Tag Archives: Cherry

Top of the Pops, 27 September 1973: Pan’s People dance to Monster Mash by Bobby “Boris” Pickett & The Crypt Kickers again.

Top of the Pops, 13 September 1973: Pan’s People dance to Monster Mash by Bobby “Boris” Pickett & The Crypt Kickers.

A mere snippet of this version, with only a few brief glimpses of PP.

Thanks to and ASmK & Andeebee for the YouTube posts.

From the old blog, Saturday 30 October 2010:

Here’s a couple of special treats for the Halloween season: not just a clip of Pan’s People dancing to Monster Mash: two clips!. The first will probably be the most familiar: the girls in monster-movie themed fancy dress. Louise get the easy option as a sort of tap-dancing vampire. Deedee is an egyptian mummy with a twenties flavour. Cherry is the cutest bat you’ve ever seen. Ruth draws the short straw in the gorilla outfit as King Kong. And I just can’t make out what Babs in meant to be: an alien car-hop?

The second is an earlier clip, from the time when Top of the Pops regularly commisioned and created short films to show where the artists weren’t available to perform in the studio. Here, amidst various kooky spooky goings on, Pan’s People dance around in a vaulted basement wearing sexy Morticia-Adams-type outfits. Merely a small taste in this incomplete clip, I’m afraid, but it’s all I can find.

Top of the Pops 31 August 1973:
Pan’s People dance to I Think of You by the Detroit Emeralds.

Every time I get despondent and think “That’s it! I’ll never get another new routine to share,” another generous soul proves me wrong. Hurrah!

An what a great routine this is: it’s oozing with literal choreography – which is a good thing. (If you don’t like literal choreography, go away and look at a Ballet Rambert site or something.) My favourite bit of literal? Louise pointing to her biceps for the line “makes me strong” (0:32).

All the dancers seem to be enjoying this light hearted routine, particularly Dee Dee’s faux forgetfullness. The whole thing feels well-rehearsed and tightly executed.

The outfits are great, but as usual my clothing vocabularly is sadly not up to a proper description. Flamenco trousers perhaps? But they’re one-piece: so flamenco catsuits? Surely not flamenco dungarees? And what do you call the scarf bra bit? I’m flailing around here, language-wise. Will some knowledgable person please comment and correct me?

Many thanks to the anonymous donor who supplied this marvelous bit of Pan’s People history.

Top of the Pops, 3 August 1973: Pan’s People dance to You Can Do Magic by Limmie & Family Cookin’.

Hooray! Here’s another rare Pan’s People performance, Thanks to one of my generous anonymous donors.

A happy, energetic performance, with simple video overlay effects multiplying the dancers, invoking the “Magic” in the song title. This clip is only black & white, where the original broadcast would have been in colour: but the limited dark background, and the strong geometric diamond pattern of their off-the-shoulder dresses makes the performance easily watchable.

There are a few seconds missing from the end of the number (and perhaps one or two at the start): but since we’ed probably never get a chance to see this performance otherwise, I’m most grateful to the nameless provider. Many thanks.