TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 -
An interest in popular music outside Northern America and Western Europe started with the early sixties' folk revival era with releases by, among others, Elektra Records. Folk music looked at other cultures for inspiration and what we would later call 'World Music' was born. Labels like Decca in the UK would release dozens of albums from Western Africa in the seventies and some African records even made their way into the top forty. In the eighties artists like Malcolm McLaren and later Paul Simon would look further afield for inspiration, usually Africa, for new rhythms and the term World Music would be used as a marketing tool, lumping all these artists together, regardless of culture.
Big World Cafe would be an exercise in finding these less familiar artists and give them airtime on a Sunday afternoon. Shot at The Academy in Brixton, South London and at Westway, London. Hosts for the first series were Mariella Frostrup, Jo Shinner and Eagle Eye Cherry, while among the credits were Geoff Wonfor, Andrea Wonfor and Chris Cowey, all familiar names from The Tube. Author Vivien Goldman was also a part of the production team, while chart toppers Cold Cut provided the theme.
Starting with a menu it mixed established stars and artists from the Caribbean, Eastern
Europe, Asia and Africa, but on occasion so did the Old Grey Whistle Test in the
seventies but didn't resort to marketing jargon like World Music to justify it. The
show was co-
For the second series, beginning 17th October 1989 the show was re-
A well meaning lesson in exposing people to new music, but traditionally Western European and North American pop fans just aren't interested. Fans of Pre Fab Sprout were unlikely to be also watching the show for The Bhundu Boys.
BIG WORLD CAFE / BIG WORLD
C4 / Zenith North / Spellbound Pictures with PMI and La Sept
19th February 1989 -
