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The History Of Top Of The Pops Dance Acts
On 1st January 1964 a television institution was born. From a
converted church in Manchester, England Jimmy Savile presented the first
programme of what would become the world’s premier music show – Top of the
Pops. Nearly 37 years and over 1900 editions later, the show is still going
strong.
The format of the show was amazingly simple – only feature records inside the
Top 20 (later extended to the Top 30), never play a record dropping
down the charts and always end the show with the week’s best selling single.
This winning formula remains virtually unchanged to this day.
It was this rigid formula, however, that gave producer Johnnie Stewart the
most problems. In 1964 music videos were virtually unheard of. If the week’s
Number One act was unable to make it to the TV studio, Johnnie had to find
alternative ways of featuring their record. This could mean sending a film
crew out to record the artist or even having filmed performances imported
from abroad. Another solution was for Samantha Juste (TOTP’s official disc
spinner) to place the record on a turntable and then cut to shots of the
studio audience jiving away. Unfortunately, TOTP audiences have never been
renowned for their dancing ability, so in 1965 it was time to:
Bring on the dancing
girls – the Gojos had arrived on Top of the Pops
The inspiration for the Gojos
was founder member and choreographer Jo Cook. Jo was trained in ballet at the
Pitt Draffen School, Northampton and by 1964 was performing with a dance
troupe called The Beat Girls alongside future Pan’s People member Babs Lord.
The Beat Girls were best known for their weekly appearances on a BBC2 music
show called The Beat Room. However, it wasn’t long before Jo decided to leave
and form her own dance troupe called the Gojos, hence the “jo” in the title.
The Gojos began as a
threesome with Jo Cook being joined by dancers Linda Hotchkin and Jane
Bartlett. Towards the end of 1964 the Gojos were hired by producer Johnnie
Stewart to perform regularly on Top of the Pops. Over the course of the next
few years Jo Cook gave up dancing in order to concentrate on the management
and choreography of the group. Dancers Thelma Bignell and Barbara von der
Heyde joined to make the Gojos a foursome and in 1968 Lesley Larbey and Wendy
Hillhouse completed the transformation to a six-piece outfit.
After more than three
successful years on the show, the Gojos’ made their final Top of the Pops
appearance in June 1968 dancing to the Rolling Stones’ hit ‘Jumping Jack
Flash’. However the Gojos continued to appear on other television programmes,
most notably ‘The Val Doonican Show’ where they had been regular guests since
1966. They also appeared in the 1969 film ‘Moon Zero Two’ with Jo Cook again
providing the choreography.
Enter Pan’s
People
By 1968 the Top of the Pops producer felt it was time for a new resident
dance troupe. Coincidentally, a group of young, attractive female dancers had
been pestering the BBC for ages touting for work.
Patricia (Dee Dee) Wilde, Barbara (Babs) Lord, Andrea (Andy) Rutherford,
Felicity (Flick) Colby, Louise Clarke and Ruth Pearson were collectively
known as Pan’s People.
London born Louise Clarke had attended the Corona Stage School where she did
child modelling work and was also chosen for some minor roles in films and
television.
Ruth Pearson also attended the Corona Stage School. She originally came from
Kingston in Surrey and at the age of seven won a place at the Ballet Rambert.
Wolverhampton born Babs Lord began dancing an early age and after initially
taking lessons at her mother’s dance school, she later attended the Arts
Educational Trust stage school. At the age of eighteen Babs joined a group of
young dancers called The Beat Girls and made weekly appearances on BBC2’s
music show The Beat Room. Babs later appeared with The Beat Girls in the 1965
British film ‘Gonks Go Beat’.
Originally from Farnham in Surrey, Dee Dee Wilde had arrived back on British shores
a few years earlier, aged seventeen, after spending most of her childhood in
Africa. Prior to joining Pan’s People, Dee Dee enjoyed a stint with another
dance troupe that included a tour of Spain.
American Flick Colby came from New York and originally trained as a ballet
dancer. Within months of arriving in Britain in 1966 Flick, together with
Andrea Rutherford and the four other girls, had formed Pan’s People. The fact
that Flick also handled the group’s choreography ensured that Pan’s People
remained a pretty much self-contained unit of strong-willed young women who
were hungry for a little success.
During the next eighteen months Pan’s People only appeared a few times on
British television, but they had more success in Amsterdam with a spot on a Dutch
TV series. They got their lucky break in 1968 when the BBC finally decided to
sign them up as TOTP’s new dancers. Initially Pan’s People made only
semi-regular appearances on the show, perhaps once or twice a month. However,
it soon became clear that Pan’s People were proving a huge hit with viewers.
So by 1969 the girls were dancing on the TOTP every week and had were now an
integral part of the show.
Pan’s People
1968 – 1972
Putting together an edition of Top of the Pops placed enormous pressure on
everyone involved. Today’s music charts are announced on a Sunday afternoon
but back in 1968 the charts didn’t appear until Tuesday morning. This meant
that the production team had less than 48 hours to get the show fully
organised and ready for recording each Wednesday.
It was even worse for Pan’s People. Their dance routines took three or four
days to choreograph and learn, so rehearsals had to begin before the chart was
published. Bearing in mind that Top of the Pops refused to play falling
discs, Pan’s People were always assigned records thought to be cast-iron
certainties to shoot up the chart the following week. Nevertheless, having
spent days choreographing a dance routine, Flick Colby always had a nervous
wait every Tuesday morning to discover the fate of her chosen record. If
their single had dropped down the chart, a substitute had to be frantically
decided upon, giving the girls barely 24 hours to learn a brand new routine.
Talk about hectic!
In little over a year Pan’s People went from a group of unknowns to premier
league entertainers. This fact was perfectly illustrated on Christmas Day
1969. This particular Christmas Day was strange in that the traditional
Queen’s Speech was absent from the schedules, so who better to replace HRH
than Britain’s own Dancing Queens? On BBC1 2.15pm ‘Top of the Pops’, on BBC2
6pm ‘The Price of Fame’ and on most ITV regions 3pm ‘With A Little Help From
My Friends’ – all featuring Pan’s People.
In early 1970 Top of the Pops was extended from 25 to 45 minutes and at long
last the ‘Radio Times’ listed Pan’s People and Flick Colby (as choreographer)
in the programme’s credits. Between their Top of the Pops commitments they
would often appear as guests on other programmes such as The John Denver Show
and Cilla. The girls also enjoyed a lucrative sideline making personal
appearances at nightclubs & discotheques.
In 1971 the heavy workload brought about by the group’s success led Flick to
quit full-time dancing and concentrate purely on the choreography. Flick said
in a BBC interview years later that whilst dancing she’d often be thinking
about ways she could have choreographed it differently or be worried about
the positions of the BBC cameras. It was decided that no replacement dancer
was necessary, so in 1971 Pan’s People were reduced to a five-piece outfit
with Flick working behind the scenes.
1972 saw the first change in the Pan’s People line-up. As part of a publicity
wheeze, the BBC had earlier let it be known that Pan’s People had agreed in
their contracts not to get married. However, in the early seventies Andrea
Rutherford did just that and when she became pregnant in 1972 the search
began for a replacement.
From the hundreds of
applicants Flick and the girls finally decided on a longhaired, bright-eyed
dance student named Cherry Gillespie, who at seventeen was a good five years
younger than the existing members. Cherry made her debut on a Christmas
edition of Top of the Pops broadcast on 28 December 1972. Host Tony Blackburn
announced that he’d bought Pan’s People a Christmas present. The camera then
panned to a large gift-wrapped object which the other girls revealed to be
the new dancer Cherry Gillespie.
The new line-up of Babs, Cherry, Dee Dee, Louise & Ruth is probably the
best and most fondly remembered one today. In recent times, even the BBC has
incorrectly referred to it as ‘the original Pan’s People line-up’, with Andy
Rutherford all but forgotten. Shameful!
Pan’s People
1973-1976
1973 was another great year for Pan’s People. Glam Rock was at its peak with
the likes of Slade, The Sweet and Gary Glitter dominating the charts. Having
always been Glam Chicks themselves, Pan’s People took to the seventies music
scene like ducks to water.
Ironically, it was in the slightly more subdued atmosphere of ‘The Two
Ronnies’ studio that the girls performed some of their best routines. In a
spot filled in later years by the likes of Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson,
Pan’s People strutted their stuff to instrumental versions of classics such
as ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Johnny B Goode’ (my favourite). This early series of ‘The
Two Ronnies’ crops up from time to time on UK Gold.
The year ended with a now infamous appearance on the Christmas edition of Top
of the Pops dancing to Gilbert O’Sullivan’s hit ‘Get Down’. You can read more
about this quintessential Pan’s People performance in the ‘I'm Looking Over A
Four-Leaf Clover’ section.
1974 must go down as Pan’s People’s most successful year, the highlight being
their “In Concert” on BBC2 in April. Between 1970 and 1976 In Concert
showcased some of the top pop acts of the day including Elton John and Cliff
Richard. On 27 April 1974 Pan’s People starred in their own show where they
not only danced several routines but also even sang in one! The fact that it
was their
show – not just a guest appearance on somebody else’s programme – made this a
special event for all the girls. The In Concert show is probably best
remembered for a routine featuring Louise and Dee Dee gyrating on cushions
wearing very little indeed!
The third line-up change occurred in mid 1974 when Louise Clarke decided to
leave the group. Just as when Andy Rutherford left, there was a huge response
from dancers up and down the country eager to fill Louise’s place. The story
behind the search for a new ‘Pan’s Person’ was belatedly featured in the Top of the Pops
Annual 1976. Eventually, 18 year old Sue Menhenick
was chosen to become the newest member of Britain’s favourite dance troupe.
Given that Sue would still be appearing on Top of the Pops more than seven
years later, it was a pretty shrewd choice – although I don’t think Pan’s
People were quite the same again following Louise’s departure.
Christmas came early for youngsters in 1974. On Christmas Eve Pan’s People
appeared in the BBC production of ‘Aladdin’ broadcast on BBC1 4.15-5.15pm.
The star-studded line-up also featured Michael Aspel, Dana, The Goodies and
Ed Stewart. If you happened to miss it, you could of course tune in the
following day for the girls’ turn on Christmas Top of the Pops.
Also in 1974, after years spent dancing to other people’s records, Pan’s
People released a single of their own. Unfortunately, ‘You Can Really Rock
‘n’ Roll / The Singer Not The Song’ failed to make it in to the charts, as
did their follow-up ‘He’s Got Magic / Sooner or Later’. The first record
featured guitarist Chris Spedding and was produced by Mike (The Wombles)
Batt. The girls returned the favour in August 1975 by appearing on Top of the
Pops alongside Mike Batt, helping his only solo hit ‘Summertime City’ reach
Number Four in the charts.
That performance alongside Mike Batt was one of the final appearances of two
of Pan’s People’s founder members. Babs and Dee Dee both decided to bow out
and were replaced by two younger girls – Lee Ward and Mary Coupe. They
arrived just in time for what must be one of Pan’s People’s most watched
routines. On Christmas Day 1975 they appeared on The Morecambe & Wise
Show. Millions tuned in to see Eric & Ernie (dressed in full drag) dance
along to ‘Big Spender’ with the girls. They blended in so well, anyone coming
in from the pub having had one too many probably wouldn’t have noticed the
difference.
I can’t end 1975 without mentioning Pan’s People’s appearance on Christmas
Top of the Pops. In the summer of 1975, Pan’s People had danced to ‘Barbados’
by Typically Tropical wearing only skimpy bikinis. That record was a big No1
hit and so had to be included on the Christmas show. Problem: how do you
feature a uniquely summer song when it’s the middle of winter? Solution:
create a snow-covered set in the Top of the Pops studio and dress Pan’s
People in thick fur coats . . . only to reveal skimpy bikinis underneath! The
glazed look on Jimmy Savile’s face when the routine had finished said it all
!
By early 1976 it was decided that the time was right for a change and that a
new dance troupe be found to replace Pan’s People. This might have been
triggered by Ruth’s decision to quit, which would have left the group without
an original member. In any event, Flick Colby and TOTP’s producer Robin Nash
had something a bit different up their sleeve.
So, after nearly four hundred editions spanning eight years, Pan’s People
made their farewell appearance on Thursday 29 April 1976. Hosted by Tony
Blackburn, Top of the Pops featured two Pan’s People performances that night
– ‘More More More’ by Andrea True Connection and ‘Silver Star’ by The Four
Seasons. ‘Silver Star’ featured a lengthy dance solo by Ruth Pearson mid-routine,
in recognition of it being the final performance of the only remaining
original Pan’s person.
However, there was some consolation for the group’s legion of devoted fans.
Whilst Pan’s People had gone, not all of Pan’s dancers had gone with it. Sue
Menhenick and Cherry Gillespie were staying on with the new dance troupe, the
oddly titled . . .
Ruby Flipper
Ruby Flipper was
different – 43% of Ruby Flipper was male.
Given the enormous success of Pan’s People, the departure away from an all-female
dance troupe was a slight risky venture. But in Spring 1976 that’s exactly
what the BBC chose to do.
Why? Well, it has been suggested that the BBC saw Pan’s People as a little
outmoded. This seems unlikely considering Legs & Co would begin a five year run on Top of the Pops later
in the year. And one can hardly imagine the BBC viewed Pan’s People as being
politically incorrect. This was, after all, at a time when the BBC’s output
included Miss World and The Black and White Minstrel Show. My own view is
that with the prospect of Pan’s People undergoing three line-up changes in a
matter of months and none of the original members remaining, the BBC used the
opportunity just to try something different.
In fact, a mixed male/female dance troupe had already enjoyed success on the
BBC during the previous ten years. ‘The Young Generation’ had begun life on
The Rolf Harris Show in 1966 before going ‘freelance’. Perhaps best known
today for launching the TV career of Blue Peter’s Lesley Judd, ‘The Young Generation’
enjoyed a good deal of success in their day – and a fair amount of
Mickey-taking as well, it has to be said.
Rather surprisingly Flick Colby had a few problems finding dancers for Ruby
Flipper, but eventually 16 year old Lulu Cartwright and 26 year old Patti
Hammond were signed up to join existing dancers Sue Menhenick and Cherry
Gillespie. Three male dancers were also recruited. I’m fairly sure that Phil
Steggles and Floyd Pearson were amongst them but I’m afraid I have no idea
who the curly-haired chap was. Ruby Flipper made their Top of the Pops debut
on 06 May 1976.
So what went wrong? Obviously something did because within five months Ruby
Flipper were unceremoniously ditched by the BBC. The reasons for this are not
as clear as you might think. All the Ruby Flipper performances that I’ve seen
are fun to watch, if lacking Pan’s People’s charm, and the dancing abilities
of the performers seem up to par as well. And by all accounts, the Ruby
Flipper girls enjoyed their brief stint with the men as opposed to the all
female Pan’s People / Legs & Co.
One thing apparent from watching Ruby Flipper is the ‘irregular’ nature of
the dance routines. A staple of the Pan’s People routines was all five girls
performing the same dance moves together in formation. This type of routine
proved difficult for Ruby Flipper by the very fact there were seven members,
three of whom were men. This begs another question – why not have equal
numbers of men and women? At least then they could dance in pairs when required.
This lack of balance within the group inevitable led to a loss of symmetry in
the dance routines. Take Ruby Flipper’s performance of Candi Staton’s ‘Young
Hearts Run Free’ for example. The set (just about) resembles a typical living
room. Dancer Phil is sat in a chair reading ‘The Sun’, Lulu and Sue are
dressed as babies sat on the floor, whilst a male member of Ruby Flipper is
dressed as a woman doing the ironing. Meanwhile Cherry and the other male
dancer are off dancing together in another part of the studio. Interesting to
watch (especially the guy in drag), but lacking in structure and form.
Ruby Flipper routines also seemed to lack a lot of the old raunchiness. For
years Pan’s People had delighted audiences with their trademark ‘pelvic
thrusts’ and sexy moves directed towards the TV cameras. It seems, however,
that whilst pelvic thrusts made towards a camera are perfectly acceptable,
pelvic thrusts made towards a male dancer are not. As a result, Ruby Flipper
lacked a lot of their predecessor’s sexiness.
Another consideration
must have been the income earned by the dancers from their outside
activities. As I mentioned earlier, Pan’s People were in big demand for
appearances in nightclubs, discotheques, holiday camps – you name it. I find
it hard to believe that Ruby Flipper generated the same level of interest.
I’m only guessing here, but this could have been a factor in the desire to
return to an all-female set-up.
The wish to return to female only dancers was certainly shared by Top of the
Pops producer Robin Nash, who wasted little time bringing the axe down on
Ruby Flipper who made their final Top of the Pops appearance on 30 September
1976. A quarter of a century later and Ruby Flipper are the dance troupe
hardly anyone remembers. They are the dance troupe overshadowed by their
predecessors. They are the dance troupe regarded as a mistake. They are the
‘George Lazenby’ of dance troupes. This is a pity because it’s a reputation
that Ruby Flipper (nor George Lazenby) deserves.
Sadly, this was also the moment Cherry decided to quit Top of the Pops after
a highly successful four years. Ruby Flipper dancers Sue, Patti and Lulu were
staying however and auditions were held to recruit three more girls to join
the newly formed…
Legs & Co
The first girls to be recruited to the latest Top of the Pops dance troupe
were 24 year old Pauline Peters and 16 year old Rosemary Hetherington.
Pauline Peters was born in Burma and was the first black dancer to appear
regularly on Top of the Pops. Pauline had appeared in the musical ‘Mardi
Gras’ for seven months and had done odd bits of TV work. Rosemary (or Rosie)
was first spotted by Flick Colby at London’s Dance Centre and joined Legs
& Co straight from stage school. The last dancer to be signed up was Gill
Clark who also joined the group straight from school.
So after five months of Ruby Flipper, it was back to business as usual early
in October 1976 with an all female dance troupe again the main attraction on
Top of the Pops. Perhaps to drum this fact home, and to generate some extra
interest, the BBC chose not to give the new dance group a name. Instead, the
girls were simply known as “The Top of the Pops Dancers” and TOTP viewers
were invited to write in with their suggestions for a name. A month later the
BBC announced that “Legs & Co” had been chosen as
the winning name from the thousands of letters received. By the time Legs
& Co appeared on the 1976 TOTP Christmas show wearing skimpy bikinis
whilst dancing to ‘December 63’, Ruby Flipper had long been forgotten by the
majority of viewers – especially the male audience.
Just like Pan’s People, Legs & Co did a roaring trade away from the TV
studio. The explosion of disco in the mid-seventies only added to the demand
for the girls to make personal appearances at discotheques, nightclubs,
holiday camps etc. This side of the business was handled by former Pan’s
Person Ruth Pearson who was now working as the group’s manager and agent. You
can read all about a week in the life of Legs & Co in the Top of the Pops
Annual 1980. This lengthy feature in the 1980 annual
is so good that I don’t need to go into too much detail about Legs & Co
in this section of the website.
It is testament to
Legs & Co’s popularity that they were still going strong well into 1981.
The line-up of Gill, Lulu, Pauline, Patti, Rosemary & Sue is also the
longest running in the history of Top of the Pops. Even the most successful
of the Pan’s People line-ups can’t match the 4+ years of Legs & Co’s
famous six. In fact the first and only change of personnel occurred towards
the end of their run in 1981 when Pauline left.
Legs & Co made
their TOTP swansong in October 1981. By this time they had notched up 250
appearances over a five year period earning the status “the second most
successful dance troupe to appear on Top of the Pops”. Despite their
undeniable success Legs & Co never quite managed to emerge from the
shadow of Pan’s People. Even today many people still regard Legs & Co and
Pan’s People as being one in the same. And when Top of the Pops celebrated
its thirtieth anniversary in 1994 the BBC chose to make a documentary
highlighting Pan’s People’s contribution to the show with little or no mention
of Legs & Co. To their credit however, in a documentary broadcast on New
Year’s Day 2001, the BBC arranged for the six former members of Legs & Co
to be reunited after nineteen years to reminisce about their years on the
show. You can read about this in the feature entitled ‘Top of the Pops –
The True Story’.
Legs & Co’s demise
on Top of the Pops ended a fifteen year run of dance troupes on the show. At least
it would have done if it wasn’t for the inexplicable appearance of…
Zoo
By 1981 pop music
videos were firmly established as a way of promoting an act’s latest record
release. So the BBC had no real need to replace Legs & Co with another
dance troupe, they could have just relied on pop videos when an act couldn’t
make it in to the studio.
Zoo was different to it’s Top of the Pops predecessors. Whilst everyone knew
the names and faces of Pan’s People and Legs & Co, Zoo was a rather
anonymous repertory company of ten male, ten female dancers. This is almost
certainly why nobody remembers then!
Perhaps the most
surprising fact about Zoo is that they lasted so long. Zoo finally bowed out in
January 1983 when the BBC decided that Top of the Pops dance troupes had had
their day.
The thought of watching dancers perform to their favourite records must seem
completely alien to today’s generation of Top of the Pops viewers. But every
music fan older than thirty must surely have a soft spot for Pan’s People and
Legs & Co who were far more entertaining than any music video. Any chance
of Pan’s People mark two please BBC?
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