BBC Radio 1 - Top 20 Show - Tom Browne - 09 Oct 1977

*** You can now hear un-cut versions of my Chart Show recordings in full on my MixCloud channel: https://www.mixcloud.com/RetroRadioUK/


It's Sunday October 9th 1977 and Dad has re-mortgaged the house in order to buy a top-of-the-range Panasonic Stereo music centre. Costing the astronomical sum of £389, it's immediately by far the most technologically advanced bit of equipment in the house, after our 1975 22-inch Philips colour TV - considered far too expensive (and too unreliable) to buy - rented from Visionhire.

The music centre sits with reverence and fear at the back of the living-room on its own altar; a wood-grain effect flat-pack cabinet, bought especially for the purpose from MFI.

This is isn't something I'll be allowed to handle very often - after all, I'm only 13 - but today is a special occasion. I've spent this week's wages from my paper-round on a Scotch Chrome C120 cassette and I'm given permission to hit the beautiful "play"and "record" keys together as the Greenwich Time Signal begins for 6 o'clock. The result is this recording...

You Tube's auto-copyright system prevents me from uploading the entire programme, but I hope these edited highlights give you enough of a flavour of the original show.

Tom Browne is on great form, 5 years into his tenure as host of the "Top 20", broadcast across both Radio 1 and 2's transmitter networks. For younger generations he may sound an unlikely choice to present the nation's top chart show but, for those of us of a certain age, his classy James Mason approach to broadcasting goes hand in hand with the hits of the mid '70s.

The New Wave sound is just beginning to enter the charts in the guise of the Boomtown Rats and the Stranglers, otherwise it's a distinctly middle-of-the-road rundown with artists as diverse as Space, the Dooleys and Yes. The shock of Elvis's death back in August is still being felt through Danny Mirror's tribute and the King's own former number one, "Way Down".

For more Radio 1 Chart Show clips, check out my playlist:    • BBC Radio 1 & 2 - Top 20 Show - 28 Au...  

Thanks for watching - and listening! :)