Aircheck Museum

Aircheck Radio Museum

Top Of The Pops at 31(1995)

(archived information taken from a Music Week pull-out from 1995)

CREATED: 22/10/2002

New Year's Day, January 1st 1964 - a legend in music history was born.& In 1995, the music industry publication MUSIC WEEK featured a pull out to celebrate. Here in the AIRCHECK MUSEUM, we dip inside to focus on the sections of the magazine reflecting the involvement of some of the Radio 1 DJs who were famed for appearing on the flagship BBC1 show.

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With three decades of entertainment under it's belt, Top Of The Pops has provided a feast of happy memories - and the occasional grim recollection. Some of the people who have been involved in the show relate their favourite stories.

Jimmy Savile hosts the first TOTP in 1964

Sir Jimmy Savile - host on the first show "One day early on, I was in the Gents at Dickinson Road (TOTP was first broadcast from an old converted church in Dickinson Road, Manchester) when I heard a girl's voice exclaim: "It's Jimmy Savile!". I checked the cubicles and there was no one around, which was mystifying until I noticed a hole drilled through the glass bricks, allowing the fans a really close look at the stars!"

Tony Blackburn - former presenter, now Capital Gold DJ "One winter in the late Sixties, there was a flu epidemic which I thought I had avoided. Until we started taping the show this particular week, I was working with Alan Freeman presenting the chart rundown and we got to number six and I started feeling really terrible and just fainted on the spot. Alan caught me and I came to in his arms and he was saying "That was the most wonderful experience."

Dave Lee Travis - DJ and former TOTP presenter "There I was leaning on the stage between takes and Debbie Harry walked across and (inadvertently, I think), stood on my hand. I was in excruciating pain, but I remember looking up at her and thinking "You can stand on my hand forever."

Anthea Turner - former presenter "On the first show I did I remember hearing the BBC announcer say, "...and now Top Of The Pops with Simon Mayo and Anthea Turner' and feeling physically sick as the enormity of what I had taken on suddenly hit me. Because of the noise in the studio, you cannot hear what your co-presenter is saying, so you have to stare at them. I'm sure everyone must have thought I fancied Gary Davies & Simon Mayo. Whatever happens in my career, at least I can say I have presented two great British institutions: Top Of The Pops and Blue Peter."

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DANCING THROUGH THE DECADES: The jocks investigate...

Back in the non-PC early Sixties, BBC executives decided that an effective way of increasing viewing figures would be the inclusion of an all-girl dance troupe.

From the very first show, a girl would work alongside the presenter by playing featured records on a primitive sound system, to which the groups would mime. However, more active female participation was introduced into this male dominated world with the formation of the TOTP Gojo Dancers, featuring Linda Notchkin, Thelma Bignell and Jane Bartlett.

Four years later, the show was given one of it's periodic face lifts, and choreographer Flick Colby introduced TV viewers to the show's most famous dance team - 'Pan's People', comprising, Flick, Babs Lord, Ruth Pearson, Dee Dee Wilde, Louise Clarke and Andi Rutherford.

Following the departure of Rutherford to have a baby, the troupe settled into it's most popular line up with her replacement, Cherry Gillespie. "I remember being given the job of announcing the new member of 'Pan's People'" said Tony Blackburn. "We unwrapped this parcel, opened it up and there was Cherry."

Pan's People's interpretative skills and often extraordinary costume changes - as investigated by John Peel in his hilarious 1994 BBC1 documentary - ensured their existence until 1976, when Colby created the short lived 'Ruby Flipper', whose members included ex-'Pan's People' dancers.

Within months this troupe had been replaced by the longer-lasting 'Legs & Co', who appeared regularly until 1981, when they were replaced by the multi-cultural 'Zoo'.

But the days of in-house dancers on TOTP were already numbered. Each week Colby was given a release for which her team could rehearse, on the basis that it was likely to rise up the charts.

If, as often happened, the single fell, sets were struck, costumes changed and dancers hurriedly rehearsed to a new track. BBC executives felt that the expenses incurred by this now-outmoded concept were no longer justifiable, and 'Zoo' were replaced by cheerleaders - dancers who created 'a disco-party feel' amongst the more visible audience members.

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A SIX WEEK SHOW THAT STAYED FOREVER: For any television programme to last more than 30 years is an incredible feat, even more so for a music show. TOTP has earned it's place in the BBC's hall of fame with it's ability over the years to shock, surprise and amuse it's audience, and it's determination never to rest on it's laurels. Here in this part of the AIRCHECK MUSEUM TOTP section, we take a look more directly at the involvement of the DJs over the years, omitting the details of bands who have appeared - this isn't a TV nostalgia site you know! Please note the two separate clickable links for Alan Freeman.

1964: New Year's Day: The BBC broadcast the first TOTP at 6:35pm from a converted church in Dickinson Road, Manchester, presented by Jimmy Savile. Planned for only a six-programme run....

January 8th: Alan Freeman / Alan Freeman hosts the second show, and he, Jimmy Savile, Pete Murray & David Jacobs become the only four presenters for the next three years.

December: Alan Freeman / Alan Freeman earns the nickname "Fluff" when he announces 'Cast Your Fate To The Wind' by Johnny Pearson (later to form the TOTP Orchestra) as: "Cast Your Wind To The Fates".

1967: The show moves to Lime Grove studios in West London and new faced are introduced - Stuart Henry, Emperor Rosko, Simon Dee and Kenny Everett.

1971: John Peel plays mandolin on Rod Stewart's 'Maggie May' on TOTP.

1983: May: Steve Wright, Tony Blackburn and Simon Bates nearly miss presenting the programme's 1,000th edition when they get lost in the bowels of the Television Centre. They make it to the studio with just 10 seconds to spare.

November: Frankie Goes To Hollywood's 'Relax' reaches number one, but does not appear due to a TOTP ban in line with the Radio 1 refusal to play the song, prompted by breakfast show DJ Mike Read.

1991: A new era in TOTP coincides with the 'doing-away' of DJs. Presenters are Mark Franklin, 17 & Tony Dortie, 26.

1993: Press reports predict TOTP, with it's plunging viewing figures, is due to be scrapped - claims are refuted by the new BBC1 controller Alan Yentob

1994: January: The 30th birthday celebrations include a night of specials about the show, including a focus on the dancing girls, Danny Baker's TV Heroes programme about the show's audience and a tribute by Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse's Smashie & Nicey.

September: The launch of BBC2 spin-off TOTP2. Johnnie Walker introduces the best clips from Thursday's show, chart tips, album tracks and archive footage in 'Recorded For Recall' and a screening of the debut TOTP appearance by star names.

1995: Mark Goodier & Simon Mayo return the DJ presentation link to Top Of The Pops - for just a short time only.

The AIRCHECK Editor adds...

LATER: Steve Wright replaces Johnnie Walker as the 'voice-over presenter' of BBC2's TOTP2.

2002: TOTP celebrates it's 2,000th edition in feeble style with a practically normal edition with pop-celebs seen on VT offering a 'staged' congratulatory message. No footage of previous editions or presenters is shown, although montages of artists (old and new) who have appeared are played.

2002: As a means of rivaling the hugely successful ITV Saturday morning rival show 'CD-UK', the BBC launch 'Top Of The Pops Saturday' in a similar time slot.

LINKING THE HITS: From David Jacobs, Pete Murray and Kenny Everett in the Sixties to Damon Albarn, Malcolm McLaren and Lily Savage in the Nineties, Top Of The Pops has used a wide range of presenters - all of them stamping their personality on the show and generating a little extra excitement.

Inextricably linked with the success of Top Of The Pops are the presenters whose personalities have left their mark on the show throughout it's history. From the beat boom days of Sir Jimmy Savile through the Seventies glam associations of Tony Blackburn to the alternative comedians and rising British stars who regularly front the show today, the presenter has always been an integral part of Britain's most popular music show.

Sir Jimmy Savile hosted the first show and was one of a four-man team up steered it through it's first three years in the converted church hall in Dickenson Road, Manchester. And he had also worked on the pilot programme on which the Top Of The Pops format is still based.

"I had a radio show called the 'Teen & Top 20 Disc Club', and a Leeds-based television producer called Barney Colehan asked me to front a television version as a pilot in 1963'", he says. "I did this as a one-off, and Bill Cotton, (then head of light entertainment) and Johnnie Stewart (the first producer) renamed it 'Top Of The Pops'."

Mindful of the popularity of the ITV network's 'Ready Steady Go', Cotton planned for an initial run of six shows with an option of six more. Johnnie Stewart - who created the original set of rules and is the only producer to have featured a picture of himself (his silhouette sitting in a director's chair) on the credits - once summed up TOTP as ' the simplest show in the world, and pure murder on the ears.'

Sir Jimmy says that these logistical difficulties were exacerbated by hundreds of fans mobbing the studio in it's early days. "Right from the off, it was a problem getting through the crowds into the studio, and even worse getting out because the schools had finished for the day. It became a police job to guarantee our safety, but even they couldn't stop the clothes being ripped off us and the pop stars.", he remembers. "It got so that I started wearing clothes I didn't mind losing."

With underdeveloped communication links and the increasing unwillingness of superstar acts such as the Rolling Stones and The Beatles to visit the Manchester studios, the BBC took the decision in 1967 to move it to Lime Grove studios in West London. Coinciding with the switch, the presentation team of Jimmy Savile, Alan Freeman / Alan Freeman, David Jacobs (who was also presenting 'Juke Box Jury') and Pete Murray, was expanded by the addition of disc jockeys on the 1967-launched Radio 1 service, Kenny Everett, Stuart Henry, Emperor Rosko and Simon Dee.

These more flamboyant personalities took their cue from Savile, who set the tone for 'TOTP' presenters as the Sixties progressed by changing his appearance and hairstyles with alarming frequency. Many still remember his crowning glory - an appearance in the late Sixties with his hair dyed tartan.

Tony Blackburn, who remembers Stewart as the producer who took the most trouble to ensure performers and presenters were happy, says the show also kept teenagers around the country informed about the changes in fashion. "We used to focus on the audience a bit more and, if somebody was wearing something particularly striking or trendy, they would be issued with tickets for the following week's show." he adds. "What with the explosion of fashion in London, this allowed viewers in the rest of the country to see what was happening down here."

As the Seventies heralded the chart dominance by T Rex, Gary Glitter, Slade and Sweet, the show entered it's golden age, and influx of presenters from Radio 1, such as Tony Blackburn, Dave Lee Travis and Noel Edmonds increasingly attempted to match what was happening in the charts with extrovert activities. DLT, probably the most daring of the new breed of presenters recalls: 'It was the kind of atmosphere where anything went as long as everyone thought it would raise a laugh. I came up with this idea of presenting a particular number on this little 50cc motorbike I had just bought. When I arrived at the studio, the place was full of firemen worried that I was going to drive a 500cc bike around the set. Having calmed them down, I went ahead and did my spiel. but let the clutch out at the wrong moment. The bike shot forward and I collided with the camera. They left it in the final broadcast, of course."

Under Michael Hurll in the late Seventies and early Eighties, TOTP also drafted in the likes of John Peel, Richard Skinner, Tommy Vance, Paul Gambaccini, David 'Kid' Jensen and Johnnie Walker. In the Eighties, the presentation was led by pairing up compatible DJs in regular combinations, such as John Peel with Janice Long, and Bruno Brookes with Gary Davies. For Stan Appel's 1991 relaunch, a whole new raft of talent was drafted in - a point underlined by the fact that the new-style show was presented by unknowns Tony Dortie and Mark Franklin, both successful applicants to a series of auditions held that autumn.

Presenters from popular children's shows such as Blue Peter's Anthea Turner and Caron Keating were also drafted in. Appel insisted that the artists sing live, a point of much dispute over the years. Ric Blaxill's policy was not to force acts to sing live if they don't want to. Veterans such as Hurl agree: "People want to hear the record, not an approximation of it after half-an-hour's rehearsal when it takes them three days to get it right in the studio."

Over the years there has been a sporadic use of guest presenters, most notably under Michael Hurll in 1980, with shows featuring Elton John (who had previously presented TOTP in 1977), Cliff Richard, Roger Daltrey, Kevin Keegan, BA Robertson and Russ Abbot. Lenny Henry presented the show in 1984 and 1989, as did Davy Jones of The Monkees in 1968, but it is only since February 1994, that the show's reliance on Radio 1 DJs has been reduced by the more ad hoc system of selecting appropriate presenters from all fields of the entertainment industry.

However, Blaxill stresses that ties with the station will not be severed completely. "Recently, we had Mark Goodier and Simon Mayo presenting to reinforce our links with Radio 1" he says. "We organised for Mark to introduce (new lunchtime DJ) Lisa I'Anson, which is a bit of a showbusiness throwback to the days when audiences were given a sneak preview of new presenters."

(MUSIC WEEK 28 January 1995)

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