Feeling Like a Number One – The Unofficial Top of the Pops 1980 Guidebook

1980 was an important year for Top of the Pops: it was the year it began to transform from a light entertainment show into essential viewing for pop music aficionados. The appointment of Michael Hurll as producer was pivotal in this process; the transition didn’t happen overnight, but when a Musicians’ Union strike forced the programme off air for the whole of June and July, Hurll took the opportunity to restructure the show. As a result the latter half of 1980 was often bizarre, occasionally quite grim, but always fascinating as Hurll threw all sorts of new formats at the screen to see what would stick. Moving the top thirty countdown from the start of the show to various segments throughout the proceedings was a change that became a permanent fixture; others, such as the use of celebrity guest hosts with little presentation talent, were less successful.

During 2015, as BBC Four reran these 1980 shows, The Sound of the Crowd documented each edition of Top of the Pops from this transitional year. Now those reviews are collected in a new paperback and ebook Feeling Like a Number One. Hopefully you will find it a breathtaking rollercoaster of good and bad decisions made in the pursuit of television excellence. Or maybe it will just inspire you to dig out some old records you’d forgotten. Either’s good.

Feeling Like a Number One – the Unofficial Top of the Pops 1980 Guidebook is available direct from Lulu.com as well as Amazon and the iBookstore.

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