7.29.20 Bee-otches of the Day: The media

Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.

 

Name: the media
Age: ageless
Occupation: the entertainers and informers of us all
Last Seen: everywhere
Bee-otched For: not doing enough flicking

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Throughout the 1960s and 70s, long before the age of MTV, we Americans were connected with the music of the times through Dick Clark's American Bandstand.

But, other countries had their own dance shows, too. For England, BBC's Top of the Pops was their link to the hottest tunes and styles of the day.

TOTP wasn't simply a clone of AB. It had a character of its own. From 1964 to 2006, over 15 million Brits would gather around their TVs Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. to see who had the hottest hits of the week. It was like radio's American Top 40, but since it was only on 30 minutes per week, a lot of songs would be omitted. Plus, since there were no videos, the artists had to come on the show to mime their hits, though there would be occasional live performances. 

But a lot of times, hit-making artists couldn't make it to the show. Sometimes, they wanted too much money. Other times, it was because they were on tour in another country. Because of this, TOTP had a secret weapon: young, sexy female dancers. 

The show had five groups in its history; the first were The Go-Jos, named for founder and choreographer Jo Cook. However, in 1968, the BBC replaced them with some much younger lasses called Pan's People. For the next eight years, PP helped TOTP escape the stigma of being yet another teenybopper program. Give them a record and Pan's People could dance to anything. They danced to hot records in skimpy outfits to soulful a capella hymns with zero BPMs. Pan's People was a smash with almost everybody. Dads loved them for their sexiness, girls wanted to be them and young boys, well, had to run to their bedrooms with some Kleenex and Jergen's. Some women, however, hated PP for simply being too sexy. After all, some even felt that they invented twerking. 

Even though Pan's People was as British as fish and chips and Big Ben, its leader was as American as mom's apple pie and Chevrolet. 

Felicity Isabella "Flick" Colby (that's her free soloing on the Judy Collins link) was the proud daughter of a college professor who hailed from a small town in upstate New York, Clinton (pop. 1,700). A classically-trained dancer as a young girl, she moved to London at age 20 in 1966 to further pursue her dream. She almost quickly found gigs, especially in this 1966 music video for a Dutch band called The Golden Earrings (and yes, they're the same guys - sans the s - who gave us classic rock radio staples "Radar Love" and "Twilight Zone"). She teamed up with a bunch of other female dancers later that year to form Pan's People. 

Despite her good looks and talent, Flick admitted that she hated performing. So in 1972, she retired as an on-stage performer and stuck to choreographing. After Pan's People disbanded in 1976, she continued on choreographing other TOTP dance troupes Ruby Flipper, Legs and Co. and Zoo. However, because of the popularity of music videos, the BBC no longer thought that dance troupes were in. As a result, Flick was fired and moved back to America to be close to family. She used her earnings to build a nice house in Clinton where she and her college professor husband lived. 

Sadly, Flick Colby died on May 26th, 2011 (my 30th birthday, ironically) after battling breast cancer for 24 years. She was just 65. 

So, what does Flick Colby have to do with what we're talking about? Well, TOTP had a rule: once a record drops on the charts, it was no longer to be played. On a Friday, the producers would choose a record for her to put a routine together to. Flick would have several days to slap one together. However, the new charts came out on Tuesday, and if the record dropped, her dancers would nickname that day "Frisbee Day". She would go into the rehearsal room, take the record off the turntable and throw it across the room. Now, Flick and her dancers had only a few hours to get a new routine going. True, many of them worked great. Others, on the other hand.... 

Sadly, many of the routines Flick and her dancers made over the years may never be seen again, at least on any of the BBC's channels. For one, the BBC erased a myriad of their programming from the days of 2-inch tape. The tapes themselves were expensive and took up space. TOTP wasn't its only victim; many episodes of Doctor Who are still missing. Monty Python's Flying Circus was almost a casualty, but was saved thanks to its popularity here in America.

But yes, there's another big reason why those routines might be shelved for good: TOTP was a haven for child molesters. Two of their hosts - Jimmy Savile and Dave Lee Travis - saw their careers reduced to smithereens because of Operation Yewtree, which busted many famous British celebs for accosting minors. Glam rock giant Gary Glitter was also busted and is now in prison probably until he dies. Because of OY, the BBC has pulled many TOTP shows from being reaired. 

But here in America, some radio station just might be playing "Rock and Roll Part 2" and nobody will care two shits.

Thanks to the shithole known as corporate radio, if somebody fucks up, they won't ban their music. Granted, Glitter's fall from grace didn't make huge headlines here in America. Radio stations won't play the Dix-er, I mean, The Chicks, but Confederate flag-waving assholes like Lynyrd Skynyrd are OK.

When I was young, there was Milli Vanilli. They ruled the world of music. Then, it was discovered that they were fake. Nobody wanted anything to do with them, period. If you still liked them, you were a fucking poser. Hell, I wouldn't be too surprised if Milli Vanilli's fall from grace led to the downfall of pop music in the early 90s. Pop was no longer cool while alternative was in. 

Now, we have assholes like Chris Brown who beat the shit out of women and some hip-hop station will be spinning one of his tunes. Here in Grand Rapids, the recently-launched R&B station 102.5 The Ride plays R. Kelly on a regular basis despite the fact that he's in prison for child molesting (then again, station programmer Tyrone Bynum doesn't know what the fuck he's doing, period). Hell, there's a TV network called TVOne that STILL airs The Cosby Show! 

Funny how I mentioned The Chicks, whom country stations banned after Natalie Maines' outburst regarding George W. Bush. On Monday, my clock radio was blaring WGRD here in Grand Rapids playing "Headstrong" by Trapt. I usually listen to the radio for about five minutes before shutting it off. Well, it was off about a minute after it started playing. I used to like Trapt until lead singer Chris Brown (not the aforementioned woman beater) started spreading shit on social media about the existence of white privilege, trashing civil rights groups and even showing their support of Drumpf. And guess what? Their latest album, "Shadow Work" only sold 600 copies its first week. And why active rock radio still plays them, plus Creed (whose lead singer threatened to kill Obama) and 3 Doors Down (who supported Drumpf) is beyond me. 

Sadly, Grand Rapids no longer has any real progressive outlet for talk radio now that WPRR 1680 was officially run into the ground by Tyrone Bynum. But yet, Rush Limbaugh and his vitriol are around to shame the working class. Even more pathetic is that when Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke a "slut" on his show, only a few radio stations dropped his show. Yet, when Howard Stern trashed Selina when she died, his show lost Dallas.

Look, I understand that this is America and if you don't like the song that's playing on the radio or the TV program that's on, you can change the channel. It's just too bad that people are fucking stupid and will forgive those who create pain for others. Bill Cosby raped over 50 women and a fucking channel here in America still airs his show. Sad. Yet in England, Savile raped and assaulted over 500 and some of Pan's Peoples' best routines may be shelved for good. 

But as they all say, sometimes, you have to kill the horse to save its leg.

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