''Radio Tip Top'' was a
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...
comedy programme broadcast from 1995 to 1996. Produced by the Tip Top Organisation (co-founded by Nigel Proktor), the show was a
retro take on 1960s broadcasting, presented by
The Ginger Prince (Nigel Proktor) and
Kid Tempo (Eli Hourd). The program encouraged listener interaction and offered free membership to Club Tip Top, which also sold numerous items of merchandise.
The tag line to the show was "If it ain't tip-top, then it ain't Tip Top".
One of the features of the show was a live performance from the Starlight Rooms hosted by The Ginger Prince, which featured a band called Blinder, whose lead singer was called Knocker. They performed various covers of songs around at the time.
Prior to BBC Radio 1 it was a pirate
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
broadcasting on a Wednesday night to the London area. This started broadcasting in 1993 up until it was closed down and moved to the BBC.
The show raised money for a guide dog from listeners' contributions. It was named Technotronic, and a party was held in London which listeners could attend. According to the presenters, the station's transmission was powered by "Lunewyre technology in total Spectrasound". In later episodes this was upgraded to "Lunewyre technology Plus—with lasers, for improved total Spectrasound".
Listeners were encouraged to become members of the Tip Top Club and were issued with individual membership numbers.
Characters on the show included Postman Patois, a reggae loving mailman who ended his segments with the advice: "Don't, don't don't....forget your postcode." Also featured was 'Norman Barrington', a spoof of the real DJ who was heard on Radio Caroline during the first half of the 1970s. (No request was ever made for permission for the use of his real name).
Tip Top also released a single, a cover of
M's "
Pop Muzik
"Pop Muzik" is a 1979 song by M, a project by English musician Robin Scott, from the debut album ''New York • London • Paris • Munich''. The single, first released in the UK in early 1979, was bolstered by a music video (directed by Br ...
". It was backed with a humorous take on
Babylon Zoo
Babylon Zoo were an English rock band formed in 1992 in Wolverhampton. Their song " Spaceman" gained considerable exposure through its use in a Levi's jeans television advert in the United Kingdom in late 1995. Released as the band's debut sin ...
's ''Spaceman'', performed by the above-mentioned Blinder, with singer Knocker on helium.
A pilot TV show, ''Tip Top TV'', was produced,
[Archived a]
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
but this never went to series. The pilot featured Kid Tempo and the Ginger Prince (Hourd and Proktor) plus the "Lunewyre Technology" girls - Stellar, Astra, Galaxy and Nova - with musical guests
Let Loose and
Eternal
Eternal(s) or The Eternal may refer to:
* Eternity, an infinite amount of time, or a timeless state
* Immortality or eternal life
* God, the supreme being, creator deity, and principal object of faith in monotheism
Comics, film and television
* ...
, plus an all-girl dance group called Girls Today.
References
External links
* https://www.angelfire.com/pq/radiohaha/RTIPTOP.html Haha's guide to ''Tip Top''
* http://www.radiotiptop.co.uk A fan site hoping to archive the broadcasts and ''Tip Top'' material
BBC Radio 1 programmes
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