TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 -
On Tuesday 18th August 1959 ABC announce that Oh Boy will be replaced with a new series Boy Meets Girls. The new show would again be produced by Jack Good with Rita Gillespie directing. The ‘boy’ was Marty Wilde and the ‘girls’ The Vernons Girls singing group, all sixteen of them, who would be the weekly regulars.
The show was similar in concept to Oh Boy! with a new backing group Jack Good’s Firing Squad, however organist Cherry Wainer and saxophonist Red Price were retained from the previous show. It also kept the same production team. Bill Shepherd was hired as the musical director, Leslie Cooper was the ‘dance director’ and Trevor Peacock was held over from Oh Boy as the script writer. Wainer would also bring along her miniature poodle, Lotus Lee. One of the girls, Margaret Stredder would be given a solo spot and a duet with Marty Wilde. Bill Shepherd said of her "This girl is so dedicated to the business that she must one day be a star." She would later form backing singers The Ladybirds, who appeared in every British variety show from Top Of The Pops to The Benny Hill Show.
Melody Maker quoted ABC's Ron Rowson "We shall also feature American stars each week. The show will be quieter and smoother and will not move at the same frantic pace as 'Oh Boy'." Good said "The show will be designed to appeal to the older brothers and sisters as well as the teenagers."
Talking to Disc ahead of the first show Good claimed ".. probably the most noticeable
thing will be that the programme will not be a frantic bash-
Good later tells Disc magazine that half of the shows are live, while the other half are video taped. The first show was broadcast from ABC's Didsbury, Manchester studios, but may move down to Teddington, Middlesex later on.
After a run-
Cliff Richard publishes an autobiography, It's Great To Be Young, in October 1960 and makes the claim that Jack Good resented Cliff for not wanting to appear on Boy Meets Girl. Although Good suggests to Melody Maker before the first show that Cliff wanted too much money "He wanted more money than we could afford to pay. Maybe later on we will be able to meet his terms."
By late October the first evidence that something was wrong was when the show was dropped by TWW in favour of the imported from America Nat King Cole Show. ABC Programme Controller told Melody Maker "The dropping of 'Boy Meets Girls' only applies to the TWW area and not to the rest of the country. The show has not flopped. It just happens that TWW wanted to do something different." Jack Good told Melody Maker "Current viewing figures show that it is pulling in even more viewers than 'Oh Boy!' did. There has been quite a swing in public taste. Viewers have now accepted the quieter 'Boy Meets Girls' as opposed to the faster, noisier 'Oh Boy!'"
In mid-
Halfway through the run director Gillespie left the show to be replaced by Ben Churchill
who had previously worked on ABC's Top Numbers and Sunday Break. The house band was
reduced in size leaving guitarists Eric Ford and Joe Baker, drummer Andy White, saxophonist
Red Price, plus Cherry Wainer and Don Storer and a new bassist. The string section
was also mothballed. The most drastic change was that the 300-
The rock and roll quota was toned down after the change and more ballads introduced, but Jack Good avowed to reverse the decision before the show was cancelled. Marty Wilde couldn't commit to any more shows from April onwards so Good proposed a new show and format, Wham! It was during the show's run that Marty Wilde proposed to one of The Vernon's Girls, Joyce Baker.
The surprise success of the BBC's Juke Box Jury sees it go head to head with Boy Meets Girls.
In September 1960 Jack Good tells readers of Disc that the tapes of the show have already been destroyed "because of the high cost of storage", however ABC engineer Ron Parker had made high quality audio recordings, several of which have been released by United Artists and Rockstar Records.
BOY MEETS GIRLS
ABC
12th September 1959 -