After reading this delightful news, I said to my friend, ‘They’re bringing back TOTP back for Christmas, woo!’ to which she remarked, ‘When did they even take it away?’ Firstly, I had to control my anger; I slid off the table where I was engaging in a celebratory dance, back into my chair, and kindly decided to leave the AK47 under my desk. Then, coolly I looked up, stared her out, whilst giving her the up middle finger, and started off, what I thought sounded like a Shakespearean soliloquy, but actually sounded more like a juvenile rant, where I repeatedly suggesting how stupid she was for not knowing this factoid of life.  

I didn’t mean to be so cruel, but how could she not know this? I compared her lack of pop culture knowledge to not knowing who the President of America is. I thought this was a reasonable comparison, though she thought different, which suits her fine as she now also looks different with that big black eye. Yes, I did ‘lose’ it because she didn’t realise we’d lost it.

So hurray!, TOTP is coming back for the festive season and this can surely only mean good things for the future of music and the show. I is hoping it will come back bigger and better than ever next year, because if it turns out to be a happening one, with some great Christmas decorations politely draped over Fearne Cotton rather long snout, then surely the BBC will realise, ‘Hang on a minute, sod Simon Cowell and ITV, lets get this baby back on Primetime!’ One can only hope the BBC speaks in such a manner and one can only hope this happens for music lovers alike.

Like any good regularly music show TOTP attracted an audience from various as a lot of us grew up with it always on our TV. It was first aired in 1964, hosted by DJ Jimmy Saville and included performances from the Rolling Stones, Dusty Springfield and The Beatles. Short interviews flanked between the performers and music videos were brought to terrestrial TV. It also contained countless cock ups where performers would deliberately mine songs and instruments very badly. And through my travels in life I’ve met many a person who has been on the show and spoke of how much they enjoyed it and how great an atmosphere there was. Good green room too apparently…

A few classic TOTP moments:

Nirvana- Smells Like Teen Spirit

Manic Street Preachers- Faster

 

Sparks- This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us