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Despite what the EPG advertises, the 7.30pm showings are regularly edited down versions of 37-40 minute original broadcasts. This means two or three acts most weeks are left on the cutting-room floor, only to be shown in the late-night slot instead.
I fear JK may be relegated to the late-night slot this Wednesday, but we shall see.
The performance in question is JK's version of It Only Takes A Minute, which I loved at the time. I didn't know until years later it was actually a track by Tavares, as it wasn't a song they had in the charts here.
Correct PL and co-written by Brit Brian Potter - a great song that should have been a UK smash for Tavares which is why I did a (rather inferior) cover. Since I released it under the name One Hundred Ton and A Feather, perhaps the censors won't notice it's me!
I might just have to do that ... These TOTP editions are causing me to discover the mid-70s at last. So often derided but the pure pop around at that time was quite delightful, despite my previous cynicism in some posts on here.
I'm particularly enjoying the random non-hits that appear on the show each week. Did anyone see Pilot's "Canada" last week - what was all that about?!
The great missing TOTP performance for me is a sixties one I did of a flop of mine called Seagulls (about killing animals) - actually rather a good track; never broke though and the footage has been wiped and nobody has it.
I also did a live version of Sugar Sugar (as Sakkarin) that seems to have disappeared.
(1) THE MONKEES - I’m A Believer (and charts)
(11) PAUL JONES - I’ve Been A Bad, Bad Boy
(13) CREAM - I Feel Free
(NEW) JONATHAN KING - Seagulls
(9) GEORGIE FAME - Sitting In The Park ®
(NEW) THE SPELLBINDERS - Help Me
(3) THE MOVE - Night Of Fear ®
(5) THE ROLLING STONES - Let’s Spend The Night Together * WATCH
(2) CAT STEVENS - Matthew And Son ®
(1) THE MONKEES - I’m A Believer (video)
Sadly I think the amount of 60s editions that still exist can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
I love "Sugar Sugar" - there's some great existing footage of the crowd dancing to that on TOTP as the chart rundown is leisurely counted down:
Visually, the best JK performance has to be One For You, One For Me. That big rainbow afro wig was cool-plus it was an incredibly infectious tune as well.
I suppose it was predictable that one of the 3 songs cut out of tonight's edition (the 7.30pm version) would be JK, although they also dropped Elton John & Kiki Dee, and Ruby Flipper dancing to Tavares - Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel. Let's hope the 40 minute version of the show at 1am goes out uncut, or the BBC will be receiving a letter from me about censorship.
On the 1am transmission of Top of the Pops (supposedly the unedited version, unlike the 7.30pm transmission which is cut to 30 mins.) the performance by Jonathan King was removed (even though it had been listed on the BBC website as being included). This seems to be part of a BBC agenda to airbrush performers such as King and Gary Glitter from history. I disapprove in many ways of Mr King's lifestyle and past activities, but he did appear on that episode of Top of the Pops, and playing his music is quite different to endorsing his lifestyle. It is thoroughly inconsistent, since the Rolling Stones performances are always shown (in spite of Bill Wyman). No-one believes you to be endorsing genocide by including footage of Hitler in a World War 2 documentary, so in the same way you cannot be accused of endorsing paedophilia by showing a song; why then do you consistently remove Jonathan King and Gary Glitter from programmes in which they appeared? You seem to be pandering to the paranoid demands of the tabloid press, who appear to believe that seeing a clip of a particular unfashionable pop singer can turn people into paedophiles. BBC4 is a serious channel, with high standards, and I'm sure the number of people watching at 1am in the morning who would be offended by seeing Jonathan King singing It Only Takes A Minute would be far outweighed by the number of fans of pop music who wish to see a programme in the form it was originally transmitted.
I should say to JK that I am not accusing you of paedophilia (I recognize your situation is quite different), rather I am using that term in the letter because the tabloid press have lumped yourself and Gary Glitter under that category.
JK got cut then I take it? Isn't it peculiar though? The erasing of historical fact is one step short of being in Iran or China. And what do they think would happen if they had broadcast it? We'd all 'get our shoes on and run a mile....'
Really, really annoyed that even at 1am on a Thursday morning the BBC cannot bring themselves to show - on a small digital channel - an uncut episode of TOTP, yet Channel 5 can air an episode featuring JK presenting the show at teatime during the Christmas period...
This means that if they continue with the series of repeats we are going to lose chunks of 1977 (Glitter), 1978 (JK), 1980 (JK presenting), 1981-1983 (JK presenting), 1984 (JK presenting, and Glitter), 1985 (JK presenting) and 1990 (JK DJing in a silent role) - even in a 1am timeslot!
And we will lose ENTIRE episodes during 1995 and 1996 where Glitter presented...
They will get more complaints about the shows being cut rather than the content of them...! STOP rewriting history, BBC!
JK- surely another matter for the European Court of Human Rights.
If ToTP was cut then it's a breach of your personal rights as well as the BBC attempting air-brush and distort history as ToTP is an important social record.
After all..the estemmed Prime Minister David Cameron is on the record as stating "everybody deserves a second chance " when commenting about a notorious tabloid editor who hacked the phones of murdered children.
I must admit I was disappointed but the best part about my hits was making them; watching the show I felt it probably means much more to the many who were on the show to be repeated as their one moment of TV; good luck to them.
And it's those who decide to cut and censor and rewrite history who I feel sorry for; their loss, not mine.
I'm still here. I'm having fun!
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... These TOTP editions are causing me to discover the mid-70s at last. So often derided but the pure pop around at that time was quite delightful, despite my previous cynicism in some posts on here. 