As a teenager Top of the Pops was a chance to see and hear your favourite singers and bands. Many thanks to my mother who suffered the loud music and us girls swooning .......
Practically everyone in the UK watched TOTP on a Thursday evening. It was so exciting to see who was going to be playing and also who would be number 1.
Simply cannot be underestimated the position this programme held in society in the 70's and 80's and it is hugely absent now, more than ever. No matter who you were, you watched TOTP, even the "olds" had to endure it, as the kids would cry bloody murder if they couldnt, and most families had just the one central tv. And what this did, was show everyone, regardless of their own taste, what everyone else was listening to.
Are Friends Electric was a huge hit, number 1 for four weeks in the summer of 1979. Cars was number 1 for one week in October 1979. Complex and We Are Glass followed in 1980, and Cars was a US hit in 1980.
John Peel was a BBC Radio DJ and sometimes Top of The Pops presenter. His influence on British music is incredible with his live sessions and interviews on his show. He was the man with his finger on the music pulse, his judgment always came through. RIP John you are missed.
When I was at school in the 1970's. if you hadn't listened to least night's John Peel show, you were uncool. Of course, we all either read Sound or NME & watched the Old Grey Whistle Test.
He still is on BBC Radio 2 but only once a week. Playing country these days. Also Jonny Walker Sunday afternoons and Tony Blackburn couple times a week.
Watching Top of the Pops was a must. We were all so excited to see our favourite musical acts and Pans People/ Legs & Co's choreography. Marc Bolan was so brilliantly creative and will be forever missed ❤
I'm surprised they showed Blondie (who I love) and not Suzi Quatro. She was fronting a rock band on TOTP back in about 73/74 and had enormous success long before Blondie.
Jeffrey Daniel didn't invent the Backslide/Moonwalk the firt Backslide to be recorded on film was dancer Bill Bailey in the 1943 film Cabin in the Sky. Bill Bailey is the person credited with inventing the move.
My 15 yr old daughter can't understand that TOTP was the only place to hear your favourite music on TV and of course the charts rundown on radio on a Sunday.....ahh the good old days!!
Ahh Sunday, I would sit by my radio cassette player my right forefinger hovering over the red record button and my left forefinger poised to depress the stop button determined to make sure I had a clean recording of the charts 😂
@@SofasurfaI did exactly the same too as a kid. Finger poised to press pause when the end of the song came and the radio presenter would start talking. Lol. The good ole days.
Subverting the miming was another thing that went back to Marc Bolan, who, on one appearance, had a guitar lead (normally missing) clearly tucked into his jean’s back pocket instead of an amplifier.
I remember that TOTP episode, I was in the NAAFI at Warcop camp in Northumberland, a 14 year old army cadet on annual camp. I was blown away, and the Spiders were from Hull, my home town!
There was something special about the scarcity making the moment more special and the journey of discovering new music was more exciting but I think I prefer being able to listen to the music I want to whenever I want to.
Top of the pops was iconic on Thursday, and top 40 count down on radio 1 Sunday evening. And look into the old grey whistle test hosted by whispering Bob Harris.
It changed across the years from lip-synch to live & back again quite a few times. One of the joys of TOTP was the sheer variety of artists on any one show. Our charts weren't split up into genres so if a film instrumental or classical piece made it into the charts it could be on TOTP. Culture Club & Boy George is probably my most memorable moment. 'Is that a boy or a girl???' Then we decided it didn't actually matter. The 80's were my peak watching years & it was unmissable tv when you were a teenager. It was one of the few dedicated music programmes, The Old Grey Whistle Test was on later in the evening - Meatloaf giving it a full on, every ounce performance to an empty room & Whispering Bob turning to the camera at the end in his understated way & basically saying 'nice'. (Ref: The Fast Show - Jazz club) The Tube didn't show up till the mid 80's & was much more anarchic & always live.....then came MTV...
I was watching when Everything But The Girl's single "Martha's Harbour" finally made TOTP management reconsider their insistence on acts miming to their single. The singer couldn't hear the single come through the monitor speakers, so just waited, while we at home, listening to the live broadcast, could hear everything. It seemed like a deliberate act of rebellion against TOTP management, but I'm not sure it was intentional, and it had the effect of torpedoing the band's career.
I shall never forget the first appearance of Boy George on TOTP. My uncle (who lived with us) took one look at him and exclaimed, "What the bleedin' 'ell's that??"! 😅
Trash Theory is a brilliant channel. Interestingly, Marc Almond of Soft Cell having copied Marc Bolan's spelling of his first name, 'Tainted Love' was a cover of a Northern Soul hit by Gloria Jones, who is Marc Bolan's widow.
I thought Marc Bolan only had a girlfriend - Marsha Hunt, who was driving the Mini Clubman in which he died. Of course typical dark British humour at school at the time - 'What was Marc Bolan's last hit?' A. 'An oak tree.'
My parents ran a group home for adults with cerebral palsy and my dad had an arrangement with the manager of The Baths Hall (a swimming pool which turned into a music venue at night on weekends!) for bands playing there to visit the centre. I met Desmond Dekker, The Small Faces, Jimmy Young and many others from the age of 6. We were also visited by various other celebreties of the time including some touring wrestlers which included a giant Japanese man who was well over 6 feet tall but was so polite, gentle and funny. xxx
TOTP was huge. Everyone watched it. Usually as a family. I was born 72, but I still remember it vividly from around 77-84. It provided an amazing focal point for British music, enabling new music to burst out of the shadows. You never knew what was up next. The creativity and experimentation that encouraged was something special. I think it had a lot to do with why British music was so amazingly strong in the 70s, 80s through to the 90s. And, I think its demise goes hand in hand with Britain's global influence on music moving down a division in the 21st century. Britain still punches above its weight musically, but in previous decades it was a literal superpower.
I used to love the 'Old grey whistle test' with there monotone commentator Whispering Bob Harris and the odd bands from the US and UK bands you would never of heard of if not for this program.
Remember that the only place to listen to 24 hour pop music was only on Pirate radio stations, first was "Radio Caroline" anchored out in international waters in the North Sea. Watch the movie "The Boat that Rocked" called "Pirate Radio" in the USA.
There were dozens of them, one on the forts at the mouth of the RiverThames. Caroline became two.Caroline South and North. Radio Essex, Radio London, Radio Mi Amigo of the dutch coast. +others. Before these though there was Radio Luxembourg, with Kid Jensen, Used to fade in and out on my old Transistor Radio.
There was another popular music show called "The Old Grey Whistle Test" all live sessions and the hippy presenter "Whispering" Bob Harris. Many mega brands appeared on the show.
@@MultiNacnud Stone Fox Chase by Area Code 615 (Nashville). I went out and bought both of their albums as a double album on the strength of that track on OGWT. The whole album it came from was nothing like that track but great in it's own way. The other earlier album had good music (they were all top tier Nashville session musicians) but nothing like the originality of the second one. OGWT also introduced me to John Martyn and I became a lifelong fan. Whispering Bob had good taste.
Some would argue that 'Ready Steady Go' was the music show that reshaped British. October 4th 1963 the Beatles appeared on Ready Steady Go! I was only 7, but I remember it caused great excitement in our house.
TOTP - was great, but I'm OGWT - Old Grey Whistle Test baby -those days, OGWT started at odd times, and lasted for whatever time it took. great times... Ska music is the genesis of reggae. and yes, I remember it all! John Peel, Annie Nightingale (RIP girl) I had the best time listening to every type of music. We heard The Police on John Peel on a Sunday evening, my bro took ages to find the single, and then about 5 months later it became a hit...I had the best time to listen to music...
Tainted Love wasn't a "forgotten American B side" it was a northern soul classic, whoever produced this video skipped or was unaware of a lot of detail about UK music
16 years old in1969, the ska boom began. We were well aware it was another culture, but how good it sounded and the youth club disco was never the same.
I remember watching that very performance of Bowie on T.O.T.P. I got my first Bowie album 53 years ago for my 10th birthday, it was the Hunky Dory album. I have quite a lot of stuff of his including original 7inch vinyls from the 1960s before he changed his name from David Jones to Bowie. They are with the different bands he was with at those times,,Davy Jones and the Lower Third,,,,Davy Jones and the King Bees and Davy Jones and the Manish Boys. I still play his stuff today (nice and loud) especially in the car, which I was doing just today. There will never be anybody quite like him again. Tony here in the UK 🇬🇧
If I recall correctly, live performances on TOTP were stopped after The Who smashed up their set live on air. I saw Bowie's Starman performance and the day after in school the person I sat next to in Geography class had a Bowie notepad on his desk. We struck up a conversation after I told him I enjoyed Bowie on TOTP, enjoyed the discovery new music together, illegal drinking, saw our first gig together (the first we saw was KISS at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester - first gig of their first British Tour)he taught me to play guitar, and we're still best friends today even though we live in two different countries. Music brings people together.
The TOTP performance that most indelibly engraved itself in my memory was in 1967, when "The crazy world of Arthur Brown" performed the song *"Fire"* and the lead singer came on with what can only be described as a flaming lyre on his head and announced _"I am the god of hellfire"_
The battle of the bands was so big at the time even my dad complained when it was featured in his broadsheet newspaper. Being a southerner I was glad when Blur won though.
The importance to a band for appearing on TOTP cannot be overstated enough. It was everything for bands to appear on it right up until the 90s. They all coveted performing on it. It had profound effects on a band's record sales and popularity.
The Jam were most certainly NOT a punk band....they were a mod band through and through and revived the whole mod movement, complete with vespa's, skinny tie's and suits, winkle pickers and the whole black and white imagery, that had first found popularity in the early 1950's. If you'd have called a mod, a punk, they'd have hit you! Also, no mention of Madness or The Police! 😱
They were definitely a punk band. They started in the punk scene, playing at punk clubs and musically it’s obviously punk. Just because they wore suits doesn’t mean they weren’t part of the scene. Paul Weller himself said that the reason they wore suits was to differentiate themselves from other punk bands at the time, it was purely a contrarian move.
I was an 8 year old Beatles fan when The Jam played In The City on TOTP and I could not believe it. Problem was the programme didn't get repeated and we didn't have video recorders so that was that unless you caught it on the radio! I begged and begged until my Mum bought me the album, still got it even if it is scratched beyond playability!
Yes Ready Steady Go was much cooler and was really leaning towards the mods. I remember so many firsts on there such as Sonny & Cher and Tom Jones’s first appearance. Also Charles and Ines Fox introducing dances from America which we practiced in the playground
In the early days TOTP was filmed in an old church hall in Manchester in the north of England, the last place that you would expect to see some of the early names on the music scene, but the bands if they wanted to be noticed had to climb aboard whatever transport they could find and make the long trek north. The man who had found the church hall and was the presenter of TOTP for the first few recordings of the programme was the later infamous J Saville, but because the venue was cheap and most of the acts were appearing on the cheap, more for the publicity than for any fees the BBC were willing to take the initial leap of faith with featuring the show. The record companies were happy for the bands to make their appearances and the agents of the bands were willing to find other gigs in the north to make another fee while they were in the area so everyone was happy.
In 1969 I lived near Brixton Market, I loved reggae which used to blare out and I bought reggae singles, which had a different pop chart. But also loved all the TOTP chart pop songs. Favourites were T Rex who I saw locally in 1971...I was still at School, and Rod Stewart and Faces and The Who who I first saw in 1970.
I was 8 in 1969 (giving my age away now) and I always watched Top of the Pops. I remember seeing Desmond Dekker and realised it was a new music genre. The words were easy to remember and you could dance to it. The presenters from Top of the Pops had been presenters on the pirate station Radio Caroline before Radio 1 was formed and thereafter the presenters were from Radio 1. I remember in the 1970's that you could get books to write the charts in and every Sunday night I (and my friends) would be glued to Radio 1 listening to the charts and noting them down in the book. If they couldnt get the band in Top of the Pops then the BBC would play the music and have go go girls dance to it and initially they were called Pan's People.
I was exactly twice your age and allowed into the Top of the pops studios. I never went though, my mum wouldn't let me 😂. Maybe a good thing considering the amount of dodgy male presenters then.
Tainted Lover was 1964 by Gloria Jones. Jones was later a backing singer with Marc Bolan and was driving the Mini which crashed killing Bolan. They also had a son together.
My biggest memory from growing up with Top of The Pops was the female dance troupes. Who used to dance to one record every week. Dressed in skimpy costumes, they were many young boys fantasy. Check out Pan's People.
I was born in 1960 and from the very first episode I was hooked..no-one went out on a Thursday evening, not even on a warm summer's day, until TOTPS was finished..if you did, what did you talk about in school the next day? Lol ...and no repeats were played or video recorders, if you missed, it you missed it! Named my eldest son Marc btw..😊✌🇬🇧
Makes me feel so nostalgic, i was a teenager in the fabulous 60s . Used to play charts in phone boxes during the 60s. Just went in, dialled a number and stood there listening. Sometimes 5 of us at a time. 😂
Stumbled accross your videos a few weeks ago and now my wife and I watch them All the time, we are irish so lots of influences and tv come from the UK. it's mad sometimes that Americans have no clue about lots of British stuff. Any chance you'd do a an Irish video we have even more different stuff to the British. Also We love how you stop and Google stuff it's class Anyway Keep it up.
It was so loved, the queues for the live television shows were literally half a mile long to get into the studio. The shows as you saw were usually broadcast on Thursdays, so they'd record them on a Thursday morning, and that part of the town would be chock- a- block of people waiting to get in. The hey day was the middle of the seventies till around the end of the nineties, where their'd be loads of people waiting to get in. It was one of the main buildings of the BBC in West London.
The reason i like your channel is you find out Britain done something first! you react normally! Surprised but accepting you are clearly a proud American but without the often seen arrogance i would like to think folk like you should be appreciated for healing the rift between our two cultures
The link between soft cell and tainted love was marc almond was a Marc Bolan fan and tainted love was originally recorded by Gloria Jones in the 60s she was Marc Bolans girlfriend who was driving the car that crashed and Marc sadly died in it 16th September 1977
TOTPs was created in answer to Ready Steady Go which was the first true Live Pop TV show. With performances from The Beatles, Cilla Black, and the first Motown performances in a special show, presented by Dusty Springfield. Magic.
Marc Bolan was the instigator of glam rock, he had chart success in the 60s way before Bowie. check out John's Children especially should I stay or should I go,yes the clash copied it note for note 10 years later, and there were never any copyright issues as far as I'm aware
There was a pub in Norwich that had a Prince Buster track on the juke box which was played over and over again until it got worn out. I was demobbed from the RAF in 1971( served at RAF Coltishall) so it was a long time before 1971.
Love watching your music and acting videos, interesting to hear the views of someone knowledgeable on the subjects and also introduced to new aspects at the same time
The allure of TOTP was the diversity of music and artists you would get. I always thought it was a reflection of how British ears were open to a wide range of music and influences and perhaps lead to the success of British artists internationally. Btw the first person to perform the moonwalk/ backslide that was recorded was a guy called Bill Bailey in the 1940's.. It's available on TH-cam.
In the 90s during the britpop era i was about 10 and used to always wait for top of the pops with my guitar on my lap and try and play along. Then I'd keep playing what i figured out. Sometimes parts of songs and sometimes a whole song if not too complex. I didn't like when a non guitar group were on the show because i wanted to see and be the guitarists i was watching. Was a dream to one day be on TOTP. It didn't happen of course. Still, good memories!
I was 12 when Top of the Pops started and my mum and I watched it together. She was still watching it long after I had left home. It was a great time to be young, or someone young's mum 😊
It was Top of the Pops on BBC1 on a Thursday evening and then the same chart was counted down in full on BBC Radio One on a Sunday afternoon from 5pm to 7pm (which was the most listen to Radio show in the UK at the time with over 17 million listeners at its peak) the good old days I listened to this chart show for over 25 years armed with my tape recorder, I was so happy that BBC Radio One never had commercials, and still hasn’t !
Suzi Quatro was the first female rocker I ever saw on Top of the Pops and was immediately attracted to her. She was around 5 years before Blondie had their first hit.
Two of my favourite performances were Sparks' "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us" - electrifying and mistifying in equal measure, as were all their songs. And Polly Styrene fronting X-Ray Spex singing "Germ-Free Adolescent" in November 78.
Echo and the bunnymen are English!!!? I thought they were American. Love Alex James in the oasis top. Bez. What a legend. He always makes me think of the late, great Keith Flint who of course started out as just a dancer for the prodigy before becoming the lead singer. Wish I could have seen them live. Gotta laugh at Nirvana's TOTP performance where they rebelled because they couldn't sing live. Good on them!! JJ, you should check out top 10 modern british bands to crack the US
Watched top of the pops when it first came on telly and watched it weekly for many years. I remember Desmond Decker singing Israelites and that it was carribean style music. Tainted live by soft cell was originally by Gloria Jones who later was Mark Bolans partner, is the mother of his son and was in the car with him when he crashed and died. It's great seeing all how the groups influenced the next wave/ generation of youngsters. The backside or moonwalk as I understand was originally done by Jackie Wilson about 20 years before, in the 60's. I'm not sure if he invented it but he was doing it long before the 80s. Great post the I thoroughly enjoyed.😊😊
My dad loved reggae and Soul. i grew up with Reggae, Soul and Motown as well as 70s rock like ELO,T-Rex and Bowie. My parents thought the Beatles were too square.
I was a teenager in the 60s and girls at my school danced, in the audience, on Top of the Pops. Also groundbreaking and more watched was Ready Steady Go. This premiered British Artists before they made it to the charts. Tom Jones, The Animals, Manfred Man, Spencer Davis and many more. It was the start of the weekend and a must watch. 💗💗👵🏴🌹
I can remember watching Bowie on TOTP back in 1972 i was 14 and people especially my parents generation were outraged and even disgusted, the press in an interview with Bowie suggested it looked a bit queer Bowie replied yeah I'm bisexual actually, the following day all the tabloids were suggesting it was all over for him only to be totally gobsmacked when his next album went straight to the top of the charts, and as young closet queer it made me feel like I wasn't alone in the world, so thankyou David
That was a great video and your reaction was excellent. I grew up watching TOTPs. It was unmissable unless Dad really had put his foot down to watch world snooker and odd time. There was only one TV in the house !! Great memories.
I was born in late ‘63 so it was around all my life until it stopped sadly, it was must see viewing for music lovers & as we only had 3 channels, the viewing figures were massive 🎶
Steve 'Silk' Hurley made some of the greatest remixes that I still play to this day. He took Prince's 21 Positions and turned it from operatic pop to house dance topper. Incredible talent! Oh and also to say RIP Paul Ryder, such a great loss!
Another important music chart show - but focused on albums - was 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' if you can find a review/compilation of that to react to. It was on BBC Two from 1971 to 1988
I was born in 1990 and we were still watching it weekly as kids with our parents up until it ended when I was 16. That and animal hospital. Lovely times hahaa :)
Great video. I think when TOTP declined more and more people here in the UK were getting access to channels like MTV, VH1, and The Box so could watch music there and so seeing TOTP wasn't the first exposure to certain artists or songs, but even with streaming and listening and watching music on demand i there's a place again for this on a free to air TV channel. I remember watching TOTP as a kid and then the decline through the 90s but we someone in my 40s now, even though I go and look what is at or near the top of the charts on Spotify or any of the other music streaming services I don't really get that much exposure to the band or artist unless I'm so impressed by a song I'll go out of my way to go and do some research of my own. Apart from the Adele's, Ed Sheeran's, or maybe Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, or Olivia Rodrigo, mainly from award shows you just aren't exposed enough to talented new bands these days, maybe it's different for kids. Now that MTV is no more I definitely think there's a place for something again on the BBC too create more moments like this because otherwise we're controlled by algorithms suggesting things to use based on what we've just listened to, and I like to get a wider variety of music as I might like something the algorithm doesn't think I'd like. I think TOTP is one reason the UK was so big and so diverse on the world music scene, we were less under the control of the big record labels because it a band got some kind of airtime on the radio and made it onto TOTP the talent would speak for itself, that just doesn't happen anymore.
The back slide/ moonwalk was actually first seen in 1943 by BILL BAILEY in a movie called THE CABIN IN THE SKY plus JUDY GARLAND and MARGARET O'BRIEN in the 1944 in a performance of UNDER THE BAMBOO TREE in MEET ME IN ST.
I remember seeing Desmond Decker on TOTP but I already knew 'The Israelites' from a reggae LP I had. You might be interested to know that two of the members of The Selector, featured briefly in that little montage of reggae bands, are still performing. Pauline Black, the singer, looks exactly the same now! Oh, do I remember seeing Bowie performing Starman! (The Spiders from Mars were originally a rock band from Hull and Bowie apparently had a real battle to get them dressed and made up). TOTP was an absolute must-see programme and so many performances have stayed with me: The Boomtown Rats, Babs Lord dancing to 'Bridge over Troubled Waters', Suzie Quatro, Roxy Music and some stinkers too that I won't mention! Here's where you can find ba list of all the artists who appeared on TOTP. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_performers_on_Top_of_the_Pops?wprov=sfla1
Exactly right, TOTP was always the talking point in my teenage years next day at school, even though I had already moved on from chart music by the time I was 13 or so..
Born in 61, with older brothers and sisters it was never missed in our house and national a landmark every Thursday evening in most houses in the land.
I grew up with TOTP from the 80s, it was my Thursday night thing until I was old enough to go to gigs or watch The Word. That show had some amazing bands on.. Great list, but you edited out Evan Dando/The Lemonheads- one of my favourite bands! How bloody fucking dare you!
Top of the Pops (TOTP) is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1 January 1964 and 30 July 2006. It was and still is the longest running pop music TV show!
As a teenager Top of the Pops was a chance to see and hear your favourite singers and bands. Many thanks to my mother who suffered the loud music and us girls swooning .......
Practically everyone in the UK watched TOTP on a Thursday evening.
It was so exciting to see who was going to be playing and also who would be number 1.
Simply cannot be underestimated the position this programme held in society in the 70's and 80's and it is hugely absent now, more than ever. No matter who you were, you watched TOTP, even the "olds" had to endure it, as the kids would cry bloody murder if they couldnt, and most families had just the one central tv. And what this did, was show everyone, regardless of their own taste, what everyone else was listening to.
It was the ONLY topic at school the next day. Ah, happy days 😊
Most people who were interested already knew what was number 1. The charts were announced on a Tuesday, which changed to a Sunday in 1987.
Are Friends Electric was a huge hit, number 1 for four weeks in the summer of 1979. Cars was number 1 for one week in October 1979. Complex and We Are Glass followed in 1980, and Cars was a US hit in 1980.
John Peel was a BBC Radio DJ and sometimes Top of The Pops presenter.
His influence on British music is incredible with his live sessions and interviews on his show.
He was the man with his finger on the music pulse, his judgment always came through.
RIP John you are missed.
When I was at school in the 1970's. if you hadn't listened to least night's John Peel show, you were uncool. Of course, we all either read Sound or NME & watched the Old Grey Whistle Test.
He still is on BBC Radio 2 but only once a week. Playing country these days. Also Jonny Walker Sunday afternoons and Tony Blackburn couple times a week.
@@sjbict Still on Radio 2? Impressive for a man that died 20 years ago.
@@skasteve6528 Crikey that was my routine
@@sjbict You not getting mixed up with Whispering Bob Harris
Watching Top of the Pops was a must. We were all so excited to see our favourite musical acts and Pans People/ Legs & Co's choreography. Marc Bolan was so brilliantly creative and will be forever missed ❤
YES!! My love - Marc did'nt just daub glitter on his face - they were his glitter tears. Remember keep a little Marc in your heart. 💖
I'm surprised they showed Blondie (who I love) and not Suzi Quatro. She was fronting a rock band on TOTP back in about 73/74 and had enormous success long before Blondie.
You took the words out of my mouth (or keyboard).
Same X
Totally agree
Ironically her only hit in America was the excellent 'Stumblin 'In' (with Chris Norman), which was never hit here.
Suzi Quatro was a big influence on Joan Jett.
Jeffrey Daniel didn't invent the Backslide/Moonwalk the firt Backslide to be recorded on film was dancer Bill Bailey in the 1943 film Cabin in the Sky. Bill Bailey is the person credited with inventing the move.
My 15 yr old daughter can't understand that TOTP was the only place to hear your favourite music on TV and of course the charts rundown on radio on a Sunday.....ahh the good old days!!
Ahh Sunday, I would sit by my radio cassette player my right forefinger hovering over the red record button and my left forefinger poised to depress the stop button determined to make sure I had a clean recording of the charts 😂
@@SofasurfaI did exactly the same too as a kid. Finger poised to press pause when the end of the song came and the radio presenter would start talking. Lol. The good ole days.
Subverting the miming was another thing that went back to Marc Bolan, who, on one appearance, had a guitar lead (normally missing) clearly tucked into his jean’s back pocket instead of an amplifier.
For the record, Bowie had already performed Starman on a kids' teatime show called Lift Off . I nearly choked on my fish fingers.
A four fishfinger sandwich was my caviar at primary "skool"!🏴🤪
Lol! You could almost hear the rush of Mums racing to turn it off!
I remember that TOTP episode, I was in the NAAFI at Warcop camp in Northumberland, a 14 year old army cadet on annual camp. I was blown away, and the Spiders were from Hull, my home town!
There was something special about the scarcity making the moment more special and the journey of discovering new music was more exciting but I think I prefer being able to listen to the music I want to whenever I want to.
Top of the pops was iconic on Thursday, and top 40 count down on radio 1 Sunday evening. And look into the old grey whistle test hosted by whispering Bob Harris.
It changed across the years from lip-synch to live & back again quite a few times.
One of the joys of TOTP was the sheer variety of artists on any one show. Our charts weren't split up into genres so if a film instrumental or classical piece made it into the charts it could be on TOTP.
Culture Club & Boy George is probably my most memorable moment. 'Is that a boy or a girl???' Then we decided it didn't actually matter. The 80's were my peak watching years & it was unmissable tv when you were a teenager.
It was one of the few dedicated music programmes, The Old Grey Whistle Test was on later in the evening - Meatloaf giving it a full on, every ounce performance to an empty room & Whispering Bob turning to the camera at the end in his understated way & basically saying 'nice'. (Ref: The Fast Show - Jazz club)
The Tube didn't show up till the mid 80's & was much more anarchic & always live.....then came MTV...
Nice! 😂
I was watching when Everything But The Girl's single "Martha's Harbour" finally made TOTP management reconsider their insistence on acts miming to their single. The singer couldn't hear the single come through the monitor speakers, so just waited, while we at home, listening to the live broadcast, could hear everything. It seemed like a deliberate act of rebellion against TOTP management, but I'm not sure it was intentional, and it had the effect of torpedoing the band's career.
@@jitsukerr All About Eve.
I shall never forget the first appearance of Boy George on TOTP. My uncle (who lived with us) took one look at him and exclaimed, "What the bleedin' 'ell's that??"! 😅
Trash Theory is a brilliant channel.
Interestingly, Marc Almond of Soft Cell having copied Marc Bolan's spelling of his first name, 'Tainted Love' was a cover of a Northern Soul hit by Gloria Jones, who is Marc Bolan's widow.
I thought Marc Bolan only had a girlfriend - Marsha Hunt, who was driving the Mini Clubman in which he died. Of course typical dark British humour at school at the time - 'What was Marc Bolan's last hit?'
A. 'An oak tree.'
@@kristinajendesen7111Marsha Hunt was romantically linked to Mick Jagger. Gloria and Marc weren't married but they did have a son together.
@@kristinajendesen7111 Gloria was driving. Marc had had an affair with Marsha years before.
My parents ran a group home for adults with cerebral palsy and my dad had an arrangement with the manager of The Baths Hall (a swimming pool which turned into a music venue at night on weekends!) for bands playing there to visit the centre. I met Desmond Dekker, The Small Faces, Jimmy Young and many others from the age of 6. We were also visited by various other celebreties of the time including some touring wrestlers which included a giant Japanese man who was well over 6 feet tall but was so polite, gentle and funny. xxx
TOTP was huge. Everyone watched it. Usually as a family. I was born 72, but I still remember it vividly from around 77-84. It provided an amazing focal point for British music, enabling new music to burst out of the shadows. You never knew what was up next. The creativity and experimentation that encouraged was something special. I think it had a lot to do with why British music was so amazingly strong in the 70s, 80s through to the 90s. And, I think its demise goes hand in hand with Britain's global influence on music moving down a division in the 21st century. Britain still punches above its weight musically, but in previous decades it was a literal superpower.
I used to love the 'Old grey whistle test' with there monotone commentator Whispering Bob Harris and the odd bands from the US and UK bands you would never of heard of if not for this program.
Remember that the only place to listen to 24 hour pop music was only on Pirate radio stations, first was "Radio Caroline" anchored out in international waters in the North Sea. Watch the movie "The Boat that Rocked" called "Pirate Radio" in the USA.
My step dad was complicit 😂
I used to listen to radio Luxembourg and radio Caroline.
@no-oneinparticular7264 yes! Mee tooo
Over 40 years ago now, my daughter was named Caroline, in part, because of Radio Caroline.
There were dozens of them, one on the forts at the mouth of the RiverThames. Caroline became two.Caroline South and North. Radio Essex, Radio London, Radio Mi Amigo of the dutch coast. +others. Before these though there was Radio Luxembourg, with Kid Jensen, Used to fade in and out on my old Transistor Radio.
Top of the pops was my lifeline as a teen in the 90s. Reliving this on bbc4 on a fri night
There was another popular music show called "The Old Grey Whistle Test" all live sessions and the hippy presenter "Whispering" Bob Harris. Many mega brands appeared on the show.
The theme music to the OGWT was better than a lot of the acts on TOTP.
@@MultiNacnud Stone Fox Chase by Area Code 615 (Nashville). I went out and bought both of their albums as a double album on the strength of that track on OGWT. The whole album it came from was nothing like that track but great in it's own way. The other earlier album had good music (they were all top tier Nashville session musicians) but nothing like the originality of the second one. OGWT also introduced me to John Martyn and I became a lifelong fan. Whispering Bob had good taste.
Some would argue that 'Ready Steady Go' was the music show that reshaped British.
October 4th 1963 the Beatles appeared on Ready Steady Go! I was only 7, but I remember it caused great excitement in our house.
Suzi qutero also was in front of her band
Suzi Quatro was better though.
I remember Poly Styrene fronting X-Ray Spex too. Siouxsie Sioux as well ofc.
TOTP - was great, but I'm OGWT - Old Grey Whistle Test baby -those days, OGWT started at odd times, and lasted for whatever time it took. great times... Ska music is the genesis of reggae. and yes, I remember it all!
John Peel, Annie Nightingale (RIP girl) I had the best time listening to every type of music. We heard The Police on John Peel on a Sunday evening, my bro took ages to find the single, and then about 5 months later it became a hit...I had the best time to listen to music...
I remember seeing a few bands play on the OGWT and I bought the album on the strength of the performance, Jess Roden Band and The Skids among them.
Tainted Love wasn't a "forgotten American B side" it was a northern soul classic, whoever produced this video skipped or was unaware of a lot of detail about UK music
Yebbut Northern Soul itself had a very niche clientele. Tainted Love was well known to them, to that clique, but not the wider public.
16 years old in1969, the ska boom began. We were well aware it was another culture, but how good it sounded and the youth club disco was never the same.
Al Capone guns don't argue.
Me too (same age) 😂
Loved Prince Buster.
Train to Skaville
Living on free food tickets, water in the milk from the holes in the roof
I remember watching that very performance of Bowie on T.O.T.P. I got my first Bowie album 53 years ago for my 10th birthday, it was the Hunky Dory album. I have quite a lot of stuff of his including original 7inch vinyls from the 1960s before he changed his name from David Jones to Bowie. They are with the different bands he was with at those times,,Davy Jones and the Lower Third,,,,Davy Jones and the King Bees and Davy Jones and the Manish Boys. I still play his stuff today (nice and loud) especially in the car, which I was doing just today. There will never be anybody quite like him again. Tony here in the UK 🇬🇧
Thus like me you grew up knowing what great music was. We were the lucky ones.
If I recall correctly, live performances on TOTP were stopped after The Who smashed up their set live on air.
I saw Bowie's Starman performance and the day after in school the person I sat next to in Geography class had a Bowie notepad on his desk. We struck up a conversation after I told him I enjoyed Bowie on TOTP, enjoyed the discovery new music together, illegal drinking, saw our first gig together (the first we saw was KISS at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester - first gig of their first British Tour)he taught me to play guitar, and we're still best friends today even though we live in two different countries.
Music brings people together.
Did you go to Manchester Grammar? ✌
The TOTP performance that most indelibly engraved itself in my memory was in 1967, when "The crazy world of Arthur Brown" performed the song *"Fire"* and the lead singer came on with what can only be described as a flaming lyre on his head and announced _"I am the god of hellfire"_
The battle of the bands was so big at the time even my dad complained when it was featured in his broadsheet newspaper. Being a southerner I was glad when Blur won though.
The importance to a band for appearing on TOTP cannot be overstated enough. It was everything for bands to appear on it right up until the 90s. They all coveted performing on it. It had profound effects on a band's record sales and popularity.
The Jam were most certainly NOT a punk band....they were a mod band through and through and revived the whole mod movement, complete with vespa's, skinny tie's and suits, winkle pickers and the whole black and white imagery, that had first found popularity in the early 1950's. If you'd have called a mod, a punk, they'd have hit you! Also, no mention of Madness or The Police! 😱
They were definitely new wave/punk when i first saw them.
What are winkle pickers? (Non english speaker)
@@LauPulstar like Chelsea boots but with very pointy toes. Very popular with the New Romantics and goths.
@@roryclarkeYes, definitely punk / new wave until they found their groove.
They were definitely a punk band. They started in the punk scene, playing at punk clubs and musically it’s obviously punk. Just because they wore suits doesn’t mean they weren’t part of the scene. Paul Weller himself said that the reason they wore suits was to differentiate themselves from other punk bands at the time, it was purely a contrarian move.
Haha....... I'd forgotten how much I used to love "Are Friends Electric". now I'm gonna search it on youtube and watch it again. thanks.
I was an 8 year old Beatles fan when The Jam played In The City on TOTP and I could not believe it. Problem was the programme didn't get repeated and we didn't have video recorders so that was that unless you caught it on the radio! I begged and begged until my Mum bought me the album, still got it even if it is scratched beyond playability!
There was also a pop show called Ready Steady Go which I preferred. You can catch it on TH-cam too.
Yes Ready Steady Go was much cooler and was really leaning towards the mods. I remember so many firsts on there such as Sonny & Cher and Tom Jones’s first appearance. Also Charles and Ines Fox introducing dances from America which we practiced in the playground
In the early days TOTP was filmed in an old church hall in Manchester in the north of England, the last place that you would expect to see some of the early names on the music scene, but the bands if they wanted to be noticed had to climb aboard whatever transport they could find and make the long trek north. The man who had found the church hall and was the presenter of TOTP for the first few recordings of the programme was the later infamous J Saville, but because the venue was cheap and most of the acts were appearing on the cheap, more for the publicity than for any fees the BBC were willing to take the initial leap of faith with featuring the show. The record companies were happy for the bands to make their appearances and the agents of the bands were willing to find other gigs in the north to make another fee while they were in the area so everyone was happy.
In 1969 I lived near Brixton Market, I loved reggae which used to blare out and I bought reggae singles, which had a different pop chart. But also loved all the TOTP chart pop songs. Favourites were T Rex who I saw locally in 1971...I was still at School, and Rod Stewart and Faces and The Who who I first saw in 1970.
I used to buy all the import ska and reggae singles that came into the shops in the 60s.
I was 8 in 1969 (giving my age away now) and I always watched Top of the Pops. I remember seeing Desmond Dekker and realised it was a new music genre. The words were easy to remember and you could dance to it.
The presenters from Top of the Pops had been presenters on the pirate station Radio Caroline before Radio 1 was formed and thereafter the presenters were from Radio 1.
I remember in the 1970's that you could get books to write the charts in and every Sunday night I (and my friends) would be glued to Radio 1 listening to the charts and noting them down in the book.
If they couldnt get the band in Top of the Pops then the BBC would play the music and have go go girls dance to it and initially they were called Pan's People.
I was exactly twice your age and allowed into the Top of the pops studios. I never went though, my mum wouldn't let me 😂. Maybe a good thing considering the amount of dodgy male presenters then.
Pans People and before them there was Legs and Co. Lol
Tainted Lover was 1964 by Gloria Jones. Jones was later a backing singer with Marc Bolan and was driving the Mini which crashed killing Bolan. They also had a son together.
My biggest memory from growing up with Top of The Pops was the female dance troupes. Who used to dance to one record every week. Dressed in skimpy costumes, they were many young boys fantasy. Check out Pan's People.
Giggiddty giggity :)
Legs and Co and then Pans Peaople. Lol.
I was born in 1960 and from the very first episode I was hooked..no-one went out on a Thursday evening, not even on a warm summer's day, until TOTPS was finished..if you did, what did you talk about in school the next day? Lol ...and no repeats were played or video recorders, if you missed, it you missed it! Named my eldest son Marc btw..😊✌🇬🇧
Makes me feel so nostalgic, i was a teenager in the fabulous 60s . Used to play charts in phone boxes during the 60s. Just went in, dialled a number and stood there listening. Sometimes 5 of us at a time. 😂
Stumbled accross your videos a few weeks ago and now my wife and I watch them All the time, we are irish so lots of influences and tv come from the UK. it's mad sometimes that Americans have no clue about lots of British stuff. Any chance you'd do a an Irish video we have even more different stuff to the British.
Also We love how you stop and Google stuff it's class Anyway Keep it up.
It was so loved, the queues for the live television shows were literally half a mile long to get into the studio. The shows as you saw were usually broadcast on Thursdays, so they'd record them on a Thursday morning, and that part of the town would be chock- a- block of people waiting to get in. The hey day was the middle of the seventies till around the end of the nineties, where their'd be loads of people waiting to get in. It was one of the main buildings of the BBC in West London.
TOTPs was the break for unknown band's to push the release of new material. One slot on TOTPs meant guaranteed top40 hits...it changed my life
The reason i like your channel is you find out Britain done something first! you react normally! Surprised but accepting you are clearly a proud American but without the often seen arrogance i would like to think folk like you should be appreciated for healing the rift between our two cultures
I remember when Marc Bolan had his guitar lead tucked into his pocket because they were told they couldn't play live.
David Bowie's Starman is still my favorite. Love it. From the UK.
The link between soft cell and tainted love was marc almond was a Marc Bolan fan and tainted love was originally recorded by Gloria Jones in the 60s she was Marc Bolans girlfriend who was driving the car that crashed and Marc sadly died in it 16th September 1977
Marc Bolan was one of my faves! ♥
TOTPs was created in answer to Ready Steady Go which was the first true Live Pop TV show. With performances from The Beatles, Cilla Black, and the first Motown performances in a special show, presented by Dusty Springfield. Magic.
Bill Bailey did the first moon walk at the Apollo theatre
Love Bez! My wife danced with Bez at Glastonbury!
Marc Bolan was the instigator of glam rock, he had chart success in the 60s way before Bowie. check out John's Children especially should I stay or should I go,yes the clash copied it note for note 10 years later, and there were never any copyright issues as far as I'm aware
There was a pub in Norwich that had a Prince Buster track on the juke box which was played over and over again until it got worn out. I was demobbed from the RAF in 1971( served at RAF Coltishall) so it was a long time before 1971.
Love watching your music and acting videos, interesting to hear the views of someone knowledgeable on the subjects and also introduced to new aspects at the same time
I've just found out that the great Steve Wright has passed away. Truly the godfather of British DJ's from the eighties onwards. RIP Wrighty.
The allure of TOTP was the diversity of music and artists you would get. I always thought it was a reflection of how British ears were open to a wide range of music and influences and perhaps lead to the success of British artists internationally. Btw the first person to perform the moonwalk/ backslide that was recorded was a guy called Bill Bailey in the 1940's..
It's available on TH-cam.
I grew up with totp. Eventually MTV became my go to. But many of these bands are so much part of my youth. Good channel, thank you 😉
In the 90s during the britpop era i was about 10 and used to always wait for top of the pops with my guitar on my lap and try and play along. Then I'd keep playing what i figured out. Sometimes parts of songs and sometimes a whole song if not too complex. I didn't like when a non guitar group were on the show because i wanted to see and be the guitarists i was watching. Was a dream to one day be on TOTP. It didn't happen of course. Still, good memories!
I was 12 when Top of the Pops started and my mum and I watched it together. She was still watching it long after I had left home. It was a great time to be young, or someone young's mum 😊
It was Top of the Pops on BBC1 on a Thursday evening and then the same chart was counted down in full on BBC Radio One on a Sunday afternoon from 5pm to 7pm (which was the most listen to Radio show in the UK at the time with over 17 million listeners at its peak) the good old days I listened to this chart show for over 25 years armed with my tape recorder, I was so happy that BBC Radio One never had commercials, and still hasn’t !
I can't believe you have never heard 'Are Friends Electric'
Suzi Quatro was the first female rocker I ever saw on Top of the Pops and was immediately attracted to her. She was around 5 years before Blondie had their first hit.
Two of my favourite performances were Sparks' "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us" - electrifying and mistifying in equal measure, as were all their songs. And Polly Styrene fronting X-Ray Spex singing "Germ-Free Adolescent" in November 78.
Echo and the bunnymen are English!!!? I thought they were American.
Love Alex James in the oasis top.
Bez. What a legend. He always makes me think of the late, great Keith Flint who of course started out as just a dancer for the prodigy before becoming the lead singer. Wish I could have seen them live.
Gotta laugh at Nirvana's TOTP performance where they rebelled because they couldn't sing live. Good on them!!
JJ, you should check out top 10 modern british bands to crack the US
Bunnymen the best band to ever come out of Liverpool ask any scouser lol.
@JaEDLanc my fav scouse band is Space. I finally saw them live for the first time last year and they did not disappoint
Watched top of the pops when it first came on telly and watched it weekly for many years. I remember Desmond Decker singing Israelites and that it was carribean style music. Tainted live by soft cell was originally by Gloria Jones who later was Mark Bolans partner, is the mother of his son and was in the car with him when he crashed and died. It's great seeing all how the groups influenced the next wave/ generation of youngsters. The backside or moonwalk as I understand was originally done by Jackie Wilson about 20 years before, in the 60's. I'm not sure if he invented it but he was doing it long before the 80s.
Great post the I thoroughly enjoyed.😊😊
My dad loved reggae and Soul. i grew up with Reggae, Soul and Motown as well as 70s rock like ELO,T-Rex and Bowie.
My parents thought the Beatles were too square.
By 1971,I was only watching The Old Grey Whistle Test to get my music fix,a sort of grown up TOTP but fond memories of the 60’s TOTP’s shows.
In the late 70s, I was lucky enough to get onto Top of the Pops as part of the "hip crowd", every song was a different genre in the 70s!
The sound of your voice Is soo nice and soothing that at times i get distracted from the comment you aire making ☺️ love your reactions!
The Bowie/Ronson moment was absolutely earth shattering for a whole generation of young British people.
I was a teenager in the 60s and girls at my school danced, in the audience, on Top of the Pops. Also groundbreaking and more watched was Ready Steady Go. This premiered British Artists before they made it to the charts. Tom Jones, The Animals, Manfred Man, Spencer Davis and many more. It was the start of the weekend and a must watch. 💗💗👵🏴🌹
I can remember watching Bowie on TOTP back in 1972 i was 14 and people especially my parents generation were outraged and even disgusted, the press in an interview with Bowie suggested it looked a bit queer Bowie replied yeah I'm bisexual actually, the following day all the tabloids were suggesting it was all over for him only to be totally gobsmacked when his next album went straight to the top of the charts, and as young closet queer it made me feel like I wasn't alone in the world, so thankyou David
This is one of my fave music history channels, well worth a subscribe.
The back slide originated in the jazz/swing era and was used by tap black dancers in their routines.
That was a great video and your reaction was excellent. I grew up watching TOTPs. It was unmissable unless Dad really had put his foot down to watch world snooker and odd time. There was only one TV in the house !! Great memories.
Can I just say you have the most calming relaxing voice ever 😊
Very insightful as usual,thanks for your reactions.
I was born in late ‘63 so it was around all my life until it stopped sadly, it was must see viewing for music lovers & as we only had 3 channels, the viewing figures were massive 🎶
Steve 'Silk' Hurley made some of the greatest remixes that I still play to this day. He took Prince's 21 Positions and turned it from operatic pop to house dance topper. Incredible talent!
Oh and also to say RIP Paul Ryder, such a great loss!
The U.K. had a huge number of Reggae no1 songs. I watch the re runs on BBC 4 it’s great fun and people do watch alongs on Twitter!
1969, I was 12 year old and watching Top of the Pops was must-watch TV.
The Bengal Tiger vs The Bangles Tiger... hmmm interesting!
Fantastic breakdown of a turning point in British TV, cheers JJ
Another important music chart show - but focused on albums - was 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' if you can find a review/compilation of that to react to. It was on BBC Two from 1971 to 1988
Wonderful nostalgia here... thanks.
I've performed on Top of the Pops over 30 times during the 90s. I was performing when David Bowie did his last totp live performance.
I was born in 1990 and we were still watching it weekly as kids with our parents up until it ended when I was 16. That and animal hospital. Lovely times hahaa :)
Great video. I think when TOTP declined more and more people here in the UK were getting access to channels like MTV, VH1, and The Box so could watch music there and so seeing TOTP wasn't the first exposure to certain artists or songs, but even with streaming and listening and watching music on demand i there's a place again for this on a free to air TV channel.
I remember watching TOTP as a kid and then the decline through the 90s but we someone in my 40s now, even though I go and look what is at or near the top of the charts on Spotify or any of the other music streaming services I don't really get that much exposure to the band or artist unless I'm so impressed by a song I'll go out of my way to go and do some research of my own. Apart from the Adele's, Ed Sheeran's, or maybe Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, or Olivia Rodrigo, mainly from award shows you just aren't exposed enough to talented new bands these days, maybe it's different for kids.
Now that MTV is no more I definitely think there's a place for something again on the BBC too create more moments like this because otherwise we're controlled by algorithms suggesting things to use based on what we've just listened to, and I like to get a wider variety of music as I might like something the algorithm doesn't think I'd like. I think TOTP is one reason the UK was so big and so diverse on the world music scene, we were less under the control of the big record labels because it a band got some kind of airtime on the radio and made it onto TOTP the talent would speak for itself, that just doesn't happen anymore.
Yes! My husband and I loved Reggae and Soul
The back slide/ moonwalk was actually first seen in 1943 by BILL BAILEY in a movie called THE CABIN IN THE SKY plus JUDY GARLAND and MARGARET O'BRIEN in the 1944 in a performance of UNDER THE BAMBOO TREE in MEET ME IN ST.
I remember seeing Desmond Decker on TOTP but I already knew 'The Israelites' from a reggae LP I had. You might be interested to know that two of the members of The Selector, featured briefly in that little montage of reggae bands, are still performing. Pauline Black, the singer, looks exactly the same now! Oh, do I remember seeing Bowie performing Starman! (The Spiders from Mars were originally a rock band from Hull and Bowie apparently had a real battle to get them dressed and made up).
TOTP was an absolute must-see programme and so many performances have stayed with me: The Boomtown Rats, Babs Lord dancing to 'Bridge over Troubled Waters', Suzie Quatro, Roxy Music and some stinkers too that I won't mention!
Here's where you can find ba list of all the artists who appeared on TOTP.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_performers_on_Top_of_the_Pops?wprov=sfla1
Exactly right, TOTP was always the talking point in my teenage years next day at school, even though I had already moved on from chart music by the time I was 13 or so..
You're absolutely right about oasis, love ur cannel and ur reactions , you're such an intelligent guy
Trash Theory is a quality channel, good choice!
There was a show in the US called 'Don Kirshner's Rock Concert' that featured various live bands...
Born in 61, with older brothers and sisters it was never missed in our house and national a landmark every Thursday evening in most houses in the land.
Some really great videos on the channel you got this from, a proper deep dive into British music and society rather than list shows
I grew up with TOTP from the 80s, it was my Thursday night thing until I was old enough to go to gigs or watch The Word. That show had some amazing bands on.. Great list, but you edited out Evan Dando/The Lemonheads- one of my favourite bands! How bloody fucking dare you!
David Bowie. What a star. TOTP (TV) and Disc 45 (Pop mag) were what I lived for as a young thing with my mates.
Top of the Pops (TOTP) is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1 January 1964 and 30 July 2006. It was and still is the longest running pop music TV show!
Marc Almond is the subject of my favourite ever piece of graffiti. I still chuckle about it now.
The Oasis v Blur was great for us growing up in the 90s. Blur won the battle but Oasis won the war.
Yup. I was a Blur fan, but Country House was just silly.
@@DadgeCity Both great bands. God I miss those times.
Blur were actually the very first band that I went to see in concert live whilst I was in my very early teens.