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It's Thursday night, 1976. It's Top Of The Pops. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
MUSIC: "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin | 0:00:04 | 0:00:07 | |
As soon as 7.30 on Thursday night came around, people tuned in. | 0:00:10 | 0:00:14 | |
Oh-oh-oh! | 0:00:14 | 0:00:15 | |
You make sure you'd had your supper by then, | 0:00:15 | 0:00:18 | |
you made sure your homework was done by then. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:20 | |
The music of 1976 appealed to all ages. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:24 | |
HE IMITATES JIMMY SAVILE | 0:00:25 | 0:00:27 | |
The Wurzels! | 0:00:27 | 0:00:28 | |
Ooh-aar! | 0:00:28 | 0:00:30 | |
-We were middle of the road, weren't we? -No, we were brotherhood of man. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:33 | |
-Oh, yeah! -Just in case you got confused. | 0:00:33 | 0:00:36 | |
It's magic. | 0:00:39 | 0:00:40 | |
Top Of The Pops was very much a variety show, and it was run on variety rules. | 0:00:40 | 0:00:44 | |
It was a really good party atmosphere. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:46 | |
It all started to slightly parody itself. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:51 | |
That real world was definitely knocking | 0:00:52 | 0:00:54 | |
on Top Of The Pops' door by '76, but not getting in. | 0:00:54 | 0:00:58 | |
In 1976, the British public basked in 35-degree heat. | 0:01:06 | 0:01:11 | |
# Here comes the sun... # | 0:01:11 | 0:01:13 | |
There were holidays by the beach, hosepipe bans and ice cream. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:18 | |
Life seemed too good. | 0:01:18 | 0:01:20 | |
But in all this summer madness, the cracks were beginning to show. | 0:01:20 | 0:01:23 | |
James Callaghan's government struggled with social tension | 0:01:23 | 0:01:27 | |
and rising unemployment. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:29 | |
The nation's youth were frustrated, | 0:01:29 | 0:01:31 | |
and there was racial unrest on the streets. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:34 | |
But you could always switch on the telly to escape. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:37 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:01:37 | 0:01:38 | |
Wakey waaaaaaaaa-key! | 0:01:44 | 0:01:47 | |
Billy Cotton was the king of variety in the '50s, and by 1976, | 0:01:47 | 0:01:52 | |
Bill Cotton Jr was in charge of light entertainment at the BBC. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:55 | |
Bill's programming reflected his variety upbringing, | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
and prime-time television catered for all the family. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:02 | |
Nice to see you, to see you nice! | 0:02:04 | 0:02:07 | |
I grew up in the TV age, when the whole family watched telly together. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:12 | |
And you only had, I think, two channels in the '60s, | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
and then three in the '70s. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:18 | |
No, it's for me. That's better. Right. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:21 | |
Light entertainment, which was kind of all that the mainstream | 0:02:21 | 0:02:24 | |
really provided, seemed really escapist. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:29 | |
Hello there, and a very warm welcome to this week's edition of Top Of The Pops. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:34 | |
# We got reggae, we got reggae, We got reggae, we got reggae! # | 0:02:34 | 0:02:41 | |
And by 1976, even Top Of The Pops, the nation's favourite music show, | 0:02:41 | 0:02:44 | |
looked more like a light entertainment show | 0:02:44 | 0:02:47 | |
for all the family than a teenage chart show. | 0:02:47 | 0:02:50 | |
Everybody in the family could enjoy Top Of The Pops, | 0:02:50 | 0:02:53 | |
one week or another, | 0:02:53 | 0:02:55 | |
because there was always something on there for them. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:58 | |
But how did Top Of The Pops and the charts turn into a variety show, | 0:03:00 | 0:03:03 | |
when back in 1964, it had seemed to be all about the music? | 0:03:03 | 0:03:07 | |
Yes, it's number one, it's Top Of The Pops. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:10 | |
Back in 64, a gentleman called Johnnie Stewart was producing | 0:03:10 | 0:03:13 | |
trad and twist programmes for the BBC, very faddy. | 0:03:13 | 0:03:17 | |
He persuaded the head of the BBC at that time that the nation | 0:03:17 | 0:03:21 | |
needed another show as an alternative to Ready Steady Go! | 0:03:21 | 0:03:24 | |
In other words, to reflect the hits of the day. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:27 | |
Top groups, top records, top everything. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:30 | |
MUSIC: "Let's Spend The Night Together" by The Rolling Stones | 0:03:30 | 0:03:35 | |
In the '60s, Top Of The Pops was swinging. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:37 | |
It was THE show where you could see | 0:03:37 | 0:03:39 | |
the biggest music stars and coolest fashions. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:42 | |
# Don't you worry 'bout what's on your mind, oh my | 0:03:42 | 0:03:46 | |
# I'm in no hurry, I can take my time, oh my... # | 0:03:47 | 0:03:52 | |
It was an institution, | 0:03:54 | 0:03:56 | |
and every kid in the country wanted to watch Top Of The Pops. | 0:03:56 | 0:04:00 | |
In the early '70s, the music was spectacularly, | 0:04:00 | 0:04:04 | |
utterly, effing wonderful. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:07 | |
# Get it on, bang a gong, get it on | 0:04:07 | 0:04:12 | |
# Get it on, bang a gong, get it on... # | 0:04:16 | 0:04:20 | |
I came to be a teenager in 1970, which was nice timing, | 0:04:20 | 0:04:23 | |
and Top Of The Pops was absolutely important, | 0:04:23 | 0:04:27 | |
in terms of bringing to you glimpses of other adventures. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:31 | |
# Don't want to learn about etiquette from glossy magazines | 0:04:31 | 0:04:38 | |
# Why should I try to talk correct like they do in other scenes? # | 0:04:38 | 0:04:46 | |
It was what everyone talked about at school the next day. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:49 | |
You sometimes talked about it with your parents. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:51 | |
When Bowie first appeared on Top Of The Pops, | 0:04:51 | 0:04:54 | |
performing Star Man, in a complete body suit, | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
it was, "Oh, my God, he's dressed like a girl." | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
# There's a star man waiting in the sky | 0:05:04 | 0:05:09 | |
# He'd like to come and meet us | 0:05:09 | 0:05:11 | |
# But he thinks he'd blow our minds... # | 0:05:11 | 0:05:13 | |
We'd never seen androgyny. We'd never seen a hint of homosexuality. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:17 | |
You probably have those conversations with children to Mum and Dad, | 0:05:17 | 0:05:21 | |
"Oh, he looks a right pranny", | 0:05:21 | 0:05:23 | |
and, "What are they on about?" | 0:05:23 | 0:05:24 | |
And that used to be a topical thing. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:28 | |
From one bopper sensation to another, this is T Rex and Metal Guru. | 0:05:28 | 0:05:33 | |
# Waaa-aaaah-yeah... # | 0:05:35 | 0:05:37 | |
The next day it was... Just everybody was on it, this incredible moment, | 0:05:37 | 0:05:42 | |
and some of the things, you know, dictated who you'd become. Your taste. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:46 | |
# Is it you? | 0:05:46 | 0:05:48 | |
# Metal guru, is it you? | 0:05:48 | 0:05:51 | |
# Sitting there in your armour plate chair, oh yeah | 0:05:51 | 0:05:56 | |
# Metal Guru, is it true...? # | 0:05:56 | 0:05:59 | |
There would be real fights, you know. David Bowie or T Rex went on. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:03 | |
A lot of your friends deemed that to be teeny bop music. You know, it's singles music. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:08 | |
# Could it be? | 0:06:08 | 0:06:10 | |
# You're gonna bring my baby to me... # | 0:06:10 | 0:06:14 | |
We couldn't really understand boys like Marc Bolan or David Bowie. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:17 | |
They were too complicated when I was 13. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:20 | |
Glam was also a little bit too old for me. | 0:06:20 | 0:06:24 | |
At that point I wanted a simple idea of a boy. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:29 | |
It seems that every now and again, in the pop world, along comes | 0:06:29 | 0:06:32 | |
either a group or a singles singer, and gets the full force of the pop mania. | 0:06:32 | 0:06:38 | |
The teeny bop craze had ruled the charts in the early '70s. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:41 | |
Young girls could scream after their pop idols, from The Osmonds... | 0:06:41 | 0:06:45 | |
# Crazy horses | 0:06:45 | 0:06:47 | |
# Crazy horses... # | 0:06:49 | 0:06:51 | |
..to our very own Rollers. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:55 | |
-ALL CHANT: -Bring on the Rollers! | 0:06:55 | 0:06:57 | |
I remember wanting to belong to a gang of girls, | 0:06:57 | 0:07:02 | |
and music seemed to be the way into this, | 0:07:02 | 0:07:05 | |
and the music that everyone was listening to was the Bay City Rollers. | 0:07:05 | 0:07:08 | |
# Bye bye, baby, baby goodbye... # | 0:07:08 | 0:07:16 | |
So when all the girls ran into the toilets at school to listen | 0:07:16 | 0:07:21 | |
to the announcement of the charts, and the Bay City Rollers were number one, and everyone screamed. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:26 | |
THEY SCREAM | 0:07:26 | 0:07:28 | |
# Now if I were free... | 0:07:28 | 0:07:32 | |
It seemed very simple, this code. You had a tartan scarf, | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
you learnt the dance steps, you screamed if anyone mentioned them | 0:07:35 | 0:07:40 | |
or their music was on the radio, and you put their posters up on your wall, | 0:07:40 | 0:07:44 | |
and I thought, "I've cracked it. I can be a girl now". | 0:07:44 | 0:07:47 | |
# Bye bye, baby, baby goodbye | 0:07:47 | 0:07:51 | |
# Bye, baby, baby bye bye... # | 0:07:51 | 0:07:54 | |
Top Of The Pops helped establish the teeny bop sensations, | 0:07:54 | 0:07:57 | |
and in the mid-'70s, the show was an influential player in the British record industry. | 0:07:57 | 0:08:01 | |
PHONE RINGS | 0:08:01 | 0:08:03 | |
Good morning, Top Of The Pops. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:05 | |
The thing about Top Of The Pops was that it was a barometer of the singles chart. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:09 | |
Back then, the chart was carved in stone. It was unshiftable. | 0:08:09 | 0:08:13 | |
So it was an incredibly prestigious show. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:16 | |
On the Monday morning, 8am in the morning, the record pluggers | 0:08:16 | 0:08:21 | |
from all the different record companies | 0:08:21 | 0:08:23 | |
met in Top Of The Pops' office, | 0:08:23 | 0:08:25 | |
and that was the first time they knew whether any of their acts were going to be on television. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:30 | |
# Blinded by the light... # | 0:08:30 | 0:08:34 | |
I can remember, at the BBC, trundling down to the Tube, | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
"Yes, we're on, we're on". You know, the complete joy. | 0:08:37 | 0:08:40 | |
If you were just a new entry, you were praying that another artist | 0:08:40 | 0:08:44 | |
was on tour and couldn't come in. | 0:08:44 | 0:08:47 | |
If their acts weren't going to be on television, | 0:08:47 | 0:08:49 | |
the first thing they did was to ring the factories to stop the record being produced, | 0:08:49 | 0:08:55 | |
cos it was such a powerful programme. | 0:08:55 | 0:08:58 | |
To be a producer on Top Of The Pops was... | 0:08:58 | 0:09:01 | |
I mean, they had enormous power. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:04 | |
They could make or break records, really. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:06 | |
I always hesitate to be an arbiter of British taste. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:08 | |
I think that we do a very successful job reflecting | 0:09:08 | 0:09:14 | |
what the British public is buying in the show. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
It was Robin Nash who once said, "Top Of The Pops | 0:09:16 | 0:09:19 | |
"is the only programme in the world where the producer has nothing to do with the talent". In other words, | 0:09:19 | 0:09:26 | |
it was governed by forces outside his control. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
The singles market in the '70s was big business, and the only access to your favourite tune | 0:09:29 | 0:09:34 | |
was buying the seven-inch for 70p. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:37 | |
There were more million-selling singles in the '70s | 0:09:37 | 0:09:40 | |
than in any other decade. The singles chart was enormously important. | 0:09:40 | 0:09:45 | |
Over 50 million singles were sold in 1976, and there was a massive divide | 0:09:45 | 0:09:50 | |
between the singles audience and album buyers. | 0:09:50 | 0:09:53 | |
The album charts of the day, Steely Dan, Rainbow, Chicago, people like that, | 0:09:53 | 0:09:57 | |
that was a different demographic, more longevity. | 0:09:57 | 0:10:00 | |
There was huge discrepancy in the '70s between album music and single music. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:05 | |
There was no mix at all. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:06 | |
Here's one that went up 14 places in this week's chart, Sailor and A Glass Of Bubbly. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:10 | |
# I got the money, I got the place | 0:10:10 | 0:10:13 | |
# You got the figure, you got the face | 0:10:13 | 0:10:17 | |
# Let's get together, the two of us over a glass of champagne... # | 0:10:17 | 0:10:22 | |
Bands like Sailor, who had come out of pretty much nowhere, | 0:10:22 | 0:10:25 | |
they had two or three hits. I mean, in '76, the went on Top Of The Pops | 0:10:25 | 0:10:29 | |
and pretty soon it was massive. | 0:10:29 | 0:10:31 | |
# The two of us over a glass of champagne... # | 0:10:31 | 0:10:35 | |
Of course, with a lot of one-off singles in '76, bands didn't have long careers, | 0:10:37 | 0:10:42 | |
but had a good minute or two in the spotlight. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:45 | |
We take you over to the Trocadero with Showaddywaddy! | 0:10:45 | 0:10:48 | |
Every act that released a single dreamed of being on Top Of The Pops. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:54 | |
It meant you'd arrived. | 0:10:54 | 0:10:56 | |
The show, at that time, was a priority. It was the top of the list | 0:10:56 | 0:11:00 | |
for any record label. If you want to sing your sales, it would be Top Of The Pops. | 0:11:00 | 0:11:05 | |
It had so much power. You knew if you were on Top Of The Pops that your record was going to go top ten. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:11 | |
If Top Of The Pops put the hits on TV, the nation's favourite radio station played them to the masses. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:19 | |
PIPS BLEEP | 0:11:19 | 0:11:21 | |
JINGLE: # Radio 1, good morning. # | 0:11:25 | 0:11:28 | |
In the '60s, 1967 onwards, Radio 1 was the number one station. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:32 | |
Radio 1 blasts the airwaves from two electronic cubbyholes, | 0:11:34 | 0:11:38 | |
produced as about as cheaply as radio can be. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:40 | |
It's a bright, brash upstart of a channel. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:43 | |
It really did rule the pop kingdom, you know, Radio 1, and still does. Sells records. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:49 | |
Executive producer Doreen Davies chairs the weekly playlist meeting at Broadcasting House. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:54 | |
-That'll go up, then, go up. -I think it will go up. | 0:11:54 | 0:11:57 | |
The playlist is a selection of 40 records judged suitable for maximum exposure on the air. | 0:11:57 | 0:12:02 | |
The decision at the end of the day is a crucial one for the artists and the record companies. | 0:12:02 | 0:12:07 | |
On Radio 1, we had audiences of every generation. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:11 | |
I have a card from Lynn Cooper, Mrs Lynn Cooper, | 0:12:11 | 0:12:13 | |
who lives at 19 Norfolk Crescent, Nuneaton, and she has written in for her sister, | 0:12:13 | 0:12:18 | |
who I know is getting married tomorrow. We're going to go down right now to Lewes in Sussex | 0:12:18 | 0:12:23 | |
and say hello to Penny Greenwood. Hello, Penny. Are you there? | 0:12:23 | 0:12:26 | |
-Yes, hello. -How are you? I can't hear you very well. | 0:12:26 | 0:12:28 | |
-You'll have to talk up just a little bit. -Oh, hello. | 0:12:28 | 0:12:31 | |
That's much better. Lovely. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:32 | |
You couldn't think that my breakfast show on Radio 1, I'd come off the air | 0:12:34 | 0:12:38 | |
and the first audience figures we got were for 20 million. | 0:12:38 | 0:12:42 | |
So 20 million people were hearing that record, and of course, you know, | 0:12:42 | 0:12:46 | |
Top Of The Pops was getting millions of viewers as well. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:50 | |
People forget how big the Radio 1 DJs were. Not in size, but in popularity. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:57 | |
Radio 1 DJs had been big since the late 1960s, when Radio 1 started. | 0:12:57 | 0:13:01 | |
Phenomenally powerful. You hung on their every word. | 0:13:01 | 0:13:05 | |
Stand by, take six. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:06 | |
JINGLE: # The Golden Hour | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
# Tony Blackburn remembers... # | 0:13:09 | 0:13:12 | |
-Best of luck, studio. -# 1960! # | 0:13:12 | 0:13:15 | |
There's another from Freddy Carter. Thank you, Noel, for the last few hours. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:20 | |
Always turn off after me name check. | 0:13:20 | 0:13:23 | |
There were 12 DJs, and every one of them was a household name. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:27 | |
Jimmy Savile, DLT, Johnnie Walker, Alan Freeman, Tony Blackburn, and so it went on. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:33 | |
Hello, good evening. Welcome once again to Top Of The Pops! | 0:13:33 | 0:13:37 | |
Hello, good evening, and welcome to Top Of The Pops! | 0:13:37 | 0:13:40 | |
I'll be on breakfast tomorrow. Do hope you're going to join me. | 0:13:40 | 0:13:43 | |
They were the great faces of the nation in a way because they had two things on their side. | 0:13:43 | 0:13:49 | |
They were constantly there cos they were on Radio 1, | 0:13:49 | 0:13:51 | |
and then they had Top Of The Pops, which put them in front of millions every week. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:55 | |
It was an obvious idea. I mean, you know, BBC programme, BBC radio, | 0:13:55 | 0:13:58 | |
BBC television, it was an obvious link-up. | 0:13:58 | 0:14:00 | |
The DJs, they were not stand-offish. They were very much part of the Top Of The Pops furniture. | 0:14:00 | 0:14:06 | |
I thought tonight's proceeding would be held in camera, | 0:14:06 | 0:14:09 | |
but in fact, we're just mucking in on tonight's Top Of The Pops. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:12 | |
Setting the standard for the DJs was the original Top Of The Pops presenter. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:19 | |
And a welcome to this week's top DJ, Jimmy Savile! | 0:14:19 | 0:14:23 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:14:23 | 0:14:25 | |
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. How about that? | 0:14:25 | 0:14:27 | |
Welcome to Top Of The Pops. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:29 | |
He was a genuine music lover, and he was into pushing new music, | 0:14:29 | 0:14:33 | |
and he was a DJ pioneer. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:35 | |
Oh-oh-oh! Goodness gracious. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:38 | |
At number 18, would you believe, ladies and gentlemen, | 0:14:38 | 0:14:41 | |
Gladys Knight and the Pips. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:42 | |
Ho-ho, Midnight Train To Georgia, thank you very much indeed. | 0:14:42 | 0:14:46 | |
Jimmy has always been old in my eyes, because of the look. | 0:14:46 | 0:14:50 | |
You know, the white hair and everything. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:52 | |
But you didn't view him as old, you weren't watching someone | 0:14:52 | 0:14:55 | |
that you thought should be doing something else. | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
They were the bee's knees. | 0:14:58 | 0:14:59 | |
But by 1976, Jimmy had competition. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:04 | |
On any radio station, certainly in the early days, | 0:15:04 | 0:15:07 | |
and probably today as well, the number one presenter would be the breakfast show presenter, | 0:15:07 | 0:15:11 | |
because it's the most important show of the day. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:15 | |
-JINGLE: -# Start your day with Noel Edmonds... | 0:15:15 | 0:15:19 | |
-Good morning. -# No-el, No-el, good morning. # | 0:15:19 | 0:15:26 | |
He was so fashionable, he was so on the mark as a DJ, | 0:15:26 | 0:15:30 | |
as a broadcaster. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:31 | |
Did you always want to be a DJ, | 0:15:31 | 0:15:33 | |
or did you start off wanting to be something else? | 0:15:33 | 0:15:36 | |
Andy Williams? | 0:15:36 | 0:15:37 | |
Oh, come on, I'm not that old. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:39 | |
These people were validators, in a way. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:42 | |
They were saying, "This is number one, this is Top Of The Pops." | 0:15:42 | 0:15:45 | |
You believe them, they're not going through the motions. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:48 | |
No Radio 1, no Tony Blackburn, mind you I'm sure he'd be sick of that. | 0:15:48 | 0:15:53 | |
I wasn't aware of too much competition between the DJs, | 0:15:53 | 0:15:56 | |
because we were all doing quite nicely. | 0:15:56 | 0:15:58 | |
I did, at one time, wear a T-shirt saying, "I hate David Hamilton." | 0:15:58 | 0:16:02 | |
Do you like the T-shirt? | 0:16:02 | 0:16:03 | |
I think this is a style that is going to catch on | 0:16:03 | 0:16:05 | |
for this coming Christmas, don't you? | 0:16:05 | 0:16:07 | |
In actual fact, this is the new look for '77. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:11 | |
I thought, "This is the most wonderful publicity I could possibly get." | 0:16:11 | 0:16:14 | |
David Hamilton and I were always great friends, | 0:16:14 | 0:16:17 | |
and we always had a go at one other in a nice way. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:19 | |
Censored, it's censored! | 0:16:19 | 0:16:22 | |
I heard that you're one of the worst players in the world. | 0:16:22 | 0:16:25 | |
You couldn't even tackle a rice pudding! | 0:16:25 | 0:16:28 | |
DJs had a field day in those days. | 0:16:28 | 0:16:29 | |
I wish I was a presenter, then, I tell you, | 0:16:29 | 0:16:31 | |
I'd be laughing. | 0:16:31 | 0:16:33 | |
They were zany, almost sub-Bruce Forsyth variety characters as such, they had schtick. | 0:16:33 | 0:16:39 | |
we were, in a strange sort of way, as big as the artists | 0:16:41 | 0:16:44 | |
-we were presenting, and we were built up as pop stars. -SCREAMING | 0:16:44 | 0:16:48 | |
They'd be on Radio 1, they'd be on Top Of The Pops, they'd go on tour, | 0:16:48 | 0:16:51 | |
they'd open supermarkets and they'd get paid huge amounts of money. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:56 | |
I totted it up once and I opened 1,000 supermarkets | 0:16:56 | 0:16:59 | |
around the country, and when they didn't do so well | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
and they closed down, I offered to go back and close them down. | 0:17:02 | 0:17:05 | |
I remember going to Scotland and opening a menswear shop. | 0:17:07 | 0:17:10 | |
They dropped me at the wrong side of the street, | 0:17:10 | 0:17:12 | |
and the police rushed over and showed me through the crowd. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:16 | |
As I went through, they ripped my jacket to pieces. | 0:17:16 | 0:17:18 | |
It was a menswear shop, and when I came out | 0:17:18 | 0:17:20 | |
I was wearing a better jacket than the one I went in with! | 0:17:20 | 0:17:23 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:17:23 | 0:17:24 | |
It was an easy transition for the Radio 1 DJs | 0:17:24 | 0:17:28 | |
when it came to also hosting the BBC's primetime | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
Saturday night light entertainment shows. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:33 | |
# Sunshine Saturday... # | 0:17:33 | 0:17:37 | |
Yes, once again it's Seaside Special, | 0:17:40 | 0:17:43 | |
the show that goes coast to coast with the very best people | 0:17:43 | 0:17:46 | |
in the pop music field, the variety field, | 0:17:46 | 0:17:48 | |
we've got some fabulous stars for you. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:50 | |
The Radio 1 DJs not only did Top Of The Pops, | 0:17:50 | 0:17:53 | |
but some of us did Seaside Special as well. | 0:17:53 | 0:17:57 | |
Seaside Special went out on Saturday night in the big peak slot, | 0:17:57 | 0:18:01 | |
now occupied by Strictly Come Dancing. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:03 | |
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like you now to meet a real superstar | 0:18:03 | 0:18:07 | |
and somebody who I have personally admired for many, many years. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
Ahem. Good evening. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
The Top Of The Pops presenters had become the perfect hosts for family viewing. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:20 | |
Programmes like Seaside Special, I think, | 0:18:20 | 0:18:23 | |
must have had a very similar audience to Top Of The Pops. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:26 | |
Certainly in hindsight, you are aware of how not even | 0:18:26 | 0:18:29 | |
a cousin of light entertainment programmes, but a close relation, | 0:18:29 | 0:18:33 | |
a brother, a sister, a son, they were part of that tradition. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:38 | |
# Saturday night, we're gonna have some fun... # | 0:18:38 | 0:18:41 | |
It's a good British night from us on Top Of The Pops, | 0:18:47 | 0:18:50 | |
it's the number one, | 0:18:50 | 0:18:51 | |
it's the fabulous film of Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody, | 0:18:51 | 0:18:53 | |
marvellous, so do have a super year, God bless, | 0:18:53 | 0:18:56 | |
see you next week. | 0:18:56 | 0:18:57 | |
# Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? | 0:18:57 | 0:19:05 | |
# Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality... # | 0:19:05 | 0:19:11 | |
The omnipresent Radio 1 DJs played a big part in creating the hits, | 0:19:12 | 0:19:16 | |
but what did that mean for music in 1976? | 0:19:16 | 0:19:20 | |
The year started with a radical moment of innovation. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:24 | |
Queen, with Bohemian Rhapsody, changed the whole face | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
of television, as such, with respect to Top Of The Pops. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:31 | |
People liked the video more than the song, I suppose, | 0:19:31 | 0:19:34 | |
but that did herald the storyboard and what was to come with MTV. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:38 | |
# Galileo, figaro, magnifico... # | 0:19:38 | 0:19:41 | |
But 1976 was far from from innovative in the charts, | 0:19:41 | 0:19:44 | |
with its cast of regulars hogging the limelight. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:48 | |
In '76, I guess, one of the big changes in music would be Cliff Richard with Devil woman. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:53 | |
I mean, Cliff, woo! | 0:19:53 | 0:19:54 | |
# She's just a devil woman With evil on her mind | 0:19:54 | 0:19:58 | |
# Beware the devil woman She's going to get you... # | 0:19:58 | 0:20:02 | |
The Peter Pan of pop showed us a racier side. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:06 | |
Cliff and Devil Woman. I mean, that... | 0:20:06 | 0:20:08 | |
Firstly, it's a really well-written song by an established performer. | 0:20:08 | 0:20:13 | |
It was just a bit of a shock | 0:20:13 | 0:20:14 | |
that here you had this very Christian man performing it. | 0:20:14 | 0:20:18 | |
It was a song that he never really liked, | 0:20:18 | 0:20:20 | |
because, you know, Cliff is whiter than the driven snow, isn't he? | 0:20:20 | 0:20:24 | |
It wasn't really quite his image. | 0:20:24 | 0:20:26 | |
Even by then, '76, Cliff seemed to have been around for a couple of centuries, | 0:20:26 | 0:20:29 | |
so whatever people feel about Cliff now, they felt then. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:32 | |
# She's gonna get you! # | 0:20:32 | 0:20:33 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:20:33 | 0:20:36 | |
-Congratulations! -Oh, thank you very much indeed. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
You've heard that before. How many hits is that now in the charts? | 0:20:39 | 0:20:42 | |
-I think we've made 64 entries. -When I'm 64? Do you like that? | 0:20:42 | 0:20:45 | |
Nice to see that you're nearly famous, too. | 0:20:45 | 0:20:47 | |
Here is the record that is number one in the chart, yet again, for Abba. This is Fernando. | 0:20:47 | 0:20:52 | |
But the year belonged to a band that were our Swedish fantasy. | 0:20:52 | 0:20:57 | |
Abba, who I absolutely love, and they, visually, | 0:20:57 | 0:21:00 | |
are just made for Top Of The Pops. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:01 | |
# There was something in the air that night | 0:21:01 | 0:21:04 | |
# The stars were bright, Fernando... # | 0:21:04 | 0:21:08 | |
Everybody in the world wanted them on their show. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:11 | |
You'd get Benny or Bjorn saying to me, "What are we doing, then? | 0:21:11 | 0:21:14 | |
"Which shows are we doing?" I said, "Top Of The Pops," | 0:21:14 | 0:21:17 | |
because, at the time, Top Of The Pops was the show to do. | 0:21:17 | 0:21:20 | |
# If I had to do the same again I would, my friend, Fernando... # | 0:21:20 | 0:21:26 | |
Abba represented a sort of softness. It represented sweetness. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:30 | |
They represented nothing about the country you lived in, | 0:21:30 | 0:21:33 | |
nothing about the location you lived in, nothing about your life | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
as a young person in Britain in the mid-'70s. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:40 | |
They were a kind of a fantasy. | 0:21:40 | 0:21:43 | |
# I've been cheated by you since I don't know when... # | 0:21:43 | 0:21:47 | |
Abba, to me, were the biggest group to come along, | 0:21:49 | 0:21:52 | |
certainly in the '70s, and disco was coming along as well, | 0:21:52 | 0:21:56 | |
-and I loved the disco music. -ABBA charted three times, | 0:21:56 | 0:22:00 | |
but I don't remember Abba as having the respect then as they do today. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:04 | |
# Yes, I've been broken-hearted | 0:22:04 | 0:22:07 | |
# Blue since the day we parted | 0:22:07 | 0:22:11 | |
# Why, why, did I ever let you go? | 0:22:11 | 0:22:15 | |
# Mamma Mia, even if I say | 0:22:15 | 0:22:18 | |
# Bye-bye Leave me now or never... # | 0:22:18 | 0:22:21 | |
They looked, for me, the final splutterings of glam, | 0:22:21 | 0:22:26 | |
cos they still wore glitter, still dressed up in that sense. | 0:22:26 | 0:22:29 | |
So for me, that five years that had taken me from 13 to 18 - | 0:22:29 | 0:22:34 | |
a third of my life - it seemed, "Why are they still doing that?" | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
"Why are they still wearing the platform shoes? That's the Middle Ages now." | 0:22:37 | 0:22:41 | |
Now, we shall certainly be hearing a good deal more of this winning song, | 0:22:41 | 0:22:47 | |
and in April, of course, it'll be competing against the best of the rest in Europe. | 0:22:47 | 0:22:51 | |
But at the moment it's goodnight from the Royal Albert Hall in London, | 0:22:51 | 0:22:54 | |
and once again that winning song by the Brotherhood Of Man, | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
and it's called Save Your Kisses For Me. | 0:22:57 | 0:23:01 | |
# Though it hurts to go away | 0:23:01 | 0:23:03 | |
# It's impossible to stay | 0:23:03 | 0:23:06 | |
# But there's one thing I must say before I go | 0:23:06 | 0:23:11 | |
# I love you | 0:23:11 | 0:23:13 | |
-# I love you -You know... # | 0:23:13 | 0:23:15 | |
From one Eurovision success to another, | 0:23:15 | 0:23:17 | |
the biggest-selling single of the year belonged to our very own version of ABBA. | 0:23:17 | 0:23:23 | |
Top Of The Pops put us definitely and firmly on the map. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:25 | |
Week after week. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:26 | |
# But you keep me hanging on... # | 0:23:26 | 0:23:29 | |
It was the public that put the record there. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:32 | |
When we arrived to do Eurovision, we were number one in the charts. | 0:23:32 | 0:23:37 | |
# Won't you save them up for me? | 0:23:37 | 0:23:39 | |
# Your...kisses for me | 0:23:39 | 0:23:42 | |
# Save all your kisses for me | 0:23:42 | 0:23:47 | |
# Bye-bye, baby, bye-bye... # | 0:23:47 | 0:23:49 | |
Years on, I mean, they still wait for the dance. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:52 | |
It's just phenomenal. | 0:23:52 | 0:23:53 | |
# Honey, don't cry... # | 0:23:53 | 0:23:55 | |
Because we were a middle-of-the-road band, | 0:23:55 | 0:23:58 | |
I think they didn't expect us to hold it for so long, | 0:23:58 | 0:24:02 | |
and I still think today that we could have done another week or two there. | 0:24:02 | 0:24:06 | |
I think they're there for life. | 0:24:06 | 0:24:08 | |
# Hang on, baby, hang on...# | 0:24:08 | 0:24:11 | |
But I think they'd had enough of us and they went, "Goodbye. That's enough." | 0:24:11 | 0:24:16 | |
# ..only three... # | 0:24:16 | 0:24:18 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:24:18 | 0:24:20 | |
Compared to other years, it probably wasn't the vintage champagne of pop. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:25 | |
Some people might see the music of 1976 as being bland. I don't, | 0:24:25 | 0:24:29 | |
I think the music of 1976 was great fun. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:34 | |
# Disco, disco duck | 0:24:34 | 0:24:36 | |
Got to have me a woman! | 0:24:36 | 0:24:38 | |
# Disco, disco duck | 0:24:38 | 0:24:40 | |
Oh, get down, mama! | 0:24:40 | 0:24:42 | |
# Try your luck | 0:24:42 | 0:24:43 | |
# Don't be a cluck | 0:24:43 | 0:24:45 | |
-# Disco -Disco | 0:24:46 | 0:24:48 | |
-# Disco -Disco | 0:24:48 | 0:24:50 | |
-# Disco -Disco | 0:24:50 | 0:24:52 | |
# Disco, disco duck... # | 0:24:52 | 0:24:54 | |
Top Of The Pops did play what the people put in the charts, | 0:24:54 | 0:24:58 | |
and if it WAS incredibly mediocre and middle-of-the-road, | 0:24:58 | 0:25:02 | |
Top Of The Pops couldn't change that. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:04 | |
JJ Barrie, and No Charge. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:07 | |
TO COUNTRY BACKGROUND Well, his mom looked at him standing there expectantly, | 0:25:08 | 0:25:11 | |
and I could see the memories flashing through her mind. | 0:25:11 | 0:25:15 | |
And so she picked up the pen, | 0:25:15 | 0:25:18 | |
and turning the paper over... | 0:25:18 | 0:25:20 | |
this is what she wrote. | 0:25:20 | 0:25:22 | |
# For the nine months I carried you | 0:25:22 | 0:25:25 | |
"For the nine months I carried you..." | 0:25:25 | 0:25:26 | |
-# Growing inside me -"..growing inside me..." | 0:25:26 | 0:25:29 | |
-# No charge -.."no charge..." | 0:25:29 | 0:25:31 | |
Nobody new and exciting had seemed to come along to replace the glam scene. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:37 | |
And I guess the record industry was delighted with that - | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
they could put a lot of music into the charts that they were in control of. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:44 | |
It wasn't coming from somewhere else and surprising them. | 0:25:44 | 0:25:46 | |
# Baby Soon you're gonna le-e-eave me | 0:25:46 | 0:25:53 | |
# When you go don't say goodby-y-y-ye | 0:25:54 | 0:26:02 | |
# Keep on, keep on walking... # | 0:26:02 | 0:26:05 | |
As powerful as it was, as large as its audience was, | 0:26:05 | 0:26:09 | |
it wasn't manipulative to the point | 0:26:09 | 0:26:11 | |
where it was going to invent its own chart for the sake of what went on the show. | 0:26:11 | 0:26:15 | |
They had to go with Demis Roussos - who was extraordinarily popular. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:20 | |
# Ever and ever, forever and ever | 0:26:20 | 0:26:25 | |
# You'll be my dream | 0:26:25 | 0:26:29 | |
# My rainbow's end | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
# And the song I sing... # | 0:26:32 | 0:26:36 | |
When you think about it today, and what music is today, | 0:26:36 | 0:26:41 | |
you are looking at pure variety light entertainment back then. | 0:26:41 | 0:26:45 | |
-The one and only...The Wurzels. -APPLAUSE | 0:26:45 | 0:26:50 | |
Even Somerset cider drinkers braced the charts this year. | 0:26:50 | 0:26:54 | |
# I drove my tractor through your haystack last night | 0:26:54 | 0:26:58 | |
# Ooh-arr, ooh-arr | 0:26:58 | 0:26:59 | |
The recording engineer at the time was a guy called Tony Clark. | 0:26:59 | 0:27:03 | |
He used to record bands like Sky and John Williams, | 0:27:03 | 0:27:06 | |
and he said - the first day we were recording, he said, | 0:27:06 | 0:27:09 | |
"We've got a hit here." | 0:27:09 | 0:27:12 | |
# Cos I've got a brand-new combine harvester | 0:27:12 | 0:27:14 | |
# And I'll give you the key | 0:27:14 | 0:27:17 | |
# Come on, now, let's get together | 0:27:17 | 0:27:19 | |
# In perfect harmony... # | 0:27:19 | 0:27:21 | |
It was Radio 1 that started playing the record, I think, | 0:27:21 | 0:27:23 | |
and that's how it all ended up with Top Of The Pops. | 0:27:23 | 0:27:25 | |
If you could put some a phrase on it, | 0:27:25 | 0:27:28 | |
it was "melodic, singalong fun". | 0:27:28 | 0:27:32 | |
She made I laugh... Ha-ha! | 0:27:32 | 0:27:35 | |
# I'll stick by you | 0:27:35 | 0:27:36 | |
# I'll give you all that you need | 0:27:36 | 0:27:38 | |
# Ooh-arr, ooh-arr... # | 0:27:38 | 0:27:40 | |
We were the boys that played the village halls and did this and that | 0:27:40 | 0:27:43 | |
but we'd never actually been on a national television show. | 0:27:43 | 0:27:46 | |
And then we found something that we could do. | 0:27:46 | 0:27:49 | |
We could write songs that become a part of ourselves. | 0:27:49 | 0:27:52 | |
Which makes us no different to all the bands that are around today. | 0:27:52 | 0:27:55 | |
-APPLAUSE -Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! | 0:27:57 | 0:27:59 | |
Now then, ladies and gentlemen... Applause there for The Wurzels. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:03 | |
Now, what we're going to do, a bit more magic now. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:05 | |
After three, I'm going to make these Wurzels disappear, | 0:28:05 | 0:28:08 | |
and I'm going to bring that young lady back from Birmingham. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:11 | |
One, two, three! | 0:28:11 | 0:28:14 | |
Aaah... | 0:28:14 | 0:28:15 | |
They were displaced by You To Me Are Everything by The Real Thing. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:19 | |
It was like a life-saver - | 0:28:19 | 0:28:20 | |
because at last you didn't have to sit through The Wurzels. | 0:28:20 | 0:28:23 | |
# Oh, you to me are everything | 0:28:23 | 0:28:26 | |
# The sweetest song that I can sing | 0:28:26 | 0:28:28 | |
# Oh, baby | 0:28:28 | 0:28:29 | |
# Oh, baby | 0:28:30 | 0:28:32 | |
# To you I guess I'm just a clown | 0:28:33 | 0:28:35 | |
# Who picks you up each time you're down | 0:28:35 | 0:28:38 | |
# Oh, baby | 0:28:38 | 0:28:39 | |
# Oh, baby... # | 0:28:40 | 0:28:41 | |
The Bay City Rollers! Thank you very much. | 0:28:41 | 0:28:45 | |
The teeny bop craze that had ruled the charts | 0:28:45 | 0:28:47 | |
was on the wane, as their young fans grew up. | 0:28:47 | 0:28:50 | |
Take it down! | 0:28:50 | 0:28:52 | |
My interest in The Bay City Rollers passed very quickly | 0:28:52 | 0:28:56 | |
because I was changing very quickly. | 0:28:56 | 0:28:58 | |
I was going from being 12, 13, to 14 | 0:28:58 | 0:29:02 | |
which was a very different thing, | 0:29:02 | 0:29:03 | |
and I was very quickly deeply embarrassed | 0:29:03 | 0:29:05 | |
about EVER having liked The Bay City Rollers. | 0:29:05 | 0:29:08 | |
Their posters were ripped from my walls. Anything... | 0:29:08 | 0:29:11 | |
Their singles were thrown out, tartan scarves probably burnt, | 0:29:11 | 0:29:14 | |
and then they were gone for me. | 0:29:14 | 0:29:16 | |
And, as the hot summer of '76 drew to a close, | 0:29:16 | 0:29:19 | |
The Bay City Rollers' single was to be their last big hit. | 0:29:19 | 0:29:23 | |
Taking their place was a new band on the block | 0:29:25 | 0:29:27 | |
who were fast becoming everyone's favourite teddy boys. | 0:29:27 | 0:29:30 | |
INTRO: "Under The Moon Of Love" | 0:29:30 | 0:29:32 | |
DAVE BARTRAM: When Under The Moon Of Love came along later in the year, | 0:29:37 | 0:29:41 | |
it became a bit like a breath of fresh air. | 0:29:41 | 0:29:42 | |
# Let's go for a little walk | 0:29:42 | 0:29:45 | |
# Under the moon of love... # | 0:29:46 | 0:29:48 | |
Eight blokes sort of stepping out doing their thing, | 0:29:48 | 0:29:53 | |
with a hint of aggression... | 0:29:53 | 0:29:54 | |
-# I want to tell you -I want to tell you | 0:29:54 | 0:29:57 | |
-# That I love you -That I love you | 0:29:57 | 0:29:58 | |
# And I want you to be my girl... # | 0:29:58 | 0:30:01 | |
Everybody seemed to love the band. | 0:30:01 | 0:30:03 | |
We even sort of... got things in the music press | 0:30:03 | 0:30:06 | |
that were giving us credit for what we were doing! | 0:30:06 | 0:30:10 | |
And there were other magazines that didn't like the band | 0:30:10 | 0:30:13 | |
because we were essentially I suppose | 0:30:13 | 0:30:16 | |
what at the time was called a teeny bop band. | 0:30:16 | 0:30:19 | |
# I'm gonna talk sweet talk And whisper things in your ear... # | 0:30:19 | 0:30:22 | |
I can remember singing to audience members, and... | 0:30:22 | 0:30:26 | |
It's something that we always did | 0:30:26 | 0:30:27 | |
in our stage show anyway, so I was quite comfortable doing that. | 0:30:27 | 0:30:30 | |
# Come on, little darling, take my hand | 0:30:30 | 0:30:32 | |
# Let's go for a little walk... # | 0:30:32 | 0:30:35 | |
But if teeny bop wasn't your thing, there was always a hidden treasure. | 0:30:36 | 0:30:40 | |
I think what you often want from a great pop song - | 0:30:40 | 0:30:42 | |
and you often wanted to be on Top Of The Pops - | 0:30:42 | 0:30:45 | |
is an edge of surrealism - something surreal, something other. | 0:30:45 | 0:30:49 | |
# Everybody | 0:30:49 | 0:30:50 | |
# Plays the game | 0:30:50 | 0:30:52 | |
# You don't have to... # | 0:30:52 | 0:30:55 | |
And often that manifested itself by something, you know, | 0:30:55 | 0:30:58 | |
really, really wonderful going on this really naff programme. | 0:30:58 | 0:31:01 | |
Someone like Alex Harvey would pop up... | 0:31:01 | 0:31:03 | |
# Are you going to the party? | 0:31:03 | 0:31:05 | |
# Going to the Boston Tea Party | 0:31:06 | 0:31:09 | |
# Going to the party | 0:31:09 | 0:31:12 | |
# Going to the Boston Tea Party... # | 0:31:12 | 0:31:15 | |
There were some rather irresistible pop records | 0:31:15 | 0:31:18 | |
that you couldn't resist because they were peculiar. | 0:31:18 | 0:31:21 | |
# Girls, girls, girls Girls, girls, girls | 0:31:21 | 0:31:24 | |
# Well, they made 'em up in Hollywood | 0:31:24 | 0:31:27 | |
# Put them into the movies... # | 0:31:27 | 0:31:29 | |
In their novelty, in their attempt to get play on the radio | 0:31:29 | 0:31:32 | |
and to be...you know, to sound right and to be catchy enough, | 0:31:32 | 0:31:35 | |
they were oddly exotic. | 0:31:35 | 0:31:37 | |
# I've got a one solitary | 0:31:37 | 0:31:40 | |
# Lonesome single bed... # | 0:31:40 | 0:31:43 | |
Sometimes something would take you by surprise. | 0:31:43 | 0:31:45 | |
Even if you were - like I was - a profound snob about music. | 0:31:45 | 0:31:49 | |
And if the producer didn't pick your band, | 0:31:49 | 0:31:52 | |
there was always the dancing girls. | 0:31:52 | 0:31:54 | |
Here are the fruity...Pan's People! | 0:31:54 | 0:31:57 | |
# You sexy sugar plum... # | 0:32:02 | 0:32:04 | |
Legs & Co and Pan's People, they came on and did these very sensual and erotic routines, | 0:32:04 | 0:32:10 | |
and nobody else was doing it on TV at the time, | 0:32:10 | 0:32:13 | |
and so they were quite unique. | 0:32:13 | 0:32:15 | |
Their dance routines were... quite sexy for the time, | 0:32:17 | 0:32:21 | |
and dances like that you couldn't see anywhere else | 0:32:21 | 0:32:24 | |
on any other variety programmes. | 0:32:24 | 0:32:26 | |
It was purely on Top Of The Pops. | 0:32:26 | 0:32:29 | |
There were very few women on top of the Pops, and Pan's People | 0:32:30 | 0:32:33 | |
were moulded into whatever was needed... | 0:32:33 | 0:32:35 | |
which wasn't a very helpful role model for a young girl! | 0:32:35 | 0:32:40 | |
Pan's People, who are deep in the heart of the jungle. | 0:32:40 | 0:32:43 | |
JUNGLE DRUMS | 0:32:43 | 0:32:45 | |
What they did was, I think, | 0:32:47 | 0:32:48 | |
purely part of the entertainment variety genre, | 0:32:48 | 0:32:53 | |
where they were dancing girls, | 0:32:53 | 0:32:55 | |
who were probably considered more important | 0:32:55 | 0:32:58 | |
for shapely legs than for actually being dancers. | 0:32:58 | 0:33:02 | |
So there was this kind of Benny Hill postcard innocence | 0:33:02 | 0:33:05 | |
about watching Legs & Co. | 0:33:05 | 0:33:08 | |
Here...are Legs & Co! | 0:33:08 | 0:33:10 | |
There was almost sort of a laddishness, I think. | 0:33:11 | 0:33:14 | |
DLT - "Not 'alf." You know? | 0:33:14 | 0:33:16 | |
I know where I'm going later - | 0:33:16 | 0:33:17 | |
straight down to Pan's Persons' little carriageway, | 0:33:17 | 0:33:20 | |
through those white blocks. Woargh! | 0:33:20 | 0:33:22 | |
And Dad's going, "Ooh, yeah." | 0:33:22 | 0:33:23 | |
MUSIC: "Oh, What A Night" by The Four Seasons | 0:33:23 | 0:33:26 | |
I remember my father and my brother watching Top Of The Pops | 0:33:28 | 0:33:31 | |
because it was either Pan's People or Legs & Co. | 0:33:31 | 0:33:34 | |
And they weren't interested in what they were dancing to, | 0:33:34 | 0:33:37 | |
they weren't interested in what the movements were. | 0:33:37 | 0:33:40 | |
All they interested in was how little they were wearing | 0:33:40 | 0:33:44 | |
and what provocative moves they did. | 0:33:44 | 0:33:46 | |
Rather shamefully, we expected and accepted | 0:33:48 | 0:33:50 | |
that women would be there often for decorative purposes. | 0:33:50 | 0:33:53 | |
They were there to keep the male viewers there. | 0:33:53 | 0:33:57 | |
I don't think I ever watched it for Legs & Co! | 0:33:57 | 0:33:59 | |
Nobody really took offence. | 0:33:59 | 0:34:01 | |
Today I think you'd probably be called sexist, | 0:34:01 | 0:34:05 | |
but in those days, you know, it was...just banter. | 0:34:05 | 0:34:09 | |
Very interesting, how times have changed. | 0:34:09 | 0:34:12 | |
But it wasn't only the professional dancers | 0:34:13 | 0:34:15 | |
that got the chance to strut their stuff on Top Of The Pops. | 0:34:15 | 0:34:18 | |
-We wanted to dance, didn't we? ..You wanted to dance. -Yes! | 0:34:18 | 0:34:21 | |
We're going to dance. | 0:34:21 | 0:34:22 | |
Lots and lots of people wanted to be on Top Of The Pops, dancing there, | 0:34:22 | 0:34:26 | |
so they came in off the streets and they were encouraged to dress up, | 0:34:26 | 0:34:30 | |
and think the rest of the country probably saw the fashions that were happening in London. | 0:34:30 | 0:34:35 | |
One of the first shows to have an audience participation in there. | 0:34:35 | 0:34:38 | |
We're going to pick out the best dancer in this one, | 0:34:38 | 0:34:41 | |
because we're going to see the kids dancing here in the studio. | 0:34:41 | 0:34:43 | |
The audience were always in shot, and that was always the public | 0:34:43 | 0:34:47 | |
looking up to the pop star. So you sort of felt part of it. | 0:34:47 | 0:34:49 | |
-LEO SAYER: -# You make me feel like dancing... # | 0:34:49 | 0:34:52 | |
You knew you'd made it, if you were in there and you were on camera. | 0:34:52 | 0:34:55 | |
# You make me feel like dancing... # | 0:34:55 | 0:34:58 | |
When I was young I thought it would be quite romantic to be in the audience. | 0:34:58 | 0:35:01 | |
In fact, it would have been enough to just be there watching the stars. | 0:35:01 | 0:35:04 | |
-# I feel like dancing -Wooo! -# Dancing -Wooo! | 0:35:04 | 0:35:06 | |
# Dance the night away... # | 0:35:06 | 0:35:08 | |
If you were in the audience, you got pushed around by the floor managers. | 0:35:08 | 0:35:12 | |
If a camera was coming your way, they didn't bother about you, that just barged into you. | 0:35:12 | 0:35:16 | |
But...the kids had a good time and it was just great fun. | 0:35:16 | 0:35:19 | |
For me there was too much of this dancing - looking over the shoulder to see if you were on camera. | 0:35:19 | 0:35:24 | |
If you were in the audience and doing the show, it was a really good party atmosphere. | 0:35:24 | 0:35:30 | |
But by now, the Top Of The Pops party didn't seem to be for its younger viewers, | 0:35:31 | 0:35:35 | |
and it was trying to cater for all the family. | 0:35:35 | 0:35:38 | |
# It's so nice, nice, nice | 0:35:38 | 0:35:41 | |
# To have you home, home again... # | 0:35:41 | 0:35:45 | |
The '70s, and my generation, were already | 0:35:45 | 0:35:48 | |
almost a backwash to what had gone on in the '60s. I couldn't love the music. | 0:35:48 | 0:35:53 | |
# It's so nice, nice, nice to have you home... # | 0:35:53 | 0:35:58 | |
It was having a mid-life crisis, and the presenters were of another era and the music had got badly lost. | 0:35:58 | 0:36:05 | |
# ..never ever gonna go away | 0:36:05 | 0:36:08 | |
# Any more # | 0:36:08 | 0:36:10 | |
You had to introduce what was in the charts that particular week. | 0:36:10 | 0:36:14 | |
I didn't have any quarrel with it. One or two things were a little bit square for me, but | 0:36:14 | 0:36:19 | |
if a record appealed to the mums and dads, or maybe the grandparents liked them - you know, so be it. | 0:36:19 | 0:36:26 | |
# It's so nice, nice, nice | 0:36:26 | 0:36:29 | |
# To have you home, home again | 0:36:29 | 0:36:32 | |
# And you're looking exactly just the way you used to look before... # | 0:36:33 | 0:36:39 | |
It was almost like being inside a very closed society - | 0:36:39 | 0:36:43 | |
you took what you had, and you believed it was all there was. | 0:36:43 | 0:36:46 | |
It was only later, when I got a tiny bit older and more adventurous, | 0:36:46 | 0:36:51 | |
that I kind of realised there was a whole world out there | 0:36:51 | 0:36:54 | |
that Top Of The Pops wasn't reaching. | 0:36:54 | 0:36:57 | |
MUSIC: Theme from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" | 0:36:57 | 0:37:00 | |
There was a much more serious approach to music on The Old Grey Whistle Test, BBC2's | 0:37:01 | 0:37:06 | |
anti-Top Of The Pops music show - | 0:37:06 | 0:37:08 | |
with no audience, no dancing... | 0:37:08 | 0:37:10 | |
and a presenter that (whispered.) | 0:37:10 | 0:37:13 | |
Hello, again. This is Bob Harris opening up another Whistle Test. | 0:37:13 | 0:37:15 | |
# Gonna make her roar | 0:37:15 | 0:37:18 | |
# Gonna make her fly... # | 0:37:18 | 0:37:19 | |
What was given to us | 0:37:19 | 0:37:21 | |
music lovers was The Old Grey Whistle Test, as a kind of counterpart. | 0:37:21 | 0:37:26 | |
HIGH-PITCHED: # Ahh, ahh, ahh, ahh | 0:37:26 | 0:37:30 | |
# Ahh, ahh, ahh... Ahh! # | 0:37:30 | 0:37:34 | |
When you got The Old Grey Whistle Test, it was really | 0:37:34 | 0:37:38 | |
exploring album tracks and people who were, in inverted commas, taking their music seriously, man. | 0:37:38 | 0:37:43 | |
There weren't people being forced to look as if they were dancing and enjoying themselves, | 0:37:43 | 0:37:48 | |
and there were presenters who really took the music seriously, | 0:37:48 | 0:37:52 | |
rather than stood there trying to sound fizzy and excited. | 0:37:52 | 0:37:55 | |
A good-looking programme tonight, too. Sessions from John Martyn and Little Feat, | 0:37:55 | 0:38:00 | |
an interview later on with Robert Plant, some vintage film of Ike and Tina Turner, | 0:38:00 | 0:38:04 | |
a track from the new Jefferson Starship album, and music from the Bachman-Turner Overdrive. | 0:38:04 | 0:38:08 | |
But The Old Grey Whistle Test was a little too laid-back and worthy for a younger audience by 1976. | 0:38:13 | 0:38:20 | |
# There was a woman in Georgia didn't feel just right | 0:38:20 | 0:38:23 | |
# She had the fever all day and chills at night... # | 0:38:23 | 0:38:27 | |
I was a 14-year-old kind of caught between two worlds, really. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:30 | |
You'd have Brotherhood Of Man on Top Of The Pops, and some kind of | 0:38:30 | 0:38:34 | |
West Coast American long-haired group on The Old Grey Whistle Test. | 0:38:34 | 0:38:39 | |
And neither of them really seemed, to me, | 0:38:39 | 0:38:43 | |
to be relevant or to relate to me or my world. | 0:38:43 | 0:38:47 | |
# He's a doctor of soul | 0:38:47 | 0:38:50 | |
# He's got his very own thing, yeah... # | 0:38:50 | 0:38:54 | |
-PAUL MORLEY: -Those that liked that music, thought that what they liked | 0:38:56 | 0:39:00 | |
was deeply serious, proper music. | 0:39:00 | 0:39:01 | |
So they were protective of that and threatened by what was about to happen too. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:05 | |
The nation's youth were becoming disenchanted with the BBC's musical offerings. | 0:39:08 | 0:39:13 | |
Time now to go up the M1 motorway to the Scratchwood service area - | 0:39:13 | 0:39:16 | |
we are going to find Laurie Lingo, the Plastic Chickens, the Dipsticks, everything - and Convoy GB! | 0:39:16 | 0:39:22 | |
# It's a lonely life truck driving But it's better than a bike... # | 0:39:22 | 0:39:26 | |
It all started to slightly parody itself. | 0:39:26 | 0:39:29 | |
The format was very well established, | 0:39:29 | 0:39:32 | |
everyone knew what was coming next... | 0:39:32 | 0:39:34 | |
# ..the saga of the M1 motorway | 0:39:34 | 0:39:37 | |
# Of the biggest bloomin' convoy outside the USA... # | 0:39:37 | 0:39:41 | |
-LAVINIA GREENLAW: -The dancers got sillier, the songs got sillier. | 0:39:41 | 0:39:45 | |
The presenters - who were really too old to be presenting it - | 0:39:45 | 0:39:49 | |
got sillier too, | 0:39:49 | 0:39:50 | |
and it didn't make any of us feel young, or excited, or happy or free. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:55 | |
It was just as if everything had got badly stuck and no-one knew what to do. | 0:39:55 | 0:39:59 | |
Er...listen, Plastic Chicken - | 0:39:59 | 0:40:01 | |
d'you want to stick it in behind that suicide jockey? | 0:40:01 | 0:40:04 | |
-What's a suicide jockey? -"As it happens, 'ow's about - urrgh!" | 0:40:04 | 0:40:08 | |
It just seemed to be laughable. It was becoming laughable. | 0:40:10 | 0:40:13 | |
We're all wearing white suits tonight, because we're doubling as ice cream salesmen. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:18 | |
Choc ices...! | 0:40:18 | 0:40:19 | |
Hello and welcome - tonight's programme's dedicated | 0:40:19 | 0:40:22 | |
to everyone who wanted me to get the sack. | 0:40:22 | 0:40:24 | |
It made it shallow and superficial and silly and glitzy. | 0:40:24 | 0:40:26 | |
It had become much more obviously a family entertainment show. | 0:40:26 | 0:40:31 | |
FUNKY DISCO MUSIC | 0:40:31 | 0:40:33 | |
We were clearly not being given everything that was out there, | 0:40:41 | 0:40:44 | |
and certain people were making these decisions on our behalf. | 0:40:44 | 0:40:48 | |
Even if we didn't articulate it this way, that was a political thing, | 0:40:48 | 0:40:52 | |
an ideological thing - and we needed to fight it. | 0:40:52 | 0:40:54 | |
# Boredom, boredo-o-om... # | 0:40:54 | 0:40:59 | |
The predominant mood of the young people of '76 | 0:41:01 | 0:41:06 | |
wasn't necessarily anger, but was actually boredom. | 0:41:06 | 0:41:10 | |
LAVINIA GREENLAW: There didn't seem to be anything for us - | 0:41:11 | 0:41:13 | |
I spent a lot of time in bus shelters wondering what to do and where to go. | 0:41:13 | 0:41:18 | |
I hadn't yet found the music that mattered, I hadn't yet found the friends who would matter. | 0:41:18 | 0:41:22 | |
I didn't know who to be, and it felt like the country didn't know what to be either. | 0:41:22 | 0:41:27 | |
Light entertainment didn't seem to relate really or | 0:41:27 | 0:41:31 | |
care really about what young people wanted. | 0:41:31 | 0:41:35 | |
SIREN WAILS | 0:41:35 | 0:41:36 | |
The generation that was coming of an age in the late '70s | 0:41:40 | 0:41:43 | |
was a generation that was beginning to have to deal with | 0:41:43 | 0:41:46 | |
rising unemployment. Interest rates were high... | 0:41:46 | 0:41:49 | |
There was a very horrific kind of institutional | 0:41:49 | 0:41:53 | |
and street racism that you were aware of | 0:41:53 | 0:41:55 | |
in Britain - and of course you had the Notting Hill riots in 1976. | 0:41:55 | 0:42:00 | |
MUSIC: "White Riot" by The Clash | 0:42:00 | 0:42:03 | |
And there seemed to be a very big gulf between that real life, and the life that was portrayed by | 0:42:05 | 0:42:12 | |
light entertainment on the BBC including Top Of The Pops. | 0:42:12 | 0:42:15 | |
BBC's never gone this mad. Demis - come over here, darlin'! | 0:42:15 | 0:42:18 | |
It's time to say goodnight, | 0:42:18 | 0:42:20 | |
and we are going to leave you with the number one sound which has been there for 94 years. | 0:42:20 | 0:42:24 | |
Demis - cop a load of our lovely British plonk, Chateau BBC 1914... | 0:42:24 | 0:42:30 | |
That real world was definitely knocking on Top Of The Pops' door by '76...but not getting in. | 0:42:30 | 0:42:37 | |
The cult is called "punk", the music "punk rock". | 0:42:37 | 0:42:40 | |
Basic rock music - raw, outrageous and crude. | 0:42:40 | 0:42:44 | |
# I am an Antichrist | 0:42:52 | 0:42:56 | |
# I am an anarchist... # | 0:42:56 | 0:42:59 | |
Completely discombobulated the mainstream entertainment world | 0:42:59 | 0:43:03 | |
and the recording industry, because there were impulses and | 0:43:03 | 0:43:06 | |
desires that were coming from a completely different place. | 0:43:06 | 0:43:10 | |
It wasn't just about enjoyment, about being pleased, it wasn't just decoration. | 0:43:10 | 0:43:14 | |
Malcolm McLaren, you discovered and managed the group. | 0:43:14 | 0:43:17 | |
What about the accusation that you're more into chaos than anything else? | 0:43:17 | 0:43:21 | |
Well, that's an accusation by people | 0:43:21 | 0:43:24 | |
who really don't understand what kids want. Kids want excitement, | 0:43:24 | 0:43:27 | |
they want things that are going to transform | 0:43:27 | 0:43:30 | |
what is basically a very boring life for them right now. | 0:43:30 | 0:43:34 | |
And music - young rock music - | 0:43:34 | 0:43:36 | |
is the only thing they have that they thought that they controlled. | 0:43:36 | 0:43:39 | |
And if you look in the charts, they don't have anything to do with it. | 0:43:39 | 0:43:42 | |
# Anarchy for the UK... # | 0:43:43 | 0:43:47 | |
My earliest memories of punk are the kind of intrusions it made on that Top Of The Pops world. | 0:43:47 | 0:43:53 | |
They were not playing along with the idea of being a band, and being a band in a television interview. | 0:43:53 | 0:43:58 | |
# I... | 0:43:58 | 0:44:00 | |
# Wanna be... | 0:44:00 | 0:44:03 | |
# Anarchy! # | 0:44:03 | 0:44:07 | |
You'd hear a word like "anarchy", and clearly this wasn't Showaddywaddy. | 0:44:07 | 0:44:10 | |
Something else was going on. | 0:44:10 | 0:44:11 | |
At the time I thought that punk bands were anti-Establishment, | 0:44:11 | 0:44:16 | |
you know, peeing all over the audience, that kind of thing... | 0:44:16 | 0:44:20 | |
So I did actually come out once saying that I didn't think much of it. | 0:44:20 | 0:44:24 | |
Punk rock just didn't do it for me. | 0:44:27 | 0:44:30 | |
I found it... And I know a lot of people still love it - | 0:44:30 | 0:44:33 | |
I found it tuneless, mindless. | 0:44:33 | 0:44:37 | |
Everything about it. I found the artists not particularly appealing. | 0:44:37 | 0:44:41 | |
What about the word "punk"? It means worthless, nasty. | 0:44:41 | 0:44:44 | |
Johnny Rotten, are you happy with this word? | 0:44:44 | 0:44:46 | |
No, the press gave us it. | 0:44:46 | 0:44:48 | |
It's their problem, not ours. | 0:44:48 | 0:44:51 | |
We never called ourselves "punk". | 0:44:51 | 0:44:53 | |
Punk set itself up against Top Of The Pops, you know, because... it did seem part of the enemy. | 0:44:53 | 0:44:59 | |
It did seem part of that mainstream world which punk was trying to wake up. | 0:44:59 | 0:45:04 | |
Which bands do you think are really old hat now? | 0:45:04 | 0:45:07 | |
Are you against the Stones and The Who, sounds like that? | 0:45:07 | 0:45:11 | |
Yes, of course, because they're established. | 0:45:11 | 0:45:13 | |
They just do not mean anything to anyone. | 0:45:13 | 0:45:16 | |
Unfortunately, they didn't sell enough records | 0:45:16 | 0:45:19 | |
to get into the charts - and as Top Of The Pops | 0:45:19 | 0:45:22 | |
relied upon the charts | 0:45:22 | 0:45:24 | |
because of these rigid rules that had been going since 1964, | 0:45:24 | 0:45:31 | |
and nobody dared to change them for upsetting anybody. | 0:45:31 | 0:45:34 | |
The idea that basically record companies, the record industry, | 0:45:34 | 0:45:37 | |
in cahoots with the BBC, Radio 1 and Top Of The Pops, | 0:45:37 | 0:45:41 | |
were basically dictating choice... | 0:45:41 | 0:45:43 | |
It's kind of no wonder really that | 0:45:43 | 0:45:45 | |
out of that era came a whole load of new kinds of music. | 0:45:45 | 0:45:51 | |
It's no wonder really that the young people - | 0:45:51 | 0:45:53 | |
bless them, as they always do - said "Let's make our own culture." | 0:45:53 | 0:45:57 | |
It was never the sense that we wanted to smash Top Of The Pops to pieces - | 0:45:57 | 0:46:01 | |
in that sense we were oddly compliant. We were quite happy for Top Of The Pops to keep going, | 0:46:01 | 0:46:05 | |
but we wanted Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Damned | 0:46:05 | 0:46:08 | |
to go on Top Of The Pops to give it the kick... | 0:46:08 | 0:46:10 | |
# ..just for you | 0:46:10 | 0:46:11 | |
# Here's a love song, just for you | 0:46:11 | 0:46:15 | |
# Here's a love song | 0:46:15 | 0:46:17 | |
# And it makes me glad to say | 0:46:17 | 0:46:18 | |
# It's been a lovely day and it's OK... # | 0:46:18 | 0:46:22 | |
Slowly, from '77 to '78, '79, 1980, | 0:46:22 | 0:46:26 | |
you had fabulous people appearing on Top Of The Pops. | 0:46:26 | 0:46:29 | |
When they did, it was an amazing moment. | 0:46:29 | 0:46:33 | |
# Hong Kong garden | 0:46:33 | 0:46:36 | |
# Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh... # | 0:46:36 | 0:46:39 | |
I think Top Of The Pops lost a generation in 1976, | 0:46:39 | 0:46:44 | |
who eventually came back when edgier music started to top the charts. | 0:46:44 | 0:46:49 | |
I think there was a complete reinvigoration of Top Of The Pops... | 0:46:49 | 0:46:53 | |
and it seemed like their natural home, which now seems very strange! | 0:46:53 | 0:46:57 | |
# Slanted eyes meet a new sunrise... # | 0:46:57 | 0:47:00 | |
That's why Top Of The Pops sometimes has to go through these peculiar periods - or did then - | 0:47:00 | 0:47:05 | |
because then there's this wonderful antidote, this wonderful way, it swings back another way. | 0:47:05 | 0:47:10 | |
# La, la, la, la-la la-la-la | 0:47:10 | 0:47:13 | |
# Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh | 0:47:13 | 0:47:16 | |
# Hong Kong garden... | 0:47:16 | 0:47:18 | |
Hi there. All having a lovely Christmas? | 0:47:18 | 0:47:20 | |
For the next three-quarters of an hour | 0:47:20 | 0:47:22 | |
we're looking at the really big records of this year. | 0:47:22 | 0:47:25 | |
It's welcome to the Christmas Top Of The Pops! | 0:47:25 | 0:47:27 | |
MUSIC: "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin | 0:47:27 | 0:47:29 | |
But, in Christmas 1976, nothing had changed. | 0:47:29 | 0:47:34 | |
1977 may have been around the corner, | 0:47:34 | 0:47:36 | |
but as far as Top Of The Pops and its presenters were concerned | 0:47:36 | 0:47:39 | |
it was business as usual. | 0:47:39 | 0:47:41 | |
-Let me introduce you to another very young group. -Our Kid. | 0:47:41 | 0:47:44 | |
The number one record from a number one guy, don't know if you know him. | 0:47:44 | 0:47:48 | |
Johnny Mathis, and When A Child Is Born, right this second. | 0:47:48 | 0:47:52 | |
# All across the land dawns a brand-new morn | 0:47:52 | 0:47:58 | |
# This comes to pass | 0:47:58 | 0:48:02 | |
# When a child is born | 0:48:02 | 0:48:06 | |
# A silent wish | 0:48:07 | 0:48:09 | |
# Sails the seven seas | 0:48:10 | 0:48:14 | |
# The winds of change | 0:48:15 | 0:48:18 | |
# Whisper in the trees | 0:48:18 | 0:48:23 | |
# And the walls of doubt | 0:48:23 | 0:48:26 | |
# Crumble, tossed and torn | 0:48:26 | 0:48:29 | |
# This comes to pass when a child is born. # | 0:48:29 | 0:48:32 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:48:32 | 0:48:34 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:48:34 | 0:48:36 |