TOTP made me a star
Sunday July 30, 2006
written by Louise Wener
As Top of the Pops airs for the last time tonight, former guest and fan Louise Wener remembers
'Your single's in the Top 10. You're going to be on Top of the Pops.' From the age of six, I'd played these words through my head thousands of times. When I finally heard them for real, I knew I'd officially become a pop star.
TOTP was the dream. I grew up on it. Every Thursday evening throughout its heyday, I'd capture the best bits by holding my tape recorder up to our television speaker until my arm ached. Between shows, I'd wear out the tapes I'd made, reliving every detail of my favourite performances. Bowie doing 'Ashes to Ashes'. Blondie oozing her way through 'Heart of Glass'. Bob Geldof spitting out 'I Don't Like Mondays' and, um, David Essex singing 'Gonna Make You a Star'. In a childhood landscape of power cuts, Mr Whippy ice cream and Morecambe and Wise, Top of the Pops was a piece of magic, a portal to an exotic and fabulous world.
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