Pop Shows

Ready Steady Go!

“The weekend starts here," promised Ready Steady Go!, which went out on ITV every Friday evening during the halcyon years of British rock.

Although introduced by former Cambridge law graduate and Radio Luxembourg DJ Keith Fordyce, it was his co-host, Cathy McGowan, who became the real star of the programme. McGowan had been working in an office at the television company when she answered an advertisement for a 'typical teenager' to act as advisor to the show, and was rewarded by being pushed in front of the cameras without the benefit of any training or broadcasting experience. But her natural charm, enthusiasm, style and beauty made up for the occasional fluffed lines or missed cues, and she quickly became a role model for the female population as well as being nominated, unofficially, as Queen of the Mods.The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye and The Beach Boys all made appearances, and the show's warm-up act was Gary Glitter.

Whereas the BBC's 'Top of the Pops' (which started the following year), concerned itself with the top ten or twenty chart hits, 'RSG' was not afraid of being the showcase for new talent, and consequently artists such as Eric Burdon and The Animals, The Kinks, Donovan, and The Pretty Things were given their television debuts, and US artists such as Sonny and Cher, The Four Tops, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Rufus Thomas and Marvin G

aye, were introduced to a British audience for the first time.Two other co-hosts fronted the show which also gave a weekly report on the latest fashions and trends. They were David Gell and Michael Aldred, and years before hitting the big time himself, shamed pop star Gary Glitter worked in the studio as a 'crowd controller'. The show was not without its critics and indeed the television company finally gave in to outside pressure when it moved it to a much later 10.30pm slot on the same night, making it less accessible to the younger audience, and possibly its older viewers who would by then be out and about enjoying themselves away from the TV screens. A policy of 'live-only' music was taken too, and the combination of these new formats could well have been the death-knell for the show. But in fact the reverse happened and the shows ratings went up. It was moved to a larger studio and McGowan became solo presenter. The programme petered out along with the mod scene in 1966. The last episode was called Ready Steady Goes!