Top of the Pops

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Top of the Pops was a long-running British music chart television programme, and indeed the longest-running music show in the world, shown each week on BBC and now licensed for national versions around the world. Each programme consisted of half an hour of performances of some of that week's best-selling popular music. Top of the Pops is also sometimes referred to by its abbreviation TOTP or just "The Pops". The final weekly edition, a one hour long special, aired on 30 July 2006. <ref>Show's over for Top of the Pops, The Guardian, 20 June, 2006.</ref> However, the BBC have confirmed that there will still be a Christmas special this year, <ref>Top of the Pops FAQ, TOTP website, accessed 7 November, 2006.</ref> and the spin-off series Top of the Pops 2 returned for a new series in September 2006. The 2006 Christmas edition will be presented by Edith Bowman, Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates ^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] History

[edit] The first show

Top of the Pops began on New Year's Day 1964 in a studio (converted from a former church) on Dickenson Road in Longsight, Manchester, which the BBC had bought from Mancunian Films in 1954. DJ Jimmy Savile presented the first show, which featured (in order) The Rolling Stones with "I Wanna Be Your Man", Dusty Springfield with "I Only Want to be With You", the Dave Clark Five with "Glad All Over", The Hollies with "Stay", The Swinging Blue Jeans with "The Hippy Hippy Shake" and The Beatles with "I Want to Hold Your Hand", that week's number one. For the first three years Savile rotated with three other presenters: Alan Freeman, Pete Murray and David Jacobs. Some histories do not make it clear that The Beatles were only featured in what the BBC describes as a "promotional video".

[edit] "It's still number one"

Iconic Top of the Pops logo used from the 500th edition on 4th October 1973 until 27th March 1986 and revived in 3D form for the 'finale' in 2006

The show was originally intended to have only a few programmes but ran for over 42 years, reaching landmark episodes of 1000 and 2000 in 1983 and 2002 respectively. During its heyday in the 1970s, it attracted 15 million viewers each week <ref>Band snubs Top of the Pops after fat remark Guardian Unlimited, 10 August,2005. Accessed 14 May, 2006</ref>. It was traditionally shown on a Thursday night, but was moved to a Friday in 1996, a change which caused some controversy as this placed the programme up against the hugely popular soap opera, Coronation Street, on ITV. This was when the major decline in audiences began as fans were forced to choose between TOTP and missing an episode of their favourite soap.

The show saw many changes through the decades: in style, design, fashion and taste. It periodically (usually every three years) had some aspect of its idents, format, or set design altered in some way, keeping the show looking modern despite its age.

The show was closely associated with the BBC radio station Radio 1, usually being presented by DJs from the station (although from October 1991 to January 1994 no Radio 1 DJs presented the show). During the last few years of airing the association was not as close as it once was. In its heyday during the glam rock era of the early 1970s, the show featured the tightly choreographed dance troupe Pan's People (later succeeded by Ruby Flipper, Legs & Co. and Zoo), something which has been widely imitated on similar shows ever since. Pan's People were used when an act was unable to appear in person and no footage of them was available - a common occurrence in the era before promotional videos.

In the mid-1990's, Radio 1 producer Ric Blaxill was brought in to revamp the show. In one of the more radical relaunches in the programme's history, Blaxill handed presenting duties to a different celebrity each week. Presenters during this period included Kylie Minogue, Chris Evans, Chris Eubank, Damon Albarn and Jarvis Cocker - with an attempt to create an iconic 'golden mic' that was used by the various presenters. The set was revamped to include thousands of holes, through which beams of light would illuminate the artists. This period also coincided with the Britpop era.

For most of its history the show had very strict rules about which singles could be featured. A song could not appear if it was going down the charts, nor could any track appear on consecutive weeks unless it was at number one. These rules were abandoned in 1997, possibly as a response to the changing nature of the Top 40 (since the mid-1990s climbers in the charts had become a rarity, with almost all singles peaking at their debut position, though singles began climbing again in 2006 after a change in the rules).

The logo has been updated over the years; this is the logo used from 1998 to 2003

[edit] All new Top of the Pops

On 28 November 2003, the show saw one of its most radical overhauls in what was widely reported as a make-or-break attempt to revitalise the long-running series. In a break with the previous format, the show played more up-and-coming tracks ahead of any chart success, and also featured interviews with artists. The launch show, which was live and an hour long, was notable for an audacious performance of Flip/Reverse by Blazin' Squad, featuring hordes of hooded teenagers choreographed to dance around the outside of BBC TV Centre. The new show was hosted by MTV presenter Tim Kash until his contract expired in August 2004. It was not renewed due to his apparent lack of popularity with TV viewers. The show was co-hosted by Reggie Yates and Fearne Cotton every Friday night until 11 July 2005.

By November 2004, viewing figures had plummeted to below three million, prompting announcement by the BBC that the show was going to move, again, to Sunday evenings on BBC Two, thus losing the prime-time slot on BBC One that it had maintained for forty years.<ref>"Top of the Pops" leaves BBC One BBC News 29 November, 2004. Accessed 14 May, 2006</ref>. This move was widely reported as a final 'sidelining' of the show, and perhaps signalled its likely cancellation. At the time, it was insisted that this was so that the show would air immediately after the official announcement of the new top 40 chart on Radio 1, as it was thought that by the following Friday, the chart seemed out-of-date.

The first edition on BBC Two was broadcast on 17 July 2005 at 7pm with presenter Fearne Cotton. After the move to Sundays, Cotton continued to host with a different guest presenter each week, such as Rufus Hound or Richard Bacon. Viewing figures averaged around 1.5 million.

[edit] Final show

On 20 June 2006, the show was formally cancelled and it was announced that the last edition would be broadcast on 30 July 2006. Edith Bowman co-presented its hour-long swansong, along with Sir Jimmy Savile (who had presented the first show), Reggie Yates, Mike Read, Pat Sharp, Sarah Cawood, Dave Lee Travis, Rufus Hound, Tony Blackburn and Janice Long. The show was recorded on 26 July 2006 and featured archive footage and tributes, including The Rolling Stones - the very first band to appear on Top of the Pops - opening with The Last Time, the Spice Girls, David Bowie, Wham!, Madonna, Beyoncé, Kylie Minogue, Sophie Ellis Bextor and Robbie Williams. The show closed with Shakira, as her track Hips Don't Lie featuring Wyclef Jean climbed back up to number one on the UK Singles Chart earlier in the day. The show ended with Sir Jimmy turning the lights off in the empty studio. Fearne Cotton, who was the current presenter was unavailable to co-host for the final edition due to her filming of ITV1's Love Island in Fiji but kicked off the show with a quick introduction recorded on location, saying "It's still number one, it's Top Of The Pops". BARB reported the final show's viewing figures as 3.98 million. [1]

The magazine, the website, international versions, the Christmas specials and TOTP2 are to continue despite the axing. Some staff also suggested that the show will return after a hiatus of a few years on the documentary 'Top of the Pops: The True Story' shown on BBC2 after the final show had aired.

[edit] Theme music

A version of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" by C. C. S. was used as the show's theme tune for most of the 1970s, and also in a remixed version between 1998 and 2003, although ironically the band never performed on the show. Between 1978 and 1980 the show had no regular theme music at all, instead using a song from the current charts to accompany the Top 30 run-down at the start of the programme - but "Whole Lotta Love" was re-introduced as the theme (albeit briefly) in 1980. There was also no theme music at all between Summer 1997 and Spring 1998, instead the introduction of the first performance played out to the title sequence.

In 1981, an original song, "Yellow Pearl" by Phil Lynott was commissioned as the new theme music. This was replaced in 1986 with "The Wizard", a composition by Paul Hardcastle. The final theme was a remixed version of that used between 1991 and 1995, composed by Tony Gibber.

[edit] Miming

Acts performing on the show have traditionally mimed to a pre-recorded track and this accounts for a number of acts who never appeared on the show due to their reluctance to perform in this way. Highlights have included Jimi Hendrix being forced to mime to someone else's track being played by mistake (in the days of live broadcast), Shane Macgowan of the Pogues' drunken performance of "Fairytale of New York", a legendary performance of 'Roll With It' by Oasis in which Noel and Liam Gallagher exchanged roles with Noel miming to Liam's singing track and Liam pretending to play guitar(which he was hopeless at) and John Peel's appearance as the mandolin soloist for Rod Stewart on "Maggie May". One memorable incident was the performance of Garden Party where Fish of Marillion mimed perfectly aside from the line "I'm miming" (which was changed from the original "I'm fucking" for broadcast purposes), when he simply pointed at his closed lips.

For a few years from 1991 the show adopted a live vocal to pre-recorded backing track policy. Kurt Cobain on "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Video at YouTube dropped his voice an octave and changed the opening line to "Load up on drugs, kill your friends" ; the band also made it very clear that they were not playing their instruments) (Kurt later said during an interview that he wanted to sound more like Morrissey during the performance) — it also exposed a number of poor live singers, and was dropped as a general rule.

In its final few years miming had become less and less common, especially for bands, as studio technology became more reliable and artists were given the freedom to choose their performance style. Former Executive Producer, Andi Peters, stated that there was "no policy" on miming and said that it was entirely up to the performer if they wanted to sing live or mime. <ref>What's TOTP's policy on miming? BBC TOTP official website FAQ. URL Accessed 23 June 2006.</ref>

[edit] Missing episodes

Because of the BBC's former policy of deleting old programmes (see Wiping), the vast majority of the episodes from the first ten years of the programme's history have been lost, including all of The Beatles' appearances.

Of the first 500 episodes (1964-73) only about 20 complete recordings remain in the BBC archives. The earliest surviving footage dates from February 26 1964 and consists of performances by Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas and The Dave Clark Five. Some programmes exist only partially (largely performances that were either pre-recorded or re-used in later editions). There are also cases of shows that only exist in their raw, unedited form. Many are also silent on the presenter links. The oldest complete episode in existence was originally transmitted on Boxing Day in 1967 (only four complete recordings from the 1960s survive). The most recent that is not held is dated September 8 1977. All editions after this date exist in full.

There is a misconception that an episode dated April 5 1984 does not exist in the archives. In reality, it was never made as BBC1 was off air the entire day due to industrial action. However, the notion that the episode was wiped persists ^{[citation needed]}. Additionally, the programme was forced off the air for several weeks by industrial action by the Musicians' Union in both 1974 and 1980.

There is also a widely held ^{[citation needed]} belief that editions from September 9 1982 and August 9 1984 are missing; this is also incorrect.

[edit] Spin-offs

The BBC have also had a show called TOTP2 which shows archive footage from as early as the 1960s of musicians on earlier Top of the Pops shows. It has been shown on BBC2 since September 1994, although the network's controller, Roly Keating, announced in the summer of 2004 that it was being "rested" (repeats, however, continue on the digital channel UKTV G2 with re-recorded dialogue). However, TOTP2 returned to the BBC2 schedules for a new series on Saturday 30 September 2006 in an evening timeslot, still narrated by Steve Wright and featuring a mixture of performances from the TOTP archive and newly-recorded performances. The first edition of this series featured new performances by Razorlight and Nelly Furtado.

Other spin offs include TOTP+ Plus and TOTP @ Play on UK Play (1998 - 2000), TOTP The New Chart on BBC Choice (1999 - 2000) and TOTP+ on Sundays on BBC2 (2000 - 2001) (not to be confused with the UK Play version). A more recent spin-off (now ended) is Top of the Pops Reloaded (previously Top of the Pops Saturday), showing on Saturday mornings on BBC One. This is aimed at a younger audience as is part of the CBBC Saturday Morning line-up.

[edit] Send-ups

A number of performers have sent up the format in various ways. Mainly this has been performers who disliked the mime format of the show, often as a more effective protest against this rather than just refusing to appear.

• While performing their 1982 hit "Jackie Wilson Said" the band Dexys Midnight Runners were seen performing in front of a projection of the darts player Jocky Wilson. [2] Opinions differ as to whether this was deliberate or accidental.
• When Oasis performed "Whatever" for Top of the Pops in 1994 they mimed and one of the cello players from the symphony was replaced by rhythm guitarist Bonehead, who clearly had no idea how the instrument is supposed to be played. Towards the end of the song, he gave up the pretense and started using the bow to conduct. A woman plays his rhythm guitar.[3]
• For the 1984 Christmas Day edition all of the performers from Band Aid had been booked to appear apart from Bono. The performance of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" witnessed the unlikely scene of Paul Weller lip-synching to Bono's vocals. Similarly, in 1985, when the Eurythmics were at number one with "There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)", Annie Lennox was seen miming the song's harmonica solo even though it is recognisably the work of Stevie Wonder.
• In a 2005 performance of "Lyla", Liam Gallagher made no secret of the fact that he was miming his lyrics by walking away from the microphone and chewing gum when he was supposed to be singing.
• Faith No More lead singer Mike Patton also showed he was obviously miming a performance by sticking his tongue out of the side of his mouth during close-up shots.
• In Nirvana's only performance on Top of the Pops, frontman Kurt Cobain "played" his guitar with his fingers inches away from the frets, drummer Dave Grohl danced around in his seat for most of the performance, and bassist Krist Novoselic waved his instrument around his head.
• Singer Les Gray of Mud went on stage to perform with a ventriloquist dummy during the performance of Lonely this Christmas and had the dummy lip-synch to the voice-over in the middle of the song.
• EMF appeared on the show with one of the guitarists strumming along while wearing boxing gloves.
• In Blur's performance of "Charmless Man" in 1995, Dave Rowntree decided to play with oversized drumsticks, while Graham Coxon, played a mini guitar.^{[citation needed]}
• In Green Day's first Top of the Pops appearance in 1994, the band played the song "Welcome to Paradise". Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong wore an otherwise plain white t-shirt with the phrase "Who am I fooling anyway?" handwritten on it, most likely a reference to his own miming during the performance. He could also be seen not playing his guitar during the instrumental bridge in the song.
• The performance of "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart and The Faces featured John Peel miming on mandolin. Near the end of the song, Rod and the Faces begin to kick around a football. This is despite the fact that the music can be still heard playing the background. [4]
• The Eels performed "Novocaine for the Soul" playing on toy instruments, which they then trashed.
• In 1989, The Cure performed "Lullaby" on TOTP. The studio director ordered that there were to be no close-up shots of Robert Smith as his appearance - he was heavily made up - might scare young children. The Cure were known for their abhorrence for miming their songs whilst on TOTP and on several occasions made it obvious they weren't playing their parts - using such stunts as playing guitar left-handed, miming very badly out of synch and dressing their instruments up in clothes.

[edit] Local versions

[edit] Europe

The TOTP format was sold to RTL in Germany in the 1990s, and aired on Saturday afternoons. It was very successful for a long time, with a compilation album series and magazine. However, in 2006 it was announced that the German show would be ending. The Italian and French version of the show ended by September 2006. Domestic versions of the show continue to run in The Netherlands until the end of December 2006 <ref>Dutch broadcaster BNN's press release on the end of the Dutch version of TOTP (in Dutch)</ref>. BBC Prime used to broadcast re-edited episodes of the BBC version, the weekend after it was transmitted in the UK.

[edit] United States

Top of the Pops had short-lived fame in the United States. In 1987, the CBS television network decided to try an American version of the show. It was hosted by Nia Peeples and even showed performances from the BBC version of the programme. The show was presented on late Friday nights and lasted almost a year.

In 2002, BBC America presented the BBC version of Top of the Pops as part of their weekend schedule. The network would get the episodes one week after they were transmitted in the UK. BBC America then tinkered with the show by cutting a few minutes out of each show and moving it to a weekday time slot. Viewer interest was gone and the show was taken off BBC America's schedule.

On January 23, 2006, record producer Lou Pearlman made a deal to bring "Top of the Pops" back to the airwaves in the United States. It is expected to be similar to the 1987 version, but it will also utilize the Billboard magazine music charts, most notably the Hot 100 chart. It was supposed to be planned for a possible 2006 or 2007 launch, but with the cancellation of the UK version no word on whether this US edition will go forward as it has yet to find a production company or distributor to partner with.

On August 19, 2006, VH1 in the United States showed the series' final program that aired in the UK.

The United States had its own similar series, American Bandstand, which aired nationally on ABC from 1957 to 1989.

[edit] New Zealand

The Top of the Pops brand has also been exported to New Zealand which for many years had to rely on music-video only shows to demonstrate its Top 20 (as well as the occasional season of the UK version of TOTP) as the world's top acts found New Zealand just too far away from the major markets to visit regularly. This all changed when the New Zealand government suggested a voluntary New Zealand music quota on radio (basically a threat that if the stations did not impose a quota themselves then one would be imposed on them). This worked and suddenly the amount of indigenous music played on radio stations shot up, as did the number of New Zealand hits in the top 20. Therefore a new version of a show like Top of the Pops became feasible for the first time, and the show was commissioned by TVNZ. The show began in early 2004 with host Alex Behan. The hour-long show (as opposed to the 30 minute UK version) which is broadcast at 5pm on Saturdays on TV 2 (New Zealand) contains a mixture of songs recorded in the Auckland TVNZ studios as well as performances from the international versions of the show. The New Zealand Top 20 singles and Top 10 albums are also featured. Alex stayed as host for two years before Bede Skinner took over. Despite a popular fan base in early 2006 TVNZ announced that Top of the Pops has been axed and ideas for new music shows are currently being considered.

Free-to-air music channel C4 then picked up the UK version of Top Of The Pops and aired it on Saturday's at 8pm with a repeat screening on Thursdays. However since the UK version has recently been axed itself, this arrangement has obviously now ended.

[edit] Africa, Asia and the Middle East

An edited version of the UK show can be seen on BBC Prime, the weekend after UK transmission.

[edit] Latin America

A complete version of the UK show can be seen on People+Arts, two weeks after the UK transmission.

[edit] Compilation albums

A number of compilation albums utilising the Top of the Pops brand have been issued over the years. The first one to reach the charts was "BBC TV's The Best Of Top of the Pops" on the Super Beeb record label in 1975, which reached number 21.

Earlier on in the 1970s there was a rival series of "Top of the Pops" albums that reached the charts, however these had little to do with the series, being a range of budget compilation albums recorded by anonymous session singers and released on the Hallmark record label.

In the 1990s, the BBC "Top of the Pops" brand was again licensed for use in a tie-in compilation series. Starting in 1995 with Sony Music's Columbia Records label, these double disc collections moved to the special marketing arm of Polygram/Universal Music TV, before becoming a sister brand of the Now That's What I Call Music range in the EMI/Virgin/Universal joint venture.

Similarly to the roles of "Top of the Pops" on BBC 1 and BBC 2 in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the compilation albums range featured current hits for the main series and classic hits (such as 70s Rock) for the "Top of the Pops 2" spin-offs.

[edit] Number One in the Compilation Charts

These albums in the series reached No. 1:

• Top of the Pops 1 (Columbia Records - 1995)
• Top of the Pops '99 - Volume 2 (Universal Music TV -1999)
• Top of the Pops 2000 - Volume Two (BBC Music/Universal Music TV -2000)

[edit] Top of the Pops magazine

Top of the Pops magazine has been running since February 1995, and filled the void in the BBC magazine portfolio where Number One magazine used to be.

An early feature on the Spice Girls coined the famous "Spice" nicknames for each member (Baby, Ginger, Posh, Scary and Sporty) that stayed with them throughout their career as a group and beyond.

The BBC have announced that the magazine will continue in publication despite the end of the television series.

[edit] Songs which mention Top of the Pops

• The Scottish punk band The Rezillos lampooned the show as a vehicle for vapid commercialism and for paying little or no attention to talented, unknown bands, in their song "Top of the Pops." Ironically the band actually ended up performing the song on the programme (twice) when it entered the charts.

• "C-30 C-60 C-90 GO!", originally by Bow Wow Wow and covered by Seattle, WA band Pretty Girls Make Graves
• A song entitled "Top of the Pops" appeared on the Kinks album, Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One
• Rat Trap by The Boomtown Rats
• Top Of The Pops by indie band 28 If (named after the car on the cover of The Beatles' Abbey Road album).
• "Me Plus One" by Anne Lilia Berge Strand or more commonly Annie
• The song "Formed a Band" by Art Brut includes in its lyrics, "We’re gonna write a song as universal as happy Birthday, that makes sure everybody knows that everything is going to be OK, we’re going to take that song and we’re going to play it 8 weeks in a row on Top of the Pops." Since the programme's cancellation, the band has changed the lyric when performing live to "we're going to make it the theme tune to the new Top of the Pops.". In their song "Bad Weekend," the band also sings, "sometimes it's hard to stop when your heart is set on Top of the Pops, Top of the Pops." Art Brut LyricsIn addition to this, Art Brut & Friends recorded a song titled "Top of the Pops", lyrics being the name of their band followed by TOTP e.g Art Brut! Top of the Pops! The Long Blondes! Top of the Pops!
• Akira the Don's single, 'Living in the Future'
• Bug Powder Dust by Bomb the Bass contains the lyrics "Top of the pops like the Lulu's show".
• The Smithereens recorded a song entitled "Top of the Pops" on their album Blow Up.
• Billy Bragg's "Waiting For The Great Leap Forward" boasts the lyric, "It's a mighty long way down rock 'n roll; from Top of the Pops to drawing the dole" (this is in turn a pun on a different lyric from Mott The Hoople's "All The Way From Memphis").
• Also, Bragg's "Moving The Goalposts" contains the line, "I dreamt of you as I walked to the shops, you were dancing with the wallies on Top of the Pops".
• Carter USM's song "Glam Rock Cops" has the lyric "I've been fitted up for size for Top Of The Pops / In a uniform supplied by the glam rock cops". Unlike most other examples here it was actually performed on Top of the Pops.
• B.A. Robertson's "Knocked It Off" mentions Top of the Pops; similarly, this was actually performed on the show, and peaked at number 8.
• Generation X's "Promises Promises" includes in the lyrics "Soon you'll get your gear from Marks and Sparks / Punk'll take over Top of the Pops"
• Terence Trent D'Arby in the song "Penelope Please" from his album "Symphony Or Damn": "You will still be home in time / To watch the 'Pops featuring Chrissie Hynde"
• The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (who later became The KLF) sampled nearly three minutes of Top of the Pops on their album 1987.
• Mott The Hoople's song "Saturday Gigs" has the lyric "Take the mick outta Top of the Pops / we play better than they do"
• Jay-Z's song "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" from the Black Album has the lyric "Came from the bottom the bottom, to the top of the pops/Nigga London, Japan and I'm straight off the block"

[edit] Trivia

• The longest ever performance was of Green Day's Jesus Of Suburbia broadcast on 6 November, 2005, it lasted 9 minutes and 10 seconds. The shortest performance was Super Furry Animals with Do or Die clocking in at 95 seconds.
• Cliff Richard has performed the most on Top Of The Pops, recording approximately 75 performances, only 42 of which still exist.
• The most complaints the show received for a single episode was in 1994 when Manic Street Preachers performed their song "Faster" in a manner that was seen as intimidating and featured lead singer James Dean Bradfield wearing a balaclava such as would be worn by an IRA terrorist.
• The first unsigned band to play Top Of The Pops was Scottish twee pop group Bis.
• In 1980, the then fledgling heavy metal superstars Iron Maiden became the first band to play live on the show since The Who in 1972, when they refused to mime to their single "Running Free".
• Super Furry Animals once got the whole audience to sit down during a live performance of theirs.
• When Elvis Costello performed "Radio Radio" on the show, he changed the lyrics to criticise Tony Blackburn, who was the presenter that week.
• When John Peel first presented the programme in 1968 he forgot the name of Amen Corner who were appearing that week. Possibly because of this, his next appearance as presenter wasn't until Christmas 1981.
• Although three of the four original presenters are still alive, seven presenters of the show have died — Stuart Henry, Kenny Everett, occasional presenter Caron Keating, John Peel, Tommy Vance, original presenter Alan Freeman and guest presenter Gary Olsen. In addition, the creator of the show, Johnnie Stewart, died on April 29, 2005.
• John Peel was once given 15 seconds to interview Debbie Harry about her new single. Annoyed by this ridiculous time constraint, he deliberately asked an overlong question so that she would not have time to answer. This was done with the full co-operation of Harry who, apparently, was amused by it.
• In May 2006, following a special Red Hot Chili Peppers concert recorded in the car park of BBC Television Centre, Hammersmith and Fulham Council (which governs the area the centre is located) informed the BBC that in order to legally conform to an Act of Parliament which came into force in 2004 they needed to have a special licence to continue to admit members of the public to any future performances. Prior to the matter being resolved the BBC requested the assistance of their own staff members to fill-in as audience members for this and other music shows.<ref>BBC staff asked to form audiences. BBC News 11 May 2006. Accessed 14 May 2006</ref>
• German singer Nena shocked viewers by appearing on the show with hairy armpits while performing her hit 99 Red Balloons. To this day, most radio DJ's make reference to her performance after playing the song.
• The opening scene for the Spice Girls' movie Spiceworld shows the group recording a performance of their song "Too Much" for Top of The Pops.
• The last edition on Sunday 30 July 2006 was going to be live but Jimmy Savile could not do the programme on that date because he is Honorary Chieftain of the Lochaber Highland Games which took place on Saturday 29 July. [5]
• Since the last episode featured no live acts in the studio, the honour of being the last act to actually perform on TOTP goes to Snow Patrol with "Chasing Cars" in the penultimate edition.
• The last act ever featured visually on Top of the Pops was Girls Aloud, as part of the closing sequence of bands performing on the show throughout the years. They were shown performing Love Machine.

[edit] List of performers

Main article: List of performers on Top of the Pops

[edit] References

<references/>

[edit] External links

[edit] Official

• Top of the Pops Official website (BBC)

• Top of the Pops Official website (RTL)
• Top of the Pops Official website (France 2)
• Top of the Pops Official website (BNN, the Netherlands)
• TOTP2 Official website

[edit] Videoclips

• TOTP2 Archive of live performance videoclips 1960 - 2002. (Realplayer)
• Top of the Pops Archive of live performance videoclips 2002-2006. (Realplayer)

[edit] Episode guides and summaries

• Top of the Pops at the Internet Movie Database
• Top of the Pops episode guide and forum at TV.com
• Top of the Pops summary at British Film Institute's website 'Screen Online'
• Top of the Pops summary at MBI's Encyclopedia of Television

[edit] Fan sites

• Poptastic Official TOTP fans messageboard
• It's Still Number One! Unofficial Top of the Pops Fan Forum
• Fearne Cotton Unofficial presenter fan site
• Trivia About Top Of The Pops
• Unofficial TOTP group on Myspace.com

[edit] News articles

• Media Guardian story about makeover
• Media Guardian opinion piece about final sidelining
• British Film Institute gallery of TOTP
• Yahoo story on "TOTP" being planned for the US
• BBC calls time on Top of the Pops (BBC) 20 June 2006
• Don't let them chop the pops! Birmingham Mail 22 June, 2006
• It's still number one TOTP history by Steve Williams
• Everybody's on Top of the Pops Pop Music on Television by Paul Fryerda:Top of the Pops

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