Top of the Pops

1 9 6 4 - 2 0 0 6  (UK)

On 30 July 2006 the BBC broadcast the final edition of Top Of The Pops. Thousands mourned but few were surprised. After the program was shunned to Sunday nights on BBC2 barely a year earlier, its cancellation was clearly only a matter of time.

Still, it was a sad and undignified end to a show which, for successive generations, was the be-all and end-all of UK pop. 

For the artists, it was the unequivocal definition of having "made it" into the exclusive pop pantheon. For the audience, it was a window into the country's ever-changing musical tastes and trends, be it Rod Stewart or St Winifred''s School Choir . . .

Prior to MTV and multiple-telly households, TOTP was a Thursday night ritual in living rooms across Britain, effortlessly exposing the Generation Gap between gushing teenagers and their perplexed - often repulsed - elders.

The show debuted on 1 January 1964 with Jimmy Savile as its presenter. Dusty Springfield was the first artist to sing on the show (broadcast from a converted church in Manchester). 

Originally screened on Wednesdays, the show soon switched to Thursday evenings with Jimmy Savile - and his ever-present cigar - remaining at the helm as main presenter. Jimmy alternated with Alan Freeman, David Jacobs and Pete Murray.

Originally produced from the BBC's Manchester studios, TOTP had a set resembling a coffee bar disco and the DJ's sat at turntables (pictured at right). 

Denise Sampey span the records for the first few programs before being replaced by model Samantha Juste. In 1967, at the age of 22, Samantha left for California to be near her husband, Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees.

The format of Top of the Pops was simple, and has changed little - A few coloured lights, some camera effects (not always state of the art!), and an artist, usually lip- synching, not always successfully. In 1967 Jimi Hendrix was seen attempting to mime to Purple Haze while an Alan Price record was being inadvertently played!

Over the years, most every band and artist has appeared on this show, even The Beatles. 

Status Quo and Cliff Richard both appeared on the show over four decades - the Sixties, Seventies, Eighties and Nineties, while the record for the longest gap between performances of the same song on the show is held by Tom Jones, who sang It's Not Unusual on the show in February 1965, and then again in June 1987.

Throughout the late 60s and the 70s the set and format changed and the studio dance groups Pans People and Legs & Co were added. These were incredibly lust-inspiring women who danced to the record when the artist was not available to be on the show. The arrival of Pans People in 1967 outraged Mary Whitehouse, who objected to their scanty clothing.

During the 500th edition of Top Of The Pops in October 1973, Cliff Richard's performance was interrupted when the stage was showered by wigs. They were thrown on by The Who's roadies, who had become bored and raided the props department.

The program's archives boast some of the most iconic moving images in British rock history, from Bowie and Ronson's Starman embrace in 1972 to the flailing gladioli of Morrissey over a decade later. Indeed, The Smiths typified the attitude of leftfield who used TOTP as a means to infiltrate the mainstream and subvert the norm.

Ditto Dexys Midnight Runners and their notorious backdrop of darts player Jockey Wilson for Jackie Wilson Said, Kurt Cobain's uncharacteristic baritone delivery of Smells Like Teen Spirit (actually his attempt to mimic Morrissey) and Wedding Present singer David Gedge's stony-faced refusal to lip-synch during their performance of Brassneck.

Even occasional presenter, the late John Peel, was wont to take the piss with memorably impudent asides, such as "This is Bon Jovi with We Give Music A Bad Name".

The Clash, though, famously vetoed the show altogether - in doing so instigating a toe-curling routine by in-house dance troupe Legs & Co when Bankrobber charted in 1980.

Yet the show, which catalogued the evolution from Merseybeat to psychedelia, glam, punk, new romantic and beyond (and attracting 15 million viewers in the process) was already in decline by the mid-90s. 

The Beeb's decision to reschedule it to Friday nights in 1996 failed to improve its long-term ratings (clashing with Coronation Street didn't exactly help), exacerbated by the proliferation of satellite music channels and the loss of its telly pop crown to ITV's Saturday morning CD:UK.

Its dilapidated stature was further highlighted by its archive spin-off TOTP2, which inadvertently reminded us that Shayne Ward is no Marc Bolan - just as Fearne Cotton is no Jimmy Savile.