Secrets of Top of the Pops 60 years on – Spice Girl’s ‘outrageous demand’ to raciest dance & dirty tricks to get airtime
IT was a British institution – and if you wanted a hit, the only way to get one was to get on Top of the Pops.
The weekly chart show, which celebrates its 60th birthday this month, could make or break a pop career, but that didn’t mean the stars always behaved well.
Boozy bands, power struggles and drug-fuelled performances have all been part of the backstage antics, as former Top of the Pops presenter Gary Davies knows only too well.
Speaking to The Sun, the legendary DJ, 66, says: “If you wanted a hit record, you needed to be on Top of the Pops.”
Like many others, Gary, who now presents Sounds of the 80s on Radio 2, grew up watching the show, which kicked off in January, 1964, with The Rolling Stones performing I Wanna Be Your Man.
Sadly, due to the BBC’s cost-cutting measure of wiping and re-using old tapes, many of the iconic performances from its first decade have been lost – including The Beatles’ only live Top of the Pops performance on June 16, 1966.
In its heyday, the show attracted 15 million viewers each week, with artists desperate to get their three minutes of Top of the Pops’ glory. The Jam reportedly even faked illness during their American tour so they could perform.
To get on the show, bands had to be in the top 30 and rising up the charts.
Pluggers, as they were known in the industry, would be waiting on tenterhooks for producers to compile the list each week.
Then, it was a race against time to ensure their act got booked – with some resorting to dirty tactics.
Banned band
In the Channel 5 documentary, Top Of The Pops: Secrets And Scandals, Judd Lander revealed he and fellow plugger Oliver Smallman posed as maintenance men to the doorman at BBC Television Centre, in West London, where the show was filmed.
Judd, who worked with ABBA and The Jacksons on the show, said: “We decided we needed to get in to see the producer very early, before the chart had even been done so we decided to sleep in the BBC office overnight.
“And we got away with it.”
Gary says show boss Michael Hurll was “was like God in the 80s” and despite Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s debut single Relax – now infamous for its suggestive lyrics – dominating the charts in 1984, he reportedly banned the band from performing for a year.
He says: “I actually made it the record of the week on my lunchtime show, Radio 1 DJ Mike Read banned it. That caused a load of controversy and the BBC banned it.
“Whether Michael Hurll also had a run in with the band or not, I don’t know. There was a lot of controversy over the song when it came out.”
Pop disasters
Gary says: “Top of the Pops was always quite challenging because you had to do it right. If you made a mistake they didn’t stop, they would just keep going because they said, ‘Oh it feels live’ and actually sometimes it was live.
“There were occasions on live shows where things would go wrong. There was the classic one with All About Eve who were performing Martha’s Harbour in 1988.”
Unable to hear their backing track, the band sat in silent confusion during their debut performance.
Gary says: “They were invited back the next week, I think, when they sang it live.”
Fans didn’t just tune in to watch their favourite acts though. Dance troupes, including Pan’s People, filled the stage when that week’s charting acts were not available – wowing the nation with their suggestive moves and outfits.
Terrible lip syncing was also a fun part of the show. Gary says: “I used to love Simply Red because Mick Hucknall always refused to mime. Most people mimed. He would always insist on singing live and he was brilliant, still is.”
The show also attracted big American artists and bands. Gary says: “If Cher came on Top of the Pops then there would be a big entourage and a bit more excitement. When a superstar came, there was a bigger buzz than there was usually.”
Former host Gail Porter recently claimed Victoria Beckham banned the crew from making eye contact during a live 2000 appearance with Dane Bowers where they performed Out Of Your Mind.
But Gary says: “I reckon the record companies would be very careful what they demanded because it was such a powerful show.”
Wham’s big break
Another 80s band got their big break after another act pulled out at the last minute.
Speaking about Wham’s 1982 performance of single Young Guns (Go for It), Gary says: “The second they went on Top of the Pops their careers just exploded.”
Whenever George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley performed, Gary says: “It was just hysteria.”
But he admits he was too busy to notice what was going on in the audience.
Gary says: “When you were hosting it, you were constantly on the move and you’d got stuff going on. Once the microphone is on, if someone is pinching your bum, you probably wouldn’t even notice. You have to keep going, especially when it’s live. You don’t have a choice.”
Drunk stars
Cliff Richard appeared the most times on the show, with almost 160 performances, while Status Quo were the most frequent group, with 106 performances.
During the legendary rock band’s live performance of their aptly-named 1983 single Marguerita Time, guitarist Rick Parfitt drunkenly collapsed onto the drum kit on stage, later admitting in a 2004 interview: “I had had quite a lot to drink, which we always did when we did Top of the Pops in those days.”
Gary says of Parfitt and bandmate Francis Rossi: “They were real characters, always with a wicked sense of humour, always having a laugh.”
Acts would often sneak off to the BBC bar on the fourth floor between rehearsals but some brought their own booze from home.
Novelty 70s band, The Wurzels, are said to have brought five gallons of industrial strength Somerset scrumpy for their 1977 performance of I am A Cider Drinker.
After sharing it with staff in their dressing room, author Ian Gittins, who wrote Top of the Pops: Mishaps, Miming and Music, claims one female staff member spent “the night in police cells, having been found by police passed out in a hedge.”
Gary says: “I remember The Pogues being on the show with Shane MacGowan, bless him, who we lost quite recently, not going anywhere without his Harveys Bristol Cream sherry at his piano.”
Julian Cope, frontman of The Teardrop Explodes, revealed in his 1994 autobiography that he took “huge hits of LSD” before the band’s 1981 appearance and despite “tripping on live TV” gave a word-perfect performance.
Gary was a childhood fan of the show.
“As a kid it was my dream to be in the audience,” he says. “You’d watch it and see everybody dancing, having a good time, all the girls were super cute and you just wanted to be there.
“It was the only chart show on TV and if you wanted to see your favourite artists and hear your favourite songs then Top of the Pops was the show.
“There was no MTV back then, no YouTube. There were only two channels when it started.
“Everybody who was anybody was on Top of the Pops. There was nothing quite like it.
“I never imagined one day I’d end up hosting the show.”
Gary got the gig after landing a three-month contract hosting a late-night Saturday show on Radio 1 in December 1982.
He recalls: “The second it was announced I was doing that show, I’m on Top of the Pops being introduced as one of the three new DJs alongside Janice Long and Pat Sharpe. I’d never been so terrified in my whole life because I’d never done TV before.
“I remember we were all sat there in our Radio 1 bomber jackets, which every Radio 1 DJ had. They were actually made by the guy who was my manager at the time.
“The only size he managed to get wrong was mine so it was way too small and too tight. I felt massively uncomfortable and there you are launched to the world on your favourite ever TV show.”
A few months later, he was back to host the show himself and despite a “shaky start”, he was asked back again.
He says: “I was a little bit like a rabbit in the headlights for the first show I did.
“Afterwards, Michael Hurll who was the producer of Top of the Pops, called my agent and said, ‘Gary is not very good on this show, I don’t think I’m going to use him anymore.’
“I was just devastated. I really was bad – but I was really devastated. I thought I’d never host Top of the Pops again.”
Gary adds: “For some reason, Michael had a change of heart and three months later I was back in doing the show. The more I did, the more confident and relaxed I became.
“Someone actually said to me that in the 80s I ended up hosting it more than any other DJ, which was quite incredible.”
He adds: “Michael was quite a fearsome character but it turned out that he was really, really good to me.”
Gary hosted Top of Pops until 1991, when the show was revamped, bringing in “younger TV presenters to host the show”, including Jayne Middlemiss, Jamie Theakston and Fearne Cotton.
It also moved to Elstree Studios, with artists reportedly said to sneak off to look around the nearby set of EastEnders.
As the likes of MTV became popular, the long-running chart show tried to win back viewers, with BBC bosses securing a number of worldwide exclusive looks at music videos.
One of these included Michael Jackson’s controversial 1991 single Black Or White, which pulled in more than 10million viewers. But the video, which featured the King of Pop suggestively grabbing his crotch, also prompted a deluge of complaints, with some branding it “sick.”
Despite this, viewing figures continued to decline over the years and the show was formally cancelled, with the final episode airing on July 30, 2006, although the Christmas specials continued until 2021.
“Obviously, it was sad because it was an institution but if the audience figures aren’t there or what they were, then I guess things have to change,” says Gary.
“You can’t just keep on doing it. Had there been a demand for it, the show would still be going today.
“But times change, and nothing lasts forever.”
Gary’s Sounds of the 80s The Live Tour runs throughout 2024, tickets available at Soundsofthe80slive.co.uk, and his BBC Radio 2 show is live every Saturday night.