TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

RSG only ever intended to play new record releases, but in early 1965 they give several slots to a young singer-songwriter from Scotland, Donovan, seemingly without a record deal. He would write songs especially for that week's show, a little like Lance Percival on BBC1's Tonight. One week he wrote a song about that week's singles chart. Elkan Allan wanted to see how an unsigned artist would be received on the show. It was obvious that Ready Steady Win the previous year had too many similar-sounding bands all making the same noise, so a new unsigned act like Donovan wouldn't have fitted in.

It was announced in February by executive producer Elkan Allan that he has decided to change the show's format by having all the performers sing and play live. With the change of format came a change of location from Kingsway to the larger facilities of Wembley. Along with the facelift from the 2nd April 1965 the show was given a new (albeit temporary) name, Ready Steady Goes Live! Talking to the TV Times Allan claimed "Ready Steady Go was starting to go sour on us about six months ago." The boss of EMI Records Sir Joseph Lockwood was said to be "horrified" by the proposition of his artists performing live and met with Elkan Allan to discuss his concerns. Acts had performed live on the show many times over the previous few months, but the decision was probably agreed to beforehand rather than imposed on them. As Elkan Allan explained to The Stage and Television Today in March 1965 "Because of my own background of working on documentaries, I am personally happier with a show in which the performances are as authentic as possible. But I am the first to recognise that show business is founded on illusion and I have no objection to miming if it is necessary to create that illusion." Record companies had agreed to let Rediffusion have copies of arrangements of each song so it could be replicated live using the studio's musical director. Talking to Rave magazine Elkan Allan said "RSG was becoming a bit samey. Bad mimers positively embarrassed me and it was clear fans felt that mime's a cheat." The magazine held a postal vote to see which the fans preferred live or mimed, but as I've not seen that edition of the magazine the outcome of reader's preference is unknown. Not only would the fans now have to travel to the outskirts of London to see the show produced, but artists would now have to be in attendance from 10.00 am until the live broadcast for rehearsals. Any spontaneous drop-in appearance by any star passing the old studio in the West End was now long-gone, no Faces like Mickey Tenner dancing right in front of the cameras, no trailing camera cables tripping up dancers. Spontaneity had been sacrificed for 'better' sound and freedom of movement for the cameras. The show was made to look professional, like any other light entertainment TV show of the era, but RSG wasn't any other type of show. The club had shut down, but a new bigger venue, a ballroom, was now available across town.

The move also stirred up behind-the-scenes changes. Vicki Wickhan would become the show's Editor, Francis Hitching would become Producer, while others, like Keith Fordyce, chose to leave, and some were asked to leave. Also, Patrick Kerr now introduced a new, but short-lived, dance troupe to the show, the Kink-E-Cats. It was obvious that the show which started off aping Discs-A-Gogo was now visually morphing into Top Of The Pops.

The show not only made stars of pop singers and bands, but also those behind the camera. One of the shows' regular directors from 1965 onwards was Michael Lindsay-Hogg, later to direct The Beatles' Let It Be movie, Adam Faith's TV series Budgie, Brideshead Revisited, among others, and cameraman Bruce Gowers, later to work as a director for Kenny Everett at Thames and directing the Bohemian Rhapsody promo clip for Queen in 1975.

Talking to the NME in February 1965 about artists performing live on the show Vicki Wickham claimed "We would like to have more artists performing live as as you have probably noticed, we have lately been trying to put this into effect. But our main problem is inadequate studio space. Even so, artists who actually perform on RSG only receive the same fee as those who mime." Like Thank Your Lucky Stars and Top Of The Pops Ready, Steady, Go! was a 'Special Fee' show, which meant that artists accepted a lower than normal fee in order to come on and plug their new record. Lower than, for example, the London Palladium show where they always would be expected to perform a couple of songs live. However, the move to Wembley had to be approved, and to that end a new pilot show was made. It was also assumed that Cathy McGowan would now have her own male on-screen assistant now that Fordyce was leaving.

Cathy McGowan picks up another presenting job as she begins to host Pye Records' show on Radio Luxemburg, Spin In The New, which begins 23rd March 1965, and for the first Wembley show Cathy McGowan gets the coveted colour shot front cover of that weeks' TV Times.

Despite the intent to reinvigorate the show several ITV channels decided to drop it before the change, leading to a loss of viewers, while other ITV stations would transmit it on different days. By early March 1965 the programme's makers Rediffusion were the only channel showing it at the intended time slot, with Ulster, Southern, Scottish, Anglia and Grampian playing it on a Sunday. So much for 'The Weekend Starts Here'. TWW ended up showing the more established Thank Your Lucky Stars instead of RSG in this time slot, while ATV had actually dropped the show in late January, only to bring it back in March on Tuesdays at 7.00 pm, then moved to Thursday. A spokesman for RSG told Disc magazine "We had dozens of petitions when the show was cut. One came from a girls' school with 500 signatures."

The decision to move to Wembley was a gamble and to many it took away the intimacy of the previous location, but as Elkan explained to The Stage "I have felt recently that the audience was getting predictable and boring where once it was bizarre and compelling, so I decided that particular argument against moving to Wembley had gone. The audience was now confined to seating (with limited room for dancing) on scaffolding to the right, but there would now be room for 250 members of the audience instead of the comparative airing cupboard studio at Kingsway. Audience members from the Kingsway era would be brought in from west end clubs like The Scene, but now a new RSG! Club was formed with around 2000 members, from which the audience would be chosen to appear, so although it was more democratic, but didn't look any less cool. Talking to TV Times McGowan said "If they don't arrive at the studio looking smart and up-to-the-minute, they won't be allowed on the show and they will lose their club membership." But there's no doubt that the club feeling, one of the most successful aspects of the show, had just been sidelined, but the truth was that the mod scene was fading away. The inconvenient truth was that, perhaps, RSG was partly to blame.

An orchestra was now employed at the side of the stage, but far away enough not to be able to be heard properly, so a monitor was put on the stage so that the singer could hear them, or that was the idea. The musical director for the first three weeks was Johnny Spence, then Les Reed for three weeks, later replaced by Bob Leaper, while backing vocals were provided by female trio The Breakaways (who later sang back up on Jimi Hendrix s 'Hey Joe'). The new sound equipment needed for a totally live show costs Rediffusion £12,000 with an extra £1000 per show. Most of the backing tracks would be recorded in-house, but sometimes the producers would use studios of Pye Records in the west end of London.

Speaking to Record Mirror about the change over to playing live Andrew Oldham said "What strikes me as particularly silly in all this talk about the superiority of a live show to a mimed one is the implication that there is something more Truthful about being live. What's truth got to do with it?" Kink Mick Avory was asked by Record Mirror in April 1965 about the changes at RSG "Really, RSG reached its climax some time ago. Lucky Stars has got more atmosphere, in fact, it's like RSG used to be. The trouble is that RSG has picked audiences. They don't want to hear the groups. They just want to be seen on television. There's no inspiration there to play well live. And anyway the mikes are all in the wrong places at RSG. They're everywhere so they pick up every little sound, whether or not it's made by the group or the audience." A disgruntled Melody Maker reader claimed "A live 'Ready Steady Go' will sort out the real stars from those who achieve their fame from echo-chambers, amplifiers and about twenty takes of one number."

As the new RSG was exiting the old studio there was one final, bizarre, farewell. A drama series Uncle Charles, starring Raymond Huntley, filmed one episode, The Man And The Machine, with a pop group made up of robots, called The Humans, using the old studio, utilising a RSG lookalike set design. For the purposes of the drama the show was re-named 'Tip Top Pop.' Recorded in April 1965 the show appears not to have been broadcast. Spoofing the show wouldn't end there however.

The new look meant Cathy McGowan now effectively led the show with a new co-host, David Goldsmith, but he wouldn't last long, eventually returning to his previous job behind the camera. McGowan took sole control when, inevitably, the show reverted back to its original title on 4th June 1965. However, Patrick Kerr would still demonstrate dances and conduct interviews. Despite it's new by-line 'The All-Live Pop Show' the show by now looked like a circus compared to the more intimate, almost cabaret approach of the previous set up. The new stage had the act playing on the ground level, with equipment on the next level up and what looked like Dansette-type record players with their lids up on an upper level when The Byrds appeared. Now the grown-ups had gone, it was now down to a much younger production and front-of-camera team to make it their own. Although dancers were still there the original mods were all but gone and in were the next wave of Mod bands like The Who, The Small Faces and pre-psych Byrds, Lovin' Spoonful, Donovan suede jacket with fringes types.

In March 1965, ahead of the live re-launch, Elkan Allan talked to the Daily Mirror about Cathy McGowan "She has become the symbol of the healthy teenager. But it has taken about a year for her to graduate. Three months ago there was a dramatic change. Suddenly she knew what to do. When she made a mistake on the programme she knew how to cope with it. That was when I decided that she could 'front' the programme. The marvellous thing about her is that she has remained utterly unspoiled." She replied "He always takes an interest in my clothes; it's not like I'm talking to an old square. He let me wear my sun-glasses on the show when everybody on the show said that they would hide my face."

In April 1965 the producers try to find another Donovan by hiring Dana Gillespie to appear on several shows, but this proved unsuccessful and she was dropped after her second appearance. The same month saw Hollywood come to Wembley as the Bunny Lake Is Missing movie production team turned up to film The Zombies in a sequence on the RSG set which, in the finished film, would be shown on a TV set in a pub.

The case of whether P J Proby should be allowed back on British TV was discussed in Melody Maker in April. After his on-stage trouser splitting stunt he was subjected to a ban by ABC TV, but Elkan Allan of RSG suggested there could be a return "We are looking into the possibility of it. But was have to face the fact that Proby is a highly controversial person. In booking him, we would have to be absolutely certain that P J would not embarrass the programme in any way." What could possibly go wrong?

In May Melody Maker ran an article suggesting that the sheer amount of pop music on radio and TV in Britain was killing off record sales. Elkan Allan was quoted "We don't have any plans to alter the amount of pop music on Rediffusion - we think we have the right balance."

Despite indifference from home broadcasters the trend-setting show from London was now getting noticed by broadcasters from other countries, and in the summer of 1965 Gary Smith, producer of NBC's Hullaballoo sees the show and suggest that they swap clips. Whether he was told that Rediffusion had plans to replace the show isn't known.

By summer 1965 Les Reed was the musical director for both ITV's Ready Steady Go and the BBC's Gadzooks.

Controversy hit the show on 23rd July 1965, courtesy of the predictably unpredictable P J Proby. Proby had made RSG appearances after that legendary incident, but this time it was he who decided it was time for a ban. Talking to Disc magazine Proby's manager Tony Lewis explained "Proby was contracted to sing three numbers. He even paid for the coach to take his band along for the rehearsals. Then, he had just got through one number and was halfway through the second, when the credits came up on the screen. This is unforgivable. I was furious - and so was Proby when I told him about it afterwards. He didn't know about it at the time. He just went on singing. He has now refused any more shows for Rediffusion." The show's producer Francis Hitching claimed "Proby was not contracted to do a specific number of songs. But we had planned for him to sing three. It was just one of those things. When an artist is the star of the show, he goes on last - and occasionally the show overruns. We are quite happy to have Proby back anytime."

Explaining the decision making process about who to include on the show Vicki Wickham told Disc magazine "As far as The Who, Stones, Animals and Dusty are concerned, we feel they made their names on our programme. It's great the way they phone up and say 'When are we doing another show?' Other artists are picked either by hearing a great record and auditioning the group that made it, or by going to clubs and ballrooms hearing a good artist and waiting for the record to come out then booking them. I pick records with a view to either dancing or to the chart. There's nothing clever about tipping records for chart success that are obvious - like the Beatles. We'd rather be wrong." However, by summer 1965 The Beatles made it clear that they would not be making another appearance on the show anytime soon. Attempting to book the group to promote Help! Elkan Allan told the NME "Naturally we were disappointed, too, when Brian Epstein said The Beatles were not doing any of the pop programmes on this record. It is their decision and we can do nothing about it. We like to feel an appearance on RSG is mutually beneficial to the artist and the programme, but if The Beatles don't wish to take advantage of the system, it is their prerogative to decline our invitation." In fact, The Beatles appeared live on Blackpool Night Out to promote Help! performing several songs live.

Playing live in the studio suited many of acts who had a live following. When asked in Melody Maker in July 1965 if playing live attracted them to the show Eric Burdon of The Animals replied “Yes. We absolutely hate miming — the best thing that ever happened to us was when RSG went live. Now it’s like playing in a club — very enjoyable."

Talking to The Stage in August 1965 about the hostess/commere Francis Hitching explained "Cathy doesn't have a regular partner because we like to use a guest star each week. We searched for a long time for the right partner - without realising they were already on the show - as artists, just waiting to be discovered as comperes!" Guest comperes included Michael Crawford, Woody Allen, Eric Burdon, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. However, it was suggested by the Melody Maker in August 1965 that DJ Pete Brady might be invited to audition for the show. On the 20th August show legendary Sheffield nightclub owner Peter Stringfellow co-hosted with Cathy. Stringfellow would continue as a warm-up man for the rest of the show's life.

Despite its flair and verve RSG wasn't wholly original, it had a precedent. TWW's wonderful, but now tragically non-existent Disc-A-Gogo which began broadcasting in September 1961. Despite luring great talent along to the studios in Bristol by late 1965 the producers had decided to move onto a new project, Now!!! Comedy, music and art were all spinning into a wonderful vortex in Britain and while RSG honoured all three, maybe a new pre-recorded show (and new title) without an audience would have fit the bill.

Elkan Allan announced at the Variety Club luncheon in September that the show was to be replaced by something "much broader". He explained that "I am taking it off while it is still on top". He said this as he was receiving and award for the show from the Variety Club presented to him by former host Keith Fordyce. The show had also just won the Best TV Show category by readers of the Melody Maker for the second year running.

In September 1965 Disc magazine carried a headline "Ready Steady GOES!" Elkan Allan talking to Disc claimed "I want to see Ready Steady Go finish while it is still at the top. I should hate to see the programme become stale and lose its popularity, and be forced to go because of that." However, only a few weeks before he told Melody Maker "Pop is, an will remain, an important part of every television company's schedules, and there is no question of our dropping the pop shows. Certainly RSG will go on, and it will develop. It may not get the embarrassingly high ratings it got for a period, but it will remain an important part of our programming and an important part of the lives of teenagers of all ages." It was also announced that theatre producer Michael White (later to work with Monty Python and The Comic Strip) will help stage a Christmas show based along the lines of RSG. Working with him will be Elkan Allan, Michael Lindsay-Hogg and Vicki Wickham. The show was expected to run for a fortnight in "a big London theatre" and have the words "ready steady" in the show's title.

In the 9th October 1965 edition of the TV Times Elkan Allan was asking readers to come up with ideas for a replacement show which would begin in the new year. Letters were to sent to 'New Ready Steady Go' via the TV Times address. The public response was swift. From the Daily Mirror. "Don't drop RSG plead fans. Hundreds of teenagers throughout Britain have been protesting since it was announced that the 'Ready, Steady, Go!' show is to be dropped in December (writes Ken Irwin)." "We have simply been snowed under with complaints said a Rediffusion TV spokesman. But, we are not relenting because we think we have a much better show to take the place of RSG, Elkan Allan, Rediffusion's head of entertainment has been telling us about the plans for the new show."  It s going to be the swingingest thing on the screen  he said confidently "the new show will make more use of film - we will shoot a lot of it out of doors and we will be using cartoons. It was unlikely that the new show will have a regular compere. Unless we get a lot of complaints after the new show begins - on 7 January there is no chance of RSG coming back. Pete Brady's name came up again, this time as a co-host on the replacement show. There was in fact every chance that the show was coming back, but it's reprieve still couldn't convince more ITV stations to transmit it. Talking to the NME in September 1965 Rediffusion's Francis Hitchin explained "The new show will be a lavish production and is more likely to be pre-recorded than shown live. There will be a little audience participation but it will be very incidental compared with the important role teenagers in the studio play in RSG."

By late 1965 it was still being reported that the show was on its way out. In a statement in late November Elkan Allan, head of Light Entertainment at Rediffusion claimed "The fact is that we are recording pilot programmes of several possible successors during the next fortnight and will decide our final plans when we have considered all these". The pilot of a potential replacement 'One-Two-Three' was filmed in December 1965 with Cathy McGowan's involvement. The planned replacement will possibly be only broadcast once a month, with the acts miming. Elkan Allan talking to Disc said "We haven't finally made up our minds yet about the frequency of the new show, but it will be the best pop entertainment we can put on." The Animals had filmed material between 18th to 21st December for the first show of the new series to be broadcast Friday 7th January 1966, while The Walker Brothers and The Small Faces were mentioned for inclusion in the pilot show. There were also plans in place for a new Cathy McGowan show. The reality was RSG had already become a different show, so maybe it would have been more appropriate to continue into 1966 with a new name.

On Tuesday 16th December 1965 Rediffusion call a press conference to announce that the show will now not finish at the end of the year, but will be extended until February 1966, but it will be cut to 27 minutes. Elkan Allan would be replaced by American musical director Buddy Bregman, who until recently was working with the BBC. The three pilots that had been commissioned were not to Rediffusion's taste, so the show was given a reprieve, much to Allan's disappointment, and probably leading to his replacement.

With the axe hovering over their heads now put to one side for the time being the show celebrated Christmas 1965 in true Crackerjack fashion with a pantomime, 'Cinderella' with Cathy McGowan in the lead role and Herman (Peter Noone) as the Prince trying to save her from the wicked Stepmother, played by Pete Townshend and the ugly sisters played by Hilton Valentine of The Animals and Ray Davies. During rehearsals Mick Avory trips up the pantomime horse sending it crashing into a kitchen unit on set, while Keith Moon falls through scenery. The glass from an arc lamp explodes, showering everyone in glass, while Pete Quaife shoots ball bearings from a toy gun at the cast. The New Year's Eve show saw the show return to Kingsway along with guest host Keith Fordyce. Interview clips with some of the stars were played between the programmes on ITV all evening, while the show's producers used 'vidicons', shoebox-sized cameras for more intimate, informal shots of the guests around the studio. They were referred to by director Robert Fleming as "creepie-peepies."

Go to 1966

READY, STEADY, GO! / READY, STEADY GOES LIVE

1965