The Story of 1979 Top of the Pops

Eight, seven, six, five, four, three.

OK, here we go.

Hello, chums. Are you sitting comfortably?

Then we'll begin the continuing story of Top Of The Pops.

# Pop, pop

# Pop music

# Pop, pop

# Pop music. #

1979, the year in which Top Of The Pops

celebrated its 15th anniversary, its 800th edition,

and was still the only pop show that mattered.

Your shiny mansion on the hill is to go and do Top Of The Pops.

If you did Top Of The Pops, you'd shoot up automatically 15 places.

Top Of The Pops is like the Holy Grail.

# Talk about

# Pop music, talk about

# Pop music... #

And in '79, the range of styles on Top Of The Pops was never greater.

You had punk...

# Oh, you silly thing! #

..turning into new wave...

# You've really gone and done it now. #

Disco was on fire...

# Hey-y-y-y-y, y'all

# I got all my sisters with me Oh-ha, oh-ha. #

Two Tone arrived, with bands like Madness...

# Even if I kept on running

# I'd never get to Orange Street. #

And that's not to mention reggae...

# Money in my pocket but I just can't get no love. #

..country...

# One day at a time

-# Sweet Jesus... #

-The list goes on.

# Doctor, doctor, please! #

# Will a little more love make it right? #

But in spite of the musical merry-go-round...

# Found myself in a strange town... #

..a failing country was falling apart, with endless strikes

and conflict, and back at Top Of The Pops,

the cracks were starting to show.

MUSIC: "Cars" by Gary Numan

The programme was a little...weary,

and hamstrung by working practices.

Show me a man in the union that goes "ungh" for a living,

and I'm putting him out of work? I don't think so.

It was the end of the decade

and the end of the line for '70s Top Of The Pops.

"CARS" CONTINUES

UPBEAT JAZZ MUSIC

In '79, with only three channels, Top Of The Pops

broadcast on Thursday night on BBC One after Tomorrow's World.

Good evening.

SPACEY SYNTH MUSIC

# It goes la, la, la, la, la, la... #

And in November '79, Top Of The Pops racked up

its highest-ever audience of 19 million viewers.

# La, la, la, la, la, la, la... #

BEEP

But that might have had something to do with the fact ITV

happened to be on strike.

And that's how the whole year started.

MUSIC: "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" by Pink Floyd

# We don't need no education. #

The infamous Winter of Discontent

with the most working days lost since the general strike of 1926,

stopping rubbish collection,

closing railways, schools, hospitals,

turning the country into a ghost town.

I'm hoping that common sense will prevail and all those involved will

think not only of themselves but of the children who won't be able to

go to school,

and for housewives who may find food supplies threatened in some way.

In Sedgefield, a grave digger strike forced desperate measures.

'It was Mrs Mary Mason's dying wish to be buried near her husband.

'Her two sons crossed the picket lines and dug the grave themselves.'

Of course, the threatened tanker drivers dispute, now that began to

spread, and then of course we begin to face problems in terms of fuel.

The government and unions were at war.

Everybody felt it,

including a family show band from Salford just entering the charts.

# Do, do, do, do, do, do

# # Do, do, do, do, do, do... #

It was quite a stressful time

because the earlier part of '79, we'd had the Winter of Discontent.

I remember, you had to plan your gigs out knowing where you

could do, where they would serve you petrol, and being

in a successful band, you were very fortunate that the garages...

You could phone a garage up and say,

"We're coming in at three o'clock in the morning.

"Do you think you could save us some petrol?", and they would.

# I heard you on the wireless back in '52

# Lying awake intently tuning in on you

# If I was young it didn't stop you coming through

# Oh-a, oh-a... #

The country may have been falling apart,

but in the world of pop, business was booming.

Unbelievably, 1979 was the biggest year for single

sales in the UK ever in recorded history.

# Radio star...

# You are... #

And many of those seven inch and new-fangled 12 inch single

sales were in the unstoppable genre of disco.

Well, it's Top Of The Pops, it's music, and it's Chic, Le Freak!

# Freak out!

# Le freak, C'est Chic

# Freak out! #

One man who hit big in '79 with disco found the show's ties to

light entertainment were unchanged

since his first appearance as a backing musician some years earlier.

The first time we appeared on Top Of The Pops,

we were in a group called New York City.

We were, like, a one-hit wonder. We had a song called I'm Doing Fine Now.

# I'm doing fine now...

# Without you, baby. #

We were doing seriously cool R&B Philly sound,

and then the chap who came on right after us...

Terrific!

But he came out and he went...

# There once was an ugly ducking. #

# There once was an ugly duckling... #

And, like, the whole crowd was jamming with him,

and we were like, "Whoa!".

It's most interesting music show I've ever seen.

# Now freak! #

Nile Rodgers's Chic had four disco anthems on Top Of The Pops

in 1979, starting with signature tune, Le Freak...

# I said freak! #

..which almost didn't make it onto the show.

When we played that record for the record company, true story,

by the time that song ended,

the entire conference room was empty cos they were all outside

trying to figure out how to tell us how much it stank.

# Now freak! #

Do you want to know the biggest-selling

record in the history of Atlantic Records, which is

the record company of Cream, Led Zeppelin, Crosby, Stills

and Nash, all these huge acts, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, John Coltrane?

Le Freak!

# Just come on down

# To 54

# Find a spot

# Out on the floor

# Ahhh, freak out! #

And in '79, Nile's funky hits weren't just with Chic.

Our man of the year and his team were unstoppable,

and wrote hits for three other bands as well.

We are going to have Sister Sledge

and He's The Greatest Dancer at number six!

# Ah-wah, wow!

# He's the greatest dancer

# Ah-wah, wow!

# That I've ever seen. #

They had it.

They absolutely had it, and they didn't just have it as a group,

they had it to give and to share to other people.

I usually work with people, typically,

to revive their careers or start their careers.

Here's Sheila B Devotion and Spacer.

# He's...

# A spacer

# A star chaser. #

Sheila and B Devotion, the year before, they'd been

Sheila B Devotion, horrible version of Singing In The Rain.

# I'm singing in the rain

# Just singing in the rain. #

And then you've got Spacer.

What an absolutely incredible record that was. It was just terrific.

# He's...

# A spacer

# A star... #

So warm.

No matter how nasty people felt disco was, they couldn't

say that the music that Nile Rodgers and Ben Edwards made was nasty.

ROCK MUSIC

But in '79, disco's hold on the charts was peaking,

even for a jury of showbiz grand dames like Joan Collins,

Elaine Paige and Johnny Rotten.

I think we're oversaturated with disco. We're being pulverised by it.

I think it should stop,

and I think that it's time we found something very, very different.

The problem with 1979 is that, as great as it was for us

on Top Of The Pops, it also was the year that...

..was unfortunately the end, really, of Chic getting hit records.

We never had a number one record ever again. That's it.

From top five with Le Freak C'est Chic, Nile's gang was now

thought of for novelty records,

a collection of sheep noises set to a disco beat,

and the lone punk on the Juke Box Jury panel was not amused.

Johnny Rotten.

Rubbish.

ROARING LAUGHTER AND CHEERING

And the audience agrees, so it's a miss all round.

Next, he set his sights on Top Of The Pops.

This is Public Image Ltd and Death Disco.

# Seeing in your eyes, ah! #

When we had Public Image in the studio, there was a lot of,

"Oh, we've got this edgy band in. Are they going to behave themselves?

"Are they going to do something really shocking?"

# Words can never say the way

# Told me in your eyes. #

'I've only found out'

over the years how nervous we made people.

I think we pre-recorded.

I don't think it was live, because we were real spontaneous,

really couldn't care less about offending people,

in fact, probably hoped to.

# Never really know... #

It was almost like a contempt for the programme, really,

in the fact that he's turning away from the audience, he's got the headphones on,

but he understands there's a message that he wants to get out there.

Death Disco was Public Image's take on disco.

So, you know, it had a dark aspect.

Maybe not everyone appreciated just how dark a sound that was

because it was on Top Of The Pops.

The song that talks about rotting flowers and the death of his mother.

# Watch her slowly die. #

Personal, I was very cheeky and lairy,

and when I got to the BBC, the first thing, "Where's make-up?

"I've got to go to make-up. I want my teeth blacked out."

And a few people half-heartedly tried to talk me out of it.

I wasn't having it, and I couldn't wait. You know, "Where's the camera?

"Here it comes! Urgh!"

The whole thing, normally, about going on telly, obviously,

is you want to look glamorous and look your best.

# Never realise... #

And I thought it was a laugh to look really horrible.

I think I had talked about having big spots put on my face

and I think I got talked out of that.

But one thing that upstart new wave bands often found is

they made the show's producers reach for their slightly dated

palette of special effects.

# With anxiety!

# Babylon's burning Babylon's burning. #

You've done your show. You go back home, you've got to watch it.

# Babylon's burning... #

"It's The Ruts with Babylon's Burning!" and # Dun-dun-dun-dun. #

And these kind of really cheap effect flames come up

and we're like, "What?!", you know.

Really embarrassing and your mates kind of poking you.

THUNDERING BASS LINE

MUSIC: "Into The Valley" by The Skids

ELECTRIC GUITAR CHORDS

But special effects couldn't disguise a punk iceberg

heading straight for the good ship Top Of The Pops.

# Into the valley

# Betrothed and divine

# Realisation's no virtue

# But who can define

# Why soldiers go marching Those masses a line? #

The show's crew of long-serving light entertainers were

lined up in the sights of the young new wave generation.

It was such a mixed bag, Top Of The Pops.

I mean, you'd have on one show something like The Nolans.

# Yeah! Yeah!

# I'm in the mood for dancing

# Romancing... #

And then you'd have a punk band or a new wave-ish band, you know,

sort of coming on, and it was surreal sometimes.

# Ooh, so come on and hold me tight

# Dancing

# Dancing... #

At the time, of course, we were kind of the cheesy Nolans.

That was our image and it was, you know, Irish sisters all singing in

nice harmonies and dressed the same, which was quite a difficult

image to have, because we were just normal girls.

# I'm in the mood for dancing... #

You know, we did get stick from other bands, like punk bands.

One in particular, I remember, when we were doing I'm In The Mood For Dancing, The Skids were on.

# Where the air turned red as the bodies bled

# Into a schoolboy's dream

# But who were there could only stare

# Into this wondrous scene?

# Yankee...

# To war! #

My memory of Top Of The Pops from that era is pretty miserable.

I mean, it was the biggest show on television, no doubt about it,

but it was always inhabited by the most moronic acts, the kind

of acts that made you want to be in a punk band in the first place.

I don't know, maybe they were just trying to live up to their image,

but as we passed their dressing room going to our dressing room,

they spat out in front of us on the floor.

If you think about the context, we were so miserably

unhappy about being here, and it was like a kind of prison for us.

# A German son with a Yankee gun

# And a uniform much older

# Yankee... #

Of course our record company was shepherding us on, and in effect,

they had four mad Irish women who were going to chin them,

but they got away with it that time.

# Wanted

# Boy, you're everything I ever wanted

# Now all I got's a memory... #

In '79, another top five act from the world of working men's clubs,

The Dooleys...

# Boy, you know you got me

# Cos you're wanted... #

..found themselves on the same show...

..as lairy punk rockers Generation X.

# King Kong, King Kong. #

We arrived one sunny day at Television Centre.

And there on the roof stood certain young members of Generation X,

and they were all relieving themselves on the crowd down below.

# Oh, we....

# We are the chosen few. #

The commissionaires with their hats on were shouting up, "Oi!

"What do you think you're doing?!",

and back came the reply, "We're making a statement!"

# Oh, and we...

# We are the lucky people

# You got me

# And I got you

# We're the chosen few. #

But it is possible Generation X were on the roof of TV Centre

for another reason -

in search of the BBC club and bar,

a Shangri-La of subsidised, cheap booze.

Most of the time it was just sitting in a dressing room,

bored out of your brain, wondering when you can go to the BBC bar.

But the hallowed walls of the BBC Club and bar,

untouched by human hands since its opening in 1960,

were restricted to BBC Club members only.

Every band member, of course, rocked up to the BBC bar tried to

go in and say, "You know, I'm a friend of..."

and there was this huge, great big bloke on the door.

They had a commissionaire. They were ex-army sergeants, usually.

Wore a hat and uniform, sign you in.

He had this massive, great old handle moustache.

Honest to God, the bribery that used to go on to these men to try

and get into the BBC bar.

He wasn't having it. He'd heard every story on the planet.

Yeah. Barry? This is my problem here.

'A few studios along, in number three,

'there's a new classic serial in rehearsal.

'This sort of production uses a great deal of scenery.'

The social mix of the BBC bar reflected a TV Centre which,

in '79, was in its bustling heyday,

producing a vast array of programmes.

'Lunchtime,

'and there are four canteens to choose from at the centre.

'Here, secretaries and sound engineers

'can mingle with cardinals and kings.'

The mix of the BBC Club afterwards was great, because you'd see

people who were coming off the sets of a popular drama.

"Oh, look, there's Soames from Forsyte Saga", or there'd be

someone from Blue Peter, or "And there's Doctor Who over there!"

'Think of the thing which has frightened you

'most on Doctor Who recently.

'The chances are that it started life here.'

Yes, can we please keep it quiet, studio?

We're trying to camera rehearse.

SCREECHING ROAR

I remember going to the bar, and I thought, "This is a bit of me."

It was a bit like the bar in Blade Runner.

It was all geezers dressed as aliens from the film set of Doctor Who,

and they were cab drivers.

So I'm at the bar with a geezer dressed as an alien, and it

was from Bermondsey or something, as I recall, cab driver.

You know, extra.

Good evening.

I remember thinking, "These geezers are great. "They're getting stuck in

very early in the day, like me". So, yeah.

For a moment, everyone's kind of equal.

# For once in my life... #

I mean, I saw Mr Tony Bennett.

# ..I have someone who needs me. #

You know, a bit of a fan. I like good singers, you know. No offence!

THEY LAUGH

I like good singers. So anyhow, I went and said,

"Oh, hello, Mr Bennett, I just wanted to say hello."

# ..For once unafraid... #

We spoke for about ten minutes. He was very encouraging.

He told me to follow my dream and carry on, work hard and what

a great thing it was to be able to do something you love for a living.

-Pure class.

-Pure class.

So, joining Tony Bennett at the BBC bar in '79 are...

..The Ruts, Madness, Legs & Co,

Soames from Forsyte Saga, Jah Wobble,

aliens from Doctor Who and this lot from Camberley.

# Every lousy Monday morning

# Heathrow jets go crashing over our home. #

Luckily, I had a friend who was filming The Onedin Line in the next studio,

and because of her, we were able to go to the BBC bar afterwards.

-I'll see you at the club.

-Aye.

There's one character who played this old captain, Captain Baines.

You're out of line, mister!

He was terrified that we were there initially, because he thought,

"Oh, my God, punk rockers,"

and he'd read all the tabloids about how terrible we were.

You listen!

If you don't get those two of this ship then we damn well will.

Suddenly there are these suburban, sort of middle-class boys

being quite polite

and being quite thrilled that they are in a cheap bar and not really

wanting to do anything to get expelled from the Holy Grail of cheap booze.

61.

Take up the bar, then, Annie. Take up 65.

Alongside The Members, as part of the new wave vanguard,

the Top Of The Pops studio was graced with the new emerging model of pop front man.

Cue applause...

From Joe Jackson to Andy Partridge...

And now Elvis Costello.

# Don't know where to begin... #

The angry young nerd.

# Love doesn't wait for ever It's now or never. #

Elvis Costello was in a rather combative relationship with

Top Of The Pops, with television generally, he was the "angry young man."

When asked what inspired him to write songs, "Hate and revenge."

# Accidents will happen We only hit and run

# I don't want to hear it cos I know what I've done. #

And Elvis's passion seeped out of every pore

and luminous fabric of his cool nerd image.

Elvis Costello, you know, great suit.

Sweated an awful lot, though, didn't he?

# Don't start that talking

# I could talk all night

# My mind goes sleepwalking

# While I'm putting the world to right. #

Elvis's image bordered on court jester, with a knowing look

and singalong choruses, like Oliver's Army.

# Oliver's army is here to stay, Oliver's army... #

We had it marked down as a B-side.

We had no idea it was even single material.

It was our version of an Abba song, with all the jangly pianos

and things.

SONG CONTINUES

# There was a checkpoint Charlie. #

But the pop gloss hid provocative, even political comment.

And in '79 Elvis pushed the boundaries on Top Of The Pops

by using a word that was loaded with meaning.

# All it takes one itchy trigger

# One more widow one less white nigger. #

He's speaking in the voice of a young soldier from the North East

who, to get out of having no job,

joins the army, gets sent to Northern Ireland,

where there was a dehumanisation of the people they were killing.

He's saying this is what they were thinking.

Oliver's Army was a bitter take on the ongoing Troubles

in the year the IRA murdered Airey Neave

and the British Army marked a ten-year presence.

The N-word, "white nigger"

was being supportive of people who were being abused by the system.

Just an itchy trigger - boom! - you know, gone.

# But there's no danger It's a professional career

# And I would rather be anywhere else than here today. #

While Elvis got away with an unspeakable word in Oliver's Army,

Chas & Dave weren't so lucky.

# There is a word that I don't understand

# I hear it every day from my old man

# It may be cockney rhyming slang

# It ain't in no school book. #

I remember in '79 doing Gertcha, the producer came over and said,

"Before you do it, I'm glad you're doing the vocals live

"because there's a word I want you to cut out.

"What?" "Can you cut the word 'cowson' out?"

I remember saying to him, "Why?"

He went, "My mother heard it on Radio One this morning and she called me

"and she's informed me that it's an old-fashioned Victorian swearword.

"So I'd be really happy

"if you can cut it out or substitute it for something else."

And I talked to Dave and we came up with a couple of other words

beginning with F and C, but he didn't want to know about that.

# He says it every time that he gets mad

# A regular caution is my old dad

# Rub the old man up the wrong way... #

So we did it and I remember having one more run-through

and I accidentally said it...

# Gertcha, cowson, gertcha! #

"Stop! Say that once more, you're off the show."

# Rub the old man up the wrong way

# Bet your life you'll hear him say..."

And when we did the final take...

# Gertcha... Gercha! Gertcha! #

I looked at Dave and my eyes sort of spun round.

# Gertcha! When the paperboy's half an hour late, gertcha! #

It was our mums and dads and our uncles and aunts and grandads,

it was their word, they used to say it - "You cowson!

"Gertcha, cowson!" Gertcha sort of went with it - "Gertcha, cowson!"

-It's such an inoffensive word, isn't it, really?

-Son of a cow.

# Gertcha! Gertcha! #

You can say anything but don't say the C-word. What's the C-word?

That's the C-word, "cowson".

Meanwhile, in the outside world,

a certain someone was making a big impression.

Where there is doubt, may we bring faith,

and where there is despair, may we bring hope.

Elected as Prime Minister in May '79, Margaret Thatcher

soon identified her first enemy and was ready with a new broom.

What madness it is that winter after winter

we have great set piece battles

in which the powerful unions do so much damage to

the industries on which their members' living standards depend.

And in a parallel universe called Top Of The Pops...

# They call me the Iron Lady

# Tell you I'm hard as nails. #

In a microcosm of the conflict, the unions were fighting their corner.

I'll never forget my brother Frank, who played lead guitar.

We got up on stage to do our rehearsal...

# Honey, I'm lost... #

And because he played guitar, his microphone was in the wrong

place, and he picked up the mic stand and moved it

and all of a sudden there was a walk-out because an artist had

taken somebody's job and moved a mic stand.

It was that silly at times.

And in '79 American disco acts frequently brought their

studio-finessed songs to the show

to find they wouldn't be backed by their own recording, sounding like this...

SLICK DISCO INTRO

..but were obliged, through Musicians' Union rules, to play

with the Top Of The Pops Orchestra, a staple of the show since 1964.

TURGID INTRO

# Ain't no stopping us now

# We're on the move

# Yessir! Yes!

# Ain't no stopping us now We got the groove. #

The Musicians' Union insisted that

if there was an artist that had an orchestra on the track,

they would have to work with the BBC Orchestra.

# I know we've got a long, long way to go

# And where we'll end up I don't know. #

I was on the same show with McFadden and Whitehead.

They were great, but the backing track wasn't wonderful.

-STILTED:

-# La la la la #

Because they're classically trained musicians, a little bit wooden,

a bit stiff.

# La la la la. #

When you're dealing with an orchestra, they're playing

what's on the sheet, and what's on the groove is not in the sheet.

# In this world there is much confusion

# And I've tasted city life and it's not for me... #

At the time, in '79, I was working with the Jacksons.

# ..I dream of distant places. #

The problem there is that you work with the best - the ultimate session

bass player or the world-class session guitarist from LA.

Suddenly, I've got them on stage

working with very competent musicians

but a brass section that would rather go to the bar

and have a drink at lunch time.

# I want destiny! Destiny!

# It's the place for me. #

Joe Jackson, Jackson's father, was a stickler for everything being right.

# Ah, destiny! #

I would get it in the ear. "Judd, they haven't got the groove.

"The brass players are all over the place,

"the string players are slack." What could I say?

ELECTRONIC INTRO

The story I'm about to tell you is one of the most extraordinary

tales of our time.

It's a story of change. Some say it's a change for the worse.

The Musicians' Union, for a year or two, tried to ban me,

because they said I was putting proper musicians out of work!

How offensive is that?

# Here in my car I feel safest of all

# I can lock all my doors

# It's the only way to live in cars. #

A keyboard synthesiser can simulate everything from a harpsichord

or violin to a full brass band.

It's very exciting.

# It keeps me stable all night in cars. #

The thing is, if I had people doing, like, strings, which a real person

could have played, I'd have had some sympathy for what they were saying.

The synthesisers going...uurrgh!

You know, show me a man in the union that goes uurrgh for a living

and I'm putting him out of work. I don't think so.

To get banned by the union meant I couldn't have

gone on Top Of The Pops.

They were trying to kill my career based on ignorance.

I wasn't putting anyone out of work.

There was nothing on my albums that I could have got a human being in to do.

SYNTHESISER

In May '79, Gary debuted with his ground-breaking electro sound

and an unforgettable look.

# It's cold outside

# And the paint's peeling off of my walls. #

I made it my record of the week on Radio One, so I was really delighted that he got a Top Of The Pops slot.

And I was instantly drawn to them.

I thought, "This is a mesmerising performer."

# In a long coat, grey hat smoking a cigarette. #

This guy bounces onto Top Of The Pops for the very first time

and he decides, "This is the way I'm going to play it."

He just did some little jerky movements,

little head movements and looked a bit...disinterested in life.

# Now the light fades out. #

I'd noticed that Top Of The Pops had a fairly generic look.

The lighting, the way people performed - they'd always be

looking into a camera all the time whatever they were doing.

Lights flashing on and off with different colours

and everyone looked the same.

And I wanted to do something that was different to that but I didn't think they'd let me.

I said to the people when I first got there,

"Would it be all right if I didn't have any colours, just white?

"And would it be OK if I had some on the floor in front of me?"

I wanted lights coming up and shadows and things.

And I thought they just tell me to piss off, basically.

But they didn't, they were really lovely.

Great! Somebody's actually interested.

# So now I'm alone and I can think for myself

# About little deals and issues and things I just don't understand. #

I didn't smile, because I was embarrassed about my teeth.

I've sort of grown into them now, but when I was younger I thought

these two front teeth were like Bugs Bunny, I thought they were too big.

And then you start reading reviews in newspapers about this

sort of cold, androidy new person on Top Of The Pops and you think,

"Ah!" Hadn't intended that, I was just embarrassed about my teeth.

APPLAUSE

An amazing sound from a band for the future. That's Tubeway Army.

Great stuff.

While Gary Numan unleashed edgy electro-pop...

REGGAE BEAT

..'79 was also a breakthrough year for a style of music that came

a little later to the party.

If you look at Top Of The Pops year on year, you see the change in music.

But to me, reggae music was always the same.

That lovely, lazy drum pattern that rhythm guitar,

that beautiful singing...

# Ooh... Meditation. #

And it was all encapsulated in Top Of The Pops.

At long last, reggae seems to be making inroads in the charts,

and at number 26 this week, here's Dennis Brown with Money In My Pocket.

# Woh oh... #

Dennis Brown was a complete demigod on the reggae scene.

# Money in my pocket but I just can't get no love. #

And Top Of The Pops, when a tune got in the top 10,

in the black community, people were on the phone to each other.

"Are you watching Top Of The Pops? Whatshisname is on."

# I'm praying for a girl to be my own

# Soon they say she's coming but I don't believe a word. #

Under the banner of reggae there were lots of sub-genres,

and I remember one big-selling song that

appeared on Top Of The Pops was Janet Kay, which was more of a lovers' rock.

Here's a lady with a great voice. She's Janet Kay

and this is Silly Games.

A surprise crossover hit from the British reggae charts,

Janet Kay, aged 18, had never even performed in public.

I went on holiday with a friend of mine

and we went to Holland and it was the first time for me

going away from home, because I was still living at home.

And while I was away I got a phone call saying,

"You need to come back, you've got to do Top Of The Pops." And I'm like,

"Top Of The Pops?!" I was a very shy person so

I didn't really know how I was going to actually do that, being so shy

because I'd never sing in front of anybody live.

# I've been watching you

# For so long

# It's a shame. #

So my very first performance ever in front of a proper audience

was live on TV in front of however many millions of people.

# Oh, the pain

# Boy, how it hurts me. #

I had no idea of how to put myself together, so I wore this pink

T-shirt that I knotted at the side, that sort of looked a bit trendy.

I thought, "I've got to have sparkles,"

and I had this little black chiffony-type scarf

and I kind of put it round my neck and thought,

"Yeah, that kind of looks all right. That'll probably do."

# Should I, dear, come up to you and say... #

And then they said to me, "Janet, we want you to mime.

We don't want you to sing, we want you to mine."

And I was like, "What's miming? I don't know how to mine.

"Suppose my mouth doesn't move the same as when I did the recording?

"I don't do how to do that. Can I just do it live?"

# I've got no time... #

I think they were a little bit put out because most people mimed.

# Silly games... #

# Silly games... #

Silly Games was the pride and joy of anyone who loved lovers' rock,

because it was massive in the little blues

and shebeen parties that went on in local areas.

And it was our tune. Our local girl, Janet Kay.

The reason it's so slow, you'd have a small room

and ram as many people as you could in that room.

It would be really hot.

You'd get as close as possible to your partner

and you'd dance as slowly as possible.

It's so sensual, sexual, and it's rude, almost.

You shouldn't be that close to someone you just met.

When you saw Janet Kay performing that on Top Of The Pops, I was

like, "No, that's not how you do it," cos the crowd were

standing there having a little boogie.

I was thinking, "You're supposed to be dancing with each other," because that's all I knew.

APPLAUSE

Reggae's popularity didn't stop there as new wave groups

jumped on the bandwagon.

# Bermuda in the Bahamas

# Front Street Hamilton

# They're doing more than growing bananas

# They got a tax dodge going on

# Offshore banking business. #

And in summer '79,

one previously unknown band eclipsed all other reggae acts.

The beauty of those days, it was so innocent and so simple.

You'd hear a song on the radio

and if you really liked it, you hoped to see it on Top Of The Pops.

And that's all we had. It was as simple as that.

MUSIC: "Roxanne" by The Police

And I remember hearing Roxanne on the radio and loving it, because it

had this sort of reggae undertone about it, it was like a reggae tune.

When I saw Sting...

# Roxanne... #

..I think my mouth was open for three minutes.

# ..put on the red light... #

I think my sister and I were watching it, going...

# Those days are over

# You don't have to sell your body to the night

# Roxanne. #

He was blond!

Like, I'd never seen a blonde person singing a reggaeish tune before.

I don't recollect that ever. I always thought black people sung reggae.

Hello, nice to be back with you once again on Top Of The Pops,

and here comes that brand new top 30.

Top Of The Pops was of course all about the singles chart,

but around this time, some keen Guardian reporter types

started suggesting all with the chart may not be hunky-dory.

This is where the hit parade is compiled,

at the BMRB headquarters in Ealing.

There are an unstated number of secret chart return shops

around the country and 450 of them

are sampled each week for the album charts, 250 for the singles charts.

There were unscrupulous record companies that used to go

out on Saturdays shopping.

Every time one of these shops sells a particular record or cassette,

it's all recorded here in this distinctive BMRB diary of sales.

Of course, if you had a list of the shops, you used to get

a team of people to go and buy ten records in each shop.

It was very hush-hush, but everybody knew about it.

The BMRB claim that no-one knows just how many shops

are on the panel or which are being sampled in a particular week.

I helped buy Al Stewart's Year Of The Cat into the charts by going

round with a friend of mine in the car

and buying singles with a list of the shops.

Every record company we've spoken to say they know exactly which

shops are concerned and they target their products accordingly.

The BPI or the governing body of the record industry policed it

and if there was any doubt, a record could be lowered.

HE BANGS GONG

One of the best new singles, second highest new entry this week,

The Members and The Sound Of The Suburbs.

The Members released Sound Of The Suburbs and it really buzzed.

# This is the sound, this is the sound of the suburbs. #

You had NME, Melody Maker, Sounds and we were in them almost every week.

We were this very hot band and it fires up the charts.

# Old man's out washing the car

# Mum's in the kitchen cooking Sunday dinner, her best meal

# Moaning while it lasts. #

The official charts thought it was being hyped by Virgin,

so they dropped us one step.

And then they realised they were wrong and put us

straight back up the charts the following week.

# This is the sound of the suburbs. #

The Members' hot debut single only notched one rung higher

before falling out of the charts.

You start to drop in those days down the charts and people stop buying your records.

It's just the way it was.

But in those days if you couldn't buy or hype your record into the charts,

there was another, more time-honoured way of doing it.

Pluggers do a lot of legwork and a lot of fast talking.

Employ one of these toe-tapping johnnies.

-I like it!

-Yeah? Oh, good.

-Smells like a hit to me.

Records pluggers, or promotion people, were very important to the programme

because they'd be on at the producer, the director,

for days in advance trying to get their own acts on the programme.

The record companies have no option but to keep plugging away.

Getting on Top Of The Pops is what matters, not how you get there.

At that time, if you did Top Of The Pops you'd shoot up

automatically 15 places and that was the whole game.

# Out on the street I was talking to a man

# He said there's so much but there's nothing I don't understand

# You shouldn't worry I said that ain't no crime

# Cos if you get it wrong you'll get it right next time. #

For a plugger trying to get their record on Top Of The Pops,

all efforts were focused on the day that next week's chart was published.

When the chart is compiled, it's phoned through to the BBC.

Good morning! Are you all ready? Right, one, nine...

We'd all congregate on the sixth floor of TV Centre

and all the pluggers were gossiping away -

"My band is better than your band," this, that and the other.

Quite a good camaraderie.

We'd be waiting and they'd be getting the results of what's

coming in the charts, new entries and everything else.

Can you guys come in now?

But eventually the doors would open, you'd walk in. "Your track's in

"at number 38. Are the band available?"

If they're in America or Italy, automatically you say,

"Yes, they are," even if they're not.

And then you go back to the office and panic and try and get the band over.

Is everything OK for them to come

and do Top Of The Pops next week if we get high enough?

'They definitely are. They've got their bags packed

'and they'll be on the next Concorde coming over.'

You're always trying to outdo somebody else in order to try

and get somebody on the show.

Oliver Smallman, who was another record executive and myself,

decided we wanted to see this producer who always got in

very early, a guy called Phil Bishop.

We devised a plan of going in there the night before

and I persuaded the guy on the gate that we were coming in to do

a bit of maintenance at the Top Of The Pops office.

We were escorted up there, the door was opened,

we were left to our devices, which was to close the door,

set up a tent and sleep overnight.

In the morning, we put these Scouts outfits on. We got our primus stove.

We're cooking beans and sausages.

Phil came in and was like totally confused with what was happening.

Anyway, we were trying to plug our little acts

and it maybe served me right,

I didn't get my act on, I was very disappointed.

One budding young act getting noticed by pluggers

at the time were a North London ska band, The Invaders,

who had a family connection with Top Of The Pops.

My mum was an AFM, which is an assistant floor manager.

Everyone who wanted anything went to the AFM,

from David Bowie to

Bob Marley to everyone - they all, you know, knew my mum.

In '79, The Invaders had news for Woody's mum -

they changed their name.

She used to know all the pluggers,

so once we made the decision to be called Madness,

she excitedly told all her pluggers and to a man every one of them

went, "Oh, what a shame." "They were going to go so far."

Right, this is the original of one of the ones we do.

Madness didn't need an older generation of pluggers

and record execs housed in corporate towers.

They signed to a young and very different kind of label,

2 Tone, based in a small terraced house in Coventry.

-I'm showing them around the office!

-LAUGHTER

Here we have the chequebooks.

The receipts. The con... Oh, hang on.

The contracts.

I think this is our contract.

LAUGHTER

'It was phenomenal.

'The music they were producing, out of really pokey studios.'

There were bits of wall falling off while they were recording.

Nice piece of mohair.

LAUGHTER

Those recordings were just astonishing.

It might have been chaotically run but 2 Tone records soon had

a roster of new ska bands all storming into the charts.

It was more than just music, it was a whole movement.

There was something really, really incredible going on.

In November, all three bands on the 2 Tone label made it,

extraordinarily, onto the same Top Of The Pops.

# I bought my baby a red radio

# He played it all day a-go-go a-go-go

# He liked to dance to it down in the streets

# He said he loved me but he loved the beat. #

8th November 1979, The Specials, Selecter, Madness, all in one show.

# One step beyond! #

And that's known in 2 Tone circles as the 2 Tone Top Of The Pops.

You know when groups come with a bit of a swag, I think

Madness had that swag. They really were great Top Of The Pops performers.

And they asked us to do the nutty train.

But it's a bit difficult for me,

being the drummer because I can't really take my kit with me.

It turned into more like...a conga.

You know that Madness have arrived.

Once they are doing that through a Top Of The Pops audience, they're there to stay.

# One step beyond! #

Top Of The Pops for years had been...looking like a girl.

The Bowie effect was ridiculous.

To even groups like Slade, all of a sudden people were

looking like my dad did in his wedding picture. Sharp suits. And I loved it.

A lot of my mates used to come to school, loafers were massive,

suede boogers, we used to call them.

Everyone was running on the spot, pork pie hats. It was a great look.

# One step beyond! #

It's funny, you join a band and there's all these milestones -

make a record, get on John Peel.

Your shiny mansion on the hill was to go and do Top Of The Pops.

And you get it and you're so excited as a band.

And I guess it probably ranks in

the top ten biggest anti-climaxes in life.

The first thing I felt was disappointment, really,

because I've been watching it on the small box all my life

and you get there, "Oh, God, is this what it's like?"

I all ways remember that set they used to have with the arrow, and I'd seen it 1,000 times.

Of course, it's make-believe. You know, there's little sets.

In '79, these new wave types came face-to-face with BBC staff

who hadn't changed their ways in decades.

It was like being back at school.

You used to get people coming in saying,

"Right, you're on in half an hour and are you ready?

"Have you been to make up and have...?" It was just...

Barry? Just a slight problem here.

I remember the faceless voice through the intercom,

"Right, we'll do that again!" One of those.

Cue them, please.

Can you get off, you three, and can we have you two back?

There was a lot of feeling that you were superfluous to the actual programme.

"Musicians, tsk! Get them out of the way!"

The cameras coming through here, you know. "Clear off!"

And there were strictly regulated volume levels.

And then you realise how quiet the playback is.

Oh! Oh, horrendous.

I mean, it was a constant battle to get it pumped up.

They'd be very scrimpy. Just a little bit.

"Is it going to be louder when you're filming?"

"Yeah... Not much."

He's got his drums.

You've got plastic high hats, two plastic cymbals

and pads on the drum, so it starts off...

QUIETLY: Bup-diddy-bup-diddy-bup!

QUIETLY: Boom, boom!

You'd be like, "Oh, God, what are we doing?"

You literally had to stop to kind of...

Often, you'd see people on Top Of The Pops go like that.

In those days, cameramen and sound men were just on a rota,

so one day they could be doing the Antiques Road Show...

It's very dusty inside and slightly discoloured.

..and the next day they could be doing Top Of The Pops

and they'd be, "Ooh, it's a bit loud.

"Can you turn it down a bit?"

You had to sort of force the performance out of yourself.

And to make sure bands didn't complain,

Top Of The Pops has its very own version of the naughty step.

There was this kind of axe swinging over you, it felt.

They'd record too many

and there was usually one act that didn't make it to the week.

So one week, when we did Something I Said...

# Something that I said Was it something that I said?

# Something in my head. #

They had this kind of punk wall behind us.

And they put the band, obviously Sham 69 behind us,

but they put Sham 9. It was a sham.

# Your self-righteousness has grown. #

Gang of Four were on, so I think it was Andy Gill took his strings,

took them all off and wrapped them round, you know, as if to say...

and they just filmed them but didn't put it on.

# Something that I said

# Something in my head. #

There was that sort of very BBC thing of,

"If you're a little bit too out of line,

"you're not going to make it this week."

# Only time can tell if we get on well cos I love you. #

Back at the start of the decade, the Top Of The Pops audience were

a vital part of the show and seemed delighted to be there.

By '79, the studio audience looked...well...lost.

There was this kind of small group of kids that they'd

kind of shepherd around like sheep.

# Dance! #

And they really treated them badly.

The cameras would come at them and they'd really had to duck

and get out of the way very, very quickly.

# Dance! #

They'd push the crowd around, like herding them about.

It was just like living scenery.

# Confused

# We don't seem to know what we're doing

# Like a blind man

# Spinning round in space. #

They don't look all that happy.

They've got to come over here now and be happy around this band

and they probably don't like the band.

Sometimes, I think the audience could look as if they were in a state of shock.

There was always a thing of "If possible, please keep moving,

"please keep dancing, please look like you're having a good time.

"And try not to look at the monitors." But who can resist that?

# Dance!

# Dance!

# Dance! #

There is, like, this vibe, you had loads of people being in there.

You got this huge round of applause, but if you look at the front

of the stage you'll see that those people aren't clapping at all.

LOUD APPLAUSE

It's canned applause! You know, there are 20 kids in there.

This is Rosie, they are Legs & Co

and this is Michael Jackson.

In December '79, with a lifeless studio audience,

the producers took steps to address the problem.

The producer sent a message down saying,

"We want to use the audience and make sure they're participating,

"looking like they're having a really good time."

# Party people night and day. #

Two or three people took that slightly to the extreme.

I remember there was one gentleman who had a bright red V-neck

pullover on, and as the music started he was getting really into it,

clapping away and a little bit over the top but warming up all the time.

And it was getting more and more noticeable, this person behind us.

And then, halfway through the routine,

there were a couple of boys in front and one of them was getting

so excited, completely over the top, and as Rosie came forward,

we were all coming forward in a diagonal line,

he fell off the chair and couldn't get back up again.

As for the whole routine, he'd obviously been told, "Stay there,

"don't move," and you can see his feet kicking

and socks and what have you.

I don't think he gets back on the chair for the rest of the routine.

MUSIC: "Walking On The Moon" by The Police

Towards the end of the year, following the ITV strike,

a technicians dispute forced Top Of The Pops into an even greater

change of format, with presenters out of vision and reduced to

voicing introductions to previously shot performances and videos.

# Walking on, walking on the moon. #

Hit five, The Police and Walking On The Moon.

I only want to be with you, in sound if not vision tonight.

And now a change in tempo, a surprise single release.

It's come out from Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall.

And in December, an ominous song made its way up the charts

to be the last number one of the decade.

# We don't need no education. #

Another Brick In The Wall seemed to spell out

the need for widespread change.

# We don't need no thought control. #

It was such an era-defining song. It wasn't my music, but it was rammed,

it was like a hammer just banging on your head.

You couldn't ignore that song.

In a sense, you could argue

that it was a single that presaged the 1980s.

I mean, this is the future.

And we know now Mrs Thatcher came in and greed is good

and all sorts of things.

There's something in that Floyd record

that almost seems to suggest that.

# Another brick in the wall. #

Top Of The Pops would feel the wind of change too as older-gent

producer Robin Nash would be replaced by a younger man

with new ideas, Michael Hurll.

1979 is the last year of Top Of The Pops how it was,

how it had been from the '60s right through the '70s.

Michael was coming in

and he knew what he had to do to keep that show evolving

and to bring a new audience.

# Another brick in the wall. #

Within six months, the Top Of The Pops Orchestra

would stop playing in the studio,

the light entertainment luvvies would start to diminish,

Gary Numan, his synthesiser pals

and a whole new pop generation would arrive, and the show,

for the studio audience and the performers,

would get a total makeover.

This is where the new age of Top Of The Pops begins.

MUSIC: Antmusic by Adam And The Ants

# Well, I'm standing here looking at you

# What do I see?

# I'm looking straight through

# It's so sad when you're young to be told you're having fun

# So unplug the jukebox and do us all a favour

# That music's lost its taste so try another flavour

# Antmusic

# Antmusic

# Antmusic

# Antmusic. #