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Sounds like a BBC Friday Night fuckup 7 Years, 6 Months ago
Why didn't they ask someone who knows about music (Mark Cooper?) to helm it? Well the good news is - a BBCOne Friday night great slot for music on TV. The bad news? Crap music and nobody with any clue involved (could they have found two people with less charisma that Greg James and Dotty?). The answer is - yes; Jason Derulo; Miss No Personality who climaxed the show with MTV Unplugged converted to BBC Castrated. Oh dear. Well, it can only get better (as long as the guaranteed appalling ratings allow it a second week).
Re:Sounds like a BBC Friday Night fuckup 7 Years, 6 Months ago
My friend Michael Hurll always boosted the crowd cheers to make it more exciting - was it just me or did the balance totally overwhelm Ghastly Greg and Dreary Dotty?
Re:Sounds like a BBC Friday Night fuckup 7 Years, 6 Months ago
For me Michael Hurll was the ultimate producer of Top of the Pops. I still marvel at his era. Trouble is when he left there was only one way for the show and that was downwards.
Re:Sounds like a BBC Friday Night fuckup 7 Years, 6 Months ago
The marketing for the show is shit. BBC said it's TOTP and Saturday Night Live but which version of Saturday Night Live ? Even the name is forgettable and young presenters are not always a key to everything, Bob Harris looked old OGWT but was amazing presenting it.
OGWT had a variety of music to blues, rock, metal, punk, new wave and Richard Digance.
Re:Sounds like a BBC Friday Night fuckup 7 Years, 6 Months ago
Dizzee Rascal managed to "accidentally" use some bad language in his rap - a bit strong for 7.35pm. You never got that on Top Of The Pops, because it was rarely live - maybe this shouldn't be either.
Re:Sounds like a BBC Friday Night fuckup 7 Years, 6 Months ago
The sad thing (like the ill conceived Bannister changes to Radio One) is that this was clearly an official BBC move to prove that Top of the Pops was a concept of the past and that music on TV does not work. It doesn't if you pick the wrong music and present it badly. Michael Grade and Bill Cotton once stopped me in the BBC Corridor and asked me why No Limits was getting nearly 6 million viewers on BBC2. I replied - because the music is great. "But it sounds just like all other music to us", they replied. "That's why you're TV executives and I'm a music person" I answered.
Re:Sounds like a BBC Friday Night fuckup 7 Years, 6 Months ago
I fear the answer is "as few people as possible; then we can say we tried music on TV and nobody watched it". It was the same when Guy Freeman took over ITV Music and scrapped my Record of the Year (10 million viewers) - replacing it with an Album music show (on ITV? It got 2 million viewers) which got dropped.