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| 1943 births | |
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| living people | |
| british television presenters | |
| 1960s | |
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Cathy McGowan (born 1943 ) is a British broadcaster and journalist, best remembered as the presenter from 1964-6 of Rediffusion television’s ground-breaking rock music show, '' Ready Steady Go! '' ''READY STEADY GO!'' ''Ready Steady Go!'' ''(RSG)'' was first broadcast in August 1963, its launch coinciding with the rise of the Beatles as the major force in popular music in the 1960s both in Britain and internationally See, for example, William Mann in ''The Times'', 23 December 1963; Dominic Sandbrook (2005) ''Never Had It So Good''. As one historian of television reflected in the 1970s, "the revolution had the greatest possible effect on television ... and hindsight commentators were to see the year {Link without Title} as a line of demarcation drawn between one kind of Britain and another" Burton Graham (1974) ''A Do You Remember Book: Television''. With its slogan ,"the weekend starts here" ''Oxford Dictionary of 20th Century Quotations'' (1998) 59:11, ''RSG'' was shown weekly on Friday evenings from 6-7pm ''Halliwell's Television Companion'' (3rd ed 1986). Its original presenter Richard Williams in ''The Guardian'', 13 February 2006. "QUEEN OF THE MODS" McGowan seemed totally in tune with the times - "the girl of the day", according to , future editor of American '' Vogue '', was among the Teenagers whom the show introduced to fashion, according to Wintour's biographer Jerry Oppenheimer .Oppenheimer, Jerry;Front Row: The Cool Life and Hot Times of Vogue's Editor In Chief, St. Martin's Press, New York, 2005, ISBN 0-3123-231-07, 6 A similar empathy extended to the artists that McGowan introduced and interviewed. The singer Donovan , whose career was launched in 1965 by his regular appearances on ''RSG'', recalled McGowan as the "young Mary Quant look hostess" (Quant being the leading British proponent of the Mini-skirt , which McGowan helped to popularise), with whom he developed an "easy-going" style of on-screen conversation Donovan (2005) ''The Hurdy Gurdy Man''. Young musicians felt neither patronised nor ingratiated by her and fashionable words, such as "fab", seemed to trip naturally off her tongue. By Christmas 1965 McGowan's fame was such that her name was coupled with that of rising singer Jonathan King in a roll call of stars on the Barron Knights ' seasonal "hit" record, ''Merrie Gentle Pops'': :Andy, Sandie , Pitney , Proby , :Cathy McGowan and Jonathan King It is not obvious who "Andy" was, though the reference may have been to American singer Andy Williams .. Impact on the "swinging" sixties McGowan was an early patron of Richard Wiseman (2006) ''Whatever Happened to Simon Dee?''. She also endorsed a portable make-up set known as "Cathy's Survival Kit". Barbara Hulanicki , who founded Biba, recalled that "the girls aped Cathy's long hair and eye-covering fringe and soon their little faces were growing heavy with stage make-up" Madeleine Marsh (1999) ''Collecting the Sixties''. Julia Dykins , half-sister of John Lennon of the Beatles, recalled how, despite wearing black eye make-up, black Polo Neck s and dyed black Jeans "''à la'' Cathy McGowan", she was still unable to convince doormen at the Cavern Club in Liverpool , where the Beatles first came to prominence, that she was over the age for admission of eighteen Julia Baird (2007) ''Imagine This''. It has been claimed that the formation in 1966 of a British Society for the Preservation of the Miniskirt was prompted by McGowan's indicating that she would wear a long skirt on ''RSG'' Tom Robbins in ''New York Times'', 1995 {Link without Title} . After Fordyce’s departure in March 1965, McGowan continued to present ''RSG'' until it ended on 23 December 1966. In 1965 a decision that artists should perform live on the show {Link without Title} gave it the additional immediacy and edge that its substantially longer-running BBC rival, '' Top Of The Pops '' (1964-2006), never really acquired; indeed, the latter retained the services of a Mancunian model Samantha Juste - in the context of television, McGowan's own rival of sorts - as its "disc girl" until 1967. Although ''RSG'''s momentum had begun to flag by the time of its demise, it had become a " Cult programme" Richard Whiteley (2000) ''Himoff!'' whose substantial impact on the music scene and, notably through McGowan, on the "swinging" Sixties more generally was widely acknowledged. McGowan, who was a 5 foot 4½ inch (1.63 metres) brunette, also did modelling work during this period and presented a show on Radio Luxemburg. AFTER ''READY STEADY GO!'' After ''RSG'', McGowan contined to work in journalism and broadcasting. She was a board member of London’s and Jonathan Ross a show by British comedians to mark the 30th anniversary of Amnesty International . FAMILY In 1970 McGowan married the actor Hywel Bennett (b. 1944) ''Who's Who 1992''. Some Internet sources give the date of McGowan's wedding as 1970, but Bennett's ''Who's Who'' entry is clear as to 1967., who appeared in such films as '' The Family Way '' (1966) and '' The Virgin Soldiers '' (1969). They had a daughter, Emma. McGowan was divorced from Bennett in 1988 and, since the early 1990s, has been the partner of Michael Ball, almost twenty years her junior {Link without Title} . Ball was godfather to McGowan's grandson, Connor, son of Emma. McGowan's brother John McGowan was a disc jockey in 1965 on King Radio , a "pirate" station broadcasting from a fort in the Thames Estuary {Link without Title} . In the mid 1990s the death from Ovarian Cancer of his wife Angela, a close friend of Cathy McGowan since their teens, led to his becoming the co-founder of a charity supporting research into the disease {Link without Title} . NOTES |
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