Top Of The Pops Gallery

Top Of The Pops Gallery

Missing...believed wiped

Foe-Dee-O-Dee:

The most popular music programme for many years in the UK was 'Top Of The Pops'. An appearance on the weekly show guaranteed a hit more often than not.

It seems the BBC were unaware of a potential goldmine as a huge number of shows were erased.

A number of Rubettes appearances did survive including one of the band performing 'Foe-Dee-O-Dee' on 1975/6/26 edition recorded on a domestic video recorder at the time.

This photo of Alan above was taken even earlier than that for a performance of 'Foe Dee O Dee' which unfortunately was erased. It's the only known image to have survived.

It was the first time the Rubettes promoted a single without their famous trademark white caps. On this occasion the band all wore matching 'tuxedo' t-shirts.

Interestingly, Tony Thorpe performed the piano solo which received praise from an unlikely source. Radio 1 legendary DJ, John Peel.

Juke Box Jive:

A few seconds of the Rubettes appearance survived in the home video collection of...Dick Emery !! It lasted long enough to show that Pete Arnesen was still in the band. 2 weeks later they were down to a 5 piece.

That edition was consequently screened at the British Film Institute. Who'd have thought ?

A full version of a later appearance of 'Juke Box Jive' has survived, recorded at home by an enthusiast.

The following summer the Rubettes were back in the charts again with 'Foe-Dee-O-Dee' and were featured on the show 3 times. One performance has survived.

The jpeg below is from the TOTP chart countdown of 24/7/75 but actually features a photo taken during a performance of 'Juke Box Jive'.

How do I know this ? Well, Alan doesn't have his acoustic guitar (that rules out 'Sugar Baby Love' & 'Tonight'), it's clearly a fast, dynamic song the band is playing and, crucially...the boys wore Light Blue then Yellow suits when they performed 'I Can Do It' on the show.

Therefore, it has to be 'Juke Box Jive'.

Early on during the performance, a girl dancer leapt onto the stage and jived with Alan for a few seconds. Whatever happened to her..? (There is a little information in the December 1974 newsletter. the girl was a model hired for the occasion).

Sugar Baby Love:

Fans of the original Rubettes will be pleased to see this photo. It comes from the intro of a 'Top Of The Pops' show broadcast May 2nd 1974.

I have now fully researched the story of the Rubettes first appearance on the show. It was a turning point in their lives.

The band actually made their debut on the April 25th edition. There was a sensational, immediate response to their performance. However, as their appearance was a last minute invitation, Polydor didn't have enough records to supply the demand.

The record entered the chart at # 27. While the band did not appear personally on TOTP that week, Polydor were hurriedly printing copies to meet the demand for the record.

The following week 'Sugar Baby Love' leapt to # 2 in the charts. That was unheard of for a new band at that time.

At the beginning of each show the BBC would have a 'chart rundown' from # 30 to # 1 with a picture of each act.

This particular week the Rubettes were # 27, the first time they'd appeared on the chart listings. The photograph was taken at the BBC studios and features the band in the White Suits and Caps they'd purchased from the Take 6 store in Carnaby Street.

Who was # 1 that week ? ABBA with 'Waterloo'... Not for long. 'Sugar Baby Love' was on a meteoric rise to the top ...and stayed there 4 weeks.

Top Of The Pops was first broadcast January 1st, 1964 and continued to be broadcast until July 30th, 2006.

Although most of the footage from the 1960's was wiped ( a catastrophic decision), clips are still broadcast regularly in the UK ( on TOTP 2) and in Europe (Einsfestival).

Performances from the show were often sold to European broadcasters including 'Disco' and 'Top Pop'. Many lost 'clips' have re-surfaced this way. Maybe some of the Rubettes may show up in time.

The Rubettes had to re-record each song they performed on Top Of The Pops in under 4 hours (any studio musician will tell you that takes some doing).

Musicians Union rules dictated that you couldn't just mime to the record.

It is Alan Williams voice you hear singing 'Sugar Baby Love' on any surviving TOTP video clips.

The Dutch tv station AVRO recently broadcast 'Sugar Baby Love' mistakenly thinking they originally filmed it. They didn't. It was actually filmed at the BBC for the 1974 Christmas edition of TOTP and licensed to AVRO for broadcast.

They also mistakenly implied that Alan Williams was miming to Paul Da Vinci's vocals. He wasn't. He mimed to his own vocals on a re-recorded track.

Alan & John attended the 40th anniversary edition of TOTP as guests. Co-incidentally, John found himself sat next to Boy George (John's last appearance on the show as a performer was with Boy George/Jesus Loves You. The song - 'Bow Down Mister')

The Rubettes TOTP performances that have survived are:

Sugar Baby Love

Tonight

Juke Box Jive*

I Can Do It

Foe Dee O Dee*

You're The Reason Why

Baby I Know

They can all be easily found on youtube.com except the 2 asterisked*.

Also, John has been re-discovered drumming for Barry Blue ('Do You Wanna' Dance') and the Baskin & Copperfield performance of 'I Never See The Sun' exists and can be found easily on youtube.

Top Of The Pops returned to the BBC with special Christmas editions.

John told me that the Rubettes were due to promote 'Under One Roof' on TOTP but were dropped from the show when the subject matter of the song was realised. There is a surviving appearance on the Dutch music show TopPop.