At least 150 episodes of Top of the Pops have showed up, previously assumed to be lost forever. Footage of artists such as Elton John, Rod Stewart and Status Quo has been rescued in these performances. They date back to the early 1970s, and the mystery recorder has been able to compile a complete set of performances – even the BBC doesn’t have a full record of footage from the 1970s.
They will be auctioned in September by Omega Auctions, who specialise in music memorabilia and vinyl. They released a teaser trainer for these recordings, which contains black and white footage of Rod Stewart and the Faces performing Maggie May, and Elton John playing Rocketman, amongst others. Watch this here.
The loss of these tapes came about because the BBC had a policy of recording over old shows in order to save money on film. The year of footage that suffered the most from this was 1976. Fortunately, a currently unnamed figure, known only to be ‘from Wales’ was a step ahead of the game, recording these episodes as they aired live, on a Sony CV-2000 – one of the oldest video cameras.
The auction manager, Dan Hampson, has said, “all we know about the chap is that he was from Wales and that the tapes were acquired by a company that specialises in finding, saving and restoring lost television footage … Back in the ’70s his family probably wondered why he was spending every Thursday night in front of the TV with a huge piece of equipment, but now people are glad it has been saved.”
The mystery recorder sold the tapes to a company that specialised in protecting and transferring old recordings. This is where they currently reside, but they will be in the possession of Omega Auctions until they’re passed on to the highest bidder.
Other bands that these tapes are rumoured to include are T. Rex, Slade, 10cc and Roxy Music. A spokesperson for Omega Auctions explained that they might be of interest to “collectors of specific artists that would have appeared on the show” – including Slade and T. Rex. “There is a big market for ‘Top of the Pops’ recordings as it was such an important programme in its day.”
When the tapes are auctioned, they will be sold without copyright, so there’s no way they can be reproduced for general use; maybe we’ll never know for sure what the recordings contain! The auction winner will gain access to the entire library of recordings and also a DVD back-up of what they contain. This previously ‘lost’ footage isn’t going anywhere any more. The auction is set for September 8 2020, and the recordings are expected to be worth between £5,000 and £8,000.
