The show went out early on Friday evenings with the line "The weekend starts here!", and was introduced by The Surfaris "Wipe Out" - later replaced by Manfred Mann's "5-4-3-2-1" (later replaced by Manfred Mann's "Hubble Bubble, Toil and Trouble"). It was more youth oriented and informal than its BBC rival (from 1964), Top of the Pops. Owing to the scheduling of local news in parts of the UK, several ITV regions joined the show part-way through.
Initially, RSG! artists mimed to records but by late 1964 some performed live and the show switched to all-live performances in April 1965.
It was noted for allowing artists to perform the full version of their songs rather than the short versions demanded by other shows. Despite popularity in Britain, it never showed in the United States.
It featured most successful artists of the era, among them The Beatles, Dusty Springfield, The Supremes, The Walker Brothers, The Kinks, Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Fourmost, The Rolling Stones, Donovan (discovered by RSG!), The Fortunes, Helen Shapiro, P J Proby, Otis Redding, Freddie and the Dreamers, The Dave Clark Five, Bobby Vee, The Animals, Cilla Black, The Searchers, The Who, Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, Billy Fury, Lulu, Marvin Gaye, Gene Pitney, The Beach Boys, Sandie Shaw, Burt Bacharach, Jerry Lee Lewis, Kenny Lynch, Small Faces, Them and The Four Pennies. It was said that Cliff Richard never appeared on the programme because he was considered too popular and would unwittingly incite too great a reaction from the audience.
During one of the Beatles' appearances, Paul McCartney judged a contest between four teenage girls miming to Brenda Lee's "Let's Jump the Broomstick" (the group had opened for Lee before becoming famous), choosing 13-year-old Melanie Coe as the winner. Three years later, after Coe's disappearance made the front page of the Daily Mirror, McCartney would immortalize her in song, using the article as the basis for "She's Leaving Home".
Jimi Hendrix made first TV appearance in England on RSG! with "Hey Joe". After this appearance his club tour sold out and he was quickly added to a nationwide tour headlined by the Walker Brothers.
Dusty Springfield devised and introduced the RSG Motown Special in April 1965, featuring the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. The Supremes performed their now legendary Stop In The Name Of Love dance routine for the first time on the show.
The Who proved particularly popular and in 1966 had an episode to themselves entitled Ready Steady Who. The programme no longer exists, but an EP of the name marked the show (although no recordings were from the show). The Walker Brothers were also hugely popular and had a special live edition in 1966 but again the tape was wiped, although extracts surfaced on Youtube in 2009 proving the group did not mime.
The show was recorded at small studios in Rediffusion's headquarters in Kingsway, London. Although the company had bigger facilities at Wembley it was easier to attract stars to central London. As the studios were compact it was not possible to hide cameras. The ever-present cameras, which were very large with rotating lens turrets rather than zooms, were sometimes incorporated into the action, notably in a Manfred Mann performance of the song Machines which ended with Paul Jones singing crouched on the floor surrounded by menacing cameras.
In 1966, the time that the 'beat boom' was fading, the show was cancelled. Its disappearance at the height of its popularity enhanced its status. Many years later the British musician Dave Clark bought the rights to the surviving recordings of the show. Compilations aired on the UK's Channel 4 in the 1980s and VHS videos were issued. In 1989 the show was seen for the first time in the US, on Disney Channel. Disney was a pay channel aimed at adults at night. Despite rumours and promises, nothing has ever been officially released on DVD.
Artist information continued below...
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American soul singer. Often called the "King of Soul", he is renowned for an ability to convey strong emotion through his voice. According to the website of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (where he was inducted in 1989), Redding's name is "synonymous with the term soul, music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm and blues into a form of funky, secular testifying." In addition, rock critic Jon Landau said in 1967, "Otis Redding is rock & roll". Redding died in a plane crash at the age of 26, one month before his biggest hit, "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay", was released.
The sleeve notes accompanying the 1966 Atlantic album "Otis Blue – Otis Redding Sings Soul", written by Bob Rolontz, describe Redding's early career thus: 'Like all success stories, it was a long path for Otis Redding before he first hit on records. His musical inspiration was Little Richard, another soul singer of note. He entered and won a number of local amateur contests in his home town of Macon (also the home town of Little Richard). Redding became the vocalist with Johnny Jenkins and the Pinetoppers, a group that had started to establish itself in Southern colleges and universities. An early record that Otis Redding made with the group, "Love Twist", (which was released on Atlantic), created some regional action. A long time after that while Redding was still a member of the group, he recorded his own song "These Arms Of Mine", at the end of a Pinetoppers session. It became a solid hit, and Redding was on his way'.
In 1960, Redding began touring the South with Johnny Jenkins and The Pinetoppers. In addition to singing, Redding also served as Jenkins' driver since the bandleader did not possess a driver's license. That same year he made his first recordings, "Fat Gal" and "Shout Bamalama" with this group under the name "Otis Redding and The Pinetoppers" Issued on the Orbit and Confederate record labels before being picked up by King.
In 1962, Redding made his first real mark in the music business during a Johnny Jenkins session when, during studio time left over, he recorded "These Arms of Mine", a ballad that he had written. The song became a minor hit on Volt Records, a subsidiary of the renowned Southern soul label Stax, based in Memphis, Tennessee. His manager was a fellow Maconite, Phil Walden (who later co-founded Capricorn Records). Redding was also managed for a brief period by Walden's younger brother Alan Walden while Phil was overseas due to a military draft. Otis Redding continued to release for Stax/Volt, and built his fan base by extensively touring a live show with support from fellow Stax artists Sam & Dave. Further hits between 1964 and 1966 included "Mr. Pitiful", "I Can't Turn You Loose" (a sped-up instrumental version was to become The Blues Brothers entrance theme music), "Try a Little Tenderness" (a remake of the 1930s standard by Harry Woods, Jimmy Campbell, and Reg Connelly, later featured in John Hughes' film Pretty in Pink), "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones), and "Respect" (later a smash hit for Aretha Franklin).
Redding wrote many of his own songs, which was unusual for the time, often with Steve Cropper (of the Stax house band Booker T. & the M.G.'s, who usually served as Otis's backing band in the studio). Soul singer Jerry Butler co-wrote another hit, "I've Been Loving You Too Long". One of Redding's few songs with a significant mainstream following was "Tramp", (1967) a duet with Carla Thomas.
In 1967, Redding performed at the large and influential Monterey Pop Festival. His extraordinary musical gifts were then exposed to a wider audience and may have contributed to his subsequent success as a popular music recording artist.
On December 10, 1967, Redding and his backup band, The Bar-Kays, made an appearance in Cleveland, Ohio on the local "Upbeat" television show. That night they performed at Leo's Casino, a small venue club in Cleveland. The next afternoon, Redding, his manager, the pilot, and four members of The Bar-Kays were killed when his Beechcraft 18 airplane crashed into Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin, on December 10, 1967. The two remaining Bar-Kays were Ben Cauley and James Alexander. Cauley was the only person aboard Redding's plane to survive the crash. Alexander was on another plane, since there were eight members in Redding's party and the plane could only hold seven, and it was Alexander's turn in the rotation to take a commercial flight. Ben Cauley reported that he had been asleep until seconds before impact, and recalled that upon waking he saw bandmate Phalon Jones look out a window and say, "Oh, no!" Cauley said the last thing he remembered before the crash was unbuckling his seatbelt. He then found himself in the frigid waters of the lake, grasping a seat cushion to keep afloat.
Redding's body was recovered the next day when the lake bed was searched. He was entombed on his private ranch in Round Oak, Georgia, 23 miles (37 km) north of Macon. The cause of the crash was never precisely determined.
Redding was survived by his wife Zelma, mother and father, his sons Dexter and Otis III and his daughter Karla.
Eric Victor Burdon (born 11 May 1941) is best known as a founding member and vocalist of The Animals, a rock band formed in Newcastle, England, his funk rock band War[1] and his aggressive stage performance. He was ranked 57th in Rolling Stone's list - The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
Burdon was lead singer of The Animals, formed during 1962 in Newcastle, England. They combined electric blues with rock and were one of the leading bands of the "British Invasion". Along with The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Dave Clark Five, and The Kinks, the group helped to introduce the world to British music and fashion. Burdon's powerful voice can be heard in The Animals singles "The House of the Rising Sun", " Sky Pilot", "Monterey", "I'm Crying", "Boom Boom", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", "Bring It On Home to Me", "Baby Let Me Take You Home", "It's My Life, "We've Gotta Get Out of This Place", "Don't Bring Me Down", and "See See Rider".
Eric Burdon and the Animals
By late 1966 the other original members of The Animals, including keyboardist Alan Price, had left the band. Burdon and drummer Barry Jenkins reformed the group renaming it Eric Burdon and The Animals. This more psychedelic incarnation of the group featured future Family member John Weider and was sometimes called Eric Burdon and the New Animals. Keyboardist Zoot Money joined them during 1968 until they split up in 1969. This group's hits included the ballad "San Franciscan Nights", the grunge–heavy metal-pioneering "When I Was Young", "Monterey", the anti-Vietnam anthem "Sky Pilot" and the progressive cover of "Ring of Fire".
In 1975 the original Animals reunited and recorded an album called Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted which was eventually released during 1977 and was much overlooked, due to the dawning of the punk era. In May 1983 The Animals reunited, with their complete and original lineup and the album Ark was released on 16 June 1983, along with the singles "The Night" and "Love Is For All Time". A world tour followed and the concert at Wembley Arena London recorded on 31 December 1983 was released in 1984 entitled Rip It To Shreds. Their concert at the Royal Oak Theatre in April 1984 was released in 2008 entitled Last Live Show; the band members on this occasion were augmented by Zoot Money, Nippy Noya, Steve Gregory and Steve Grant. The original Animals broke up for the last time at the end of 1984.
Although the band Burdon formed in the late '60s was sometimes called Eric Burdon and The New Animals, it wasn't until 1998 that the name Eric Burdon and The New Animals was officially adopted. The 1998 band had a lineup of bassist Dave Meros, guitarist Dean Restum , drummer Aynsley Dunbar and keyboard guitarist Neal Morse. They recorded Live At The Coach House on 17 October 1998, which was released on video and DVD during December that year. In 1999 they released The Official Live Bootleg #2 and in August 2000 The Official Live Bootleg 2000, with Martin Gerschwitz on keyboards.
In June 2003, he formed another Eric Burdon and The Animals band, which included keyboardist Martin Gerschwitz, bassist Dave Meros, guitarist Dean Restum, and drummer Bernie Pershey until 2005 when they disbanded. During 2008 Burdon toured again as Eric Burdon and The Animals with a variable lineup of backing musicians.
On 13 December 2008, Burdon lost a three-year legal battle to win the rights of the name "The Animals" in the UK. Drummer John Steel now owns the rights to the name "The Animals" in the UK only. Eric Burdon still tours the world with his band, as Eric Burdon and the Animals, but is at least temporarily prevented from using the name "The Animals" in the land of his birth and rise to fame, while the case is under appeal. John Steel was a member of the band during its early heyday and left before the band split up in 1966. Steel later played in various reunion versions of the band with Burdon.
Chris Farlowe (born John Henry Deighton, 13 October 1940, Islington, North London, England) is an English rock, blues and soul singer. He is best known for his hit single "Out of Time", which rose to #1 in the UK Singles Chart in 1966, and his association with Colosseum and The Thunderbirds. Outside his music career, Farlowe collects war memorabilia.
Inspired by Lonnie Donegan Farlowe's musical career began with a skiffle group The John Henry Skiffle Group in 1957, before he joined The Johnny Burns Rhythm and Blues Quartet, in 1958. He met guitarist Bob Taylor in 1959 and, through Taylor, joined The Thunderbirds, who went onto record five singles for the Columbia label. He released a cover version of "Stormy Monday Blues" under the pseudonym of "Little Joe Cooke" which perpetuated the myth that he was a black singer.
Farlowe moved to Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate label and recorded eleven singles, five of which were cover versions of Rolling Stones songs including "Paint It, Black", "Think", "Ride On, Baby", "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "Out of Time"). Farlowe's single "Out of Time" reached #1 (1966) in the UK Singles Chart. He recorded four more singles, the best known of which is Mike d'Abo's "Handbags and Gladrags".
He sang vocals for the theme music written by Greenslade for the BBC Television series Gangsters. In 1978 he had a part in a play produced by BBC Birmingham, Curriculee Curricula, first shown on BBC Two and shot in its entirety on video at the University of Birmingham campus, with Magnus Magnusson as the narrator. Farlowe and Greenslade provided the music. He began an association with the jazz rock group Colosseum in the 1970s, recording a live album and three studio albums including, Daughter of Time (1970). Later in the next millennium he would appear on two more Colosseum albums. In February 1972 he joined Atomic Rooster, and is featured on the albums Made in England (1972) and Nice 'n' Greasy (1973). He also sang on three tracks from Jimmy Page's Death Wish II soundtrack (1982), as well as the tracks "Hummingbird", "Prison Blues" and "Blues Anthem" on Page's album Outrider {1988).
Farlowe recently toured as a featured artist with Maggie Bell and Bobby Tench as part of the Maximum Rhythm and Blues Tour of thirty two UK theatres.
