Top Of The Pops:The Lost Years Rediscovered 1964-1975 (BOOK)

[petercheck]

TOP OF THE POPS: THE LOST YEARS REDISCOVERED 1964-1975


Running from 1st January 1964 to 30th July 2006, BBC TV’s ‘Top Of The Pops’ was the UK’s longest-running and most influential music TV show. Yet, unbelievably, the BBC didn’t start semi-regularly keeping tapes of the show until the spring of 1976. Fortunately - thanks largely to sneaky TV technicians, overseas TV stations and early home-video pioneers - the picture isn’t quite as bleak as it at first appears.


This book affectionately recaptures those musically and historically important years, and includes:


• Complete episode guides to all 619 episodes from 1964 to 1975.


• The 1969 ‘Pop Go The Sixties’ and 1970 ‘Into 71’ one-off TV specials.


• 100’s of black & white screen-shots of surviving footage.


• Nearly 900 mini-bios on every act seen, heard or danced to during those years.


• Memories and anecdotes from over 50 artists who performed on the show, as told exclusively to the author.


• Feature on Bob Pratt by archive expert Keith Badman.


All this and more make this the definitive book on Top of The Pops’ golden “lost” years!


Available now from Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09HC1LK8G

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The following artists contributed exclusively to this book:


Bev Bevan (The Move/The Electric Light Orchestra)

John Cameron (C.C.S.)

William Campbell Jnr. (Marmalade + solo)

Jeff Christie (Christie)

Frank Collins (Arrival)

Peter Daltrey (Fairfield Parlour)

David Van Day (Guys ‘n’ Dolls)

Kiki Dee

Ray Dorset (Mungo Jerry)

Ralph Ellis (The Swinging Blue Jeans)

Steve Ellis (Love Affair)

Ray Ennis (The Swinging Blue Jeans)

Nigel Fletcher (Stavely Makepiece/Lieutenant Pigeon)

Graham Gouldman (10cc)

Julie Hammersley (The Angelettes)

Anita Harris

Murray Head

Catherine Howe

Spencer James (The First Class)

Steve Jameson (Nosmo King)

Georg Kajanus (Sailor)

Jonathan King

Sonja Kristina (Curved Air)

Mick Liber (Python Lee Jackson/Ashton, Gardner and Dyke)

Jim McClusky (Wigan’s Ovation)

Ian McCredie (Middle Of The Road)

Jacqui McShee (Pentangle)

Peter Oakman (Harley Quinne)

Bill Oddie (The Goodies)

Dave Pegg (Fairport Convention)

Mike Pender (The Searchers)

Brian Poole (The Tremeloes)

P.J. Proby

Suzi Quatro

Milton Reame-James (Cockney Rebel)

Steve Rowland (Family Dogg/Steve and Albert)

Chris Sandford (Yin and Yan)

Roger Ruskin Spear (The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band)

John Sebastian (The Lovin’ Spoonful)

Rodney Slater (The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band)

"Legs" Larry Smith (The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band)

John Springate (The Glitter Band)

Livingston Taylor

Barbara Thompson

Sylvia Vrethammar

Alan Whitehead (Marmalade)

Dee Dee Wilde (Pan's People)

Robert Woodward (Stavely Makepiece/Lieutenant Pigeon)

Philip Wright (Paper Lace)



Cliff Richard quotes are from ‘The Dreamer’ by Cliff Richard, published by Ebury Press. Copyright © Vox Rock Ltd 2020. Reproduced by permission of The Random House Group Ltd.

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Some rarely seen screen shots:



Barry Ryan - It Is Written (18th March 1971)



Sandie Shaw - By Tomorrow (outtake with Sandie wearing a different outfit, 5th February 1970)



Arrival - Friends (29th January 1970 - rare colour version)



Shag - Loop Di Love (TOTP Video, 2nd November 1972)

[richardwoods]

Sounds great Peter.

[ajsmith]

That's my Christmas present sorted! Looks amazing!

[petercheck]

Thank you all!  I'm extremely pleased with it (the e-book preview doesn't really do the paperback justice).  


Does anyone recognise all the acts on the cover?  They have something in common!  

[johnleach]

Thanks Peter - Kindle edition purchased, looking forward to reading through this

[Thomas Walsh]

When will the paperback be available?

[petercheck]

Sept 28, 2021 14:27:20 GMT Thomas Walsh said:

When will the paperback be available?

It's already on there Thomas:


www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09H995H6R


Very funny anecdote from Bev in there!

[Thomas Walsh]

Sept 28, 2021 14:58:31 GMT petercheck said:

Sept 28, 2021 14:27:20 GMT Thomas Walsh said:

When will the paperback be available?

It's already on there Thomas:


www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09H995H6R


Very funny anecdote from Bev in there!

I'm not sure what you're seeing Peter but all I get is this message :

Currently unavailable

"We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.
As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app."

[petercheck]

That's weird Thomas! Presumably you're looking at it from a UK IP address?

It's definitely available, as I've bought 9 paperbacks at various times today (1 for me, the other 8 for reviewers), also 1 paperback from the US .com site.

I have noticed it isn't available on some European Amazon sites yet, but it sometimes takes a few days for it to appear in every world-wide region.

[John Green]

Yep, link works for me.

[Thomas Walsh]

Sept 28, 2021 18:39:44 GMT petercheck said:

That's weird Thomas! Presumably you're looking at it from a UK IP address?

It's definitely available, as I've bought 9 paperbacks at various times today (1 for me, the other 8 for reviewers), also 1 paperback from the US .com site.

I have noticed it isn't available on some European Amazon sites yet, but it sometimes takes a few days for it to appear in every world-wide region.

I live in Ireland and it ain't having a bar of it for me. So is there another site to purchase it from?

[Peter Stirling]

There she is, at the back of the Arrival singer, everybody's favourite totp's audience dancing girl.

Another book for you Peter.. the totp's dancing girls ..who were they? where did they go?

[Sal Mohammed]

Sept 28, 2021 13:24:24 GMT petercheck said:

Thank you all!  I'm extremely pleased with it (the e-book preview doesn't really do the paperback justice).  


Does anyone recognise all the acts on the cover?  They have something in common!  

They're all still alive?

They all survived attention from JS?

They're all on the front cover?

The selling point for me with this book and most interesting parts of it is all the quotes you've managed to get from the artists who were on the show. A pity so many from the 60's and 70's are no longer with us and their recollections never recorded. If you're able to speak to more artists who appeared on the show, it would make an interesting second volume with all their stories of appearing on the show. A pity some of them may be out of reach.

The line up of the shows can easily be found on the internet which others on this site have probably contributed at some stage so to me isn't as interesting as the stories.

[petercheck]

Thank you Sal. I'm guessing that apart from the episode guides, the main selling points will be the quotes, the screen shots (100's of them, including many you won't find on YouTube - all without TV logos!), the bios (very up to date - Status Quo's even includes Alan Lancaster's sad demise from 3 days ago), and probably the most accurate guide anywhere to what still survives.

Oh, and what do they have in common? They were all interviewed for the book (obviously not Phil Lynott/Tony Ashton/Dean Ford, but members of Thin Lizzy/Ashton, Gardner & Dyke/Marmalade contributed).  

I agree it is important that we get these people's stories, while we can!  I doubt if people like Jim McClusky (Wigan's Ovation) and Julie Hammersley (The Angelettes) had ever publicly told their TOTP tales, yet they're amongst the most entertaining in the book. Of course, not everyone is complimentary: Murray Head has less than fond memories of his 3 appearances on the show, which I published in full (despite only 1 of them being within the book's timeline). 

[petercheck]

Sept 28, 2021 21:21:26 GMT Peter Stirling said:

There she is, at the back of the Arrival singer, everybody's favourite totp's audience dancing girl.

Another book for you Peter.. the totp's dancing girls ..who were they? where did they go?

Haha!

Really loved the TOTP sets during 1970/early 1971.

Here is a strong candidate for my favourite TOTP clip ever:



Lulu in hot pants and with a blue streak, Maurice Gibb, various Stone The Crows and The Ladybirds, the classic 6-piece Pan's People, A fabulous set, a grinning but suave Tony Blackburn... it really does have everything (and it still failed to chart!).