REVOLVER:WHERE WERE you on July 6th, 1972, at about 7.30pm? If you can answer this question you are probably in your late 40s and in a rock band. What happened that summer night on TV screens is now – and rightly so – the stuff of legend.
It was the night David Bowie made his first appearance on Top of the Pops. He looked like an alien and was singing about "hazy cosmic jives". Bowie's performance of Starmanis – judging by the amount of big-name musicians who have told me how they formed a band the next day as a direct result of this wonderful spectacle – the most important ever music TV moment.
On July 14th, 1977, at about 7.30pm the second most influential music TV moment ever occurred when The Sex Pistols appeared on Top of the Popsplaying the truly beautiful Pretty Vacant.
To a younger generation it may have been the episode of Top of the Popswhen The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays appeared on the same show, or when Kurt Cobain snarled "Load up on drugs and kill your friends", but the point is that the right music at the right time on the right TV programme could change everything.
Not any more. Whereas once every TV channel was almost constitutionally bound to have a music programme, now it just seems that there's the well-past-its-use-by-date Later . . . With Jools Holland– and that's about it. You honestly have a better chance of hearing great new music being played over a Nike ad these days. And don't start me on those rubbish online music programmes, each one more wretched than the last. TV, foolishly and over-hastily, gave up on music when it became too ubiquitous over other media platforms and when the average mobile handset could hold thousands of songs.
But now the fightback has begun and, unlikely as it sounds, leading the charge is the Sky Arts channel. Its dedication to the highbrow arts just hasn’t been paying off for it in terms of viewing figures, and the schedulers are now looking at dedicating almost half of all their programming to music shows.
Sky Arts was busy all summer covering the festival circuit (they may, some time down the line, try to prise Glastonbury out of the BBC's firm grasp), and over the next few weeks they will roll out two major new music shows. The Ronnie Wood Showwill feature the Stones guitarist discussing pressing music industry issues with a variety of guests, as well as showcasing breaking new bands. The show will be based on his radio show, which has just won a Sony radio award.
The Jo Whiley Music Showwill see the presenter bringing the format of her old Channel 4 music chat show to the channel, and will include live performances.
The double attraction here is that Wood will get all his superstar friends to put in an appearance, while Whiley has the trust of the entire indie community, so she can get pretty much anyone she wants to show up.
Sky Arts are also busy building up their music archive – they already own the rights to the famous Rolling Stones Hyde Park show and Jimi Hendrix's even more famous appearance at the Isle of Wight festival. Talking about Hendrix, his appearance on the Happening for LuluTV show is also the stuff of legend. Look it up – it really is something special.
Knowing that music (as opposed to drama, opera and literature) provides advertiser-friendly programming, the channel is committed to the creation of a major new live music show. And with Ronnie Wood and Jo Whiley as figureheads, there's no reason why Sky Arts couldn't mount a contemporary version of Top of the Pops.
I’m still stopping strangers in the street and telling them what I saw on July 6th, 1972, just after 7.30pm. It’s high time for some new hazy cosmic jive.
Mixed bag
LOVE:The new bonus content on the upcoming multi-disc re-release of Dark Side of the Moon. It's psychedelictastic.
HATE:The new Björk BiophiliaiPhone App. Sorry, but it's bjönkers.
