Tag Archives: Top of the Pops

From George Abbot and Godalming College to the Marquee and the Whisky a Go Go – in conversation with Howard Smith

Howard Smith was just back from a family holiday in Suffolk when I called, setting up his children with a Disney classic before chatting about his own golden era. In his case that involved a comparatively short but incident-packed period … Continue reading

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Perilous Beauty – from Vampish past to touching presence and future intent – the Wendy James interview

As another week of UK lockdown against the coronavirus pandemic gets underway, I’m certainly not the only one reflecting on just how much there was about our old everyday lives that we took for granted. And high on my own … Continue reading

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Looking back at 2018. Part one – the first six months

As another busy year draws to a close, let’s take a trawl through 2018’s WriteWyattUK feature/interviews, selecting a few choice quotes from within, starting with the half-year up to … well, in the words of Neil and Tim Finn, ‘You … Continue reading

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Hold tight, now we’re on our own – the Fay Fife interview

Four decades after first gracing our TV screens, belting out the tremendous ‘Top of the Pops’ on the iconic BBC chart show of the same name, the alluring Fay Fife clearly still has a passion for rock’n’roll. Anyone who’s caught … Continue reading

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One Man’s Madness (I call it gladness) – the Lee Thompson interview

Lee Thompson was at home when I called, ‘sort of just inside 12 o’clock on the M25,’ where he’s been based around 30 years now. Born in St Pancras, NW1 in 1957, this esteemed saxophonist/songwriter’s postcode is EN5 rather than that … Continue reading

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Still pickin’ up Good Vibrations – talking The Undertones with Mickey Bradley

Devising questions for the following feature/interview, I thought it was high time I caught up online with The Mickey Bradley Record Show, in which The Undertones’ bass player treats listeners to a two-hour weekly stroll through a vinyl wonderland of his … Continue reading

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Renewable Power in the Darkness – back in touch with Tom Robinson

As I may have mentioned on these pages before, few TV shows of yore hold as much magic as Top of the Pops re-runs for this nostalgic, and recently I was digging among the online archives for the October 1977 … Continue reading

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A weekend to savour (pt. I) …The Vapors – The Loft, Liverpool Arts Club

I could say I’d been waiting 35 years for this weekend to come, but that’s being a bit melodramatic. One thing’s for sure though – I finally got to see a band I suspected I’d never catch live, and they … Continue reading

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Getting up close and personal with Toyah

Regular readers of this blog won’t be surprised that this scribe is an avid viewer of BBC 4’s Top of the Pops re-runs, a point I soon confess to my latest interviewee, Toyah Willcox. “Oh, God bless those!” The more … Continue reading

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Electric dreams still stirring emotions – the Gary Numan interview

It must have been on London’s Capital Radio when I first heard Tubeway Army, 35 years ago this month. I was only 11 at the time, yet already knew the charts inside out. But this was something else. With my transistor … Continue reading

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