Tuesday 25 August 2009

Pans People: You Can Really Rock and Roll Me (a-side)

Pans People were a British TV dance troupe, who are best remembered for the BBC TV music show Top of the Pops. They danced along to songs whose original artists were not available to perform them live.

To people (men) of a certain age, they were essential viewing every Thursday night, from May 1968 to their last appearance in April 1976.

The classic Pans People line up consisted of: Louise Clarke, Barbara 'Babs' Lord, Ruth Pearson, Patricia 'Dee Dee' Wilde and Cherry Gillespie. The group were choreographed by original member 'Flick' Colby.

They are mostly remembered for the costumes (or lack of them) that they wore for the performances. Although they weren't always as 'under-dressed' as some people make out. At the time, and even now they are criticised for an 'over-literal' interpretation of the song lyrics, but this was largely due to the very short time available to prepare before the recording of the show. The dancers often had only a day to get ready.

Ok, so strictly speaking this is not a 'glam' record, but i'll give any excuse to show a bit of them doing their thing, and it was released in 1974, so it fits in to the right era.

"You Can Really Rock and Roll Me" was recorded with, and written by Mike Batt the man responsible for the Wombles records, and more recently Katie Melua. (nobodys perfect)
The song didn't chart as for some reason the BBC refused to promote the song, and wouldn't even allow the group to appear on the show to perform it. The lead vocals on the track are by Cherry Gillespie.


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