BBC Sounds of the Sixties Error

[Nathan Dickel]

I was just looking over my copy of the 1991 BBC series Sounds of the Sixties, and notice they have a clip in episode 2 of Manfred Mann attributed to Top of the Pops, even though it clearly looks like it is from The Beat Room, although it is a much lower quality kinescope with lines through it like many of the early Top of the Pops clips.

Anyone else notice this, and am i correct in my assumption that it is indeed from The Beat Room?

Here's the clip:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh2oYYwkjT0

The set they are performing on looks the same as the Kinks clip with them doing You Really Got Me on Beat Room:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvyDWGF290M

[Deleted]

No, it's from TOTP (although I suppose they may have used the same set as Beat Room from time to time). It's a TOTP audience as well; the Beat Room crowd wouldn't be so uncool as to have teenyboppers among them to tug at Paul Jones' sleeve like that!

[Ray Langstone (was saintsray)]

The background similarities are huge! But....

Manfred Mann hadn't appeared on the Beat Room since 03/08/64. As I understand it, Come Tomorrow hadn't been recorded by then (believe recording date was Oct/Nov or even Dec 64.

The TOTP is 21/03/65, right?

Was the Beat Room shot in Manchester?

It's all a very good spot, and a question.

[victoriawilliams]

21/01/65 IIRC.

[SydV]

Oct 2, 2012 14:52:03 GMT Ray Langstone (was saintsray) said:

Was the Beat Room shot in Manchester?

“Beat Room” was recorded at TVC Wood Lane (and presumably TVC was the only studio equipped to put out 625-line programmes at that time anyway).
“Beat Room” was replaced by “Gadzooks” on 01/Feb/1965.

[Nathan Dickel]

I'm really suprised it's from TOTP's, as it looks nothing like any other TOTP clips i've seen. I would've expected the set to look like the Herman's Hermits, Byrds and Jonathan King clips.

[Ray Langstone (was saintsray)]

Maybe a Beat Room clip used as a TOTP insert - which would solve everything!

[Deleted]

Ah, yes, I'd forgotten TOTP was still in Manchester at that time!

I doubt it was a Beat Room insert though as - as far as I can remember - the acts were completely live. Tragic that so many of those shows are wiped (Gadzooks too).

[Deleted]

Indeed, everything I've seen connected to the Beat Room - the sole existing episode and various photos from lost episodes - all show that the acts performed totally live. TOTP didn't start having living performances until July 1966. Up till then - and sadly we've lost too much linking material to prove it though the August 1965 Jimmy Savile links do give a taste - you would see the DJ introduce the act then the DJ or their "disc girl" place a stylus on a spinning disc on a turntable then cut to the act, so it made no secret of the fact that everyone was miming since you saw they were miming to the record itself.

[johnpoole]

It certainly doesn't look like the TOTP clip of Del Shannon & 'Keep Searchin' (We'll Follow the Sun)' which was in the Top 20 at the same time as 'Come Tomorrow'
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYJvoDJCW0A

Perhaps the Manfreds were on tour at the time and filmed away from the usual studio?

[Chris Barratt]

These shows won't be broadcast again - great team effort from ITV, Dacre, Clifford & co.

[Peter Stirling]

Oct 3, 2012 18:10:27 GMT Chris Barratt said:

These shows won't be broadcast again - great team effort from ITV, Dacre, Clifford & co.

Someone has just took the tapes into the cellar and is just clearing away the cobwebs on the triple locked door marked Warning contains "The Black & White Minstrels" Archive.

[Chris Barratt]

Jesus Peter - don't remind them of that show!!
Next we'll have any surviving member that worked on it retrospectively breaching the Race Relations Act