English Chess Forum

For my sins I have a vested interest in 1970s music and have a few questions. How popular was The Old Grey Whistle Test in the 70s? Did anyone watch it? Top of the Pops was the main music show that I know but a number of bands now insist that their appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test was instrumental in them achieving popularity in the UK. One such example is The New York Dolls, whom went on it in 73 I think. It's very hard for me to believe that can possibly be true but they are not alone in stating that The Old Grey Whistle Test brought them notoriety. Was it ever a popular show? I didn't think it was ever. Who do you remember seeing on it?

MJMcCready wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 20, 2024 11:22 pm

For my sins I have a vested interest in 1970s music and have a few questions. How popular was The Old Grey Whistle Test in the 70s? Did anyone watch it? Top of the Pops was the main music show that I know but a number of bands now insist that their appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test was instrumental in them achieving popularity in the UK. One such example is The New York Dolls, whom went on it in 73 I think. It's very hard for me to believe that can possibly true but they are not alone in stating that The Old Grey Whistle Test brought them notoriety. Was it ever a popular show? I didn't think it was ever. Who do you remember seeing on it?

I watched TOWGT avidly. I recall being mesmerised by the video for Trampled Underfoot by Led Zeppelin in 1975.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKv4goxIR1Q

and also by this incredible Frank Zappa video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr1FchF4opE

and a whole lot more.

Sadly, not all episodes survived.

The shorter-lived precursors (of which I knew nothing, just like this one) included the fascinating 'Colour Me Pop':

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_Me_Pop

Apparently it was designed to "celebrate the new introduction of colour to British television".

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 21, 2024 12:21 am

The shorter-lived precursors (of which I knew nothing, just like this one) included the fascinating 'Colour Me Pop':

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_Me_Pop

Apparently it was designed to "celebrate the new introduction of colour to British television".

My Dad refused to purchase a colour television receiver on the grounds that if we waited long enough the price would then become affordable.

OGWT was on fairly late on BBC2 I think, so probably did not have a massive audience. I watched occasionally, and saw Meat Loaf (1978), which featured the first TV broadcast of "Paradise by the Dashboard Light", (performed live), I think he did "Bat out of Hell" and another track also. Needless to say, I rushed off to buy the album the next day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogXDWdqew2Y

Some of the bands featured disappeared without trace of course!

That' what I thought. I got the feeling that it was never very popular and not many watched it but could be wrong there.

OGWT had much more of a cult following. It did prog rock, avant garde stuff with the occasional legend from the USA thrown in. TOTP was chart driven, much more poptastic (think Smashy and Nicey). TOTP was on BBC1 at 7.30pm, OGWT (BBC2) was in the graveyard shift (11.15 or later, after the nightly BBC2 current affairs prog).

All down to David Attenborough according to wiki

Mike Gunn wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 21, 2024 9:21 am

OGWT had much more of a cult following. It did prog rock, avant garde stuff with the occasional legend from the USA thrown in.

... and some decent stuff too.

Nice to see you referring to decent stuff and its The Damned, they are my favourite 70s band.

John Upham wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 20, 2024 11:29 pm

I watched TOWGT avidly. I recall being mesmerised by the video for Trampled Underfoot by Led Zeppelin in 1975.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKv4goxIR1Q

and also by this incredible Frank Zappa video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr1FchF4opE

and a whole lot more.

Sadly, not all episodes survived.

Another memorable example of the above was Pink Floyd's "One Of These Days" to the now famous Ian Emes animation French Windows - I think the first time it was ever shown on TV.

Was it actually a popular show in the 70s?

I am not sure asking on a chess forum will get you a credible answer. There are actually archives and sources out there that may help. The University of Reading is a good place to start for this sort of thing.

The BBC Television Audience Research Reports, 1957-1979: recorded opinions and invisible expectations

Smart, B. (2014) The BBC Television Audience Research Reports, 1957-1979: recorded opinions and invisible expectations. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 34 (3). pp. 452-462. ISSN 0143-9685 doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2014.937187 Available at https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/71886/

Sadly, on a quick look through, nothing really that would be of use, I don't think. It is an overview by that author suggesting what may be of use in the area they were looking at. You may want to try and look at the "700 Audience Research Reports". They are apparently at the "BBC Written Archives in Caversham" (or at least they were in 2014). Whether OGWT was considered something worth doing audience research on is another matter.

There weren't many music shows on tv at all in the 70s from what I understand, so it must have been watched but as one poster said, it was on rather late, past kids bedtime.

My guess would be that OGWT didn't have all that many viewers, but those that it did have were serious music fans, so the bands who appeared on it knew they were likely to get a lot of potential customers from those viewers. The TOTP audience was probably a lot more casual.