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''Top of the Pops'', also known as '''''TOTP''''', was a long-running British Music Chart Television Programme , made and broadcast by the BBC . It was originally shown each week, mostly on BBC One , from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006 . Each weekly programme consisted of performances from some of that week's best-selling Popular Music artists. Although the show was officially cancelled, Show's over for Top of the Pops , ''The Guardian'', , 2006 . It was also survived by a spin-off series known as '' TOTP2 '' (or ''Top of the Pops 2'') which started in 1994 and continued to run months after its predecessor had been axed. ''Top of the Pops'' has also been made available to television broadcasters in many different countries in the form of a franchise package. However, after some success, the majority of these have now also been cancelled. HISTORY The first show ''Top of the Pops'' began on New Year's Day 1964 in a studio (converted from a former church) on Dickenson Road in , Pete Murray and David Jacobs . A Mancunian model, Samantha Juste , was the regular "disc girl". "It's still number one" The show was originally intended to have only a few programmes but ran for over 42 years, reaching landmark episodes of 1000 and 2000 in , 2005 . Accessed 14 May , 2006 It was traditionally shown on a Thursday night, but was moved to a Friday starting on 14 June 1996 , a change which caused some controversy as this placed the programme up against the hugely popular soap opera, Coronation Street , on ITV . This was when the major decline in audiences began as fans were forced to choose between TOTP and missing an episode of their favourite soap. The show saw many changes through the decades: in style, design, fashion and taste. It periodically (usually every three years) had some aspect of its idents, format, or set design altered in some way, keeping the show looking modern despite its age. The show was closely associated with the BBC radio station Radio 1 , usually being presented by DJs from the station (although from October 1991 to January 1994 no Radio 1 DJs presented the show). During the last few years of airing the association was not as close as it once was. In its heyday during the Glam Rock era of the early 1970s, the show featured the tightly choreographed dance troupe Pan's People (later succeeded by Ruby Flipper , Legs & Co. and Zoo ), something which has been widely imitated on similar shows ever since. Pan's People were used when an act was unable to appear in person and no footage of them was available - a common occurrence in the era before promotional videos. In the mid-1990s, BBC Radio 1 producer Ric Blaxill was brought in to revamp the show. In one of the more radical relaunches in the programme's history, Blaxill handed presenting duties to a different celebrity each week. Presenters during this period included Kylie Minogue , 2 Unlimited , Chris Evans , Chris Eubank , Damon Albarn and Jarvis Cocker - with an attempt to create an iconic 'golden mic' that was used by the various presenters. The set was revamped to include thousands of holes, through which beams of light would illuminate the artists. This period also coincided with the Britpop era. For most of its history the show had very strict rules about which singles could be featured. A song could not appear if it was going down the charts, nor could any track appear on consecutive weeks unless it was at number one. These rules were abandoned in 1997 , possibly as a response to the changing nature of the Top 40 (in the late 1990s and early 2000s climbers in the charts were a rarity, with almost all singles peaking at their debut position). When the programme's format changed in November 2003 it concentrated increasingly on the top 10. Later, during the BBC2 era, the top 20 was regarded as the main cut-off point, with the exception made for up and coming bands below the top 20. Singles from below the top 40 (within the top 75) were shown if the band were up and coming or had a strong selling album. If a single being performed was below the top 40, just the words "New Entry" were shown and not the chart position. ''All New Top of the Pops'' On 28 November 2003, the show saw one of its most radical overhauls in what was widely reported as a make-or-break attempt to revitalise the long-running series. In a break with the previous format, the show played more up-and-coming tracks ahead of any chart success, and also featured interviews with artists. The launch show, which was live and an hour long, was notable for an audacious performance of Flip/Reverse by Blazin' Squad , featuring hordes of hooded teenagers choreographed to dance around the outside of BBC TV Centre. The new show, hosted by MTV presenter Tim Kash launched to hit ratings and continued to pull in big name artists and film stars. Kash continued to host the show for a year and later left to a new contract at MTV. The show was then co-hosted by Reggie Yates and Fearne Cotton every Friday night until 8 July 2005 . The final Top of the Pops to be shown on BBC One was broadcasted on Monday , 11 July 2005 , which was edition number 2,166. By November 2004, viewing figures had plummeted to below three million, prompting announcement by the , 2004 . Accessed 14 May , 2006 This move was widely reported as a final 'sidelining' of the show, and perhaps signalled its likely cancellation. At the time, it was insisted that this was so that the show would air immediately after the official announcement of the new top 40 chart on Radio 1 , as it was thought that by the following Friday, the chart seemed out-of-date. The first edition on BBC Two was broadcast on 17 July 2005 at 7pm with presenter Fearne Cotton . After the move to Sundays, Cotton continued to host with a different guest presenter each week, such as Rufus Hound or Richard Bacon . Viewing figures averaged around 1.5 million. ''The Final Countdown'' On 20 June 2006 , the show was formally cancelled and it was announced that the last edition would be broadcast on 30 July 2006 . Edith Bowman co-presented its hour-long swansong, along with Sir Jimmy Savile (who had presented the first show), Reggie Yates , Mike Read , Pat Sharp , Sarah Cawood , Dave Lee Travis , Rufus Hound , Tony Blackburn and Janice Long . The show was recorded on 26 July 2006 and featured archive footage and tributes, including The Rolling Stones - the very first band to appear on ''Top of the Pops'' - opening with ''The Last Time'', the Spice Girls , David Bowie , Wham! , Madonna , Beyoncé , Gnarls Barkley , Kylie Minogue , Sophie Ellis Bextor and Robbie Williams . The show closed with a final countdown, topped by Shakira , as her track '' Hips Don't Lie '' (featuring Wyclef Jean ) had climbed back up to number one on the UK Singles Chart earlier in the day. The show ended with Sir Jimmy turning the lights off in the empty studio. Fearne Cotton , who was the current presenter was unavailable to co-host for the final edition due to her filming of ITV1 's '' Love Island '' in Fiji but kicked off the show with a quick introduction recorded on location, saying "It's still number one, it's Top Of The Pops". BARB reported the final show's viewing figures as 3.98 million.http://www.barb.co.uk/viewingsummary/weekreports.cfm?report=total After the end The magazine, international versions, the Christmas specials and TOTP2 are to continue despite the axing. Some staff also suggested that the show will return after a hiatus of a few years, according to the documentary 'Top of the Pops: The True Story' shown on BBC2 after the final show had aired. However the TOTP website, which the BBC had originally promised would continue, is now no longer updated, although many of the old features of the site - interviews, music news, reviews - have remained, now in the form of the Radio 1-affiliated TOTP ChartBlog accessible via the remains of the old website. The 2006 Christmas edition was scheduled for its usual hour long Christmas day slot on 2006 The show style and format returned to normal (for a post 2002 Christmas edition) featuring almost all new performances on the most recent set design with the same on screen graphics and logos. No reference to the previous 'finale' was made. The show was also given another special reprive for Comic Relief 2007 in the form of " Top Gear Of The Pops ". This one-off special was presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May and filmed at the Top Gear aerodrome studio in Surrey on Sunday 11 March 2007. Theme music A version of Led Zeppelin 's " Whole Lotta Love " by C. C. S. was used as the show's theme tune for most of the 1970s, and also in a remixed version between 1998 and 2003, although ironically the band never performed on the show. Between 1978 and 1980 the show had no regular theme music at all, instead using a song from the current charts to accompany the Top 30 run-down at the start of the programme - but "Whole Lotta Love" was re-introduced as the theme (albeit briefly) in 1980. There was also no theme music at all between Summer 1997 and Spring 1998, instead the introduction of the first performance played out to the title sequence. In 1981, the album track , "Yellow Pearl" by Phil Lynott was commissioned as the new theme music. This was replaced in 1986 with "The Wizard", a composition by Paul Hardcastle . Two different variations of The Wizard were heard on the show - the latter was commercially released as a single. Between 1995 and 1998 the theme was a track called Red Hot Pop composed by Vince Clarke of Erasure . The final theme was a remixed version of that used between 1991 and 1995, composed by Tony Gibber. Miming Initially acts performing on the show Mimed to the commercially released record, but in July 1966, after discussions with the Musicians' Union miming was banned. After a few weeks during which some bands' attempts to play as well as on their records were somewhat lacking, a compromise was reached whereby a specially recorded Backing Track was permitted - as long as all the musicians on the track were present in the studio. The TOTP Orchestra, led by Johnny Pearson augmented the tracks when necessary. This set-up continued until 1980, when a protracted Musicians' Union strike resulted in the dropping of the live orchestra altogether and the use of pre-recorded tracks only. This accounts for a number of acts who never appeared on the show due to their reluctance to perform in this way. Highlights have included Jimi Hendrix who, on hearing someone else's track being played by mistake (in the days of live broadcast), mumbled "I don't know the words to that one, Man", Shane Macgowan of The Pogues ' drunken performance of " Fairytale Of New York ", a legendary performance of ' Roll With It ' by Oasis in which Noel and Liam Gallagher exchanged roles with Noel miming to Liam's singing track and Liam pretending to play guitar (which he was hopeless at) and John Peel 's appearance as the mandolin soloist for Rod Stewart on " Maggie May ". Two other memorable incidents included performances by Marillion ; an appearance for Garden Party saw Fish miming perfectly except from the line "I'm miming" (which was changed from the original "I'm fucking" for broadcast purposes), when he simply pointed at his closed lips. Two years later, Fish lost his voice prior to an appearance for 'Lavender' and, despite only needing to mime, had the lyrics placed on large pieces of card and flipped them over in time with the recorded version. For virtually the whole "Live Sound" period, the Sound Supervisor was the late Dickie Chamberlain, who so skilfully reproduced the sound of the original discs with a fraction of the kit available in the recording studios. The miming policy also led to the occasional technical hitch. A famous example of this is the performance of " Martha's Harbour " in 1988 by All About Eve where the televised audience could hear the song but the band could not. As the opening verse of the song beamed out of the nation's television sets, the unknowing lead singer Julianne Regan remained silent on a stool on stage while Tim Bricheno (the only other band member present) did not play his guitar. An unseen stagehand apparently prompted them that something was wrong in time to mime along to the second verse. The band were invited back the following week, and chose to sing live. For a few years from 1991 the show adopted a live vocal to pre-recorded backing track policy. Kurt Cobain on " Smells Like Teen Spirit " dropped his voice an octave and changed the opening line to "Load up on drugs, kill your friends"; the band also made it very clear that they were not playing their instruments. (Kurt later said during an interview that he wanted to sound more like Morrissey during the performance) — it also exposed a number of poor live singers, and was dropped as a general rule. In its final few years miming had become less and less common, especially for bands, as studio technology became more reliable and artists were given the freedom to choose their performance style. Former Executive Producer, Andi Peters , stated that there was "no policy" on miming and said that it was entirely up to the performer if they wanted to sing live or mime. MISSING EPISODES Because of the BBC's former policy of deleting old programmes (see Wiping ), the vast majority of the episodes from the first ten years of the programme's history have been lost, including the only live appearance by The Beatles . Unique Beatles recording lost, BBC News, 7 July 2000 Of the first 500 episodes (1964-73) only about 20 complete recordings remain in the BBC archives. The earliest surviving footage dates from February 26 1964 and consists of performances by Billy J. Kramer And The Dakotas and The Dave Clark Five . Some programmes exist only partially (largely performances that were either pre-recorded or re-used in later editions). There are also cases of shows that only exist in their raw, unedited form. Many are also silent on the presenter links (these versions were made so that performances could be re-used in future episodes). The oldest complete episode in existence was originally transmitted on Boxing Day in 1967 (only four complete recordings from the 1960s survive- two of which with mute presenter links). The most recent that is not held is dated September 8 1977 . All editions after this date exist in full. The April 5 1984 episode was never made, as BBC1 was off air the entire day due to Industrial Action . Additionally, the programme was forced off the air for several weeks by industrial action by the Musicians' Union in both 1974 and 1980 . SPIN-OFFS Top of the Pops has a sister show called '' TOTP2 '' which uses archive footage from as early as the late 1960s. It began on 17 September 1994 and has only been shown on BBC Two . In summer 2004 BBC Two's controller, Roly Keating, announced that it was being "rested". Shortly after UKTV G2 began showing re-edited versions of earlier programmes with re-recorded dialogue. Finally after a two year break ''TOTP2'' returned to the BBC Two schedules for a new series on Saturday 30 September 2006 in an evening timeslot It was still narrated by Steve Wright and featured a mixture of performances from the ''TOTP'' archive and newly-recorded performances. The first edition of this series featured new performances by Razorlight and Nelly Furtado recorded after the final episode of ''Top of the Pops''. Aired on and Scott Mills . It later reappeared on the BBC World Service in May 2003 . The defunct channel with Cat Deeley . SEND-UPS A number of performers have sent up the format in various ways. Mainly this has been performers who disliked the mime format of the show, often as a more effective protest against this rather than just refusing to appear.
impersonating his brother on TOTP]]
LOCAL VERSIONS Europe The TOTP format was sold to used to broadcast re-edited episodes of the BBC version, the weekend after it was transmitted in the UK. United States ''Top of the Pops'' had short-lived fame in the United States . In 1987, the CBS television network decided to try an American version of the show. It was hosted by Nia Peeples and even showed performances from the BBC version of the programme. The show was presented on late Friday nights and lasted almost a year. In 2002, BBC America presented the BBC version of ''Top of the Pops'' as part of their weekend schedule. The network would get the episodes one week after they were transmitted in the UK. BBC America then tinkered with the show by cutting a few minutes out of each show and moving it to a weekday time slot. On January 23 , 2006 , Svengali Lou Pearlman made a deal to bring "Top of the Pops" back to the airwaves in the United States . It is expected to be similar to the 1987 version, but it will also utilize the Billboard Magazine music charts, most notably the Hot 100 chart. It was supposed to be planned for a possible 2006 or 2007 launch, but with several lawsuits against Lou and his companies, as well as the cancellation of the UK version its unlikely it will go forward. On August 19 , 2006 , VH1 aired the UK series' final episode. The United States had its own similar series, '' American Bandstand '', which aired nationally on ABC from 1957 to 1989. New Zealand The ''Top of the Pops'' brand has also been exported to New Zealand which for many years had to rely on music-video only shows to demonstrate its Top 20 (as well as the occasional season of the UK version of TOTP) as the world's top acts found New Zealand just too far away from the major markets to visit regularly. This all changed when the New Zealand government suggested a voluntary New Zealand music quota on radio (basically a threat that if the stations did not impose a quota themselves then one would be imposed on them). This worked and suddenly the amount of indigenous music played on radio stations shot up, as did the number of New Zealand hits in the top 20. Therefore a new version of a show like ''Top of the Pops'' became feasible for the first time, and the show was commissioned by TVNZ . The show began in early 2004 with host Alex Behan . The hour-long show (as opposed to the 30 minute UK version) which is broadcast at 5pm on Saturdays on TV 2 (New Zealand) contains a mixture of songs recorded in the Auckland TVNZ studios as well as performances from the international versions of the show. The New Zealand Top 20 singles and Top 10 albums are also featured. Alex stayed as host for two years before Bede Skinner took over. Despite a popular fan base in early 2006 TVNZ announced that ''Top of the Pops'' has been axed and ideas for new music shows are currently being considered. Free-to-air music channel C4 then picked up the UK version of Top Of The Pops and aired it on Saturday's at 8pm with a repeat screening on Thursdays. However since the UK version has recently been axed itself, this arrangement has obviously now ended. Africa, Asia and the Middle East An edited version of the UK show can be seen on BBC Prime , the weekend after UK transmission. Latin America A complete version of the UK show can be seen on People+Arts , two weeks after the UK transmission. COMPILATION ALBUMS A number of compilation albums using the ''Top of the Pops'' brand have been issued over the years. The first one to reach the charts was "BBC TV's The Best Of Top of the Pops" on the Super Beeb record label in 1975, which reached number 21. Starting in 1968 and carrying on through the 1970s a rival series of "Top of the Pops" albums were produced, however these had no connection with the television series except for its name. They were a series of budget compilation Cover albums of current chart hits recorded by anonymous session singers and musicians released on the Hallmark record label. They had initially reached the charts but were later disallowed due to a change in the criteria for entering the charts. These albums continued to be produced until the early 1980s , when the advent of compilation albums featuring the original versions of hits, such as the Now That's What I Call Music series, led to a steep decline in their popularity. In the 1990s, the BBC "Top of the Pops" brand was again licensed for use in a tie-in compilation series. Starting in 1995 with Sony Music's Columbia Records label, these double disc collections moved to the special marketing arm of Polygram / Universal Music TV, before becoming a sister brand of the Now That's What I Call Music range in the EMI / Virgin /Universal joint venture. Similarly to the roles of "Top of the Pops" on BBC 1 and BBC 2 in the late 1990s and early 2000s , the compilation albums range featured current hits for the main series and classic hits (such as 70s Rock ) for the "Top of the Pops 2" spin-offs. Number One in the Compilation Charts These albums in the series reached No. 1:
TOP OF THE POPS MAGAZINE Top Of The Pops Magazine has been running since February 1995, and filled the void in the BBC magazine portfolio where Number One Magazine used to be. It began much in the mould of Q magazine, then changed its editorial policy to directly compete with popular teen celebrity magazines such as Smash Hits and Big, with free sticker giveaways replacing Brett Anderson covers. An early feature on the Spice Girls coined the famous "Spice" nicknames for each member (Baby, Ginger, Posh, Scary and Sporty) that stayed with them throughout their career as a group and beyond. The BBC have announced that the magazine will continue in publication despite the end of the television series. SONGS WHICH MENTION ''TOP OF THE POPS''
TRIVIA
DVDS In 2004 there was a DVD Released Called Top Of The Pops 40th Anniversary 1964-2004 DVD . It features one song for each year to celibrate its 40th Anniversary. LIST OF PERFORMERS See Also: List of performers on Top of the Pops LIST OF PERFORMANCES ON TOP OF THE POPS See Also: List of performances on Top of the Pops REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS Official
Videoclips
Episode guides and summaries
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