''Supersonic'' was a British television music show, which featured

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

artists of the day, one of the many attempts by

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

to equal the success of the BBC's ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British Record chart, music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show ...

''. Launched in 1975, the show typically lasted 25 minutes (excluding commercials) and was produced by

London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 unt ...

for the ITV network, running for two years. The programme was rarely, if ever, seen at the same time in all ITV regions. Although initially planned for LWT's Saturday morning schedule, the first series was broadcast by Anglia,

Border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

Grampian Grampian ( gd, Roinn a' Mhonaidh) was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. The region to ...

, Tyne-Tees,

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

on Thursdays at 5.20pm from 4 September 1975; ATV transmitted it on Fridays at 5.20pm from 5 September 1975; LWT and Westward showed it at 11.05am from Saturday 6 September 1975;

Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...

at 5.20pm from Monday 8 September 1975; and

Scottish Television Scottish Television (now, legally, known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV network franchisee for Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation since 31 August 1957 and is the ...

started showing it a week later, from Saturday 13 September. ''The Supersonic Christmas Show'' 1975 (Series 1, Show 18) was broadcast on 26 December 1975 at 5.30pm in 7 of the ITV regions, and on 27 December 1975 in 3 regions (including LWT). By the beginning of 1976, LWT had moved transmissions to early Saturday evening but this was mainly in London, the other regions continuing to schedule the series at different times or days, or not broadcasting it at all. The programme was devised and created by David Deyong and presented by film and music producer Mike Mansfield and the main theme was composed and sung by Andy Bown. Although the show featured performers with songs in the

music charts A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include re ...

, the show, unlike ''Top of the Pops'', was not chart-based. Whilst ''Top of the Pops'' ran all year, ''Supersonic'' had a limited run with season one consisting of 30 editions and season two consisting of 28. The show was recorded in front of an audience of teenagers at London Weekend's studios, then known as the

South Bank Television Centre The London Studios (also known as The South Bank Studios, The London Television Centre, ITV Tower, Kent House and LWT Tower) in Lambeth, Central London was a television studio complex owned by ITV plc and originally built for London Weekend ...

and used a style of production in which

television cameras A professional video camera (often called a television camera even though its use has spread beyond television) is a high-end device for creating electronic moving images (as opposed to a movie camera, that earlier recorded the images on film). O ...

were highly visible and areas such as the production gallery were featured. Its producer and director also doubled as host, cueing in performances from the studio gallery instead of presenting conventional links to camera. The original series had some limited U.S.

broadcast syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...

at the time. Later, musical performances from this show were repackaged for U.S. television, under the title '' Twiggy's Jukebox'', hosted by model-turned-actor/singer

Twiggy Dame Lesley Lawson (''née'' Hornby; born 19 September 1949) is an English model, actress, and singer, widely known by the nickname Twiggy. She was a British cultural icon and a prominent teenaged model during the swinging '60s in London. ...

, which ran for one season in 1978–1979. In 2019,

Elbow The elbow is the region between the arm and the forearm that surrounds the elbow joint. The elbow includes prominent landmarks such as the olecranon, the cubital fossa (also called the chelidon, or the elbow pit), and the lateral and the media ...

frontman Guy Garvey narrated ''From The Vaults'' - a six-part series on UK Freeview TV channel Sky Arts which featured ''Supersonic'' performances from 1975 including the

Electric Light Orchestra The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970 by songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of pop, classical a ...

Rod Stewart Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British rock and pop singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of Scottish and English ancestry. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the best-selling ...

Status Quo is a Latin phrase meaning the existing state of affairs, particularly with regard to social, political, religious or military issues. In the sociological sense, the ''status quo'' refers to the current state of social structure and/or values. W ...

and

Roxy Music Roxy Music are an English rock music, rock band formed in 1970 by Bryan Ferry—who became the band's lead vocalist and principal songwriter—and bassist Graham Simpson (musician), Graham Simpson. The other longtime members are Phil Manzanera ...

. The series returned for a second season the following year.

References

{{Reflist British music television shows London Weekend Television shows English-language television shows 1975 British television series debuts 1976 British television series endings