For me, Friday, February 7, 1964 will forever occupy a special place in my music history heart as it marked the first ever television appearance of The Kinks (performing “Long Tall Sally”) as part of the Ready Steady Go series in the UK. For most of the rest of the world, however, the date of February 9, […]
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By the mid-’60s, the British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon that had taken America by storm. So much so that even popular TV sitcoms wanted to join in the fun. Often mistaken for another British singing duo, Peter & Gordon, Chad Stuart & Jeremy Clyde, aka Chad & Jeremy, made the leap to the small […]
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THankPhoto courtesy: ITVIn addition to stopping for a moment to be eternally thankful for my much better half, Kim, our friends, long-time and first-time Tellyspotting readers, good health and our kitty, MiniBoots, no Thanksgiving would be complete without recognizing the contributions made by two classic British series for not only setting me on a lifelong path of […]
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Ready Steady Go!, a.k.a. RSG!, was a British rock/pop music television program broadcast every Friday evening from 9 August 1963 until 23 December 1966 on ITV. The show went out early on Friday evenings with the tagline “The weekend starts here!“, and was introduced by the Surfaris’ “Wipe Out”, later by Manfred Mann’s “5-4-3-2-1”, then Manfred Mann’s “Hubble Bubble Toil […]
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Sometimes known as ‘the quiet Beatle’, George Harrison would have been 78 years young today. The Liverpool-born musician, singer-songwriter, music and film producer and, oh yeah, lead guitarist of the Beatles passed away in November 2001 of lung cancer at the very young age of 58. While most Beatles fans will immediately identify with songs written […]
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The Kinks, considered by many as one of the most influential rock bands of the 60s (Tellyspotting included), are headed to a public television station near you beginning tonight and throughout the month of June! Having formed in 1964, the legendary rock group originally split up in 1996 when tensions hit an all-time high between Ray and his […]
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By the mid-’60s, the British Invasion had taken America by storm. So much so that even popular TV sitcoms wanted to join in the fun. Often mistaken for another British singing duo, Peter & Gordon, Chad Stuart & Jeremy Clyde, aka Chad & Jeremy, made the leap to the small screen, appearing as characters on The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Patty Duke Show, and as themselves on Batman.
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In the overall British comedy landscape, The Benny Hill Show had more than its share of slapstick, mime and double entendre during its brilliant run from the mid-50s up until the British sketch comedy series was cancelled in the late 80s. A steady decline in ratings and what was, at the time, a very high production cost of approximately £450,000 […]
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When news on Saturday broke of the passing of Cilla Black, a name synonymous with the likes of Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark and Lulu, and, arguably, one of Britain’s best known and most-loved female performers, I immediately went in search of the recent ITV biopic, Cilla, the three-part drama which chronicled the early career of Cilla […]
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If you’re in the growing group of individuals who reside in America that has thought for some time that the British are taking over Hollywood, you now have proof positive (or spoof-positive) of the imminent British invasion of Tinsel Town. In recent years, there hasn’t been a Golden Globes, Emmys or Oscars nomination (and winners) […]
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