BBC Radio 1 - Top 20 Show - Simon Bates - 28 May 1978

Описание: *** You can now hear un-cut versions of my Chart Show recordings in full on my MixCloud channel: https://www.mixcloud.com/RetroRadioUK/


It's Sunday May 28th 1978 and a bank holiday weekend. By now I'm doing 3 paper-rounds every morning, enabling me to splash out and buy a second-hand Akai stereo cassette-receiver. My radio-cassette is cast aside as my chart show collection goes stereo for the first regular recording, this week using a BASF C120 cassette in a funky blue case.

You Tube's auto-copyright system prevents me from uploading the entire programme, but I hope these edited highlights give you enough of a flavour of the original show.

Simon Bates is a month into his run of hosting the Sunday evening rundown and the format is beginning to relax. He's lost Tom Browne's regular references to how records are performing "in the 'States" and throws in a few more jingles and time-checks to help things along. The combination of his dry sense of humour, "ballsy" presentation style, coupled with a unique ability to make all those chart positions sound of life-changing, historical significance wins him a huge following.

There's an interesting slip at the start of Number 19 (Plastic Bertrand) where the Number 30 jingle is played by mistake. It just goes to prove that all 40 number jingles are ready and waiting for when the show gains an extra hour for the full Top 40 rundown later in the year.

Musically the New Wave sound is strong in this week's chart - the other dominant force is disco with 3 hits from the soundtrack of "Saturday Night Fever" all making the Top 20; Yvonne Elliman, Tavares and the Bee Gees. However, as it's 1978, Bony M are number one... again!

And yes, with Bank Holiday programming putting an extra edition of Ed Stewart's "Junior Choice" in a delayed breakfast slot for Monday, it means Radio 1 closes down at the end of this programme for 13 hours, carrying Radio 2's programming right through until 8 o'clock the following morning.

Little did I realise that I would go on to work alongside Simon Bates around 15 years after this recording at LBC... but that's another story...!

For more Radio 1 Chart Show clips, check out my playlist:    • BBC Radio 1 & 2 - Top 20 Show - 28 Aug 197...  

Thanks for watching - and listening! :)