TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

"We've got a few surprises in store, just put your head 'round the door."

More of a direct successor to Lift Off With Ayshea than any of the other Muriel Young produced Granada tea-time pop shows, Get It Together was not a star-led show like Shang-A-Lang, Arrows or Marc, but co-hosted by an actor and singers, later joined by Ollie Beak from The Five O’Clock Club.

Described by TV Times as "a pop and quiz show for kids" it was hosted by Roy North (‘Mister Roy’ from the Basil Brush Show), and Linda Fletcher (a former New Faces find and signed to Elton's Rocket Records), later replaced by Megg Nicol. The first two series had an audience of kids, with some participating in a pop music quiz which would take up much of the show.

The hosts would not only present the pop acts and promo clips but also perform songs themselves, led by musical director Mike Moran. Unusually for a pop show the backing musicians and singers were visible behind the guest singer and were of a higher calibre than Top of The Pops, while backing singers Victy Silva, Val Stokes and Lynn Garner would on occasion get a solo song to perform. Although a fine actor, Roy North couldn't really sing and occasionally seemed a bit flustered when introducing the acts, but he gave it all he had. However, poor song choices would on occasion necessitate a lyric change for the tea-time audience which didn't help matters. Co-host Linda Fletcher got to plug her one-off single for Rocket Records four times on the show, while fellow Rocket signings Blue were given a show to themselves in early 1978, playing four songs. Many of the in-studio music clips appear to have been pre-recorded and inserted into the final show.

As per usual with tea time pop shows, pop stars both big but (mostly) small appeared on the show, with most acts performing live. Trying to reintroduce themselves to a British audience T Rex appeared on the 27th April 1977 show performing Soul of My Suit which probably gave producer Muriel Young the idea of approaching Marc Bolan for his own show later in the year. When the first series of Get it Together finished, it gave way to repeats of the Bay City Rollers' Shang-A-Lang, which in turn gave way to Marc.

The show returned in December 1977 and although the show wasn't expected to feature anything like punk, it gave airtime to Eddie & The Hod Rods, Radio Stars and The Motors, but on 27th December 1977 there was a special, Get it Together with the Bay City Rollers, perhaps unwisely giving the show to a band who were at the time something of a cultural embarrassment, but to be fair they appeared to be singing and playing live.

The third series beginning September 1978 saw the audience and quiz aspects abandoned, leaving it as a request show with musical guests and a new dance troupe, The TSDs (presumably Terri Scoble's Dancers). Promo clips were now used to cover the fact they couldn't always attract big names. Roy North, sporting Dave Hill's haircut, also unwisely starts wearing very tight trousers which, for some reason, seem to make his armpits sweat. The fourth series saw some new innovations in camera tricks and computer wizardry, but more importantly they started to book a few bands worthy of attention.

By the sixth series Linda Fletcher had gone, replaced by Megg Nicol. Also gone was Roy North's Slade inspired haircut, but he had a new friend to play with as the legendary Ollie Beak (still played by Wally Whyton) was now a regular, so Mister Roy found himself back in Basil Brush country. Mike Moran had also gone, replaced by Gerry Allison. Moran would later team up with Freddie Mercury in the mid-eighties for the Barcelona project when Queen appeared to be dormant.

The invites to up and coming acts were as baffling as ever, while the cover versions sung by the hosts was pure Junior Choice, however, the 11th November 1980 show gave Britain it's first look at U2, later to become the world's biggest band.

The seventh and final series saw the hosts and Ollie Beak move into what looked like a living room situated in the middle of the studio set with the band and dancers surrounding them. The show was cut in length too, but it was still the same mix of Junior Choice and bargain bin pop.

Sometimes it was tough to determine who Get it Together was actually aimed at. Since it was a tea-time show, young kids were the principal audience, but the lack of real stars and general musical choices was a turn-off, whereas previous tea-time shows like the Muriel Young produced Five O'Clock Club had no trouble in attracting big names. The satin jacketed, white jeaned no-chancers that turned up week after week to plug their new single was irritating, but doubtless budget conscious producers had no option. However, they also made brave efforts to attract an audience of older teenagers too, hence the surprising number of post-punk and power-pop bands.

The singing co-hosts gave the show a flavour of the BBC Light Programme days where Musician Union singers performed the hits, rather then play the version we all knew by the original artist, a bit like those Top of The Pops LPs sold in supermarkets. You wouldn't expect Noel Edmonds or Chris Tarrant to suddenly grab a mike and lead off into Uptown Top Ranking, but that's what we got. The later inclusion of promo clips by name artists perked the show up a bit, but these were not made by the show itself, besides, other shows like Swap Shop and Tiswas were also playing the same clips.

Overall, if you love the camp of Eurovision, or the state of the bottom of the British charts from the late seventies to early eighties, or power-pop, or have a hankering for terrible revivalist British Rock 'n' Roll then Get it Together is worth checking out.

In 1982 Granada made a pilot, Bullet, a possible like-for-like time-slot replacement for the show, but this time featuring interviews and in-studio appearances with current top 40 hit acts.

In late 2017 Les McQueen of Creme Brulee claimed that he had been on the un-broadcast pilot show, but this has not been confirmed.

GET IT TOGETHER

Granada

6th April 1977 - 22nd December 1981