Sunday 14 April 2013

The Beatles a third time on Thank Your Lucky Stars

 One week before the transmission on the ITV Network (Saturday 20 April) The Beatles went to Teddington Studios to record their third appearance on Thank Your Lucky Stars.

They mimed one song (From Me To You) and met Dave Clark Five, The Vernons Girls, Bert Weedon, and Del Shannon.

From Wikipedia: Thank Your Lucky Stars was a British television pop music show made by ABC Television, and broadcast on ITV from 1961 to 1966. Many of the top bands performed on it, and for millions of British teenagers it was essential viewing. As well as featuring British artists, American guests were frequent visitors.

It would appear from the surviving footage that the bands mimed their latest 45. Occasionally a band was allowed to do two numbers (possibly the ‘A’ and ‘B’ sides of the latest single), and if you were pop royalty like The Beatles or The Rolling Stones you could do four numbers.

Audience participation was a strong feature of Thank Your Lucky Stars, and the Spin-a-Disc section, where a guest DJ and three teenagers reviewed three singles, is a very well remembered feature of the show. Generally American singles were reviewed. It was on this section that Janice Nicholls appeared. She was a former office clerk from the English Midlands who became famous for the catchphrase "Oi'll give it foive" which she said with a strong Black Country accent. After she was dropped from the show she trained as a chiropodist and ran a practice in Hednesford in Staffordshire. Billy Butler was another reviewer[1] and dozens of teenagers had their fifteen minutes of fame on the show.

The Beatles second national television performance was on the programme, the first being on Tuesday Rendezvous on 4 December 1962.

The TYLS Merseyside specials are very fondly remembered and gained huge audiences.

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