The Beatles, The Who, and Dusty Springfield walked into a TV studio—and changed music forever.
Season 4 • Episode 17
LatestFinal show: Ready Steady GOES! Guests: --Mick Jagger and Chris Farlowe - ""Out Of Time"" & ""Satisfaction"" (song excerpts) --The Who - ""Please Don't Touch"" (Eddie Cochran song they never issued a studio version of) and ""I'm A Boy"" --Paul Jones - possibly ""Baby Tomorrow"" --Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich - possibly ""Save Me"" --Eric Burdon --Alan Price --Donovan --Lulu --Keith Relf and Paul Sammwell Smith --Julie Felix --Cat Stevens --Merseys --Peter and Gordon --Small Faces --Spencer Davis Group (Note: Some of the above may have just been spoken appearances and not musical performances)
Ready Steady Go! is one of the UK's first rock/pop music television programmes and was a forerunner of MTV-type programming. It was conceived by Elkan Allan, head of Rediffusion TV. Allan was assisted by record producer/talent manager Vicki Wickham, who became the show's producer, and Michael Lindsay-Hogg who was appointed the show's director in 1965. It was broadcast from August 1963 until December 1966. It was produced by Associated-Rediffusion the weekday ITV contractor for London, called Rediffusion-London post 1964. The live show was eventually networked nationally. The show gained its highest ratings on 20 March 1964 when it featured the Beatles being interviewed and performing their songs "It Won't Be Long", "You Can't Do That" and "Can't Buy Me Love" - the last of which was a hit at the time. RSG! USA! was a Dick Clark production in 1964. A trademark infringement ended the show after six episodes. Its last episode was broadcast on 23 December 1966.
Direction
Michael Lindsay-Hogg invented the modern music video.
Production
Raw, unpolished live TV that captured genuine youth energy.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
RSG! essentially created the template for Top of the Pops, MTV, and every performance-based music show since. It was where teenagers saw themselves represented as a legitimate cultural force rather than a market demographic.
No ratings yet
Sign in to join the discussion — comments are spoiler-gated to your watch progress.
Discussion starters
GB
