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From
a pilot show called 'Teen and Twenty Record Club' based loosely
on the BBC's radio show 'Pick Of The Pops' this was purely
a top of the charts show and has become the longest-running
British pop vehicle, arguably reaching its greatest heights
in the early and mid-Seventies.
It was originally booked for only six programmes, but due
to its immediate popularity was extended indefinitely after
only the second. Transmitted on Wednesdays, later Thursdays,
the entire show had to be put together in about 24 hours as
the week's chart was released at 8:30 a.m. on a Tuesday morning.
The original four DJ presenters were Jimmy Saville, David
Jacobs, Alan
'Fluff' Freeman and Pete Murray who were generally considered
to be the country's best at the time. |
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The
original producer was Johnnie Stewart who
was responsible for the show's incredible success and growth
during the Sixties and early Seventies. His trademark logo
silhouette always appeared beside his name on the closing
credits. |
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Another
original producer was Neville
Wortman, whose reminiscences can be read here. The four
original DJs compered the show in strict rotation, with the
following week's DJ appearing in a cameo 'handover' at the end
of the show. Assistants included Diane Hefforan, Denise Sampey
( who span the discs on the first programme ) and Samantha Juste
( who took over the role from Denise and eventually married
Monkee Micky Dolenz after they met on the show ). The first
show was broadcast on 1st January 1964 from a disused church
in Dickenson Road, Manchester, ( because most of the other BBC
studios were busy at the time ) which had been acquired by the
BBC and fitted out as a studio some years earlier. At 6.36 p.m.
a new era in Pop was born with Jimmy Savile introducing The
Rolling Stones performing 'I Wanna Be Your Man'. The first show
also featured other 'live' acts Dusty Springfield ( I Only Wanna
Be With You ), The Dave Clark Five ( Glad All Over ), The Hollies
( Stay ) and The Swinging Blue Jeans ( Hippy Hippy Shake ).
Discs and filmed items shown were Cliff Richard and The Shadows
( Wonderful Life ), Freddie and The Dreamers ( You Were Made
For Me ), Gene Pitney ( 24 Hours From Tulsa ) and news clips
of the Beatles to the sound of 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand.
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The
acts usually mimed their songs - not because they couldn't play /
sing ( this was questionable in some cases ), but to achieve a higher
transmission sound quality. This
changed in 1966 after a Musicians Union ban on artists miming to their
actual records. Following
this, the Top of the Pops Orchestra, directed by Johnny
Pearson, provided live backing to specially recorded tracks by
the artists. Vocal backing was provided by The Ladybirds - Maggie
Stredder, Gloria George and Marian Davis.
As with Ready Steady Go, a live studio audience
were able to dance to and, in the early years, meet and mingle with
the stars.By
mid 1967 the Manchester studio had become too small for the increasingly
complex production and it was moved to Lime Grove studios in London.
From there it went to Studio 2 at Television Centre and, eventually,
to the huge Studio 5 back at Lime Grove.
Also at this time, the show started using 'guest' DJs, the first
of which were Emperor Roscoe, Kenny Everett, Stuart Henry and
Simon Dee ( whose TOTP career only lasted a few months before
he was given his own show ).
Stanley Dorfman (former producer):
"The show at that point was pretty much a teenybopper
type show. When it moved to London it became chic, it became
stylish – introduced by Pan’s People. There was a wonderful
choreographer called Flick Colby… " |
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Live
television threw up all kinds of problems, one of the most memorable
being in March 1967 when, in his first appearance on TOTP, Jimi
Hendrix was announced by Pete Murray and was quite bemused when
he started his 'mime' to the sound of an Alan Price record.
Never lost for a quick comment, Jimi was heard to say 'I
like the voice, man, but I don't know the words' just before
the camera switched to Pete Murray doing a quick cover-up while
the sound engineer frantically searched for the tape of 'Purple
Rain'. |
Another 'goodie' was on the November 9th 1967
200th edition show when the normally immaculate Gene Pitney completely
forgot the words to his song and just made it up as he went along,
giving rise to an extremely dubious 'lip-synch'. This show, like the
first, was introduced by Jimmy Savile. Live acts seen were The Dave
Clark Five ( Everybody Knows ), Val Doonican ( If The Whole World
Stopped Loving ), The Kinks ( Autumn Almanac ), the unfortunate Gene
Pitney ( Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart ) and The Foundations
( Baby, Now That I've Found You ). Filmed items were Dave Dee Dozy
Beaky Mick and Titch ( Zabadak ), The Who ( I Can See For Miles )
and Donovan with 'There Is A Mountain'. Guests on this special edition
show included two of The Bee Gees, Lulu, Alan Price, Paul Jones, Graham
Nash, Scott Walker and Simon Dee.
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One
of the regular attractions of the show for some of the male
viewers during the Sixties and Seventies were the dance troupe
Pan's People who joined the show in 1967 (dancing to 'Mony Mony'
by Tommy James and The Shondells) after the departure of the
original 3-6 girl outfit 'The Gojos'.
Choreographed
by Flick Colby, they
performed their dance routines to backing music from current
chart hits in a variety of (sometimes bizarre) outfits. They
usually had a maximum of one week and, occasionally, only 24
hours to perfect their routine for each show. The original PP
line-up was Flick Colby (who soon stopped performing to concentrate
on the choreography and business side), Ruth Pearson, Babs Lord,
Dee Wilde, Louise Clark and Andi Rutherford ( Cherry Gillespie
replaced Andi when she left to have a baby in the early Seventies
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Flick
Colby: "I think people did think we were objects but
I don’t think that’s true. People knew our names, we ran our
own group, we handled the business side of it and nobody ever
made us do anything we didn’t want to do..... I think it was
kinda outrageous and it was our chance to take the mickey just
a little bit."
The theme music probably most associated with the show was CCS's
version of 'Whole Lotta Love', but during the Sixties it was
an instrumental piece written by Johnnie Stewart and Harry Rabinowitz.
It was first performed as a percussion piece by Bobby Midgly,
replaced by another version of the same piece played by a five-piece
orchestra and later a third version played by Johnny Pearson's
Top Of The Pops Orchestra. |
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The show celebrated its 250th edition in October 1968 when live acts
included The Tremeloes and The Love Affair. Mary Hopkin was at No1
with 'Those Were The Days' and The Beatles at No2 with 'Hey Jude'.
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SixtiesCity 2009