TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

According to a report in Music Echo in November 1965 "Owing to the fantastic success of their one-shot pop show 'Beatwave,' Border TV are to develop this into a six-show series for transmission in the new year."

The first show played at the end of September 1965, and was also shown by Grampian and Teledu Cymru. The broadcast was split into halves to accommodate Welsh and Scottish nationalist political broadcasts in the middle, fifteen minutes before, then ten minutes after, suggesting the show was probably filler. The three acts assigned to the second half of the show were all provided by independent producer Peter Snell. It didn't return with a six-show series as suggested.

The Marionettes, who appeared in the first one-off broadcast were expected to be invited back when the show resumed in the new year. However, the good people of Cumbria and Dumfriesshire didn't have to wait quite that long as another one-off was broadcast on Christmas day, but this time it was only twenty minutes long, again suggesting that the show was a time-filler, and it would be another year until the sets were dusted off and re-used.

The show returned for Christmas 1966 with a debut appearance for The Spectres, who would later re-name themselves The Status Quo the following year. A repeat of this edition popped up on Scottish Television 20th March 1967 from 11.26 - 11.51 pm under the banner 'Late Night Look'.

A fourth and final edition appeared on 11th October 1967, with all the artists signed to the same label, Major Minor Records.

With at least two of the shows having strong connections with the music industry it would seem likely that some kind of influence was involved, or maybe it was just cheap TV with all the acts doing it just for the exposure, provided for next to nothing by the parties concerned.

A TV Times reference had the producer listed as Derek Batley, who would become the only network star at Border TV, later hosting the daytime show Mr and Mrs in the 1970s.

BEATWAVE/BEAT WAVE

Border

29th September 1965, 25th December 1965, 26th December 1966, 11th October 1967