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Top of the Pops

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Top of the Pops
File:TOTP Logo.jpg
UK Version details
Created byJohnnie Stewart
StarringFearne Cotton
Reggie Yates Former hosts include: Jimmy Savile, Alan Freeman, John Peel, Tony Blackburn, Gail Porter, Jamie Theakston
Country of originUK
Production
Executive producersMark Cooper (2005-2006)
Andi Peters (2003-2005)
Chris Cowey (2000-2003)
Running time30 minutes
Original release
NetworkBBC Television Service
Jan 1964 - Apr 1964
BBC One
Apr 1964 - July 2005
BBC Two
July 2005 - July 2006
Release1 January 1964 –
30 July 2006

Top of the Pops is a long-running British music chart television programme shown each week on BBC Two and now licensed for national versions around the world. Each programme consists of half an hour of performances of some of that week's best-selling popular music. Top of the Pops is also sometimes referred to by its abbreviation TOTP. On 20 June 2006 it was announced that the show is to end and that the final edition will air on 30 July 2006. [1]

History

The first show

Top of the Pops began on New Year's Day 1964 in a studio set in a disused church on Dickenson Road in Longsight, Manchester. DJ Jimmy Savile presented the first show, which featured (in order) The Rolling Stones with "I Wanna Be Your Man", Dusty Springfield with "I Only Want to be With You", the Dave Clark Five with "Glad All Over", The Hollies with "Stay", The Swinging Blue Jeans with "The Hippy Hippy Shake" and The Beatles with "I Want to Hold Your Hand", that week's number one. Savile rotated with three other presenters: Alan Freeman, Pete Murray and David Jacobs.

"It's Still Number One"

File:Totp old.gif
Iconic Top of the Pops logo used from 1973 until 1985

The show was originally intended to have only a few programmes but ran for over 42 years, reaching landmark episodes of 1000 and 2000 in 1983 and 2002 respectively. During its heyday in the 1970s, it attracted 15 million viewers each week [2]. It was traditionally shown on a Thursday night, but was moved to a Friday in 1996, a change which caused some controversy.

The show saw many changes through the decades: in style, design, fashion and taste. It periodically (usually every three years) had some aspect of its idents, format, or set design altered in some way, keeping the show looking modern despite its age.

The show was closely associated with the BBC radio station Radio 1, usually being presented by DJs from the station (although from October 1991 to January 1994 no Radio 1 DJs presented the show). During the last few years of airing the association was not as close as it once was. In its heyday during the glam rock era of the early 1970s, the show featured the tightly choreographed dance troupe Pan's People (later succeeded by Legs & Co.), something which has been widely imitated on similar shows ever since. Pan's People were used when an act was unable to appear in person and no footage of them was available - a common occurrence in the era before promotional videos.

For most of its history the show had very strict rules about which singles could be featured. A song could not appear if it was going down the charts, nor could any track appear on consecutive weeks unless it was at number one. These rules were abandoned in 1997, possibly as a response to the changing nature of the Top 40 (since the mid-1990s climbers in the charts had become a rarity, with almost all singles peaking at their debut position, though singles began climbing again in 2006 after a change in the rules).

File:Totp logo 1998.jpg
The logo has been updated over the years; this is the logo used from 1998 to 2003

All New Top of the Pops

In November 2003, the show saw one of its most radical overhauls in what was widely reported as a make-or-break attempt to revitalise the long-running series. In a break with the previous format, the show played more up-and-coming tracks ahead of any chart success, and also featured interviews with artists. The new show was hosted by MTV presenter Tim Kash until his contract expired in August 2004. It was not renewed due to his apparent lack of popularity with TV viewers. The show was co-hosted by Reggie Yates and Fearne Cotton every Friday night until 11 July 2005.

By November 2004, viewing figures had plummeted to below three million, prompting announcement by the BBC that the show was going to move, again, to Sunday evenings on BBC Two, thus losing the prime-time slot on BBC One that it had maintained for forty years.[3]. This move was widely reported as a final 'sidelining' of the show, and perhaps signalled its likely cancellation. At the time, it was insisted that this was so that the show would air immediately after the official announcement of the new top 40 chart on Radio 1, as it was thought that by the following Friday, the chart seemed out-of-date.

The first edition on BBC Two was broadcast on 17 July 2005 at 7pm with presenter Fearne Cotton. After the move to Sundays, Cotton continued to host with a different guest presenter each week, such as Rufus Hound or Richard Bacon. Viewing figures averaged around 1.5 million.

Finally, on 20 June 2006, the show was formally cancelled and it was announced that the last edition would be broadcast on 30 July 2006. The magazine, however is to continue despite the axing.

Theme music

A version of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" by C. C. S. was used as the show's theme tune for most of the 1970s, and also in a remixed version between 1998 and 2003, although ironically the band never performed on the show. In 1981, an original song, "Yellow Pearl" by Phil Lynott was commissioned as the new theme music. This was replaced in 1986 with "The Wizard", a composition by Paul Hardcastle. The final theme was a remixed version of that used between 1991 and 1995, composed by Tony Gibber.

Miming

Acts performing on the show have traditionally mimed to a pre-recorded track and this accounts for a number of acts who never appeared on the show due to their reluctance to perform in this way. Highlights have included Jimi Hendrix being forced to mime to someone else's track being played by mistake (in the days of live broadcast), Shane Macgowan of the Pogues drunken performance of "Fairytale of New York", featuring his inaudible falling over the drumkit, and John Peel's appearance as the mandolin soloist for Rod Stewart on "Maggie May".

For a few years from 1991 the show adopted a live vocal to pre-recorded backing track policy. While this resulted in some of the show's best performances — notably Kurt Cobain's singing on "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Video at YouTube) — it also exposed a number of poor live singers, and was dropped as a general rule.

In its final few years miming had become less and less common, especially for bands, as studio technology became more reliable and artists were given the freedom to choose their performance style. Former Executive Producer, Andi Peters, stated that there was "no policy" on miming and said that it was entirely up to the performer if they wanted to sing live or mime. [4]

Missing episodes

In common with many shows that aired in the 1960s and 1970s, early editions of Top of the Pops were either wiped, or not recorded at all. Some programmes exist only partially (largely performances that were either pre-recorded or re-used in later editions). There are also cases of shows that only exist in their raw, unedited form. The oldest complete episode in existence was originally transmitted on Boxing Day in 1967 (only four complete recordings from the 1960s survive). The most recent that is not held is dated September 8 1977. All editions after this date exist in full.

There is an urban myth than an episode dated April 5 1984 doesn't exist in the archives. In reality, it was never made as BBC1 was off air the entire day due to industrial action. However, the notion that the episode was wiped persists. There is also a widely held belief that editions from September 9 1982 and August 9 1984 are missing, this is also incorrect: the former was never transmitted, and the latter is extant. [citation needed]

Spin-offs

The BBC have also had a show called TOTP2 which shows archive footage from as early as the 1960s of musicians on earlier Top of the Pops shows. It has been shown on BBC2 since September 1994, although the network's controller, Roly Keating, announced in the summer of 2004 that it was being "rested" (repeats, however, continue on the digital channel UKTV G2 with re-recorded dialogue). A more recent spin-off is Top of the Pops Reloaded (previously Top of the Pops Saturday), showing on Saturday mornings on BBC One. This is aimed at a younger audience as is part of the CBBC Saturday morning lineup.

Send-ups

A number of performers have sent up the format in various ways. Mainly this has been performers who disliked the mime format of the show, often as a more effective protest of this rather than just refusing to appear.

  • While performing their 1982 hit "Jackie Wilson Said" the band Dexys Midnight Runners were seen performing in front of a projection of the darts player Jocky Wilson. This was a deliberate joke by the band and the production staff, but many people (including, apparently, host David Jensen) didn't realise this and thought it was a genuine mistake. Despite this, to this day, many TV nostalgia shows and other sources still claim this was an error. [citation needed]
  • When Oasis performed "Whatever" for Top of the Pops in 1994 they mimed and one of the cello players from the symphony was replaced by rhythm guitarist Bonehead, who clearly had no idea how the instrument is supposed to be played. Towards the end of the song, he gave up the pretense and started using the bow to conduct. A woman plays his rhythm guitar.[1]
  • In 1995 Oasis played their single "Roll With It" featuring singer Liam Gallagher pretending to play guitar, while guitarist Noel Gallagher pretended to sing, just to show how fake the 'live' performance was. It also mocked the habit people had in Oasis' early years of confusing the brothers, not being able to tell them apart.
  • For the 1984 Christmas Day edition all of the performers from Band Aid had been booked to appear apart from Bono. The performance of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" witnessed the unlikely scene of Paul Weller lip-syncing to Bono's vocals.
  • In a 2005 performance of "Lyla", Liam Gallagher made no secret of the fact that he was miming his lyrics by walking away from the microphone and chewing gum when he was supposed to be singing.
  • Faith No More lead singer Mike Patton also showed he was obviously miming a performance by sticking his tongue out of the side of his mouth during closeup shots.
  • In Nirvana's only performance on Top of the Pops, frontman Kurt Cobain "played" his guitar with his fingers inches away from the frets, drummer Dave Grohl danced around in his seat for most of the performance, and bassist Krist Novoselic waved his instrument around his head. For this performance Cobain was trusted to sing live vocals to a pre-recorded backing track: instead, he sang in a low, mournful wail; he was later to claim this was his attempt to sound like Morrissey.
  • Singer Les Gray of Mud went on stage to perform with a ventriloquist dummy during the performance of Lonely this Christmas and had the dummy lip-synch to the voice-over in the middle of the song.
  • Fish, (lead singer of Marillion), made sure that the cameras caught a close up of his firmly closed mouth during a particular section of their single "Garden Party". The lyric he did not mime to was "I'm miming", not least because the original lyric was "I'm fucking", toned down at record company insistence for the single release.
  • The Wonder Stuff appeared on the show with one of the guitarists strumming along while wearing boxing gloves.

Local versions

Europe

The TOTP format was sold to RTL in Germany in the 1990s, and aired on Saturday afternoons. It was very successful for a long time, with a compilation album series and magazine. However, in 2006 it was announced that the German show would be ending. Domestic versions of the show continue to run in France, The Netherlands and Italy. An edited version of the UK show can also be seen on BBC Prime, the weekend after UK transmission.

United States

Top of the Pops had short-lived fame in the United States. In 1987, the CBS television network decided to try an American version of the show. It was hosted by Nia Peeples and even showed performances from the BBC version of the programme. The show was presented on late Friday nights and lasted almost a year.

In 2002, BBC America presented the BBC version of Top of the Pops as part of their weekend schedule. The network would get the episodes one week after they were transmitted in the UK. BBC America then tinkered with the show by cutting a few minutes out of each show and moving it to a weekday time slot. Viewer interest was gone and the show was taken off BBC America's schedule.

On January 23, 2006, record producer Lou Pearlman made a deal to bring "Top of the Pops" back to the airwaves in the United States. It is expected to be similar to the 1987 version, but it will also utilize the Billboard magazine music charts, most notably the Hot 100 chart. It was supposed to be planned for a possible 2006 or 2007 launch, but with the cancellation of the UK version no word on whether this US edition will go forward as it has yet to find a production company or distributor to partner with.

New Zealand

The Top of the Pops brand has also been exported to New Zealand which for many years had to rely on music-video only shows to demonstrate its Top 20 (as well as the occasional season of the UK version of TOTP) as the world's top acts found New Zealand just too far away from the major markets to visit regularly. This all changed when the New Zealand government suggested a voluntary New Zealand music quota on radio (basically a threat that if the stations did not impose a quota themselves then one would be imposed on them). This worked and suddenly the amount of indigenous music played on radio stations shot up, as did the number of New Zealand hits in the top 20. Therefore a new version of a show like Top of the Pops became feasible for the first time, and the show was commissioned by TVNZ. The show began in early 2004 with host Alex Behan. The hour-long show (as opposed to the 30 minute UK version) which is broadcast at 5pm on Saturdays on TV 2 (New Zealand) contains a mixture of songs recorded in the Auckland TVNZ studios as well as performances from the international versions of the show. The New Zealand Top 20 singles and Top 10 albums are also featured. Alex stayed as host for two years before Bede Skinner took over. Despite a popular fan base in early 2006 TVNZ announced that Top of the Pops has been axed and ideas for new music shows are currently being considered.

Free-to-air music channel C4 has recently picked up the UK version of Top Of The Pops and airs it on Saturday's at 6pm with a repeat screening on Thursday's.

Africa, Asia and the Middle East

An edited version of the UK show can be seen on BBC Prime, the weekend after UK transmission.

Argentina and Brazil

A complete version of the UK show can be seen on People+Arts, the two weeks after UK transmission.

Compilation Albums

A number of compilation albums utilising the Top of the Pops brand have been issued over the years. The first one to reach the charts was "BBC TV's The Best Of Top of the Pops" on the Super Beeb record label in 1975, which reached number 21.

Earlier on in the 1970s there was a rival series of "Top of the Pops" albums that reached the charts, however these had little to do with the series, being a range of budget compilation albums recorded by anonymous session singers and released on the Hallmark record label.

In the 1990s, the BBC "Top of the Pops" brand was again licensed for use in a tie-in compilation series. Starting in 1995 with Sony Music's Columbia Records label, these double disc collections moved to the special marketing arm of Polygram/Universal Music TV, before becoming a sister brand of the Now That's What I Call Music range in the EMI/Virgin/Universal joint venture.

Similarly to the roles of "Top of the Pops" on BBC 1 and BBC 2 in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the compilation albums range featured current hits for the main series and classic hits (such as 70s Rock) for the "Top of the Pops 2" spin-offs.

Number One in the Compilation Charts

These albums in the series reached No. 1:

Top of the Pops magazine

Top of the Pops magazine has been running since the 1990s, and filled the void in the BBC magazine portfolio where Number One magazine used to be.

An early feature on the Spice Girls coined the famous "Spice" nicknames for each member (Baby, Ginger, Posh, Scary and Sporty) that stayed with them throughout their career as a group and beyond.

Songs which mention Top of the Pops

  • The Scottish punk band The Rezillos lampooned the show as a vehicle for vapid commercialism and for paying little or no attention to talented, unknown bands, in their song "Top of the Pops." Ironically the band actually ended up performing the song on the programme (twice) when it entered the charts — it would appear the producers misunderstood the song's lyrics and thought it was an affectionate tribute.
  • "C-30 C-60 C-90 GO!", originally by Bow Wow Wow and covered by Seattle, WA band Pretty Girls Make Graves
  • A song entitled "Top of the Pops" appeared on the Kinks album, Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One
  • Rat Trap by The Boomtown Rats
  • Top Of The Pops by indie band 28 If (named after the car on Abbey Road).
  • "Me Plus One" by Anne Lilia Berge Strand or more commonly Annie
  • The song "Formed a Band" by Art Brut includes in its lyrics, "We’re gonna write a song as universal as happy Birthday, that makes sure everybody knows that everything is going to be OK, we’re going to take that song and we’re going to play it 8 weeks in a row on Top of the Pops." In their song "Bad Weekend," the band also sings, "sometimes it's hard to stop when your heart is set on Top of the Pops, Top of the Pops." Art Brut LyricsIn addition to this, Art Brut & Friends recorded a song titled "Top of the Pops", lyrics being the name of their band followed by TOTP e.g Art Brut! Top of the Pops! The Long Blondes! Top of the Pops!
  • Akira the Don's single, 'Living in the Future'
  • The New Jersey power pop band The Smithereens recorded a song entitled "Top of the Pops" on their album "Blow Up."
  • Billy Bragg's "Waiting For The Great Leap Forward" boasts the lyric, "It's a mighty long way down rock 'n roll; from Top of the Pops to drawing the dole" (this is in turn a pun on a different lyric from Mott The Hoople's "All The Way From Memphis").
  • Also, Bragg's "Moving The Goalposts" contains the line, "I dreamt of you as I walked to the shops, you were dancing with the wallies on Top of the Pops".
  • Carter USM's song "Glam Rock Cops" has the lyric "I've been fitted up for size for Top Of The Pops / In a uniform supplied by the glam rock cops". Unlike most other examples here it was actually performed on Top of the Pops.
  • Generation X's "Promises Promises" includes in the lyrics "Soon you'll get your gear from Marks and Sparks / Punk'll take over Top of the Pops"
  • Terence Trent D'Arby in the song "Penelope Please" from his album "Symphony Or Damn": "You will still be home in time / To watch the 'Pops featuring Chrissie Hynde"

Trivia

  • The longest ever performance was of Green Day's Jesus Of Suburbia broadcast on 6 November, 2005, it lasted 9 minutes and 10 seconds.
  • The shortest performance was Super Furry Animals with Do or Die clocking in at 95 seconds.
  • Cliff Richard has performed the most on Top Of The Pops, recording over 150 performances.
  • The most complaints the show received for a single episode was in 1994 when Manic Street Preachers performed their song "Faster" in a manner that was seen as intimidating and featured lead singer James Dean Bradfield wearing a balaclava such as would be worn by an IRA terrorist.
  • The first unsigned band to play Top Of The Pops was Scottish twee pop group Bis.
  • The show's final relaunch with Andi Peters as producer was widely considered the point where Top Of The Pops was Jumping The Shark. It noticeably had Victoria Beckham promote her new song "This Groove", with a performance 7 times in the first 8 shows, including the (pre-recorded) Christmas special.
  • In 1980, the then fledgling heavy metal superstars Iron Maiden became the first band to play live on the show since The Who in 1972, when they refused to mime to their single "Running Free".
  • Super Furry Animals once got the whole audience to sit down during a live performance of theirs.
  • Because of the BBC's former policy of deleting old programmes, nearly all of the episodes from the first ten years of the programme's history have been lost, including all of The Beatles' appearances.
  • When Elvis Costello performed "Radio Radio" on the show, he changed the lyrics to criticise Tony Blackburn, who was the presenter that week.
  • When John Peel first presented the programme in 1968 he forgot the name of Amen Corner who were appearing that week. Possibly because of this, his next appearance as presenter wasn't until Christmas 1981.
  • Although the original four presenters are still alive, five presenters of the show have died — Stuart Henry, Kenny Everett, occasional presenter Caron Keating, John Peel and Tommy Vance. In addition, the creator of the show, Johnnie Stewart, died on April 29, 2005.
  • In May 2006, following a special Red Hot Chili Peppers concert recorded in the car park of BBC Television Centre, Hammersmith and Fulham Council (which governs the area the centre is located) informed the BBC that in order to legally conform to an Act of Parliament which came into force in 2004 they needed to have a special licence to continue to admit members of the public to any future performances. Prior to the matter being resolved the BBC requested the assistance of their own staff members to fill-in as audience members for this and other music shows.[5]

References

Wikinews has related news:
  1. ^ Show's over for Top of the Pops, The Guardian, 20 June, 2006.
  2. ^ Band snubs Top of the Pops after fat remark Guardian Unlimited, 10 August,2005. Accessed 14 May, 2006
  3. ^ "Top of the Pops" leaves BBC One BBC News 29 November, 2004. Accessed 14 May, 2006
  4. ^ What's TOTP's policy on miming? BBC TOTP official website FAQ. URL Accessed 23 June 2006.
  5. ^ BBC staff asked to form audiences. BBC News 11 May 2006. Accessed 14 May 2006

Official

Videoclips

  • TOTP2 Archive of live performance videoclips 1960 - 2002. (Realplayer)
  • Top of the Pops Archive of live performance videoclips 2002-2006. (Realplayer)

Episode guides and summaries

Fan sites

News Articles

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