Top of the Pops Christmas/New Years Eve: Show review based on 14 December recording
Paul M C
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Top of the Pops Christmas/New Year 2009
Show review (based on 14 December recording)
Well, last night, 14 December, I attended Television Centre for the recording of the Christmas/New Year editions of ‘Top of the Pops’.
It’s my 49th time, over 21 years, of attending the show, so I guess by now I’m a bit of a TOTP veteran!
The recording sessions for both Christmas Day and NYE were split this year over two recording sessions. The first block was recorded on Tuesday 08 December. As far as I know, the first session last Tuesday included performances from the Sugababes singing ‘Santa Baby’ and performances from Lilly Allen and La Roux.
Tickets this year were much, much harder to obtain. In previous years, BBC Audience Services would advertise the tickets via the BBC ticket page on the BBC website on a ‘first come, first served’ basis – obviously meaning if you are quick enough ,then you always stood a good chance of obtaining tickets. However, this year, in order to make it ‘fairer’ the BBC operated what they now do on all popular shows – that is a random draw. The tickets remain online for you to apply for about 1 week. However, this does of course mean that literally thousands of applications are received – and therefore it’s more a question of ‘pot luck’ as to whether you receive the tickets.
Fortunately, and unbelievably, I was lucky! I know many others who applied that weren’t. I spoke to BBC Audience services who told me that studio space was limited to 200 places, but, they had actually sent out 800 tickets! Definitely a case of getting there early!
I arrived at Television Centre about 2.30pm. GMTV were filming some items outside TV Centre and interviewing people in the queue about Joe McElderry! We were let into TVC at 5pm. Good to get in the warm!
Recording started around 7.30pm. For the first time in many, many years, TOTP was recorded in studio TC8 – one of the smaller main studios at Television Centre. Since the show returned from Elstree to TVC in 2001, TC3 had been the shows permanent home up until the weekly demise in 2006 – after this, for the following Christmas and New Years specials, both studios TC3 and TC4 had been utilised.
The set this year was quite radically different from anything seen in recent times. The usual black backdrop adorned the studio walls along with the two main neon logos – the black and white square 1960’s logo and the classic 1970’s/80’s circular pink and blue design. Three stages were set up in the (very cramped!) studio.
However, the reason the sets looked so different is that this year the backdrop to the stages were adorned with what I can only describe with huge rolls of TOTP ‘wallpaper’! These were basically huge backdrops containing pictures of snowdflakes (main stage ice blue, others were more colourful, some featuring Christmas baubles and even a Robin perched on a picture of the 1998 logo!!).
Also printed on these huge rolls were various TOTP logo’s – the main stage (blue set) just containing the 70’s circular logo. Unusually the the 70’s neon logo was not situated in the middle of this main stage but to one side. Also – not one Christmas tree in sight this year! Hanging from the studio roof were six huge Perspex snowflakes which constantly rotated – reminded me of an old BBC Christmas ident from years ago! Also hanging from the ceiling were various ‘chandelier’ type arrangements to compliment the snowflakes. I’ve put up on my Facebook page, for any of you that know me, a (very poor low quality!) mobile piccy of one of these backdrops – photography was definitely a no-no on this edition with threats of being “evicted” if you were caught!!
After the warm up (still done by Danny Stegall, the guy that has been doing TOTP warm ups for years!!) we were into recording. As I say, both recording blocks were for the Christmas Day and NYE editions so it was abit of a job to work out what is going to be slotted in where! However, first up was the X Factor winner Joe McElderry performing the X factor single, ‘The Climb’.
Next up was Robbie Williams with “Bodies”. He also returned a little later to perform his latest single “You know Me”. The crowd were loving it!
Following this, Tinchy Stryder ft N-Dubs performed on one of the smaller stages – 'Number 1'. This had to be done twice – apparently (as I overheard one of the floor managers saying) they just weren’t happy with the first take.
Then, Alexandra Burke performed on the main (blue/70’s logo stage) ‘Bad Boys’.
Next up were The Saturdays (looking very nice!!) with ‘Forever is Over’ – complete with BBC snow – unusually and for the first time on TOTP they didn’t use ‘confetti’ type snow, but a ‘foam’ which, if you were standing near the ‘snow blower’ would get you drenched!!!
Dizzee Rascal performed two tracks – ‘Bonkers’and ‘Holiday’ – ‘Holiday’ is featured in the NYE edition.
Britain’s Got Talent Winners Diversity performed a dance routine to some classic Michael Jackson hits in the middle of the studio – quite why these were featured on TOTP, I am not sure, however entertaining to watch!
Calvin Harris performed 'I'm Not Alone' on the main 70's neon logo 'blue snowflake' stage, which I am told is for the NYE show.
As usual, the show was presented by Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates (sporting a new pair of glasses this year!).
Several links were recorded, into VT of Shakira and Kasabian as well as several links to cover the Christmas No 1. Interestingly, whilst standing next to Fearne and Reggie and ‘earwigging’ (!!) their conversation, they were both hoping that ‘Rage against the machine’ wins the Christmas Number 1 battle and then turned round to a few of us and urged us to download it from itunes – both Fearne and Reggie said they were going to download it!
Recorded a brilliant link standing next to Fearne and Reggie for the outro of the NYE edition – complete with hundreds of party streamers everywhere! Look out for me standing next to Reggie!
Recording finished about 10pm – it was, as usual, a fantastic evening - one I will remember for along time to come! Can’t wait to see it on Christmas Day/NYE now!
Fingers crossed for show number 50 next year!
Sorry for the rambling on and long post – hope some of you might have found it interesting!
Show review (based on 14 December recording)
Well, last night, 14 December, I attended Television Centre for the recording of the Christmas/New Year editions of ‘Top of the Pops’.
It’s my 49th time, over 21 years, of attending the show, so I guess by now I’m a bit of a TOTP veteran!
The recording sessions for both Christmas Day and NYE were split this year over two recording sessions. The first block was recorded on Tuesday 08 December. As far as I know, the first session last Tuesday included performances from the Sugababes singing ‘Santa Baby’ and performances from Lilly Allen and La Roux.
Tickets this year were much, much harder to obtain. In previous years, BBC Audience Services would advertise the tickets via the BBC ticket page on the BBC website on a ‘first come, first served’ basis – obviously meaning if you are quick enough ,then you always stood a good chance of obtaining tickets. However, this year, in order to make it ‘fairer’ the BBC operated what they now do on all popular shows – that is a random draw. The tickets remain online for you to apply for about 1 week. However, this does of course mean that literally thousands of applications are received – and therefore it’s more a question of ‘pot luck’ as to whether you receive the tickets.
Fortunately, and unbelievably, I was lucky! I know many others who applied that weren’t. I spoke to BBC Audience services who told me that studio space was limited to 200 places, but, they had actually sent out 800 tickets! Definitely a case of getting there early!
I arrived at Television Centre about 2.30pm. GMTV were filming some items outside TV Centre and interviewing people in the queue about Joe McElderry! We were let into TVC at 5pm. Good to get in the warm!
Recording started around 7.30pm. For the first time in many, many years, TOTP was recorded in studio TC8 – one of the smaller main studios at Television Centre. Since the show returned from Elstree to TVC in 2001, TC3 had been the shows permanent home up until the weekly demise in 2006 – after this, for the following Christmas and New Years specials, both studios TC3 and TC4 had been utilised.
The set this year was quite radically different from anything seen in recent times. The usual black backdrop adorned the studio walls along with the two main neon logos – the black and white square 1960’s logo and the classic 1970’s/80’s circular pink and blue design. Three stages were set up in the (very cramped!) studio.
However, the reason the sets looked so different is that this year the backdrop to the stages were adorned with what I can only describe with huge rolls of TOTP ‘wallpaper’! These were basically huge backdrops containing pictures of snowdflakes (main stage ice blue, others were more colourful, some featuring Christmas baubles and even a Robin perched on a picture of the 1998 logo!!).
Also printed on these huge rolls were various TOTP logo’s – the main stage (blue set) just containing the 70’s circular logo. Unusually the the 70’s neon logo was not situated in the middle of this main stage but to one side. Also – not one Christmas tree in sight this year! Hanging from the studio roof were six huge Perspex snowflakes which constantly rotated – reminded me of an old BBC Christmas ident from years ago! Also hanging from the ceiling were various ‘chandelier’ type arrangements to compliment the snowflakes. I’ve put up on my Facebook page, for any of you that know me, a (very poor low quality!) mobile piccy of one of these backdrops – photography was definitely a no-no on this edition with threats of being “evicted” if you were caught!!
After the warm up (still done by Danny Stegall, the guy that has been doing TOTP warm ups for years!!) we were into recording. As I say, both recording blocks were for the Christmas Day and NYE editions so it was abit of a job to work out what is going to be slotted in where! However, first up was the X Factor winner Joe McElderry performing the X factor single, ‘The Climb’.
Next up was Robbie Williams with “Bodies”. He also returned a little later to perform his latest single “You know Me”. The crowd were loving it!
Following this, Tinchy Stryder ft N-Dubs performed on one of the smaller stages – 'Number 1'. This had to be done twice – apparently (as I overheard one of the floor managers saying) they just weren’t happy with the first take.
Then, Alexandra Burke performed on the main (blue/70’s logo stage) ‘Bad Boys’.
Next up were The Saturdays (looking very nice!!) with ‘Forever is Over’ – complete with BBC snow – unusually and for the first time on TOTP they didn’t use ‘confetti’ type snow, but a ‘foam’ which, if you were standing near the ‘snow blower’ would get you drenched!!!
Dizzee Rascal performed two tracks – ‘Bonkers’and ‘Holiday’ – ‘Holiday’ is featured in the NYE edition.
Britain’s Got Talent Winners Diversity performed a dance routine to some classic Michael Jackson hits in the middle of the studio – quite why these were featured on TOTP, I am not sure, however entertaining to watch!
Calvin Harris performed 'I'm Not Alone' on the main 70's neon logo 'blue snowflake' stage, which I am told is for the NYE show.
As usual, the show was presented by Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates (sporting a new pair of glasses this year!).
Several links were recorded, into VT of Shakira and Kasabian as well as several links to cover the Christmas No 1. Interestingly, whilst standing next to Fearne and Reggie and ‘earwigging’ (!!) their conversation, they were both hoping that ‘Rage against the machine’ wins the Christmas Number 1 battle and then turned round to a few of us and urged us to download it from itunes – both Fearne and Reggie said they were going to download it!
Recorded a brilliant link standing next to Fearne and Reggie for the outro of the NYE edition – complete with hundreds of party streamers everywhere! Look out for me standing next to Reggie!
Recording finished about 10pm – it was, as usual, a fantastic evening - one I will remember for along time to come! Can’t wait to see it on Christmas Day/NYE now!
Fingers crossed for show number 50 next year!
Sorry for the rambling on and long post – hope some of you might have found it interesting!
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Comments
Weren't Sugababes supposed to be performing? or did they sing 2 songs on the Xmas edition for one to be shown on NYE?
I used to be someone who really couldn't stand Fearne Cotton, but then one day I realised I'd happily bone her senseless. However, I really can't understand the point of Reggie Yates. He has no point ever in anything.
She's got terrible taste in men, you might be in with a chance!
The Sugababes sang "Santa Baby" - but appear on the Christmas Day edition - that part was recorded the week before on 08 December so I didn't actually see them on this visit!