I'm pleased others are noticing the weird situation on this Radio 2 programme. I noticed this long ago myself.

There is no reason for 1974 not to be getting played on Pick Of The Pops. They often play vastly inferior years to bits. Some years come around every six to eight weeks, so when a year like 1974 stays unheard for FIVE YEARS something amiss is going on. But what, and why?

It's not distance in time that's for sure. The year 1968 is still on BBC Sounds today from a recent show, and 1972 was done very recently too, barely six weeks ago.

Mr King Of Hits JK, as this is your domain, can you offer up an explanation for this oddity and how you view 1974 in the pantheon of pop?

What's wrong with 1974? NOTHING!

Thanks for bringing this subject up. I've noticed this too.

Pick Of The Pops have missed a massive opportunity to celebrate 1974 in the past month and this show's silence on 1974 is not just illogical but just stupid and I agree it's a decision that's been made by the production company/producer rather than an oversight. No doubt about that after such a long time. If you don't like plenty out of 1974 then you don't like pop music full stop.

It was quite an interesting transition year in my opinion.

1974 really does seem cursed on Pick Of The Pops. There has been an almighty balls up this afternoon on the Abba countdown where the show was abandoned for a while after they began playing exactly the same hour after 2pm that they had done from 1pm. A very embarrassing mistake, someone is due a dressing down.

I listen to this show quite often and had never noticed there was a 1974 drought going on with it. How peculiar. I'll be paying more attention in the near future to see how long this goes on for. Just looking down the Top 20 hits this week in 1974 there's more than enough quality there.

The worst thing about the mistake yesterday, I was listening live, was that there was no apology when they finally managed to return having missed out more than half a dozen songs I wanted to hear. When you make such a big mistake at least treat the audience with some respect and apologise for it. You can of course find the show without the glitch on BBC Sounds.

I've been reading discussion of this on Digital Spy's POTP show thread over there for quite a while now.

Even by random chance without checking there is no way 1974 would have been missed for five years - it's deliberate. Why?

There is a feeling that there is a downer on playing the first half of the 1970s in general, which doesn't make sense to me at all even factoring in the "Gary" problem which isn't much of a problem at all anyway.

No 1974 today either. The years 1993 and 2001.

Next weekend it's 1969 and 1979, so five years either side of 1974 which they are giving a wide berth but proving they are more than willing to play the era and much older. Anything but poor old 1974.

It's just so strange.

Simon. wrote:
No 1974 today either. The years 1993 and 2001.

Next weekend it's 1969 and 1979, so five years either side of 1974 which they are giving a wide berth but proving they are more than willing to play the era and much older. Anything but poor old 1974.

It's just so strange.

Can't they just play the Steve Miller Band single: Living In The U.S.A and the B Side Kow Kow Calqulator on a loop?

I am very surprised JK has not taken the bait on this rather delicious and mysterious 1974 story yet.

Still no sign of 1974 in the next month.

1981 and 1991 this coming weekend.

1977 and 1987 the next week.

1992 and 2003 the week after that.


For some reason 1987 has favoured status on Pick Of The Pops nowadays. I can't imagine why.

It might be time to drop the show an email to ask the question and see if it then suddenly appears in a few weeks time or not.

Chris wrote:
I am very surprised JK has not taken the bait on this rather delicious and mysterious 1974 story yet.

^This^

JK maybe you would care to comment?

1974 is the last year where there are very few whole editions of Top Of The Pops available to view, for some reason most were wiped at the time on cost grounds to re-use the tape or something like that.

Can't work out why Pick of the Pops is avoiding the year like the plague.

Mark Goodier starts as the new permanent host on 6th July, it will be fascinating to see if we finally get 1974 soon after he begins or if the mystery disappearance of 1974 on this show continues on.

1974
Tiger Feet
Devil Gate Drive
The Man Who Sold The World (Lulu)
Jealous Mind
The Night Chicago Died
One Man Band
Band on the Run
to mention just a few.

My favourite year of UK chart music.

PaulB wrote:
1974
Tiger Feet
Devil Gate Drive
The Man Who Sold The World (Lulu)
Jealous Mind
The Night Chicago Died
One Man Band
Band on the Run
to mention just a few.

My favourite year of UK chart music.

It would be good to hear 1974 being featured, but its absence gets people talking, which might not be an accident. It wasn't a classic year in my opinion but there were some great tracks, like those mentioned above. I don't know why Gary Davies has been axed from the show (or was he always just an interim presenter?), but he was doing a perfectly good job. I just hope that Mark Goodier (I thought it was Goodyear for years) plays more years from the 60s, 70s, and early 80s. I don't believe a Radio 2 audience are that interested in late 90s or 2000s music.

Not 1974, but 1994 but can anyone explkain to me why there would be a problem playing the July 1994 top three hit single by the B-52's who renamed themselves BC-52's for the Meet The Flintstones hit record from the film that summer? POTP chose not to play this great catchy and fun track this afternoon sitting at No3 when the top three songs are always played.

Meanwhile the wait for 1974 goes on and on, yet last week 1970 was given an airing.

Rich wrote:
Not 1974, but 1994 but can anyone explkain to me why there would be a problem playing the July 1994 top three hit single by the B-52's who renamed themselves BC-52's for the Meet The Flintstones hit record from the film that summer? POTP chose not to play this great catchy and fun track this afternoon sitting at No3 when the top three songs are always played.



It could be rights reasons. Maybe because it was from a film the rights to play it are more expensive. I notice that when they show totp on BBC from when "You're the one that I want" or "Summer Nights" from Grease were No.1. They always show legs and co dancing to it, and not the film clip. I remember from back in the day they generally showed the clip from the film.

robbiex wrote:
Rich wrote:
Not 1974, but 1994 but can anyone explkain to me why there would be a problem playing the July 1994 top three hit single by the B-52's who renamed themselves BC-52's for the Meet The Flintstones hit record from the film that summer? POTP chose not to play this great catchy and fun track this afternoon sitting at No3 when the top three songs are always played.



It could be rights reasons. Maybe because it was from a film the rights to play it are more expensive. I notice that when they show totp on BBC from when "You're the one that I want" or "Summer Nights" from Grease were No.1. They always show legs and co dancing to it, and not the film clip. I remember from back in the day they generally showed the clip from the film.


Not forgetting there could additional contract fees on top. BBC might have to get clearences cast and their estate, everytime.

Going off subject. It's why ITV and BBC don't dig deeper in their archives to repeat vintage shows or for Britbox.

Its interesting how the repeats of old totp on bbc4 on Friday evening match the same years as shown on pick of the pops. 1982, 1979, 1978, and 1980 all shown very recently on both bbc4 totp and pick of the pops.

No 1974 on this show anymore is quite a weird one. I'd sort of noticed it had not been heard a bit but completely shocked to discover it's been 5 years. That doesn't even make any sense does it, because I was listening to POTP only yesterday afternoon and they gave an airing to charts this week back in 1968 and 1976, wrapped right around the year 1974, showing that music from approximately half a century ago is still feature, as it should be.

I know it's not strictly about the show and the missing year but as he was the briefest of hosts I think I should be okay with this one.

Today is what would have been Steve Wright's 70th birthday and they are doing some nice remembrance shows on Radio 2 during the afternoon and evening. I don't know whether anyone else has been like me but it seems very hard to find any details of a funeral, or even a memorial service of some kind that took place for Steve since he departed in February. Does anyone know any more?

The late Phil 'The Collector' Swern seemed to love 1974 when he was part of POTP. It was always cropping up on regular rotation prior to 2019. In the couple of years before then there were charts from every month of 1974 and more. As far as I know he remained producer until Gambo left last October 2023 so what happened in his final 4 years in charge and in the last year until now that stopped him deciding on 1974. It's not just 1974 but the entire first half of the 1970s, 1970-75 which are being generally overlooked and get very little coverage now which just doesn't make sense when this was one of the more exciting and flamboyant glam rock pop eras that gave us some fantastic charismatic pop acts and performers.