Pan's People Diary - 1975

Hi guys,

Hopefully I can fill in a few gaps for the 'unknown routines':

22nd Feb - Hamilton Bohannon's 'South African Man'

27th Mar - Duane Eddy's 'Play Me Like You Play Your Guitar' (All dressed in short cut raincoats)

29th May - Eric Clapton's - 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot'

31st July - George McCrae - 'It's Been So Long'

11th Dec - Chubby Checker's - 'Let's Twist Again' (Accompanied with a film of the artist)

18th Dec - Fatback Band's - 'Bus Stop' (Again accompanied by a film of the artists)

Hope this helps.

August 14th - Pan's People dance to 'Fame' by David Bowie:........I would really like to see that dance routine!.....I might even have seen it the 1st time around?....

Hi Suefan

The 'South African Man' routine is purely from memory. I've got an image of the girls using a fair bit of audience participation. Two columns of audience members all lined up on either side of the screen, re: Ruby Flipper's 'Shake Shake Shake' routine from August '76 and the girls sort of gliding down along these columns in alter 2 and 3 formation. Probably more towards the end of the performance.

The 'Twist and 'Bus Stop' routines, possibly being close to 4 performances for Xmas 75 TOTP as well as the M & W Xmas special, were simple, if not short ones. The 'twist' routine was a film of Chubby Checker jumping from his filmed performance to the girls in the studio. This would be short as the record didn't last that long. The 'Bus Stop' was a film of the Fatback band with girls coming in half way through, super imposed on the bottom of the screen of this film.

Again, it is only by memory and I could be wrong on several points.

P.S. I've got a few memories of lost ones from 1974!

Great work cornershop on the pans 1975 diary

Thanks alex for sharing your info ,very interesting reading indeed on the pp routines ,i think the big hat photo though was the first routine of youre the first the last my everything from nov 74 ,but if you have any more info or memories of any other pans dances from their time on totp ,it would be very much appreciated ,did you keep a note or diary at the time alex of what pp danced to each week ,i wished id thought at the time to do one,many thanks alex for your reply

Hi Alex and thanks for the additional info.  As Jez says the big hats and white leotards is "Your The First......" first time around.  Mention of Southern Belles rings a bell, although I couldn't have placed it as "Misty".  I don't recall the SA Man but I do remember the ladies dancing to that twangy guitar, although again I'd forgotten those raincoats.  And one extra snippet from me.  Special effects had the girls coming and going throughout the "Girls" routine, not just near the end.

Evening All

Have just been looking at the missing episodes sites to see a 'lost Marc Bolan/T-Rex performance of 'New York City has been found on Youtube. It seems to be from a home recording, with most of the Chart Rundown, straight into T-Rex, the followed by a portion of Brian Hyland's reissue of 'Sealed With A Kiss'. There's a lot of speculation that the whole episode was recorded, which would mean the Pan's People routine to George McCrae would be included. Who know's, between Youtube and One for the Dads, it may turn up!

Yes I agree about the line-up, with maybe the exception of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band's 'Delilah' which would seem to be like most of the acts a re-showing from previous editions. Even the 1st act on, T-Rex, was a bad cut-in from the Top 30 rundown and you also saw Noel Edmunds just as the performance was coming to an end. Still would be good if it's all together in someone hands.