The Early Years of Saturday Club
In October 1958, the programme was extended to two hours, from 10 am to 12 noon on Saturday mornings. The word "skiffle" was dropped from the title, its budget was increased, and a wider range of performers began to appear. These included Cliff Richard, Adam Faith, Chris Barber, Humphrey Lyttelton, Marty Wilde, Terry Dene, Vince Taylor, Johnny Kidd, Michael Holliday, Bert Weedon and Clinton Ford. Brian Matthew relaxed his style, and often started the show saying "Hello my ole mateys." The show consisted mainly of pre-recorded "live" performances, because of "needle time" restrictions on the number of records that could be played by the BBC. Most programmes had four live acts and only contained around six record requests and three new releases. The theme music was "Saturday Jump" by Ted Heath.
By August 1959 Saturday Club had a regular audience of five million listeners, including many children, as the programme immediately followed Children's Favourites. It soon began featuring performances from touring American artists including Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Duane Eddy and Bobby Darin, after a Musicians' Union ban on performances by non-British musicians ended. Other American performers followed, including the Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, Chris Montez and Tommy Roe. In 1960, an LP, Saturday Club, was issued, on the Parlophone label, featuring 13 performers including Tommy Bruce, Ricky Valance, Bert Weedon and The King Brothers.
Read more about this topic: Saturday Club (BBC Radio)
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