From Radio Times "Alan Price plays and sings his kind of music and talks about the
lyrics, tunes, and rhythms which make up pop music."
Alan Price had the misfortune to have a surname television producers couldn't stop
playing with, see also The Price of Fame Or Fame At Any Price. This would be the
first of three series that he would host or co-host in 1968 - 1970, the others being
The Price of Fame and Monster Music Mash.
Price had co-hosted Top Of The Pops with Alan Freeman on 2nd May 1968 which might
have been seen as an audition for this series which would be broadcast at tea-time
in summer 1968. Price each week would show us the workings of the pop music business,
from an insiders' perspective. He would ask other writers like Ray Davies about their
craft, the process of recording a song, while on another show he had intended to
write music to a winning lyric sent in by viewers. According to a report in The Times
9th September 1969 over two thousand lyrics had been sent in. They came in from housewives,
a man aged 79 and, apparently, a four year old child. The most popular subject matter
was unrequited love, followed by anger about war in Biafra and Viet Nam. In the end
he decided to write music for five songs. The overall winner was The Snail, written
by a seven year old girl, followed by My Skin It Is Black, written by an apprentice
joiner from Stockton-on-Tees.
Despite the time-slot it managed to attract pop royalty like Ray Davies, Madeline
Bell, Dave Mason and a reunion with Eric Burdon.
