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Cast you mind back to the Sixties. How big was Top of the Pops?
"When I started on it in 1967 it was enormous. It was one of those shows you didn’t miss because it was tradition, it was like the Ten O’clock News - everybody watched it. I suppose it was one of the biggest shows on television, the ratings were enormous. After you’d done it, if you went out onto the streets the following day, it was one of the shows that everybody had seen."
What was the big attraction of it?
"It was the only music show. It reflected the charts, so you were seeing all the top acts. Every act wanted to be on, so you were seeing the , the , everybody was on it, and it had that very hip image to it."
Do you remember your first Top of the Pops?
No! They all tend to roll into one. The strange thing about doing Top of the Pops is it was rather like being a bingo caller, you were calling out the numbers. One thing I remember about doing Top of the Pops, there was a certain fear in doing it because in those days it was all on videotape and if you made a mistake they had to cut the videotape and it was very, very expensive and that could cost you a re-booking. So the one thing you didn’t want to do was make a mistake."
So it was like doing a live show?
"It was very similar to doing a live show. There’s something very special about doing live television. I prefer that."
What effect did Top of the Pops have on your public profile?
"It made it impossible for me to go to the fish and chip shop. At the time it was so enormous. You went out on the street and you were instantly recognised. So the combination of Radio 1 and Top of the Pops made me into a national name which I will always be very grateful for. It’s stayed to this very day and the fact that you were a presenter on Top of the Pops is still very very special."
What about some of the silliness with the audience - the dressing up and so on?
"The dressing up, particularly around Christmas time, was all pre-planned. The problem with presenting TOTP was everybody wanted to get into the picture so you constantly had all these kids waving to their mums and dads. It was quite distracting because they weren’t aware you were there to do a job so right in the middle of a link, some arm would come in front of your face. That was the main thing in TOTP trying to stay in the picture yourself."
Everybody remembers Christmas editions of Top of the Pops - what are your memories of them?
"It was a great thing to be on them, because it was just before the Queen’s Speech. The Christmas Day was the best one to be on. I remember doing a show with Noel Edmonds, it was like he’d just come out of Sherwood Forest.
Why do you think TOTP is still going today?
"It’s history, it’s special, it’s TOTP. This country without TOTP wouldn’t be the same. We’ve got all these music channels now, we’ve got MTV and that’s great. There’s a big audience for that. But TOTP has the DJ introducing it and the top songs as well. With the music channels you have to wait a long time to get your favourite, but you know what’s going to happen on TOTP - you are going to get the No.1 song, you are going to get the chart rundown, so within half an hour you’ve just got the very Top of the Pops!"
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