| The 70’s were a time when there was
such a massive variety of pop music,
both good and bad! |
| We had good old Top of The Pops on
BBC1 (often with our local Surrey DJ Ed
Stewart) which was one of shows with the
highest viewing figures every week. |
| You may be interested to know that
Top Of The Pops from the 70s is now
being re-run on BBC 4 TV - you can also
catch it on BBC iplayer. |
| In the early 70s we were limited to
just a few hours of music a day on BBC
Radio 1 and some pirate radio (often
appalling fade in and out reception). |
| But the limited TV and Radio
coverage meant that many people would
listen to music they didn't like while
they waited for the songs they did like
to come on. You couldn't just switch to
another channel. In some cases you got
to like songs and styles you had
disliked on first hearing and so grow a
wider range of tastes. In other cases
you got to hate the bad songs even more
and it made you want to promote the
artists you felt were good and didn't
get played often enough. |
| For example, one of my favourite
groups at the time was the Moody Blues
who formed the Threshold Records Label
and shop in Cobham. They were massive in
USA but had only a
few hits in the
UK. |
| But they like Pink Floyd and many
groups in the 70s were mainly album
artists. So many people bought albums
and listened to their friends'
collections and read the music press
(NME & Sounds). The music mattered more
than the image in those days and record
companies supported experimental
musicians. |
| In the early 70's we had the BBC
monopoly broken with the arrival of
Capital Radio, but they were still
limited to 8 hours 'needle time' a day
for a number of years. Then the amount
of playing time allowed increased and
Capital Radio had an album show every
evening - Nicky Horne's 'Your Mother
Wouldn't Like It' |
| He would play varied tracks from
chart albums and new releases – Pink
Floyd, Paul Simon, Genesis, Hall &
Oates, The Moody Blues , The Eagles,
Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac, The
Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Carly Simon,
James Taylor etc, |
|
Apart from the
re-run of Top Of The Pops on BBC 4 TV,
you can also check out the weekly Sounds
Of The Seventies BBC Radio 2 show with
Johnnie Walker every Sunday (also on BBC
iplayer). He frequently has some
excellent guest interviews (this week
Paul Carrick from Ace, Roxy Music & Mike
& The Mechanics).
|
| Nicky Horne now has a show on Planet
Rock Radio which can be listened to on
the radio or internet. |
| So you can relive those memories -
good and bad of the very varied music of
the 70's, when (due to the limited
leisure options compared to today) music
was so central to most people's leisure
time and social lives. |
