Tape That And Party

Christmas 1972 was the season of portable cassette recorders. They were the size of a cereal packet, they consumed batteries in seconds and they came complete with little plastic microphones that made every recording sound like it was conducted in a wind tunnel. No matter, myself and my cousin Dianne were there at the family get-together, showing off our audio kit and doing the same ritual that every child in the land was enacting at 2.10pm. We were holding our mics up to the television speaker and recording the Top Of The Pops special.

I can still remember bits of the lo-fidelity experience. Rod Stewart was bleating 'You Wear It Well' and The Osmonds were getting eco-conscious with 'Crazy Horses'. The music was punctuated with the sound of granny setting out the desert plates and burly uncles making comments about male musicians wearing glitter on their foreheads. Jimmy Saville was presenting with Ed Stewart and my memory persuades me that T Rex sang 'Metal Guru'. My first cassette also contained a version of Carly Simon singing 'You're So Vain'. The wow and the flutter of the erratic tape heads made a kind of dub version of the tune and I liked it plenty.

Now it seems like Top of The Pops will return to the Yule schedules. I'm happy for all the usual sentimental reasons, but I also think my kids will be interested. The format is no longer a compelling cultural event, but there's a simple cheer in parading the best sellers of the moment.

I remember my own personal thrill of interviewing the band Texas at the TOTP studios in 1989. The band's publicist had smuggled me in there without the BBC knowing, so the subterfuge was even better. And while a very young Sharon Spiteri was trying to be cool, I know she felt the immensity of it all. Why shouldn't she?