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Have you got a favorite Top Of The Pops performance?
"It's difficult to remember a favourite TOTP but certainly some of the end of year specials were great fun. It really depended on the atmosphere on the day, the combination of acts and who you were presenting with. One I thought was going to be a favourite was hosting a show with on it. It was the one where Debbie Harry was wearing that striped mini-dress. As she approached me I opened my mouth to say 'hi,' but absolutely nothing came out and she walked straight past, probably wondering why such a gormless git who stood around with his mouth open was presenting the nation's top music show."
Was it fun to present?
"It was always great fun to present. It was like meeting up with a bunch of mates and new acts that you'd been championing. For me, it wasn't just popping up on a regular basis, as I was presenting the Breakfast Show on Radio One, Pop Quiz and Saturday Superstore, therefore I felt a more integral part of it all. It was always a thrill when new groups and singers made it to the show, because you knew just how much it meant to them."
Have you ever embarrassed yourself on the show?
I can't remember ever having any embarrassing moments as I never took myself seriously enough to get embarrassed. I do recall one of 's appearances when Jimmy Pursey fell over and brilliantly got over his embarrassment by hurling himself on the floor again as if it had been intentional! Another embarrassing moment as a viewer was Simon May doggedly singing live with the orchestra behind reading the music - a half-tone out from him! It was live so nothing could be done. I wouldn't wish that on anybody! Undoubtedly, producer Michael Hurll's most embarrassing moment was projecting a vast picture of darts player Jockey Wilson behind as they sang their current hit 'Jackie Wilson Said!' Brilliant stuff! I just had to play that clip on TV the following Saturday morning!!
What’s the worst performance you’ve seen on the show?
"Some of the most anguishing to watch are the singers who really couldn't care less whether they mimed in sync or not. It might have appeared cool at the time but now it just makes you squirm at the affectation and feigned equanimity. The worst appearance ever for me, was before I presented it. Not because the act was bad but because I was in the group and didn't get on the show allegedly because I wasn't a Musicians Union member but I always suspected a little internal rivalry and jiggery-pokery. I sat in the dressing room feeling pretty bad realising that this was probably the only chance I'd get to be on TOTP, little knowing that I'd be on it for the best part of twelve years! The group was Esprit de Corps and were only on at the last minute as Junior Campbell pulled out and our single was Tony Blackburn's record of the week. I thought their performance was pretty poor anyway. I seem to remember a couple of them sitting in chairs. How can you possibly be a rock god sitting in a chair!! The record flopped - serves 'em right eh?"
What would be your dream Top Of The Pops line-up?
"I think I'd have with That's Entertainment, with The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore, with Big Country, with Where Were You Hiding When The Storm Broke, and the late with Fairytale of New York, with Survival, with And Your Bird Can Sing and with Play with Fire."
Your first TOTP was in 1978. Can you remember anything about that?
"My first TOTP was with Dave Lee Travis, they didn’t trust me by myself, so they put DLT on to look after me. It was great fun although I tended to use my arms and legs too much, I thought 'I’d better be expansive!'and I looked like a spider that had gone berserk on the set, but that was my first indoctrination. Abba were on, it was a Christmas thing because a lot of snow came down from the ceiling which we weren’t expecting, so these 2 little heads were poking out of the snow in the end."
Was it a big thing for you to be doing TOTP at the time?
"TOTP was always a great national institution. You used to watch it as a kid, and to be strutting around with all these major stars, I thought it was great fun. The name still held good."
What are your memories of the music of that time?
"There was a sea change coming musically, it had already come really because when I started I had done the very first punk 20 on British radio with about the only 20 records that existed including B sides. When I joined Radio 1 they were very much playing in the daytime, the sort of disco-ey sort of stuff, you know the very palatable disco, a bit bland at times. I started playing the stuff that I’d been playing in the evening and presenting on TOTP which I loved. For about the first 6 months, I was nearly on the way out because of that. I was told this wasn’t daytime material. Orchestral Manoeuvres in The Dark, , they belonged in the evening, but all those bands did TOTP. They became standard commercial daytime fodder."
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