Behind the Scenes at TOTP

-

Top Of The Pops. Of course I heard and read about it in the 70s, absolutely had no chance to see it. Never. When I was in West Germany in 1985, I watched a little bit of MTV, but not TOTP. Made by BBC and originally broadcast weekly between January 1964 and July 2006, the world's longest running music show. Everybody performed on it, it was a honour to be there. The first artist and the first song - Dusty Springfield and 'I Only Want To Be With You'. During its heyday, in the 70s, TOTP attracted 15 millions viewers each week.

 David Cassidy should have performed on it many times in the first part of the 70s, but he couldn't, even when he had number ones.. Of course we know why, David  was banned from the BBC TV Centre in White City (where TOTP was filmed usually on Wednesdays) because of security problems. But this is also a reason that his performances filmed outside the studio, or without the audience (always in great secret) became legendary.

In addition to the weekly show there was a special edition of TOTP on Christmas day, and here is the full Christmas 1973 episode, with David Cassidy. he was.filmed earlier that year at Syon Park in London

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7xO_Q-KI5A

Wow..it was so emotional to be there in 2018 and felt DC's presence. Everything looked exactly the same like in 1973. I wish we had a memorial plaque in that park too.

I'm writing today about TOTP, because of  the Record Mirrors'  articles which were published on the David Cassidy Official Website yesterday. Now we have an amazing collection of the notes, reviews, charts, letters and articles about DC which appeared on that popular music magazine. Priceless info, interviews, gossip, The testimony how great a star David Cassidy was in the UK, in the first part of the 70s. 

This is a link to the Record Mirror's edition, January 5, 1974 and Mike Beatty's article about what happened behind the scenes at Top Of The Pops.

http://www.davidcassidy.com/fansite/InPrintPages/Mag1974Jan05_RecordMirror.pdf

and another one, this time a web article from 2010, this is the story about discovering the clip of the David's the most famous TOTP's  appearance.

https://wipednews.wordpress.com/2010/09/28/daydreamer/


https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevecadman/2354262629



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Robyn Millan

-
Image
  I learnt yesterday that Robyn Millan died last year. Someone published a post about the TPF's episode where she'd appeared as a guest star, 'Dora, Dora, Dora', Season 2 episode 1, aired 50 years ago, on September 17, 1971..And there was a comment about that episode that the script was poorly written, sexist etc. Maybe, no one would dare write something like that now, but the world looked different half a century ago..And I really felt sad yesterday because of Robyn. She started her short career in 1965, 33 credits, mostly tv roles - Mission:Impossible, The F.B.I, Hawaii 5.0, Ryan's Hope..But we would remember her as Dora, the girl Keith fell in love with, and Robyn, the girl David dated for a while.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmZnk9RFKm0&t=1s  In December 1971 on Photoplay Magazine an interview with Robyn was published :' He is just marvellous and really knows how to handle his success.(..) We hit it off from that first day six months ago.(..) I resp...
Read more

Love Is All That I Ever Needed. A David Cassidy Biography. Chapter 1

-
Image
  Chapter 1 The Divorce David Bruce Cassidy was born on April 12, 1950 in New York City. He was born into show business, it was running in his blood. His parents were young and glamorous working actors. Jack Cassidy was 23 years old, Evelyn Ward 3 years older, both very busy with their career, frequently touring and absent. David spent his early years with his maternal grandparents in West Orange, New Jersey, just 20 miles from New York. He felt he was different from other kids, didn’t exactly fit in, his school friends’ parents didn’t look like his, they had ordinary jobs, like his grandfather, Frederic Ward, who all his life worked as a utility meter reader. David was a small child, slightly built, and had to wear glasses. During his life he underwent 5 eye operations. It wasn't easy to be the youngest, and not to have a brother or a sister. Someone to fight with, but also to play with, and to share love, good and bad experiences. He was a lonely child, brought up by honest,...
Read more

'He Was So Pretty You Couldn't Look Away..'

-
Image
'and sexy in a way that is timeless.' It's from Kevin Fallon's article published on www.thedailybeast.com on November  22, 2017.  Maybe it's not the smartest thing to do, but the newest article about David Cassidy on Record Collector Magazine, and first of all different pointsview of it, made me have a look on some articles published after this horrible day,  November 21, 2017. But first a song. We experience another heat wave here in Poland, I haven't seen a rain in many days, which is scary, so maybe a song about a rainy day. We miss David on any day, and this is one of his best songs. And amazing, very moving tribute video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ6qjfK72L8 We have 42 web articles from November and December 2017, on the website, and I can't see Kevin Fallon's on the list, even that I'm sure I sent it Jane last year, because this is not the first time I'm writing about this article. I'm a former librarian, I believe everything sho...
Read more