August 9th,1963, Ready Steady Go! launches on UK TV

Ready Steady Go! or simply RSG! was one of the UK's first rock/pop music TV shows. It was broadcast from August 1963 until December 1966. The show gained its highest ratings on 20 March 1964 when it featured the Beatles being interviewed and performing their songs "It Won't Be Long", "You Can't Do That" and "Can't Buy Me Love" - the last of which was a hit at the time.

Initially, RSG! artists mimed to records but by late 1964 some performed live and the show switched to all-live performances in April 1965. It was noted for allowing artists to perform the full version of their songs rather than the short versions demanded by other shows. Despite its popularity in the UK, the show was never broadcast in the United States.

It featured successful artists of the era, including The Beatles, The Hollies, The Zombies, Dusty Springfield, The Supremes, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, Donovan, The Animals, Cilla Black, The Who, Lulu, Marvin Gaye, Gene Pitney, The Beach Boys, Small Faces, Them, and many others.

Here is a highlights clip:


Jimi Hendrix made his first TV appearance in England on RSG! with "Hey Joe". Apparently, only the audio survives:

After this appearance, Hendrix's club tour sold out and he was quickly added to a nationwide tour headlined by the Walker Brothers.

The Who proved particularly popular and in 1966 had an episode to themselves entitled Ready Steady Who. The programme no longer exists, but an EP of the name marked the show (although no recordings were from the show).




In 1966, the time that the 'beat boom' was fading, the show was cancelled. Its disappearance at the height of its popularity enhanced its status. Many years later the British musician Dave Clark bought the rights to the surviving recordings of the show. Compilations were broadcast on Channel 4 in the 1980s and VHS videos were issued. In 1989 the show was seen for the first time in the US, on Disney Channel. During that time, Disney was a pay channel, that aired programming aimed at adults at night. Ready Steady Go! has not been officially released on DVD. Source - Wikipedia

Ready Steady Go! - A Bit Of Groovy!

American Bandstand Premiered Nationally in America on August 5, 1957

American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer. The show featured teenagers dancing to Top 40 music introduced by Clark; at least one popular musical act—over the decades, running the gamut from Jerry Lee Lewis to Run DMC—would usually appear in person to lip-sync one of their latest singles. Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon holds the record for most appearances at 110.

Clark would often interview the teenagers about their opinions of the songs being played, most memorably through the "Rate-a-Record" segment. During the segment, two audience members each ranked two records on a scale of 35 to 98, after which the two opinions were averaged by Clark, who then asked the audience members to justify their scores. The segment gave rise, perhaps apocryphally, to the phrase "It's got a good beat and you can dance to it." 

In one humorous segment broadcast for years on retrospective shows, comedians Cheech and Chong appeared as the record raters:




The show's popularity helped Dick Clark become an American media mogul and inspired similar long-running music programs, such as Soul Train and Top of the Pops. Clark eventually assumed ownership of the program through his Dick Clark Productions company.

It premiered locally in late September 1952 as Bandstand on Philadelphia television station WFIL-TV Channel 6 (now WPVI-TV), as a replacement for a weekday movie that had shown predominantly British movies. The show was picked up nationally, becoming American Bandstand on August 5, 1957.

Dig this crazy scene: "Captain Beefheart on the Hot Line at American Bandstand on June 18, 1966. After Don answers some probing questions from one of the shows dancers everyone gets to jump around to Diddy Wah Diddy" - YouTube Clip:



For a comprehensive read about the show, visit the source used for this blog post: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Bandstand

For a complete list of acts who appeared on American Bandstand, visit this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acts_who_appeared_on_American_Bandstand

American Bandstand  - a Bit of Groovy!