady Go,' where prominent artists of the day showcased their latest hits.
In 1964, executives at the BBC were seeking ways to compete with their television rival, ITV. They conceived the idea of creating a music chart show, which they eventually named 'Top of the Pops'. This concept was commissioned for a trial run lasting six weeks, following a successful pilot program beforehand called 'The Teen & Twenty Record Club'.
Johnny Stewart, the show's inaugural producer (serving in this role from 1964 to 1973), instituted a policy of featuring only songs that were ascending the music charts. This strategic decision was made to prevent record labels from attempting to boost flagging chart positions by getting their artists on the show.
The original 'Top of the Pops' studio was situated on Dickinson Road in Manchester, housed within a converted church. The show's format was relatively straightforward, consisting of performances by artists with climbing chart singles, interspersed with on-screen commentary by various BBC radio personalities of the time. Jimmy Savile hosted the inaugural episode on January 1, 1964, alongside Pete Murray, David Jacobs, and Alan Freeman. This trio remained the show's regular presenters throughout the 1960s. As the decade progressed and Radio 1 was launched in 1967, additional personalities were incorporated into the regular lineup, including Tony Blackburn, Stuart Henry, Emperor Rosko, Simon Dee, John Peel, and Kenny Everett. In its early days, 'Top of the Pops' often embraced a spontaneous and unscripted approach, with presenters frequently improvising their on-air banter when introducing artists on the programme. Despite this somewhat chaotic arrangement, 'Top of the Pops' quickly became a sensation, prompting the BBC to extend its run for several more years.
However, a significant development occurred when the Musicians Union expressed concerns that the practice of artists miming their performances on television was negatively affecting the job opportunities of their members. In order to maintain a positive relationship with the Musicians Union and safeguard their broader portfolio of television and radio entertainment programs, the BBC introduced the 'Top of the Pops orchestra.' During the 1960s and 1970s, this orchestra skillfully recreated the sound of nearly any song in the Top 30 chart. While solo artists like Lulu and Tom Jones would sing along with the orchestra, full bands performed live.
Due to spatial constraints, it became evident that there wasn't sufficient room to accommodate a full orchestra within the Manchester studio. Consequently, 'Top of the Pops' relocated to Television Centre's TC2 studio on January 20, 1966, thereby exposing a new audience to the show's production. With this transition to Television Centre, Johnny Stewart introduced competitions for the best studio dancers, offering prizes such as the latest vinyl releases. As the 1960s drew to a close, 'Top of the Pops' broadcast its inaugural color episode on November 24, 1969.
Johnny Stewart, made the prudent decision to record and archive every 'Top of the Pops' episode produced after June 1967. This practice ran counter to the prevailing custom of erasing aired shows, a practice that was common not only for 'Top of the Pops' but also for most BBC programs at the time. The prevailing belief was that once a show had been broadcast, it held no further commercial value. Additionally, given that 'Top of the Pops' was based on the contemporary singles chart, it was considered unsuitable for international syndication. Consequently, many episodes predating 1973 were lost forever. The oldest surviving complete episode of 'Top of the Pops' within the BBC archive dates back to Boxing Day in 1967.
During Johnny Stewart's tenure as producer, it was abundantly clear that he had steered 'Top of the Pops' to remarkable success, culminating in the show's 300th episode milestone in October 1969. Nevertheless, as the swinging sixties came to a close, times were changing, signaling a shift in both the music industry and the trajectory of 'Top of the Pops' as the 1970s beckoned.
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