Top of the Pops

Top of the Pops

UK Version details
Format Music chart
Created by Johnnie Stewart
Presented by Jimmy Savile, Alan Freeman, Dave Lee Travis, Pete Murray, David Jacobs, John Peel, David Jensen, Tony Blackburn, Bruno Brookes, Anthea Turner, Pat Sharp, Richard Skinner, Dave Lee Travis, Janice Long, Mark Goodier, Gail Porter, Jamie Theakston, Fearne Cotton, Reggie Yates, Tim Kash and numerous others
Country of origin Flag of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
No. of episodes 2208 (to 31 December 2008)
Production
Executive
producer(s)		 Mark Cooper (2005-2006)
Andi Peters (2003-2005)
Chris Cowey (1997-2003)
Ric Blaxill (1994-1997)
Running time 30-60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel BBC Television Service
Jan 1964 - Apr 1964
BBC One
Apr 1964 - Jul 2005 and all Christmas specials
BBC Two
Jul 2005 - Jul 2006
Original run 1 January 1964 – 30 July 2006 (weekly)

25 December 1964 - present (Christmas specials)
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a long-running British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. It was traditionally shown every Thursday evening on BBC One, before being moved to Fridays in 1996, and then moved to Sundays on BBC Two in 2005. Each weekly programme consisted of performances from some of that week's best-selling popular music artists, with a rundown of that week's singles chart. Additionally, every year there was a special edition of the programme on Christmas Day featuring some of the best-selling singles of the year.

Although the weekly show was cancelled,[1] the Christmas special has continued.[2][3][4] It was also survived by TOTP2, which began in 1994 and featured vintage performances from the Top of the Pops archives.

In the 1990s, the show's format was sold to several foreign broadcasters in the form of a franchise package, and at one point various versions of the show were shown in nearly 100 countries.

Contents

History

The first show

Top of the Pops began on New Year's Day 1964 in Studio A on Dickenson Road in Longsight, Manchester, which the BBC had bought from Mancunian Films in 1954. DJ Jimmy Savile presented the first show, which featured (in order) The Rolling Stones with "I Wanna Be Your Man", Dusty Springfield with "I Only Want to be With You", the Dave Clark Five with "Glad All Over", The Hollies with "Stay", The Swinging Blue Jeans with "The Hippy Hippy Shake" and The Beatles with "I Want to Hold Your Hand", that week's number one (throughout its history, the programme always finished with the best-selling single of the week). For the first three years Savile rotated with three other presenters: Alan Freeman, 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 1983 and 2002 respectively. During its heyday in the 1970s, it attracted 15 million viewers each week.[5] 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 an episode of the soap.

The show saw many changes through the decades, in style, design, fashion and taste. It periodically 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) and the show was also on Radio 1 between 1988 and 1991 at the same time as the BBC1 showing. 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 BBC Two 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 broadcast 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 BBC that the show was going to move, again, to Sunday evenings on BBC Two, thus losing the prime-time slot on BBC One that it had maintained for forty years.[6] 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. On a number of occasions however, Reggie Yates would step in, joined by female guest presenters such as Lulu and Anastacia. 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 final day of recording was 26 July 2006[7] 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 ITV'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.[8]

After the end

The magazine and TOTP2 have survived despite the show's axing, and the Christmas editions also continue. 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 show was given a revival 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.

In October 2008, British Culture Secretary Andy Burnham and Manchester indie band The Ting Tings called for the show to return.[9] On 29 October 2008 Simon Cowell stated in an interview that he would be willing to buy the rights to Top of the Pops from the BBC. However the corporation say they have not been formally approached by Cowell,[10] and that in any case the format is not "up for sale".[4]

In November 2008 it was reported by The Times and other newspapers that the weekly programme was to be revived in 2009, but the BBC says there are no such plans.[11]

Christmas specials

The 2006 Christmas edition was scheduled for its usual hour long Christmas Day slot on BBC One and presented by regular presenters Fearne Cotton, Reggie Yates and Edith Bowman. 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. Cotton and Yates returned for the 2007 Christmas edition[12] which again featured new studio material, however some performances were borrowed from other events and the show had been stripped of its more recent graphical design in favour of a nostalgic mix of old logos and generic captions.

No 2008 Christmas Special was originally planned, however the BBC announced on 20 November 2008 that the show would return on Christmas Day and New Years Eve 2008, presented by Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates.[13] It will be recorded in BBC Television Centre on 10 December. Additionally, a series of six Top of the Pops 2 specials will be broadcast on BBC Two.

Performers and performances

Main article: List of performers on Top of the Pops
Main article: List of performances on Top of the Pops

In its extensive history, Top of the Pops has featured many artists, many of whom have appeared more than once on the show to promote many of their records.

Green Day hold the record for the longest Top of the Pops performance - "Jesus of Suburbia" broadcast on 6 November, 2005, lasted 9 minutes and 10 seconds in contrast to the shortest performance by Super Furry Animals with "Do or Die", broadcast on 28 January, 2000, clocking in at 95 seconds.

Status Quo have appeared the most times on the show, with 106 performances. The first of these was in 1968 and the last in 2002.

Theme music

For much of the 1960s the show's theme music was an organ-based instrumental track, also called "Top of the Pops", by the Dave Davani Four.

A version of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" based on the C. C. S. release, but using session musicians, was used as the show's theme tune for most of the period from 1971 to 1981, and again from May 1998 to November 2003.

Between July 1977 and May 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. There was also no theme music at all between June 1997 and April 1998, instead the introduction of the first performance played out to the title sequence.

In July 1981, "Yellow Pearl" by Phil Lynott was commissioned as the new theme music. This was replaced in April 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 and in 2008 released as part of the digital album 'No Winners' from Cooltempo Records.

Between February 1995 and June 1997 the theme was a track called "Red Hot Pop" composed by Vince Clarke of Erasure.

The final theme used from November 2003 was a remixed version of that used between October 1991 and February 1995, composed by Tony Gibber.

Miming

Initially acts performing on the show mimed to the commercially released record, but in July 1966 — just after the show had been moved to London — and 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, 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 skillfully 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.

Another hitch was Simon Le Bon singing with Duran Duran. He was posing with his microphone which promptly flew off the stage and he was left to sing into a microphone stand...he just shrugged his shoulders and carried on.

Michael Stipe of R.E.M. had such difficulty miming "Orange Crush" on the show, he used a megaphone to cover his mouth throughout the performance.

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.

One example of an artist who was exposed as a poor live singer was Kelly Overett of the Italian Eurodance act Cappella. During a 1994 performance on the show she sang "Move on Baby," but it was evident that her performance on the show would also lead to questions about whether she actually sang on the group's songs. Those questions would later be answered several months later when Overett was dropped by Cappella and having admitted that she never sang on any of their recordings.

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

Due to the BBC's former policy of deleting old programmes, 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.[14]

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 have mute presenter links). The most recent that is not held is dated September 8 1977. All editions after this date exist in full.

Some segments of TOTP have turned up in unlikely places; a segment of a 1965 episode, featuring The Beatles performing "Ticket to Ride," was used on an episode of Doctor Who.

In January 2008, BBC Four re-aired the surviving Boxing Day 1967 and February 15 1968 editions as part of their 'Pop On Trial' season.

The April 5 1984 episode was never made, as BBC One 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. 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 BBC Radio 1 between the mid-1990s and late 2001 was Top Of The Pops: The Radio Show which went out every Sunday at 3pm just before the singles chart, and was presented by Jayne Middlemiss and Scott Mills. It later reappeared on the BBC World Service in May 2003 originally presented by Emma B, where it continues to be broadcast in a weekly hourly format now presented by Kim Robson, and produced by former BBC World Service producer Alan Rowett.

The defunct channel UK Play created two spin offs; TOTP+ Plus and TOTP @ Play (2000 - 2001) (until mid-2000, this show was called The Phone Zone and was a spin-off from BBC Two music series The O-Zone). BBC Choice featured a show called TOTP The New Chart (5 December, 1999 - 26 March, 2000) and on BBC Two TOTP+ (8 October, 2000 to 26 August, 2001) which featured the TOTP @ Play studio and presenters. This is not to be confused with the UK Play version of the same name. A more recent spin-off (now ended) was Top of the Pops Saturday and its successor Top of the Pops Reloaded. This was shown on Saturday mornings on BBC One and featured competitions, star interviews, video reviews and some Top of the Pops performances. This was aimed at a younger audience and was part of the CBBC Saturday morning line-up. This was to rival CD:UK at the same time on ITV.

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.

International versions

Europe

The TOTP format was sold to RTL in Germany in the 1990s, and aired on Saturday afternoons. It was very successful for a long time, with a compilation album series and magazine. However, in 2006 it was announced that the German show would be ending. The Italian and French version of the show ended by September 2006. Domestic versions of the show continue to run in The Netherlands until the end of December 2006.[19] BBC Prime 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, Lou Pearlman made a deal to bring Top of the Pops back to the airwaves in the United States. It was expected to be similar to the 1987 version, but it would 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 (which resulted in his conviction in 2008), as well as the cancellation of the UK version, it is 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 TV2 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 was shown on BBC Prime, the weekend after UK transmission.

Latin America

A complete version of the UK show was shown 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 One and BBC Two 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.

The "Top of the Pops" brand has now been licensed by EMI who released a compilation series in 2007/08, with one CD for each year that "Top of the Pops" was running. The boxset for the entire series of 43 discs was released 7th July 2008. A podcast supporting the release of the boxset featuring interviews with Mark Goodier, Miles Leonard, Malcolm McClaren and David Hepworth is available.

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.

In popular culture

Music

8thNote.svgThis list of songs or music-related items is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Film

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 celebrate its 40th Anniversary.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Show's over for Top of the Pops, The Guardian, 20 June, 2006.
  2. ↑ Top of the Pops FAQ, TOTP website, accessed 7 November, 2006.
  3. ↑ "Programme Information Network TV Weeks 52/1". BBC Press Office. Retrieved on 2007-12-01.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Top of the Pops back at Christmas, BBC News, 20 November 2008
  5. ↑ Band snubs Top of the Pops after fat remark Guardian Unlimited, 10 August,2005. Accessed 14 May, 2006
  6. ↑ "Top of the Pops" leaves BBC One BBC News 29 November, 2004. Accessed 14 May, 2006
  7. ↑ TOTP: The Final Countdown (Rec:2006-07-26 Tx:2006-07-30) BBC Programme Catalogue
  8. ↑ BARB
  9. ↑ "The Tings Tings: 'Bring back Top of the Pops'", NME, 17 October 2008
  10. ↑ Cowell wants to take TOTP to ITV, BBC News, 30 October 2008
  11. ↑ BBC rules out TOTP return, Music Week, 17 November 2008
  12. ↑ Top Of The Pops Christmas Special BBC Press Office. Accessed 29 November 2007
  13. ↑ "'Top Of The Pops' back festive BBC U-turn". NME. NME.com (2008-11-20). Retrieved on 20 November 2008.
  14. ↑ Unique Beatles recording lost, BBC News, 7 July 2000
  15. ↑ BBC - h2g2 - Dexy's Midnight Runners - the Band
  16. ↑ YouTube - Oasis - Whatever TOTP
  17. ↑ YouTube - Broadcast Yourself
  18. ↑ YouTube - Broadcast Yourself
  19. ↑ Dutch broadcaster BNN's press release on the end of the Dutch version of TOTP (in Dutch)
  20. ↑ BBC staff asked to form audiences. BBC News 11 May 2006. Accessed 14 May 2006

External links

Official

Videoclips

Episode guides and summaries

News articles

Top of the Pops
List of performances • List of performers • The magazine
Presenters
Richard Bacon • Zoë Ball • Tony Blackburn • Richard Blackwood • Edith Bowman • Jakki Brambles • Bruno Brookes • Ainsley Brooks • Nicky Campbell • Sarah Cawood • Fearne Cotton • Gary Davies • Noel Edmonds • Mark Franklin • Alan Freeman • Mark Goodier • Stuart Henry • David Jacobs • David Jensen • Tim Kash • Janice Long • Simon Mayo •Jayne Middlemiss • Pete Murray • John Peel • Gail Porter • Mike Read • Jimmy Savile • Mike Smith • Lisa Snowdon • Jamie Theakston • Kate Thornton • Dave Lee Travis • Anthea Turner • Tommy Vance • Jo Whiley • Steve Wright • Reggie Yates
Top of the Pops 2 • Top of the Pops Reloaded