Anglo-American band Arrows had signed to RAK Records in 1974, but never had the success
that label-mates Mud, Hot Chocolate or Suzi Quatro had, so it was pure chance that
led them to their own television series. Muriel Young, producer at Granada had been
looking for a replacement for the Bay City Rollers' Shang-A-Lang series and had seen
the band perform their single Hard Hearted on Granada's Look Alive in November 1975
and gave them to chance to audition, leading to the series.
It's not that the band were another Rollers' look-a-like, they weren't. They also
had the musical credibility that the Rollers certainly never had, or probably even
wanted. Paul Varley had been gigging for many years, even getting to play with Peter
Green, while Alan Merrill came from a musical family, with a jazz singing mother
and Laura Nyro his cousin.
It's probable that the support that Granada gave the band surpassed that from their
record company. Due to a legal wrangle between the record company and management
the band had no new records released during the show's broadcast. Label owner Mickie
Most had been known for acts of self-sabotage in the past (not releasing Lulu's To
Sir With Love as an A side in Britain despite selling millions in the USA, for example),
so this was no surprise. Despite having Mickie Most as their boss, having their album
handled by hit-makers Martin & Coulter and having an American record deal they still
couldn't muster much interest, so it was as much as a surprise to the industry as
it was to the audience that Granada had awarded them so much faith with not just
one, but two headlining series.
The end of show credit "Arrows produced by Phil Coulter" that appeared in early shows
was possibly a reference to any re-mixing/re-recording of backing tracks which would
have been a requirement for the show by the Musicians Union.
The first sixteen-part series started recording February 16th, and debuted Tuesday
2nd March 1976 from 4.25 to 4.50 pm with singer Peter Noone as guest, followed by
Slade, Paul Nicholas, Hello, The Drifters and Randy Edelman among others, practically
all of whom would have much more success than the hosts. Teri Scoble's dance troupe
Him and Us Plus One appeared every week, becoming Him and Us Plus Three in the second
series.
A Melody Maker article on the recording of one of the shows in April 1976 makes it
clear that the band, although happy with the exposure, are not TV ready. Paul Varley
told journalist Caroline Coon "At first we were like puppets. We got our scripts
and learnt all our lines. And what happened was we became like actors trying to play
the parts of ourselves. It's really hard to develop your natural personalities."
The article also suggested that the live audience was made up of Brownies.
The opening credits placed emphasis on the band members' names, probably trying to
invoke a John, Paul, George, Ringo allegiance for Alan, Jake and Paul, and while
the audience duly shouted and waved their scarves aloft it really wasn't to be.
The second series of the year began on the 28th September with a new band member,
guitarist Terry Taylor, making the trio into a quartet. Guests including The Bay
City Rollers (the band that Arrows had effectively replaced), Pilot, The Drifters,
Gilbert O'Sullivan, T Rex and others. By the end of the second series the band had
exhausted the few songs they had already recorded and had nothing more to give. They
had effectively been dropped by their label prior to the shows' debut.
Producer Muriel Young speaking to TV Times ahead of the second series predicted the
demise of tea-time pop shows like this one "Ten years ago a pop programme often rode
to success on the backs of talented groups like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
Nowadays original talent is thinner on the ground and television can't rely on finding
future Arrows or Rollers." The show echoed Supersonic in as much as it featured a
lot of former hit acts now experiencing their first flops.
Despite being placed with hit-making song writing and production teams the band only
managed a few small hits and one album between 1974 and 1976, but luckily band members
Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker had written a B side, I Love Rock N Roll. One of the
several performances of the song on the show was seen by The Runaways' Joan Jett,
in Britain at the time to play live shows. Paying tribute to Alan Merrill after his
death in March 2020 Jett said "I can still remember watching The Arrows on TV in
London and being blown away by the song that screamed hit to me." Her version sold
millions. It was then covered by Britney Spears in 2001 and sold millions more, while
a parody version was the British Christmas number one in 2019. Who could have guessed
that one of the many small tea-time shows would end up giving pop music a certified
classic.
For some reason the second series credited the band as "The Arrows" at the beginning,
despite only being referred to as "Arrows" on their records.
