´óÏó´«Ã½

Explore the ´óÏó´«Ã½
This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving.

24 September 2014
top of the Pops 2 top of the Pops 2

´óÏó´«Ã½ Homepage
Entertainment
»TOTP2
PLAY
ÌýÌýVideo Quiz
ÌýÌýDecades Quiz
PHOTOS
ÌýÌý°Â²¹±ô±ô±è²¹±è±ð°ù
ÌýÌýFlick Books
ÌýÌý±Ê´Ç²õ³Ù³¦²¹°ù»å²õ
ÌýÌýFancy Dress
MUSIC
ÌýÌýShow Clips
ÌýÌýClassic Shows
ARTISTS
ÌýÌý±õ²Ô³Ù±ð°ù±¹¾±±ð·É²õ
ÌýÌýTop 5s
ÌýÌýSchool Reports
ÌýÌýWhere Are They?
TV SHOW
ÌýÌý³¢¾±²Ô±ð³Ü±è
ÌýÌý±Ê±ð°ù´Ú´Ç°ù³¾²¹²Ô³¦±ð²õ
ÌýÌýShow History
ÌýÌý±Ê°ù±ð²õ±ð²Ô³Ù±ð°ù²õ
ÌýÌýTitles & Themes
ÌýÌý³¢´Ç²µ´Ç²õ
ÌýÌý´¡²Ô²Ô³Ü²¹±ô²õ
ÌýÌýPan's People
ÌýÌýRuby Flipper
ÌýÌýLegs & Co
LINKS
ÌýÌýContact Us
ÌýÌý´óÏó´«Ã½ Music
ÌýÌý´óÏó´«Ã½ News
ÌýÌýRadio 2
ÌýÌý6 Music


TOTP Online
Ìý

Contact Us


One of our favourites is your routine to 'Back In The USSR' in which you were wearing fur coats. It must have been difficult coming up with new ideas for routines and costumes all the time...
Well, Flick had to come up with a different idea every week. Unlike any other TV series I'd done, we often had less than a week's rehearsal. When I was on the Shirley Bassey series or Twiggy's, it was a week's rehearsal and then you'd film it. But, as you'll know, with Top Of The Pops in those days there was a rehearsal on a Monday and you were given one or two numbers to prepare for. On Tuesdays, however, when the charts came out sometimes those songs had dropped. The producer would then give Flick two new numbers to do. Sometimes, we literally had 24 hours to put our routines together and rehearse them. It was very exciting, but Flick had to be very careful with the dancers she chose at the auditions, because the turn around was phenomenal. It may have looked easy, but it was the hardest job I'd done. Flick was very talented though.

Where did you rehearse?
We rehearsed where Pan's People had originally rehearsed. We moved a couple of times, but it was generally in church halls. Flick was always hoping we might get a room at the Beeb eventually, but it never happened.

So, moving on to October 1976...how did you find out that it was all over?
Well, I'd been at home for the weekend and came back on the Monday, ready for rehearsal. We'd just arrived, when two gentleman came in, the producers of the programme. They didn't really give a clear reason why, but they just said that it had been decided that 'Ruby Flipper will be coming to an end and that they'd be looking for a new group'. That was it! Now don't forget that I was only 19, Lulu was only 16, so it was such a shock. It was like a bombshell, because we'd only been going for six or seven months. It was terrible! We were such a happy group and we felt really well established even though we'd only been dancing together for a short time. I think it was such a shame and a very bad decision. Flick knew about the trends in dancing and the explosion of disco...she knew that boys wanted to dance more, it was cool for guys to dance. But the producers wanted to revert to all girls and so Legs and Co was formed.

Did you ever find out more about why they made that decision?
Flick said to me at the time that there hadn't been one letter to indicate anyone was missing Pan's People. It was a load of rubbish. Flick also showed me a letter from someone at the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and when I was in a book shop the other day, I came across the Top Of The Pops 1964 - 2002 book in which there was a chapter on Ruby Flipper and a reference made as to why we'd been dropped. I couldn't believe that they actually said the real reasons in the book. One of the reasons given to Flick was that ratings had gone down slightly. Now this was when the Bionic Woman had just started on the other channel, so it seems ridiculous that we could be blamed for the ratings going down. Ruby Flipper were really incidental to the music, we just complimented the programme. The other reason given in the letter though was that 'young teenage boys watching their favourite music programme would not want to see white girls dancing with black boys and then lifting them!' I should have taken the letter to the newspapers. I couldn't understand it because at the time Hot Gossip were just starting to come out with Kenny Everett and they were very much going for a sleazy image. Ruby Flipper was a fun, clean and wholesome group. Some routines were slightly suggestive, but nothing as powerful as Hot Gossip. But this was what the letter said and I've always remembered that. Flick was given no alternative though and she was told to change the group or lose the job. She managed to keep three of the girls from Ruby Flipper, but she really didn't want to be doing the same thing again.

Back
Next

Ìý Simply Red Ìý
Ìý "That's a bit supermarket, isn't it. I'm not making that many bottles. " Ìý
Ìý Robin Gibb Ìý
Ìý "There's been great moments both as a songwriter and as a performer." Ìý
Ìý Paul Roberts - The Stranglers Ìý
Ìý "We certainly weren't going to call ourselves The Bay City Rollers." Ìý
Ìý Lisa Stansfield Ìý
Ìý "I just thought, how many times do I have to sing this song?" Ìý
Ìý Soft Cell Ìý
Ìý "I think it's the only time that a banjo's been played in the Ministry of Sound." Ìý
Ìý Erasure Ìý
Ìý "Agnetha said she liked it. If I met them I would curtsey." Ìý
Ìý INXS Ìý
Ìý "We really surprised lots of people by simply hanging in there." Ìý
Ìý Kim Wilde Ìý
Ìý "I used to be really jealous of Claire Grogan...I thought she was gorgeous." Ìý
Ìý Dollar Ìý
Ìý "Failure was not an option, we were materialistic and greed was good." Ìý
Ìý Human League Ìý
Ìý "We did a US tour with Culture Club and Howard Jones...solely for the cash." Ìý
Ìý Altered Images Ìý
Ìý "Women were treated as a bit of a novelty in the music business in 1981." Ìý
Ìý Belle Stars Ìý
Ìý "The pop music lark just seems like a lifetime away now." Ìý
Ìý Steve Strange Ìý
Ìý "Look, you’re playing me like a bitchy queen and I’m not like that." Ìý
Ìý Five Star Ìý
Ìý "We all grew up wanting to be famous and we lived our dream..." Ìý
Ìý Phillip from Ruby Flipper Ìý
Ìý "At my age, I'd find it difficult to get my legs where they used to go..." Ìý
Ìý Glen Campbell Ìý
Ìý "I got to work with literally everyone in the business; Nat King Cole, Sinatra..." Ìý
Ìý David Gray Ìý
Ìý "Lots of tension in the camp. We're battling Gareth Gates for the No.1 spot" Ìý
Ìý Robert Palmer Ìý
Ìý "There's this homegenised force feeding of what is hip." Ìý
Ìý Marilyn Ìý
Ìý "I think George manipulated our relationship for publicity" Ìý
Ìý Tom Jones Ìý
Ìý "I'm pulling all my old jewellery out now and comparing my rings with Wyclef" Ìý
Ìý Ruth From Pan's People Ìý
Ìý "I could show you dozens of times I forgot the moves..." Ìý
Ìý Badly Drawn Boy Ìý
Ìý "Everybody has to do what everybody else does in order to have a hit single" Ìý
Ìý John Otway Ìý
Ìý "I think the music business is probably not happy with what we've done..." Ìý
Ìý Jimmy Cliff Ìý
Ìý "I look at someone like Ms Dynamite, I come away with a positive feeling." Ìý
Ìý Human League Ìý
Ìý "We wouldn't trust anyone that didn't wear eyeliner." Ìý
Ìý Status Quo Ìý
Ìý "I probably went about four or five years with a pair of stage jeans" Ìý
Ìý Gary Numan Ìý
Ìý "There are so many things in my past that you could make fun of." Ìý
Ìý McAlmont and Butler Ìý
Ìý "We were big enough to get over any-thing that may have been exchanged." Ìý
Ìý Primal Scream Ìý
Ìý "The producer at the time told us we'd never work again." Ìý
Ìý Oasis Ìý
Ìý "I prefer miming, I prefer if we weren’t playing live." Ìý


About the ´óÏó´«Ã½ | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy
Ìý