Top of the Pops, 15 July 1976: Ruby Flipper dance to Tavares’ Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel.
Some classic literal choreography and costume design here. Lulu, Patti, Sue and Cherry at their absolute cutest in these beautiful angel costumes, complete with wobbly tinsel halos and appliqué golden wings: and Gavin, Phil and Floid get to ham it up big style in their scary devil outfits. Even the dry-ice cloud effect, often problematic (i.e. uncontrollable), is here mostly about right.
Top of the Pops 8 July 1976:
Ruby Flipper dance to Tubular Bells by The Champs Boys Orchestra.
The glorious summer of 1976: the Full Flipper, including Gavin & Cherry, dance to a condensed, funked-up cover version of Mike Oldfield’s magnum opus. Thanks to panspeople.com for the YouTube post.
From the old blog: Sunday, 7 February 2010:
Ruby Flipper in the Blue Peter Garden, dance to Tubular Bells by The Champ’s Boys Orchestra. Top of the Pops 8 July 1976. Whats the biggest faux pas a disc jockey could possibly make? I reckon mixing up the artist name with the song title sets off my useless showbiz zombie alert. Watch Tony Blandbairn’s introduction and decide for yourself.
comments:
Some Guy said…
Tony Heartburn, you’re an idiot!
22 December 2010 17:05
Top opt the Pops, 24 June 1976: Ruby Flipper dance to The Flasher by Mistura.
Thanks to Andee Bee for the YouTube post.
From the old blog, Thursday, 28 October 2010:
Am I a square? I’ve certainly never heard of The Flasher or Mistura, whether they’re featuring Lloyd Michels or not. I hear it’s an old Northern Soul Favourite. Anyway, here’s Cherry in the cutest Grass skirt, Patti in a posh frock and tiara, and Sue channelling the spirit of Shirley Temple: along with the usual Ruby Flipper blokes.
Sorry lads: of course I regard your dancing skills with the utmost respect, but that respect is drowned out by the howling gale of envy: my own envy, and the mountain of aggregate envy from every teenage boy in Britain in the summer of 1976. Peace.
Comment:
Carl said…
A routine with some eclectic costumes and the Ruby Flipper routine with the most lifts. Gavin and Phil seem to manage fine but Floyd is straining a little near the end, lifting Sue.
An instrumental long consigned to obscurity but a decent enough tune.
20 January 2011 19:21
Top of the Pops, 17 June 1976.
Ruby Flipper dance to Sold My Rock’n’Roll by Linda and the Funky Boys.
Top of the Pops 27 May 1976: Ruby Flipper dance to David Bowie’s TVC 15.
The Flipper blokes does some arty moving around in a living room set: the girls are nowhere to be seen, apart from Sue’s appearance on the wall of tellys. All in all, a very peculiar routine. That art deco carpet is quite nice, though.
Thanks to Andeebee for the YouTube post.
Top of the Pops 13th May 1976: Ruby Flipper dance to Archie Bell & the Drells’ Soul City Walk.
Thanks to ASmK for the YouTube post.
From the old blog, Wednesday, 30 December 2009
From the second week of Ruby Flipper’s run on TOTP, first broadcast on 13th May 1976. Here they dance to Archie Bell & the Drells’ Soul City Walk.
Taken again from Einsfestival’s re-broadcast of the original 1976 show. As before, nyrainbow4 has kindly posted a version of this clip on YouTube, but the Copyright Gestapo have forced him to replace the original soundtrack with something innocuous.
Comments:
74benja81 said:
I didn’t mind Ruby Flipper, even though I am a Legs and Co man myself, and was glad to see them arrive. I think out of the males, Floyd was great in Ruby Flipper, and made them if I am honest, great mover very witty and a good actor with full of character. Love this song, and I like the set and dance routine to it, for that time it was pretty good going. Sue dances and looks extremely gorgeous in those tight jeans and heels she wears for this shoot, and that look hasn’t dated to today. A nice post. Benja 🙂
12 December 2011 00:02
Top of the Pops May 13 1976: Ruby Flipper dancing to Love Hangover by Diana Ross.
From the old blog, Wednesday, 30 December 2009:
Continuing with German satallite channel Einsfestival’s re-broadcasting of vintage Ruby-Flipper-era TOTP episodes, here’s RF dancing to Diana Ross’s Love Hangover on their second week on the show (13th May 1976): some sensuous, slinky dancing to a very sensual piece of music. The producers seemed keen to use Ruby Flipper far more extensively than their predecessors: after two performances on their first week, there are two full-group routines on this show, plus a third with just Floyd, Sue & Lulu. More details in later posts.
Thanks to Andeebee for the YouTube post.
Comments:
Some Guy said…
Wow what a sexy sort of performance for 1976. Bet the BBC bigwigs were a bit twitchy about this.
13 November 2010 23:09
Carl said…
Love it, Love it, Love it.
Smouldering sultriness and Disco Funk come together. One of my favourite Ruby Flipper routines.20 January 2011 19:48
Top of the Pops, 15 July 1976:
Ruby Flipper dance to The Beatles’ Back in the USSR.
Ruby Flipper go Soviet: the girls in peasant smocks, the guys as furried-up cossacks. EMI had re-released (or rather re-promoted) all of their Beatles singles catalogue in 1976, with the result of a smattering of old Beatles numbers in the charts that summer, including this one.
From the old blog, Monday, 15 February 2010:
Ruby Flipper dancing to the Beatles’ Back in the USSR: their first of two appearances on Top of the Pops, 15 Juy 1976. Introduced by Panurus Biarmicus, with some shockingly bad puns on the theme of Russia.
Top of the Pops 17 June 1976: Ruby Flipper dance to Young Hearts Run Free by Candi Staton.
Thanks to Andeebee for the YouTube post.
From the old blog, Friday, 29 Jaunuary 2010:
Ruby Flipper’s second appearance on the TOTP os 17 June 1976, dancing to Candy Staton’s Young Hearts Run Free. Silly outfits all round, apart from Cherry.
No Lulu again, as with Sold My Rock’n’Roll.
Comments:
Some Guy said…
Ths most enjoyable Routine ever from Fick Colby`s vivid imagination.
20 November 2010 22:35
Lots of forum regulars have help this site out, with contributions of rare video, cash, and their erudite knowledge.
So many thanks to my generous benefactors:
...amongst others.
And a particular thank you must go to Ryan, who has single-handedly kept the forum alive, building a community of enthusiasts and supporting this site.
Video for the Top 20 Pan's People Routines Forum Choice was broken: now it's fixed.
My old One for the Dads blog was shut down by the Kopyright Kops. So here's a new one. Still showing performances from Legs & Co., Pan's People and Ruby Flipper, amongst others. But no more downloads. Sorry.
A TOTP rarity.
