Top of the Pops 1968 Edition

[Andrew Martin]

markkerridge said:

There are (as mentioned elsewhere) quite a few editions that survive like that (there's even at least one from the early 80s, though there at least most of the show survives on VHS...

Thanks Andrew - so, to clarify, does that mean that the broadcast quality version of this early 1980s edition has mute presenter links and there is no complete broadcast quality version as originally transmitted?

By the way, which edition are we talking about? I was under the impression that all TOTP editions from late 1977 onwards existed in their transmitted form and held in broadcast quality formats.

All editions exist from late 77, and as far as I know all but that one exist as transmitted - presumably either someone wiped the tx tape or it was recorded like that in error (it may have been a live edition, I'm not sure, perhaps if so the stress got to someone?). I can't remember which edition it was at the moment, and Infax doesn't seem to say, I think it may have been an edition from 1982, though it could have been 1981 (definitely the 80s anyway...). And yes it is the only broadcast standard copy.

[Paul Watkins]

did anyone spot the slight glitch or two coming out of the perfs back to Noel Edmonds in '78 ?

Are you referring to the 'link' between Brian & Michael and the Floral Dance?
This looks like something may have been edited out for some reason. Anyone know?

[robb]

nothing seemed to be edited out, it had a few flickers coming out of the tracks and back to Noel, and the playout was from vinyl !!

[Simon Mclean]

andrewmartin said:

The BBC4 version came in at 45'29" - the original transmission was 44'31"! The existing copy is a 35mm film recording presumably made as a back up or archival copy of the original 405 line VT, so it's possible that the VT was edited when it first went out, by all of a minute, and the copy that survives wasn't... so all we have to do is work out what we got last night that they didn't see in 1967!

I would imagine it was the lengthy playout of the audience dancing to the theme tune at the end that was cut - it seems TOTPs well into the 70s left a bit extra on the end credits, presumably for timing reasons?

Re: 30/12/71, I can only assume Pan's People kissing Stewpot has something to do with the eyepatch he's sporting....in some ways I like not knowing what's going on, though!

[robb]

the eyepatch was connected to the pirate theme of the show as they played the theme to the "Mute" Onedin line theme (Katuchurian arrangement)

and the 80's TOTP was the one which wedding bells was slightly snipped, i think

[metalman]

hi, does anyone know who played live on "top of the pops" on june 17th 1971 & july 1st 1971.jimmy saville was DJ on both ocassions & is there any footage available.

[Peter Elliott]

metalman said:

hi, does anyone know who played live on "top of the pops" on june 17th 1971 & july 1st 1971.jimmy saville was DJ on both ocassions & is there any footage available.

Yes both shows exist. You can find a list of who performed on them here.

homepage.ntlworld.com/e.watkins/musictv/interest2.htm

[Chris Barratt]

The Feb '69 is fairly poor musically anyway - especially compared to the 2 1968 shows. Apparantly Xmas 69 exists in full after being found on VT in a skip somewhere in London several years ago and has recently been transferred to dvd, certainly performances from it (such as Clodagh Rodgers' Goodnight Midnight) seem to be surfacing all of a sudden. That show is especially notable for being one of the first colour TOTP's (the 5th?), and as Pete Murray's last regular TOTP (much as Xmas 78 was Edmonds' last stand). Pete Seaton claims to have a copy, and I'm sure the people at KAL will know more

robb said:

Yes they do, though Feb 69 is a bit of a cut and shut affair with the opening titles and a join during Sandie Shaw's Monsieur Dupont. Xmas '69 only exists as a 10 minute entity with both with opening and closing credits (end being in rehearsal stages)

did anyone spot the slight glitch or two coming out of the perfs back to Noel Edmonds in '78 ?

[robb]

Pete does have a copy on DVD but it's only the only surviving 10 minutes of it, and the only remainders from that show only survive elsewhere due to broadcasts on other shows around that time.

[Paul Watkins]

You can watch the Christmas 1978 show on the BBC i player for the next few days.
It's now available to watch 'streaming' so you don't need to download if you don't want to.

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b008ptfg.shtml?filter=category%3A100006&start=2&scope=iplayercategories&version_pid=b008pt37

[lpmoderator]

chrisbarratt said:

The Feb '69 is fairly poor musically anyway - especially compared to the 2 1968 shows. Apparantly Xmas 69 exists in full after being found on VT in a skip somewhere in London several years ago and has recently been transferred to dvd, certainly performances from it (such as Clodagh Rodgers' Goodnight Midnight) seem to be surfacing all of a sudden. That show is especially notable for being one of the first colour TOTP's (the 5th?), and as Pete Murray's last regular TOTP (much as Xmas 78 was Edmonds' last stand). Pete Seaton claims to have a copy, and I'm sure the people at KAL will know more
quote]

All that exists of Xmas '69 are the short segments and run-throughs. As yet, no complete tape is known to survive (sadly).

[metalman]

thanks jonny. can you tell me if shirley bassey was on there & georgie fame possibly with alan price.also are these episodes available to buy.

[metalman]

thanks jonny,i will search for it

[Kev James]

Just downloaded it - it's sourced from a UK Gold transmission - shame Middle of the Road was faded out with the credits.

Why cant we get repeats of these shows?

[StevePhillips]

lpmoderator said:

I think it was deliberately recorded that way (the links being transmitted live) with the sound for the speech being fed through a different channel to the music. Probably either to isolate the acts from the chatter to make it easier to re-use them (in subsequent editions or because they were circulated to overseas TV). I'm guessing here - Andrew Martin might be able to confirm or deny this theory if he's reading - but I don't think it was a mistake the links were mute. If someone has an off-air audio of the edition though...

I don't think that was the reason. There was a bloke on either here (or Mausoleum, or Roobarbs) at one point who worked on some of the TOTP. The mute stuff was something complicated to do with equalising the sound for the pre-recorded (mimed) tracks versus the live tracks. They made two tapes - one with live stuff mute, the other with mimed stuff mute, and the final edit was made by running them in sync and switching between them with the volumes set at appropriate levels for the final output.

(Very vaguely like A & B roll editing for 16mm film, if you see what I mean - cept that's nothing to do with volumes).

Certainly nothing to do with overseas sales. Look at this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=E12ZcvBDsA0. Taking the sound off of Jimmy (sorry, Percy) makes this clip *more* difficult to use elsewhere, not easier!