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Post by richardwoods on Feb 11, 2019 12:25:49 GMT
No idea, I’d never heard of them either before seeing this. IIRC (please tell me if the memory cheats again), they used to give breaks to up & coming bands regularly on Lift Off.
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Post by johnpoole on Feb 11, 2019 15:22:30 GMT
Muffin appear to have been a group from Welwyn Garden City - the press release for their single can be seen here - www.45cat.com/record/art2018
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SydV
Member
Posts: 203
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Post by SydV on Feb 11, 2019 16:40:10 GMT
No idea, I’d never heard of them either before seeing this. IIRC (please tell me if the memory cheats again), they used to give breaks to up & coming bands regularly on Lift Off. The policy upon launch was to feature an act each week that had yet to release a record, "act" probably being the operative word, rather than "band", there were notable exceptions of course but generally speaking - judging by the pre-launch statement by the producer as to what she thought 8-14 years old's liked to listen to in late 1969 (when the BBC were showing Fleetwood Mac and Pentangle in a similar slot) I think it would be fair to suggest that "Lift Off" wouldn't have exactly had its' finger on the pulse. Maybe it improved as time went on.
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Post by richardwoods on Feb 11, 2019 17:00:00 GMT
Thanks, that fits. I can remember regularly thinking, “who on earth are this lot”? Spot on about the acts & audience, even as a pre-teen I used to think that ITV pitched their music shows at too young an audience so much so that it was often an embarrassment to watch them. Even at that tender age, music was something to take seriously (mostly) and was at the same time “grown up” and a source of rebellion too, being totally at odds with the sort of music your parents listened too. For once it has to be said, the beeb pitched it better, (some presenters withstanding of course).
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Post by petercheck on Feb 11, 2019 17:06:16 GMT
'Lift Off' did very well during the glam era. We've already heard recently how the Ziggy-era David Bowie appeared on the show, and The Sweet, Wizzard, Mud, Alvin Stardust and Hello were ALL on 'Lift Off' prior to appearing on TOTP.
A real "holy Grail" for me would be Alvin Stardust's debut, as this was a different Alvin Stardust to the person we all got to know later! See below what I wrote in 'LOOK WOT THEY DUN!':
31-10-73 – ‘Lift Off With Ayshea’ (UK): My Coo-Ca-Choo (The released 45 of ‘My Coo-Ca-Choo’ was actually sung by singer-songwriter Peter Shelley, but when the song became a hit he didn’t want to be the public face of “Alvin Stardust”, so the task was handed to the former Shane Fenton, real name Bernard Jewry. However, he couldn’t make this first TV appearance featuring the single, so Peter Shelley – the singer on the record – was also “Alvin Stardust” on TV for the one and only time. It was Shane Fenton/Bernard Jewry who came up with the leather-clad image that everyone remembers; instead, Peter’s image for this featured him wearing a blue and pink clown’s outfit, complete with half of his face painted pink and the other half blue! Sadly, this performance is lost)
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SydV
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Post by SydV on Feb 11, 2019 18:00:26 GMT
Thanks, that fits. I can remember regularly thinking, “who on earth are this lot”? Spot on about the acts & audience, even as a pre-teen I used to think that ITV pitched their music shows at too young an audience so much so that it was often an embarrassment to watch them. Even at that tender age, music was something to take seriously (mostly) and was at the same time “grown up” and a source of rebellion too, being totally at odds with the sort of music your parents listened too. For once it has to be said, the beeb pitched it better, (some presenters withstanding of course). Absolutely. When you think of the cutting-edge quality drama series ITV were putting out in that slot in the early 70s, a large proportion of the audience must have felt very short changed by its' pre-evening news music programmes. To their credit however, Granada did produce the likes of "Set of Six" and "Doing Their Thing" for screening in an only slightly later slot but you had to live in the North West to get to see those programmes. I don't think ATV did anything at all pre-punk other than "Meet Peters and Lee", Thames may have had regular bands on "Magpie" (there was a period when Mick Robertson went all Bob Harris and started whispering introductions with the lights dimmed low, presumably this was not designed to cue album tracks by Lieutenant Pigeon or Gerry Marsden attempting to make a comeback as a solo artist). Where were LWT before 1975? We could easily shrug it off as "well, that's mainstream TV for you before we had Channel 4" but in all other facets of TV during that late-60s early-mid 70s period, many risks were taken. A lost opportunity, but they probably wouldn't have saved much of it anyway.
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Post by garyfreeman on Feb 12, 2019 10:53:20 GMT
AGREED! Granada always seemed to be doing their bit, even from the early 60's . The list of artists that appeared on scene at 6.30 in extremely impressive. But as a pre teen watching LIFT OFF, I was often underwhelmed by their artist roster. There was the occasional appearance by a current chart hit ,but from what I recall it was a bit lackluster . I don't recall the rolling stones appearance at all? was this a film promo?.
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Post by williammcgregor on Apr 25, 2019 14:37:08 GMT
This might be common knowledge but on the 09/01/74 show (Peter Barnsfather sang "Clock On The Wall")
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Post by Simon Mclean on Apr 27, 2019 22:51:31 GMT
Great song - I'd love to see a live performance!
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Post by markg on May 9, 2019 6:31:41 GMT
Oh, "Clock on the wall, keep a tickin.." ? Yeah, I remember that one.
Also, heres another one you may remember.. A song about, well..
"When they say that Reggae's dead, it's just that I have gone to bed, don't you know that it really couldn't happen Because Reggae is alive, you can ask Leroy and Clive, we're alive and well and living in Clapham"
Presented by two shambling old men randomly moving around the stage on Zimmer Frames.
Fairly sure it's off "Lift-Off"
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Post by Jeff Leach on May 22, 2019 11:50:44 GMT
Great news that June's Kal event in Birmingham has Ayshea Brough as special guest - with some of the new recoveries getting a showing - looks like a top day.
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Post by richardwoods on May 22, 2019 18:11:04 GMT
Great news that June's Kal event in Birmingham has Ayshea Brough as special guest - with some of the new recoveries getting a showing - looks like a top day. Great news indeed, well done Kaleidoscope. I was getting a little concerned that no one was keeping Ayesha Brough in the loop about these discoveries.
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Post by markg on May 24, 2019 10:26:55 GMT
AGREED! Granada always seemed to be doing their bit, even from the early 60's . The list of artists that appeared on scene at 6.30 in extremely impressive. But as a pre teen watching LIFT OFF, I was often underwhelmed by their artist roster. There was the occasional appearance by a current chart hit ,but from what I recall it was a bit lackluster . I don't recall the rolling stones appearance at all? was this a film promo?. I do remember it, it was (I believe) a specially filmed promo with them in a tent all dressed in sailors outfits With bubbles. Yes, that one. Specifically, it was split into two, the first half (not so much bubbles) was just before the ad break, and the second half (Loads of soapy bubbles) immediately after the ad break.
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Kev Hunter
Member
The only difference between a rut and a groove is the depth
Posts: 603
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Post by Kev Hunter on May 25, 2019 10:58:31 GMT
AGREED! Granada always seemed to be doing their bit, even from the early 60's . The list of artists that appeared on scene at 6.30 in extremely impressive. But as a pre teen watching LIFT OFF, I was often underwhelmed by their artist roster. There was the occasional appearance by a current chart hit ,but from what I recall it was a bit lackluster . I don't recall the rolling stones appearance at all? was this a film promo?. I do remember it, it was (I believe) a specially filmed promo with them in a tent all dressed in sailors outfits With bubbles. Yes, that one. Specifically, it was split into two, the first half (not so much bubbles) was just before the ad break, and the second half (Loads of soapy bubbles) immediately after the ad break. Yes, it was the now well-known promo film, which had already been shown on OGWT on 9th July, according to my 1974 diary.
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Post by brianfretwell on Jun 2, 2019 11:53:13 GMT
It was a good event with Ayshea around for quite a while watching the clips of her and Lift Off, laughing at herself in a pair of massive flares in one clip, interviewed by Chris also chatting and selling Photo's, CDs and her (mainly photos but some information) book with autographs given in the tea break. Luckily for me she sat in the seat almost directly in front of me for the screenings.
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