Yes, the format seems implausibly glossy and cheesy at this remove, and we wonder how the world could ever have been this way, and yet, and yet… there’s something rather fun and uncomplicated about this episode of LWT Light Ent show ‘2Gs & the Pop People’.
A terrific Heads, Hands & Feet performance, Sandie Show being great in one song and outrageously camp and un-PC in the next, Scott Walker being Scott Walker (before he startet making records to annoy people), Mike Raven being… well, beyond camp, and a lot of brightly coloured people (the 2Gs) jigging about. Oh, and some woman covering a Sandie Shaw song… when the real Sandie Shaw is actually on the show. Curious…
This is related to my theory about tap dancing – it’s there for the entertainment of the performer and, at a push, the performer’s family and friends.
In the last 60 years, no one has sat in an audience and said “Great! Tap dancing!” unless they are there because they are related to or are a friend of the performer. That’s my theory Chris, which is mine.
That’s only true because Fred Astaire and the Nicholas Brothers are dead though…
FFS, don’t even mention, shhhhhhhh, “TD”, if, you know, “He”‘s awake………
The dancer in the blue top 49 seconds in looks UNCANNILY like Richard O’Sullivan…
And Chas Hodges hates polished boots. Good to know.
“Hi, well, from the hairy sounds of Heads, Hands and Feet, the Second Generation now presents the super singing talent of Miss Sandie Shaw” says the male model whose face you’d never tire of punching.
HH&F were miming of course, despite the presence of amps onstage. It was interesting to see close-ups of Albert Lee’s fingers, obviously filmed separately against a different coloured backdrop. And what was that ugly 12-string guitar Ray Smith was playing?
I don’t know if it was un-pc, but Sandie’s second song featured possibly the worst Jamaican accent ever attempted.
And what can you cay about Mike Raven? Can this be the same guy who presented a great blues programme on pirate radio and wrote the sleeve notes for the UK version of the second Zappa/Mothers LP? Yes it can. It seems his resemblance to Christopher Lee lead to a brief flirtation with Hammer horror films in the early 70s.
I can just imagine what my reaction to that show would have been in the early 70s. “Too much shite dancing”.
I think the HH&F vocal may have been live. But there’s something about the way its filmed that draws you into their songs, in a way that I hadn’t noticed with other clips.
One day I will post a clip and JC WON’T comment about the b***dy model of guitar! (No, it was just a dream… what was I thinking?)
The vocals were possibly live, but if you watch the drummer he’s trying his hardest to avoid actually making contact with the drums. Likewise Albert Lee is mostly vamping chords yet we can hear lightning fast flurries of notes from his, from his, from his….. argh, it’s no good…. from his FENDER TELECASTER!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Did the Tele have a non standard pickup?
Ah yes (he said, warming to his theme) Albert’s Tele appeared to have a Gibson Humbucker, minus the chrome cover, in the neck position.
While we’re on the subject, Chas Hodges’ Epiphone Rivoli bass is worth a mention. Most of these had a sunburst finish, but Chas has a very rare natural finish example. And of course it’s an original US-made bass, manufactured in the Gibson factory, not one the far east manufactured Epiphones of today
I love ravioli…
Yes yes yes, but what about the finish on Chas’s boots?
Funky, I believe, is his preferred finish…
Yes, but is 1958-59 Funky, produced in limited numbers at the original US factory with humbugger coiled-foiled-boiled laces and sunburst soles, or the post 1968 Funky, put back into production because Eric Clappo wiped his Beano on a pair and everyone suddenly wanted them again – but this time with two extra lace holes and slightly darker shade of blahblahblah (bores on for hours…)
I believe “Vintage Boots ‘n Shoes” magazine did a special cut-out-‘n-keep special on Chas’s boots recently, complete with full colour centrefold. The footwear had been discovered in the back room of an Edmonton Oxfam shop, around the corner from the Hodges’ family home.
It seems the boots were almost total original with scuffing and heel wear intact, but the insoles had been replaced with industrial strength Odour Eaters sometime in 1974, thus bringing down the value somewhat.
Two metal segs were still evident on the heels but it’s not known if these were hammered in ont he kitched by Chas himself, or his local Tottenham High Street Heel Bar (Keys Cut while U wait).
The boots are expected to fetch a one figure sum when they go to auction next month (or a three figure sum when re-sold at Camden Market)
Cheers Colin, that brought back memories of the horror that was early 70’s tea time TV.
I wonder what they had on Scott Walker to make him appear in this? I looked up Mike Raven on Wikipedia (so some of the following may not be 100% true)- his real name was Churton Fairman (!!!); his mother died from an infection caught from him; he’s buried in a grave he dug himself on Bodmin Moor!