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Friday 20 December 2013

Merry Xmas Everybody


"And Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to Top of the Pops !"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCm4Li1arUs



  Bloody hell, anyone out there remember Cozy Powell etc the first time around ? Oo wee, guys and gals, it's exactly 40 YEARS since this pre Xmas Top of the Pops was first broadcast on Thursday 20th December 1973 at 7.20 pm but RECORDED the previous day at BBC TVC (BBC Televison Centre) in Wood Lane Shepherds Bush. 

That's here for the easily confused or those suffering from forgotten, remembered, events that never happened syndrome !



A very interesting top 4 in the chart rundown this week.  Slade had just beaten Wizard to the first place with their FIRST outing of that song ... you know the one I speak of !! The New Seekers occupy the No 3 position and look who's sandwiched in between them !


Jimmy must be getting a tad hot underneath that womble costume and he's lost his head after just two songs !


I hope that you all watch this episode or at least a part of it tonight between 7.20 and 7.55 pm local time.  It will be 2.20 pm in NYC, 11.20 am in Los Angeles, 3.20 am in China, 11.20 pm in Moscow and 3.20 am in Melborne Australia (making them a day ahead of us !) so I guess we won't get too many folks in China joining in but one never knows and there's always catch up !

Jimmy Savile OBE was more than likely paid the same amount of money in December 1973 as he had been the previous year.  The BBC did not appear to go in for regular pay increases judging by the information gathered earlier this year including this !


 Sorry, it's not very clear but the amount is £157.50 - oh, and I think I can make out Studio 8 in there too would it not !!

http://jimcannotfixthis.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/footsteps-across-london-pt3.html?view=flipcard

Back to the show and my memories.   You know I feel as though I've spent every Christmas of my life watching the same two songs performed by the same two Midland bands !



 Anyone who can work out what Jimmy says in his link following Wizard's 'I wish it could be Xmas everyday' please leave a comment at the end of the show.  Sadly, you no longer have the option of sending your answer on a postcard to BBC Televison Centre, Wood Lane, Shepherds Bush as it closed earlier this year, just before I started my on foot, investigations into the claims made against Jimmy.


Once, Clifford T Ward finishes his very un christmassy 'Scullery', it's time for the big one - NO 1 indeed ! The next scene reads like a few lines from some of Jimmy's interviews and writings.  He often tried to explain the reason why the young girls were drawn to him, or not as the case maybe.  They were not interested in him, he was merely a means to access their pop idols such as Slade and, as soon as they appear on stage, Jimmy's company is off like the clappers !
















The stage they are on is not that big - here's a view of what I assume is the same location earlier in the year when Slade performed 'cum on feel the noize' (girls grab the boys !)





http://www.davekempandslade.com/top-of-the-pops.html

After the teenyboppers have been chased off the stage, Jimmy closes the show saying  "Oh Goodness gracious ..... we say, we see you next week for another edition of TOP OF THE POPS" and Leo Sayer plays us out !


So, what's on BBC1 in the UK tonight in the same slot occupied by Jimmy and the gang 40 YEARS AGO ?


Makes you wonder why you still pay to watch this crap !

ANYWAYS GUYS AND GALS IT'S A VERY MERRY XMAS TO YOU ALL - WHEREVER AND WHOEVER YOU ARE !






17 comments:

  1. I used to own the Cozy Powell single. Maybe I still do - must check the garage. The B-side was called, "And then there was skin". I ended up preferring the B-side but that often happened with singles coz[y] you heard the A-sides all the bloody time on the wireless..... :-D

    Was this before Rod Stewart rocketed to super-stardom with Maggie May? The song about a "school-boy" seduced by a much too-older woman? Shocking.

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    1. No Maggie May was 1970 - I had this Cozy Powell record too but most of my singles got nicked - happy days eh - here's the TV listings for Xmas 1973

      https://sites.google.com/site/ukchristmastv/bbc1973-1

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    2. Maggie May was No.1 between the end of September & the beginning of November '71. TOTP-wise, it survives in two slightly different performances - one with audience shots imposed on it, an insert from 7/10/71 but with an off-camera JS intro, and the same John Peel & Footbal performance without the audience shots dubbed on, from the 27th December 71 edition

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  2. " Anyone who can work out what Jimmy says in his link following Wizard's 'I wish it could be Xmas everyday........."

    I'm moor interested in why the guy next to Jim before Roy Wood's first gig is pouting at the camera all the time and repeatedly poking his tongue out seductively...... :-D .... Sex-crazed Seventies..... ;-D

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    1. Bloody hell Moor you sure notice stuff ! I'm so busy watching Jimmy !! that guy WTF is he doing with that tongue ?

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  3. "Pseudo-democracy" Anonymous from Moors (Rabbit knows who I mean) - genuinely enjoyed this. Would have been five or six years too young to have watched at the time, even assuming we had a TV, (which was not from want of the readies but because we lived in an area of the UK which was at that time off the grid - yes, they existed).

    BTW, I loved the Ghost Stories. I tracked down "Lost Hearts" on You Tube some months ago because I remembered the original broadcast and my feelings of profound and subtle terror. It stands up. In some ways, more desperately affecting now than then, not despite but because of the creaky production values. They could do so much with so little because we still had faith in the human imagination.

    Merry Xmas, lads.

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    1. Hi again 'PD Anonymous' yes, funnily enough Lost hearts was made in 1973, and was broadcast at 11.35 on BBC1 - I remember me and my older brother watching this (sure it was that year) and being scared shitless at those two kids at the window with them nails !!
      Have you seen 'The Signal man' by Charles Dickens starring Denholm Elliot - another great ! So glad you enjoyed :-)

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  4. PS 'PD Anonymous' here's a link to the full film (>40 mins) of 'the Signal man' - enjoy !

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmBkK7N3Hhc

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  5. Thanks Rabbit, but it can't have been the original then, because we only got TV in 1979. Plus I would have been too young. It must have been a repeat. In the 1980s.

    And I do remember "The Signalman" - surely in the early-mid 80s? The image of the bride has always stayed with me.

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    1. Well 'PD' they have been repeated numerous times as part of the series 'Ghost Stories For Xmas' - u can get the collection on dvd but the prices fluctuate - I recorded them a few years ago on vhs then copied to dvd super doops !! These stories are creepy and atmospheric. Note the time they put it on in 1973 - 11.35 at night so u had the real creepy stuff at midnight. The TV schedules these days are crap as is most of the progs but I keep me telly on the off chance summat good comes on !

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  6. Rabbit, you are right. I don't like to quote the Guardian, because they are quite as silly as every other news outlet, but I recently saw an article where they compared a typical 70s/early 80s Christmas viewing fare to what we have now.

    I wold have been watching as an early teen in the mid 80s and I well recall what was available to me: Russian Ballet at prime hours (albeit on BBC 2!), foreign films which are simply not shown any more (too hard to cope with sub-titles), superb costume drama that understood the period (no daft concessions to modern taste) and comedy that was both compassionate and fiercely accurate at the same time (Porridge, Citizen Smith, Rising Damp).

    There is no comparison nowadays.

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    1. Haven't checked listings for this year so there might be the odd gem who knows ...
      BTW all the video has had 50 views since 7.20pm on youtube (tho some of them will be repeat watchers inc me) all the same nice to know we shared that !!

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  7. Since 7.20 pm last night (it's now 12.03 midday) the video has been viewed 237 times - hows about that then guys and gals !!

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  8. Jimmy would also have recorded his links and fresh studio performances for 'TOTP: Ten Years Of Pop" on this week, more or less the same they also put together the Christmas Day Edition presented by Noel & Tony. Both editions still exist in the BBC archive.
    Ten Years Of Pops was a look back at 10 years of TOTP with some archive clips - and it must have been apparent to the producers there was next to nothing... yet still the wipings continued en masse for another 4 years. It also featured newly recorded performances from Cilla Black, The Bachelors, Jonathan King, Sandie Shaw, The Tremeloes, Pan's People & Wizzard.

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  9. So much great telly wiped for the sake of a few quid - thank goodness for youtube at least we get to see the stuff the morons won't broadcast ! xx

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    1. They showed some of 12/12/74 yesterday, but edited the links out. It was discovered in Holland

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  10. They can shove their linkless shows up their arses - I notice that alot of folk are getting rid of their TV's or, at least, NOT paying the license !

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