Top of the Pops versus American Bandstand*

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by VinylPhool, Nov 25, 2021.

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  1. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Pans People yes. Legs & Co not as much.
     
  2. MC Rag

    MC Rag Forum Resident

    TOTP was my gateway to music at UK boarding school from 1980-1986. Great stuff I can remember seeing: Duran Duran, Madness, The Stranglers, Billy Bragg, Kirsty McColl, The Smiths, The Cure, Iron Maiden, Human League, Soft Cell, Bauhaus, Culture Club, Haysi Fantayzee, Tears for Fears, Eurythmics, New Order, Marillion, Strawberry Switchblade.

    There was a ton of good stuff on there:
    List of performers on Top of the Pops - Wikipedia
     
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  3. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    I was thinking a little later for ITV - early/mid 70s
     
  4. 7solqs4iago

    7solqs4iago Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    Didn't get TOTP, didn't care for AB, Soul Train was my thing.
     
  5. john lennonist

    john lennonist There ONCE was a NOTE, PURE and EASY...


    Oh.

    Some of the people, with U.S. "locations" seemed (to me anyway) to make it sound like they were watching both Bandstand and Top of the Pops in the 70's.
     
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  6. dwilpower

    dwilpower Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glasgow Scotland
    ITV never managed to produce a successor to Ready Steady Go. There were plans but nothing came of them. Top Of The Pops had the field to itself for the best part of 20 years. The Old Grey Whistle Test, BBC2 lat night showcase cover the rock music scene and had a cult following. TV was basically a cultural wasteland when it came to pop/rock/soul music. ITV did run an exciting pop show Supersonic, produced by Mike Mansfield which ran for a couple of seasons in late 75 and 76. In the 80s the new Channel 4 produced the Tube which had a similar live exciting vibe to RSG! It was broadcast on Friday Nights at t-time and was THE show to watch!
     
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  7. LennyC.

    LennyC. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    In what show was the debute on tv for Joy Division? @all
     
  8. Introduced by Tony Wilson,the Haciendas worst barman.
     
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  9. Hanglow

    Hanglow Forum Resident

    Location:
    Saratoga New York
    Yes,some here at sh.tv had a special hook up to the Telstar satellite that picked up BBC One

    ...didn't you know a lot of fellow Hoffmanites here were the "first" in a lot of things?:

    First to have Color tv
    Had cable back in '66
    Heard 'Kind of Blue'way before it was released
    Were listening to Free Radio way before you knew anything about it
    Had access to the www back in '93

    ..it just goes on and on and...
    :wave:

    :laughup:
    :cop:
     
  10. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    The other major network TV show about music in the 60s was Shindig!, an ABC show, which was the brainchild of Jack Good from England, who did several such shows such as The 6.5 Special & Oh Boy. Shindig! had a mix of regulars such as the Righteous Brothers, the Blossoms, the Shindogs, the latter featuring Leon Russell & James Burton & Billy Preston, along w/guests ranging from Jerry Lee Lewis & Little Richard to most of the British Invasion, including the Beatles, Kinks, Pretty Things & The Who. Jack Good left after a season & the show hobbled through another half season before being replaced by Batman in January 1966. There were many episodes that were "meh", but there were great episodes, such as Howlin' Wolf & The Rolling Stones & an episode that was recorded at the Richmond Jazz & Blues Festival in 1965.
     
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  11. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    Did you never see Marc or Ayesha (might have the name wrong there - she was Roy Wood's partner for a while). Pretty sure they were earlier than Supersonic. Marc even had Bowie guest on one of his shows
     
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  12. Evethingandnothing

    Evethingandnothing Forum Resident

    Location:
    Devon
    The show was Lift Off with Ayesha and ran from '69 to '74. There was also The Arrows TV show on ITV in the early 70's, and Saturday Scene on Saturday mornings. At least in the London area.
     
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  13. Deek57

    Deek57 Forum Resident

    The lovely Ayesha Brough also hosted ITVs "Discotheque" another kids slot pop show late sixties early seventies ish.
     
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  14. Evethingandnothing

    Evethingandnothing Forum Resident

    Location:
    Devon
    I've been watching some old U.F.O reruns recently that Ayesha acted in. A good looking gal. Didn't know that she dated Roy Wood.
     
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  15. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Juke Box Jury.

    o‘ll give it five …:D
     
  16. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    I recall one episode of her show featuring Wizzard and he picked her up, put her over his shoulders and walked off. I think a lot of men of a cerian age have fond memories of her...
     
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  17. Vangro

    Vangro Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    All you needed to get on TOTP was a song in the charts and it to be going up in the charts, so even Can ended up on TOTP.
     
  18. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Benny Hill once parodied that too - as "Soap Box Jury":

    Way back in 1961. This is the only place where you can hear The Jeff Rowena Group's version of "Peanut Vendor" (there was an actual record, but other than here no-one has put up a 45 needledrop of it). (Rowena was at the time signed to Pye - where Hill was by this point.)
     
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  19. VinylPhool

    VinylPhool Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    NY
    Saw some 80’s TOTP episodes yesterday. I now understand what some here have called a party atmosphere. What I found really interesting was that by roughly 1983-84, they were featuring brief overviews of #1 singles across Europe and in the USA. That was really mind blowing to me.

    Yes, there were hipper things than AB, especially in the early to mid 80’s prior to the nationwide availability of MTV that were available to kids my age but you had to have cable to see them. Does anyone remember Radio 1990 on the USA network? Or my personal favorite, Night Tracks on TBS with the legendary (to me at least) Bob Coburn from KLOS. I was an East Coast kid but knew about KLOS because I spent a few weeks in LA when my grandfather died in 1983. His knowledge of music was astounding to this then 16 year old kid. I pulled many an allnighter watching Night Tracks since it aired from midnight to 6am on the East Coast.

    Last Bob Coburn comment - I know there were hundreds of Rockline syndicated radio show episodes. I heard many of them. Nowhere near all of them. But after 3 decades plus, the one episode I remember most distinctly was the episode with the newly sober SRV. He had just put out the In Step record and what stayed with me all these years was the intelligence, insight and love of music both men shared. And SRV’s sheer joy to be alive and playing music. Bob was asking the kinds of questions I would want to ask if I were sitting down with SRV myself. If that episode survives, I’d love to hear it again.
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2021
  20. AndrewK

    AndrewK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cleveland, Ohio
    the Dutch also had a similar show called TopPop, I came across it browsing Youtube videos
     
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  21. dwilpower

    dwilpower Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glasgow Scotland
    It was a local Manchester regional ITV show, not broadcast on the national network so the majority of the UK never saw it.
     
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  22. Nostradamus

    Nostradamus Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    The most annoying thing has the BBC have kept the rights TOTP by showing a once a year special at daft a clock on Xmas morning, preventing ITV taking up the rights and running a year round show with it which they wanted to do at one point. It might still be on air of they'd let them.
     
  23. Purple Jim

    Purple Jim Senior Member

    Location:
    Bretagne
    I can't comment about American Bandstand because I haven't seem much of it.
    Top Of The Pops was a weekly must-see in the 60s to 70s (less so for me after that). It had a very broad palette of styles so you had to sit through a lot of garbage in order to get to see and savour those precious glimpses of The Stones, Deep Purple, Free, Bowie, Queen, Thin Lizzy, The Faces, Slade, Alice Cooper, The Jam, Police, Elvis Costello,. Adam Ant, Pretenders,.. If you missed them, there was no way to see them again (until BBC compilation specials appeared decades later).
     
  24. ARK

    ARK Forum Miscreant

    Location:
    Charlton, MA, USA
    Solid Gold
     
  25. edenofflowers

    edenofflowers A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular!

    Location:
    UK
    Do the weekly reruns on BBC4 not count?
     
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