“The weekend starts here!”


Terry Hyde looks at some 1960s LPs recently donated to TASS*: notably “Ready, Steady, Go!” - a compilation of pop tracks as featured (maybe) in the hit TV series of the same name.


Despite now being stricken with years, I can nevertheless still


remember the incredible excitement of watching a weekly pop music show nearly half a century ago: Associated Rediffusion’s “Ready, Steady, Go!” At the start, its boilerplate “THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE!” would be shown in block caps 26


on a wobbly slide over a 5-4-3-2-1 countdown theme tune by Manfred Mann. On RSG!, teenagers would dance strangely in odd clothes and some of them might be chewing gum! Often one could not tell boys from girls! This was a time before CDs, MTV and the interweb thingy. There were only three


TV stations (in black and white) and a handful of radio stations, who were mostly not allowed to play records, as the Musicians Union had argued that doing so would deprive musicians of their livelihood. In this era it was possible for a single TV or radio show to get an audience of over 20 million! Now


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