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Post by Geoff.D on Oct 8, 2023 9:35:00 GMT
I've had this for years.I located this - if you trawl earlier posts from way back - in CW Productions library in Kent. It's still there. archives.cwideprods.co.uk/film.php?intAsset=27077&filterBy=gnome&source=This was not put on youtube for copyright reasons, by me or anyone else who I knew had it. I don't upload anyway, I search. Kaleidoscope got a copy in 2016. It was shown last year as part of a reconstruction of the 500th TOTP as done by my good pal Robert Reinstein at a Kaleidoscope event. It had, surprisingly, been shown on a European satellite channel sometime in the 1980s. Technically speaking, it's never been missing, just it lies in an archive which has no connection with the BBC or Caravel Films. The uploader claims to have been given a load of TOTP stuff by a friend of his who used to work for the BBC so it might be worth contacting him to see what else he’s got as he also claims to have a similar clip for John, I’m Only Dancing. |
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Post by Ray Langstone (was saintsray) on Oct 8, 2023 9:58:25 GMT
I've had this for years.I located this - if you trawl earlier posts from way back - in CW Productions library in Kent. It's still there. archives.cwideprods.co.uk/film.php?intAsset=27077&filterBy=gnome&source=This was not put on youtube for copyright reasons, by me or anyone else who I knew had it. I don't upload anyway, I search. Kaleidoscope got a copy in 2016. It was shown last year as part of a reconstruction of the 500th TOTP as done by my good pal Robert Reinstein at a Kaleidoscope event. It had, surprisingly, been shown on a European satellite channel sometime in the 1980s. Technically speaking, it's never been missing, just it lies in an archive which has no connection with the BBC or Caravel Films. The uploader claims to have been given a load of TOTP stuff by a friend of his who used to work for the BBC so it might be worth contacting him to see what else he’s got as he also claims to have a similar clip for John, I’m Only Dancing. The video shown for John I'm Only Dancing was a Caravel film which featured Ruth from Pan's People and no Bowie. It exists and is widely in circulation. Bowie's promo film is extant and has been released on DVD. |
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Post by Ray Langstone (was saintsray) on Oct 8, 2023 10:04:51 GMT
The uploader claims to have been given a load of TOTP stuff by a friend of his who used to work for the BBC so it might be worth contacting him to see what else he’s got as he also claims to have a similar clip for John, I’m Only Dancing. The video shown for John I'm Only Dancing was a Caravel film which featured Ruth from Pan's People and no Bowie. It exists and is widely in circulation. Bowie's promo film is extant and has been released on DVD. Also - having watched the upload - it is more than clear that this has been taken from the 500th TOTP reconstruction as done (brilliantly) by Robert Reinstein at the recent Kaleidoscope event, as nowhere else can you find the unique edit of Kenny talking before the film. So, putting this as politely as I can.... this did not come from the BBC. (IN ADDITION, the BBC DON'T have this. OR the audio before. This comes wholesale from the Kaleidoscope reconstruction.) |
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Post by richardwoods on Oct 8, 2023 18:31:39 GMT
Hi Ray,
Excellent news!
As you mentioned the satellite broadcast, I posted a few years back that the visual to The Laughing Gnome was shown on the Onyx satellite music channel in 1996/7.
I was completely gob smacked that it was missing as I had stupidly assumed that, as it was a regular on kids tv request shows in the 70’s, like the Sugar Sugar cartoon, it would have survived, reinforced by watching it on Onyx relatively recently. Great to see it again, it has really made me smile.
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Post by richardwoods on Oct 8, 2023 18:40:48 GMT
I think I asked this before to deafening silence. Does anyone remember a visual for a Bowie track with Bowie, (or a Bowie alike) seeing Angie (or an Angie alike) off on a departing steam train? No idea which track but I seem to remember it being on TOTP?
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Post by Ray Langstone (was saintsray) on Oct 8, 2023 19:34:10 GMT
I think I asked this before to deafening silence. Does anyone remember a visual for a Bowie track with Bowie, (or a Bowie alike) seeing Angie (or an Angie alike) off on a departing steam train? No idea which track but I seem to remember it being on TOTP? I'm going to research briefly. Eschewing the 69 Space Oddity release, it would have to come in the 72-75 period, right? Bowie's next hit single after 69 was in 1972. If it was a Caravel film - as all Bowie's own promo films are accounted for it would have to have been transmitted sometime between 1972 and the last Caravel (which appears to be 'My Boy', Elvis, which is extant and was last shown January 1975). Ergo, the singles in that period were:- Starman - no Caravel made John I'm Only Dancing - Caravel Film exists the Jean Genie - artist promo shown and exists Drive-In Saturday - Caravel Film missing, but a rough description involving a couple, a car, and a 'video machine' is known Life on Mars - BBC film shown and exists the Laughing Gnome - Caravel Film exists Sorrow - no Caravel Film made Rebel Rebel - Pans People dance (exists) no Caravel Film made Rock and Roll Suicide - song not transmitted Diamond Dogs - song not transmitted Knock on Wood -Caravel Film exists This doesn't look great, but I am NOT dissing your memory here.It was only a few wee years ago that we had no paperwork or anything except a few viewers memories about the lost Drive-In Saturday Caravel - and after my visit to BBC Caversham it transpired that the PasB for 19/04/1973 edition was lost. In fact, the recent discovery of the Xmas Day 1967 TOTP audio shows the programme had Traffic on it - which is not listed on the 'Popscene' database (the 'go-to' for TOTP information) It wasn't even known that a BBC Film was made for the Big O's 'It's Over' (in Stratford Upon Avon) by contemporary TV historians until last month. Your memory may well be right. I am not discounting this possibility of an unlogged or forgotten and disregarded Bowie Caravel Film being shown. It's just I can't prove there was one right now. |
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Post by Peter Stirling on Oct 8, 2023 19:41:46 GMT
So you can imagine the situation in the TOTP office...
"OMG! Bowie's laughing gnome is climbing the charts - what the hell are we going to do? Bowie won't
sing it, Pans People need more time to choreograph this thing "
"you have 4 days to come up with something"
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Post by Ray Langstone (was saintsray) on Oct 8, 2023 19:57:43 GMT
So you can imagine the situation in the TOTP office... "OMG! Bowie's laughing gnome is climbing the charts - what the hell are we going to do? Bowie won't sing it, Pans People need more time to choreograph this thing " "you have 4 days to come up with something" And that, I'm told is almost exactly what it was like. Tom Taylor would get a call from the BBC office, getting him out of his bed in Bury St Edmunds and it would be 'make a film for this record, you've got 3/4/5 days'. .... and Pan's People would get around the same time period to choreograph and nail a routine. Respect is due just for what they achieved in such a short timeframe. |
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Post by mattchurchett on Oct 8, 2023 20:07:22 GMT
Interesting to note that the video was posted on YouTube 4 days ago, which was 4th October 2023. Exactly 50 years to the day after the 500th episode was shown on 4th October 1973. Coincidence?  |
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Post by John Green on Oct 8, 2023 20:16:04 GMT
The Beano being read by one of the gnomes is issue 1627, dated 22nd September 1973. While the cover always showed Saturday's date, the Beano was on sale at newsagents a few days earlier. |
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Post by Ray Langstone (was saintsray) on Oct 8, 2023 20:42:09 GMT
Interesting to note that the video was posted on YouTube 4 days ago, which was 4th October 2023. Exactly 50 years to the day after the 500th episode was shown on 4th October 1973. Coincidence? No. The upload of the video comes from the 500th TOTP episode reconstruction from 04/10/1973 as made by Robert Reinstein for Kaleidoscope and the uploader knew exactly what they were doing! |
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Post by richardwoods on Oct 9, 2023 15:36:53 GMT
I think I asked this before to deafening silence. Does anyone remember a visual for a Bowie track with Bowie, (or a Bowie alike) seeing Angie (or an Angie alike) off on a departing steam train? No idea which track but I seem to remember it being on TOTP? I'm going to research briefly. Eschewing the 69 Space Oddity release, it would have to come in the 72-75 period, right? Bowie's next hit single after 69 was in 1972. If it was a Caravel film - as all Bowie's own promo films are accounted for it would have to have been transmitted sometime between 1972 and the last Caravel (which appears to be 'My Boy', Elvis, which is extant and was last shown January 1975). Ergo, the singles in that period were:- Starman - no Caravel made John I'm Only Dancing - Caravel Film exists the Jean Genie - artist promo shown and exists Drive-In Saturday - Caravel Film missing, but a rough description involving a couple, a car, and a 'video machine' is known Life on Mars - BBC film shown and exists the Laughing Gnome - Caravel Film exists Sorrow - no Caravel Film made Rebel Rebel - Pans People dance (exists) no Caravel Film made Rock and Roll Suicide - song not transmitted Diamond Dogs - song not transmitted Knock on Wood -Caravel Film exists This doesn't look great, but I am NOT dissing your memory here.It was only a few wee years ago that we had no paperwork or anything except a few viewers memories about the lost Drive-In Saturday Caravel - and after my visit to BBC Caversham it transpired that the PasB for 19/04/1973 edition was lost. In fact, the recent discovery of the Xmas Day 1967 TOTP audio shows the programme had Traffic on it - which is not listed on the 'Popscene' database (the 'go-to' for TOTP information) It wasn't even known that a BBC Film was made for the Big O's 'It's Over' (in Stratford Upon Avon) by contemporary TV historians until last month. Your memory may well be right. I am not discounting this possibility of an unlogged or forgotten and disregarded Bowie Caravel Film being shown. It's just I can't prove there was one right now. Cheers Ray. No issues with questioning memory, I’m the first to realise that it can cheat. Timescales look spot on. I was wondering if it might have been something from the early 70’s TOTP album spot, it could even have been stock footage of Bowie seeing Angie off on the train, my thoughts are that it could well have been. Are you sure that there was no film made for Rebel Rebel as that rings a bell as a possibility? |
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Post by Ray Langstone (was saintsray) on Oct 9, 2023 19:11:02 GMT
Rebel Rebel is supposed to have featured three times - backing the chart countdown, the following week it was the playout and then a fortnight later it was the recovered PP routine. However, as I said, I'm just going off databases here, we've been wrong before.
Bowie never did an album spot; during 1971 his only visit to the TOTP studio was to play piano for Peter Noone.
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Post by mjhopkins on Oct 9, 2023 20:23:55 GMT
For those that aren't aware, Bowie does have one tiny additional entry for Top of the Pops. Though his appearance for 'Space Oddity' is lost, he does appear in the chart rundown which accompanies 'Sugar Sugar' at No.1. It's one of 5 items that survives from the 13th November 1969 edition and got the biggest cheer of the afternoon when shown at the 'Music Believed Wiped' event at the BFI in 2019.
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Post by robertreinstein on Oct 10, 2023 0:02:12 GMT
For those that aren't aware, Bowie does have one tiny additional entry for Top of the Pops. Though his appearance for 'Space Oddity' is lost, he does appear in the chart rundown which accompanies 'Sugar Sugar' at No.1. It's one of 5 items that survives from the 13th November 1969 edition and got the biggest cheer of the afternoon when shown at the 'Music Believed Wiped' event at the BFI in 2019. That's very nice to hear. That chart rundown is classic! I had found those 13 November 1969 TOTP excerpts in an ORF pilot that was never broadcast. Unfortunately I couldn't attend the event where it was shown. |
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