Published On:2015/02/21
Posted by Unknown
Top Of The Pops In The 1960s
The First Six Years Of A Television Legend
On the evening of New Years Day 1964, BBC 1 broadcast the very first episode of a new TV show devoted to the pop music charts of the day - "Top Of The Pops." Conceived and produced by Johnnie Stewart who bemoaned the lack of coverage of pop music on BBC television, his bosses gave the go ahead for a 6 part series. An instant success, as it reached it's 5th broadcast, Stewart's superiors gave him the nod to keep the show running indefinitely. It was to run for 42 and a half years before the BBC axed the show. The final show was broadcast on 31st July 2006. One of the presenters of that final show Sir Jimmy Savile OBE was in fact the very original presenter of the show back in January 1964.
Johnnie Stewart's concept for the show was very simple. It would feature records that were currently in the Top 20 that week. The acts would preferably appear in person in the studio - a converted Church in Manchester - miming to their record. If the act was not available then a film clip would be featured of the song or the song would be played in the studio and the cameras would show the audience dancing to it. The rules dictated that every show would end with the current number one record and that records going down the chart would not be featured since generally they had peaked. 4 top DJ's of the time were chosen to host the show, taking turns weekly - Jimmy Savile, Alan Freeman, Pete Murray and David Jacobs.
The first show featured The Rolling Stones, Dusty Springfield, The Hollies, Cliff Richard and The Shadows, Gene Pitney, Freddie and The Dreamers, The Swinging Blue Jeans, The Dave Clark Five and at number one - The Beatles. The show was broadcast live and in fact, nothing was recorded of it until the 5th show so those early shows vanished the moment they were transmitted. The BBC sadly, did not record the show very often until 1967. Even then, all that is left today of the show from the decade are 5 more or less complete episodes, the bulk of two further episodes and a whole bunch of isolated performances. A pitiful amount when one considers 309 episodes were broadcast.
The show was fresh, lively and current. Almost all the major stars of the decade appeared at some point or other on the show. Partway through 1964, a girl dance troupe was formed called The Go Jo's who would dance to records featured by absent artiste so the disc could be featured and in 1968 they were replaced by a 6 girl dance troupe formed by choreographer Flick Colby called Pans People.
The formula until mid 1966 was pretty basic. The DJ would be seen stood behind a record deck and - Jimmy Savile apart - sat beside them would be a young lady who would be the "spinner." The DJ would make introductions into the camera and the spinner would be seen placing a 7 inch vinyl record onto the record deck and placing the stylus on the groove at which point the music would start and the camera would cut to the act miming to the song or cue a pre-prepared film.
Being based in Manchester posed many problems. Technically the studios were primitive but location wise it was not ideal since all the action was going on down in London. Acts would have to travel up to Manchester especially for the show and on a few occasions, some missed the plane or arrived too late for the broadcast. In early 1966 then, the BBC allowed the show to be broadcast from Lime Grove Studios in London which made it a lot easier for all concerned.
However in June 1966, the Musicians Union implemented a new ruling which forbade miming on TV shows. For about 4 weeks "Top Of The Pops" went totally live, with every act having to sing and play for real. Problem was, this was a technical nightmare and worse very few of them actually sounded like the records they were promoting. In desperation, a new agreement was reached with the MU that allowed the rules to be relaxed. Now, there were two options - backing tracks be recorded in advance and the act would have to sing live on top of that or the act would mime and sing live to the sounds to of the newly formed "Top Of The Pops Orchestra" conducted by Johnny Pearson. The orchestra would be set up live in the studio but rarely ever in sight of the TV cameras.
Host David Jacobs began to feel he was too old to be hosting a show like this and stood down. In his place came a much younger DJ by the name of Simon Dee. Dee went down so well, the BBC decided to give him a TV show of his own - a chat show called "Dee Time" which ran from 1967 to the end of 1969. When Radio One wad formed in September 1967, each DJ on that station took turns as guest hosts. The idea being the best ones would then become regular hosts. In February 1968 this led to an infamous edition where the late John Peel had to co host a show with Jimmy Savile. Peel, who had very little time for the pop music of the time dried up on air as he struggled to remember the name of The Amen Corner who he had to introduce. He was instantly forbidden from hosting the show again until he returned on the 1981 Christmas Day edition where he jokingly referred to the 1968 calamity.The two "successful" Radio One DJ's chosen to join Savile, Freeman and Murray were Stuart Henry and Tony Blackburn.
Another classic live disaster occurred on 24th August 1967 when Pete Murray had the honour of introducing The Jimi Hendrix Experience's latest single "The Burning Of The Midnight Lamp." The cameras cut to Jimi but something was wrong... backstage a technician had cued up and started the wrong backing tape and Jimi stood there stranded as the sound of The Alan Price Set's chirpy "The House That Jack Built" filled the studio and homes up and down the country. Jimi smirked and muttered into the live microphone "I like the music man, but I don't know the words!" at which point the cameras cut back to a flustered Pete Murray who had to explain there had been an error and reintroduced the band. Regardless to say, the BBC later wiped the tape of that show.
Sadly, in 1971 and 1972, the BBC began having a mass clearout of their archives since they were running low on storage space. This led to thousands of archived tapes and films being wiped or destroyed. Sadly, "Top Of The Pops" was massacred so the vast majority of shows that had been recorded and saved ended up being trashed. An appalling tragedy meaning there is no chance of ever seeing most of the shows or classic performances ever again.
"Top Of The Pops" then was THE show to appear on. Acts, managers, agents and record companies quickly realised that exposure on the show usually resulted in an increase in sales. Whenever new records were released, every act wanted to appear on the show. However in the cases of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones this was not always possible for a variety of reasons hence they began making their own promo films - later known as "videos" - which they'd give to TOTP so they could still technically appear on the show.
However as 1969 progressed and viewing figures remained as high as ever, change was in the air since Colour television was to be introduced that November. Whilst the introduction of colour offered many new possibilities, it also posed a whole host of new problems, especially with the lighting scheme on the show. It was also decided to drop the live transmissions since these were getting too problematical so the shows began to be recorded on videotape 24 hours before transmission, allowing extra editing and tweaking to be carried out.
So it was on 27th November 1969, Jimmy Savile greeted the viewers to the 304th edition of "Top Of The Pops" for the first time in glorious colour. Not that most viewers would had seen it in that format anyway since Colour television sets were so expensive barely anyone could afford them.
Top Of The Pops Christmas 1969 Outtakes in Colour
As the new decade beckoned, Alan Freeman and Pete Murray made their final appearances hosting the show on the 2 Xmas specials. From January 1970 the show was to be extended to a 45 minute slot and be alternately hosted by Jimmy Savile and Tony Blackburn well into 1971. The longer time slot meant more time to feature more diverse "progressive" acts such as Yes, King Crimson, Deep Purple, Strawbs and many more who featured in a short lived "Album Spot." Either way, "Top Of The Pops" entered the 1970's as the top music show on British TV, firmly established as an institution.
It is a real shame then that so little remains of the halcyon early black and white days of the show.