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It's the monthly "Top Of The Pops revival" moment
As has happened probably ever three hours since Top of The Pops was axed, we're going through a 'they're going to bring back Top Of The Pops' period. Except it's not bringing back TOTP, as Ben Cooper tried to explain:
He said: "I am working hard with Bob Shennan, asking, 'What are the ingredients that would work for today?'The appearance of Simon Cowell in the discussions suggest we're not really talking about Top Of The Pops, right?
"When people ask about whether Top of the Pops is coming back, what they are really saying is, 'When can we get a once-a-week primetime BBC1 music slot?'
"I have had this conversation with agents, independent production companies, and with Simon Cowell a few weeks back."
He said: "With The Voice going to ITV, that does give you an opportunity, a moment in history, to go, 'Right, let's crack this, what can we do to bring the music and entertainment together for a primetime BBC1 audience? That's the Holy Grail!I'd be more tempted, were I a tabloid editor, to suggest they sound more like they're reviving something closer to House Party or Swap Shop, if indeed anything.
"The music industry would like a weekly moment to showcase the best new British music."
The Mail, of course, has its own take:
3 comments:
Gadd did actually present TOTP a few times, during the "celebrity presenter" era of the 1990s - he did it shortly before Christmas in 1994, 95 & 96, and performed on at least one of those shows. But then there was also Kenneth George King, who appeared regularly (usually talking about Journey, which made him unpleasantly ahead of his time I suppose, in the UK context) for much of the 1980s.
As ever, I maintain that TOTP stopped making sense when pop music became the establishment culture of Britain - which is why the only people who think it could still make sense are those who think Cameron is deeply worried about the dangerous subversive Communist threat of "New York Groove" by Hello.
King, of course, famously received assurances from the then DG that his performances wouldn't be cut from BBC4 repeats and due to that precedent, Glitter's haven't been either. Indeed, even the 1980 episode where King appears as co-presenter and shows the world the Rubiks Cube got a re-run.
Indeed. That was before Savilegate/Yewtree, which changed so many things, so it all seems rather confused and uncertain.
Best, in my view, to bury the repeats quietly at the end of 1980, but then I tend to prefer the BBC Four of 2003 over what it became later (although I fear that would be politically impossible now).
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