TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

A series aimed at fans of 1970s album artists who kept the industry alive for many years, but had been abandoned in the wake of punk and disco.

Hosted by keyboard maestros Rick Wakeman and Tony Ashton it ran alternately with Paul Gambaccini's The Other Side of the Tracks, Saturday evenings on Channel 4.

The set design was meant to represent a bar or pub and invited to the studios to play and chat (and drink) were Godley and Creme, Andy Fairweather-Low, Maggie Bell, Donovan, Chris Farlowe, Suzi Quatro, Strawbs, John Entwistle among many others. Everyone played live, either solo or with the resident backing band.

The soundtrack was mixed in stereo, making it (probably) the first stereo TV series in the UK, despite the fact it was never actually broadcast that way. However, a DVD box set was released in 2017 with the stereo soundtrack.

GASTANK

C4 / Goldcrest

15th January 1983 - 26th March 1983