For the last year or so I’ve been watching TOTPS on BBC4 on Thursday evenings…for those that don’t know, they’ve been running the episodes in order through the 70’s and now it’s in to the 80’s.
On one hand it’s been great to see episodes that were originally shown 35-40 years ago that I remember watching when they were first shown, but on the other hand quite frightening that it certainly makes you realize how quickly time goes by…I wonder what Pans People look like now!.
Unfortunately iI don’t think it’s on this week, due to the tv strikes that put TOTPS off air…btw, they also cut the epidodes involing any presenter that’s had any connection with the Yewtree investigations, and ofcourse Jimmy Saville.
There are some great acts on there, it shows the diversity of the chart too.
Back then you could see a US soul act, a punk band, straight into Boney M - a proper mix of styles, unlike the grey mainstream music spoon fed to the lazy public today.
Some radio stations now have a playlist of just a dozen songs, often forced upon them by corporations, and the thickos out there don’t realise there are more options available if only they would seek it out.
TotP may have been a haven of criminality but at least it had balanced musical content!
Meh, at times. The show was fucking dreadful in the late 80s, nowt but Stock Aitken and Waterman’s plaything. Also, I loved the way that the show seemed to insist on acts miming.
The depressing thing is that with the barnet and all, people often sing this song at me. Especially in the 'States, where they don’t know accents and shit.
Oh, and you can also tell how times and attitudes have changed since the 70’s by the odd group/song that is shown occassionally…a couple of years ago they showed a group called Black Gorilla singing ‘gimme dat banana’…I was