A whole load of Top of the Pops audio recordings from 1974 have surfaced providing live performance footage of the likes of Slade, Bryan Ferry, Wizard, Suzi Quatro and the Bay City Rollers. The BBC didn’t keep archive copies of its flagship music programme until 1977, meaning very little footage of the early years remain. But a viewer has unearthed eight audio tapes containing the soundtracks of TOTP shows recorded by holding a tape player up to the TV speaker. Despite the crude recording method the quality is meant to be quite good. Six clips from the tapes have been included on the TV show’s website.
The site’s editor Edward Russell told reporters: "It is sad that we don't have any recordings from the early days of Top of the Pops, but at the time people didn't place so much value on nostalgia and the tapes were expensive so they were reused. I'm sure there are lots of people out there that have similar recordings, who perhaps don't know that the BBC wiped its tapes, and we would love to hear from them. There were also a few video recorders around, although they were very expensive, so there may even be visual recordings around somewhere." Any video footage found may be able to be used on TOTP2 – the spin off show which features classic TOTP appearances.