Memories: The Radio 1 Sunday Chart Show

[Si Hunt]

It is a minute to five on a Sunday afternoon. Millions of people have retuned their radios from crackly medium wave to crystal-clear FM.

Radio 2's Sing Something Simple gives way to the pips, and the Top 40 explodes into life on Radio 1.

At home, "record" buttons are pressed, battered C-90 cassettes whirr, and if mum tries to serve tea before seven o'clock, she is in big trouble.

That's EXACTLY how it was in our house back in the eighties. EXACTLY!

I used to sit there, with the headphones on, kneeling on the floor with a (shamed) pen and paper (don't worry it gets worse) and listen to the whole countdown, #40 to #1 over three hours. I used to make my own chart up, putting the records into where I thought they should go on my bit of paper, taping the ones I hadn't got. I can fondly remember first hearing about later favourite bands, of course having to interprete them as Bruno said them. Thus new band "Rock Set" were written onto the bit of paper one Sunday when they entered at #40.

About twenty to seven, we had to go and have dinner so the hi-fi was left recording and would have to be switched through to the kitchen, so we could hear the Top 10 with our meal. We'd hear the end of it and the start of Annie Nightingale as we washed up (and woe betide anyone who spoke during dinner!) and then I'd head upstairs and hear the whole thing again, transfering all the songs onto a master tape.

And that was the ritual, every Sunday, just me and Bruno! Did you ever do similar? Did you listen to the charts every week on Radio 1? What are your memories of the time when the new records were revealed for the very first time in one exciting rundown?

Si.

[Matthew T]

Here's where I reveal the true extent of my chart geekiness!

The above is entirely true for me too - listening to the chart was a Sunday ritual that could not be missed - and I used to write it down too, very carefully - using a black pen for songs going down, red for new entries, blue for climbers and green for non-movers. I still have all these charts, the first one I wrote down was 12th July 1992, when Jimmy Nail first climbed to #1 with "Ain't No Doubt". I stopped doing this regularly in 2000 sometime, but I have since typed up all these charts and printed them off.



At the same time I started my own top 40, which continues to this day, some 15+ years later!

It's not the same nowadays of course, JK & Joel betray their lack of knowledge every week, whereas Mark Goodier and Bruno Brookes where obviously chart geeks to some extent themselves, and downloads have made the chart so slow moving compared to the 90s when my interest was at it's height.

[Si Hunt]

I can beat you for geekiness Matt, as I held some info back out of shame. I used to retreat to my room and re-record all the links Bruno-style to my own version of the '40! God knows why, but it took about three hours!

Si.

[Pip Madeley]

You spelt Phil Collins with two L's!

I used to tape songs from the top 40 onto cassette now and then - I still have a tape somewhere, it was the same week that Robert Miles' Children and Take That's cover of How Deep Is Your Love were in the chart.

[Si Hunt]

I was doing my A-Levels at that time!

Si.

[Matthew T]

You spelt Phil Collins with two L's!

I was only 13! I only very recently realised that its "Michael" not "Micheal"!

Notice how it's virtually the only song in the top 20 I haven't ticked to say I owned it.

[Pip Madeley]

March 1996 t'were. Long long ago, now.

Matt - except Bjork, Tina Turner, Take That and the Prodigy.

[Stephen Morgan]

1970's Pick of the Pops. More later.

[Milky Tears]

My chart geekery (??) is too anal for this thread! It probably involves lots of books, tapes, lists, microphones, sales figures/awards and complete chart shows in my head.

Bruno Brooks and Mark Goodier will be guests on JK and Joel's Radio 1 Chart Show shortly.

ETA: Followed by the return of Annie Nightingale's Request Show. Well, Annie Mac is there as well.

[Stephen Morgan]

I've loads of memories of the Sunday chart show, from earley seventies Pick of the Pops with Alan (Fluff) Freeman to Bruno Brooks in the mid eighties, 'twas around '86/7 I gave in.
I remember setting up my old reel to reel tape recorder to record the whole of Sunday afternoon's Pick of the Pops on crackly old MW 247 Radio One, often going out into the living room to watch The Golden Shot and listening to the tape later, although I always listened to the Top Twenty part of it. I've still got one or two recordings from 1972 when Alan Freeman presented the final two shows of his original run of the show. Tom Browne took over in September/October '72 with a new show called Solid Gold Sixty, playing the new releases and some choice album tracks before the top twenty rundown at six o-clock. During the pips I would re-tune the radio to VHF to get a better broadcast of the top twenty.
By 1973 I'd graduated to cassette tape and, but would only tape the top twenty, although I have a reel to reel recording of the top sixty hits of 1972 and 1973. Most of my reel to reel recordings have been transferred to CD, they aren't brilliant copies due to their age, but they serve as a good reminder of how the chart was presented on a Sunday in those days.
On cassette I have some copies of some Tuesday lunchtime chart rundowns with Johnnie Walker, some top twenties from 1976 and 1977, and one or two complete ones from 1978. From about 1980 on I'd only tape some of the tracks I wanted. Apart from one or two complete Paul Gambaccini shows from Saturday afternoon I have virtually no eighties recordings.
All good nostalgia though.

[Jonno]

Sandwiched agewise somewhere between Mr Hunt and Mr Morgan, my interest in the charts really took off in 1980 when we returned to the UK after a two and a half year absence. In those days, the chart was revealed on a Tuesday lunchtime on Radio 1, starting at 12.45 after Newsbeat. They'd start by playing numbers 5 to 2, so if the previous week's number 1 had fallen to, say, 3 or 4 you'd have a fun 10 minutes predicting what the new number 1 was - normally a high climber from the week before as new entries at the top were very rare back then. At around 1pm after playing the number 2 they'd rundown the whole Top 40, so you'd make a mental note of big climbers and new entries that you'd be hearing later, then they'd play the number 1, then for the remaining hour or so up till 2 they'd play the new entries and climbers between 40 and 6.

Of course, hearing that show was reserved for school holidays, though in the sixth form (1985-87) we'd have a portable radio in the common room, and with the bell for afternoon registration at 1, we could just sneak in the chart countdown. I seem to recall there was another review of the chart on the Tuesday evening - handy when you hadn't heard it earlier. TOTP on the Wednesday/Thursday thus was very up to date with a new chart.

I also listened to the Sunday show - first memory was I think Simon Bates in the early 80s, followed by Tommy Vance for a short while (83/84?), then Bruno and Mark. I stopped listening sometime in the early 90s.

I do recall recording some songs that I particularly liked, and the advantage on the Sunday was that, thanks to the Tuesday reveal and TOTP, you knew which number the songs you were looking out for were going to be!

Incidentally, this month (October now) marks 20 years since they stopped revealing the chart on a Tuesday, but revealed it in its entirety on the Sunday. For me, this was not as exciting as starting with the Top 5 then working your way backwards, but there you go! I remember it well as I'd only started at Poly a couple of weeks earlier, so it was all change in my life back then. I recall that the Bee Gees were on top on the week they changed it.

[Jon Masters]

Like Jonno, I recall listening to the chart reveal on a Tuesday lunchtime in the Sixth form common room (the only time I ever bothered listening to GGGGGary Davis). Later on once I got a tapedeck I too would tape songs from the top 40, but only the ones I liked. I would sit with a copy of the chart from the previous week (courtesy of the Sun) and cross them off, trying to predict when the tracks I wanted would come on. The number of times I would swear at the radio as Bruno Brooks talked over the start or the end of the track I wanted !

[Rob McCow]

In those days, the chart was revealed on a Tuesday lunchtime on Radio 1, starting at 12.45 after Newsbeat. They'd start by playing numbers 5 to 2, so if the previous week's number 1 had fallen to, say, 3 or 4 you'd have a fun 10 minutes predicting what the new number 1 was

That sounds fiendishly complex!

We heard a bit of Radio 1 on Sunday, where they were interviewing some of the old DJ's. They all came across quite well, apart from Mike Reid who was utterly incapable of making a point. He'd just ramble and ramble and go nowhere. There was even a clip of his show where he was saying what a frosty morning it was and how he had frost on his car. Apparently it's called an 'anecdote'.

[Si Hunt]

Oddly, we were in the car at about 6.30pm on Sunday and no-one thought to put the chart run down on!

Remember the weird 'deep voice' announcing each number? "NUMBER SEVEN!". And, as Jonno recalls, the various run-downs (40-30, 30-20, 20-10 and then the full-run down before Number 1). I remember one week I was convinced that, by a process of elimination, Andy Stewart's "Donald Where's Yer Troosers", had made Number 1. Of course it hadn't, I'd just somehow missed it in the rundown and something else had hit the top instead...

Si.

[Jonno]

Presumably Band Aid II, Si!

I forgot to mention that I used to really like the jingle to announce the number 1, circa late 80s. "Doo do doo doo, the UK's Number One!" I've got some retained on an old tape somewhere with some late 80s chart toppers.

[Jonno]

I remember it well as I'd only started at Poly a couple of weeks earlier, so it was all change in my life back then. I recall that the Bee Gees were on top on the week they changed it.

As no-one has corrected me, I'll correct myself! I found a link on BBCi the other day to a portion of the Bruno-presented chart where they first changed to a Sunday, and my memory has cheated a little! I thought it was mid-late October, that I'd been at Poly at least a couple of weeks, and that the Bee Gees were on top. Wrong on all counts! It was Sunday 4th October, it was my first weekend at Poly on the night before my course (and Paradise Towers!) actually began, and it was the second week on top for MARRS and Pump Up The Volume! The Bee Gees incidentally climbed to number 6 and went top the following week. Odd how the memory plays tricks sometimes!

[idlebagger]

Well, I'm more yer early 80's, pre-FM era, but yeh, I remember the excitement mounting of a sunday afternoon, me dad getting the pop and crisps, me mom making the cheese and onion cobs, having a bath, then racing into the front room at seven, and hopeing, no, praying that the latest Iron Maiden or Marillion single has gone top 40, then dancing around to Ultravox or the Specials regardless of the outcome.

For me there's so much nostalgia caught up in those sundays...it would begin with Jimmy Saville's old record club at midday, then meander on throughout the afternoon, often taking in Radio 2's Folk show at some point, as my mom was, and still remains, an absolute nut for the stuff, often resulting in bizarre arguements with my dad as to who was best, the Dubliners or Elvis. Guess that's where I get it all from...