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The defining music programme of the 1960s was Top of the Pops (BBC, 1964-), whose
dominance reflected the pre-eminence of the 7" single and of a young audience
for pop. By the turn of the 1970s, the first generation of pop record-buyers was
growing up, and its tastes were changing accordingly. As the hippy generation
expanded its mind with drugs and new ideas, it wasn't just hair that was getting
longer; music too was outgrowing the space available on 7 inches of vinyl. Just
as the BBC's youthful Radio 1 balanced its daytime diet of frothy DJs and chart
pop with John Peel's more challenging Top Gear show, it was clear that
there was a gap for a serious, album-oriented music show on television.
The show created to plug that gap was The Old Grey Whistle Test. The
idiosyncratic title derived from Tin Pan Alley slang - the test of whether a
song was destined to be a hit was to play it to the doormen, cruelly nicknamed
the 'old greys', and see if they could whistle it after one or two listens. Although presented at first by Ian Whitcomb and Richard Williams, the
show took its tone from the uber-laidback presentation style of host
'Whispering' Bob Harris, and a scheduling advantage - BBC2's final slot on a
Friday - which initially allowed it to extend its usual 25-minute running time to as long
as 90 minutes.
Key to the show's identity were the live studio appearances - no Top of the Pops miming - from bands who took the opportunity to explore their album tracks
rather than just their singles, and an eclectic choice of artists, embracing
rock's mainstream and more progressive ends, blues, folk-rock, glam, soul and
even reggae. Alongside now well-known artists like David Bowie, Roxy Music and
Bob Marley and the Wailers were others who gained rare TV exposure thanks to
OGWT, among them Captain Beefheart, Tim Buckley and Richie Havens.
The series coped surprisingly well with the eruption of punk in the
late '70s - Buzzcocks, Siouxsie and the Banshees and X-Ray Spex all made appearances - with Harris by this time co-presenting with Annie Nightingale. But by the early '80s it was clear that the 'Old Grey' label was attracting
sneers, and in 1984 the show became Whistle Test, in which form, now co-hosted by
David Hepworth and Mark Ellen, it continued until 1987.
Mark Duguid
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1972: David Bowie - Five Years (4:55)
