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The Story - Part 2 |
Brian
Poole & The Tremeloes in 1965
song was "Someone Someone"
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These
rules worked well, but they have, of course, been tampered
with throughout the years. The first change came in
the late 60's as progressive rock started becoming
popular, pop found itself languishing a bit, and there
was a real threat that album sales may become more
important than singles sales.TOTP had to reflect this
trend, and so there was a slight revamp in early 1970
- coinciding with the introduction of colour TV. Importantly,
the program was extended from 25 to 45 minutes, meaning
that the programme needed much more material. At the
same time, Jimmy Savile & Tony
Blackburn were appointed the sole presenters - they alternated
each week - and the format became more flexible. Perhaps
the fact that the programmme was no longer being broadcast
live made a difference. Performances could now be recorded
in advance without the need to assemble all the acts
on a Thursday night.
At the start of 1971, Johnnie Stewart went to America for an extended break, in his absence, Stanley Dorfman was appointed stand-in producer. Oddly, Dorfman |
was the programme's designer, and he produced it very much like a designer might. He instituted an album slot, which in the first week included a 10 minutetrack from a Yes album. These performances were billed in advance in the Radio Times, and so we can see that Osibisa & Marmalade were amongst the acts involved.
Dorfman also began to record performances by other acts regardless of whether they were in the charts - the oft-screened, lengthy performance by the Rolling Stones of Brown Sugar is one of them. Another involved Sandie Shaw, who hadn't had a hit for two years previously, and despite that performance, didn't have one in 1971 either. The set was also redesigned - a curious double stage was introduced, a long 'catwalk' linking two stages at either end.
This all seemed to make the programme less the cheerful family-orientated programme that it once was. Importantly, the programme was made by the
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Sandie Shaw in 1964
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Did anyone else have one of these
This was my dad's |
light entertainment department rather than the music department - therefore one could always argue that the quality of the acts was never discussed, it was the entertainment factor rather than the musical aspect that was important. (It's hard to see what the music department actually did make at the time, though, given that The Old Grey Whistle Test was produced by, of all things, the presentation department).
When Stewart returned from his leave, he dropped the album slot and the pre-chart acts and instead concentrated sticking to the rules. And it could be said that in the mid-70's was a golden age for TOTP many performances well remembered to this day. The programme started reaching the Top 20 ratings again, as well, which it hadn't done since the late 60's.
There were two main scares in the mid-70's. In 1973 the programme was moved to Fridays, to complaints from teenagers that they'd no longer be able to see it. These sound oddly familiar complaints, but in this case the BBC returned it to Thursdays after six months. The following year the programme was taken off-air by a technicians strike for nine weeks. |
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