Top Pops

'Top Pops' was a short-lived magazine which ran for a couple of years between 1967 and 1970. The feature below is taken from issue 9 and is dated November 7, 1967.
Featured in the issue was two pages on many of the new hopefuls, here we feature the six that are related to this web-site:

THE FAMILY
MARMALADE
CIRCUS
SKIP BIFFERTY
GERANIUM POND
and
THE CREATION

If you have any issues of Top Pops please E-MAIL me, I will pay good prices.

Top Pops

 

The Family The
Family
way
of life. . .

THIS IS THE FAMILY, a Leicester group, on the recording map with "Scene Through The Eye Of A Lens" on Liberty, and they are a family who have gone through some hard times.
Family man John Whitney told me: "We have been professional about a year now, and things have sometimes been bad, work - wise. Fifteen pounds a gig doesn't go far between us."
"Things are better now, though. We have good management, we may soon move down to London, and what's more, we have found ourselves musically and are playing material that is really us."

 

And Now
for the
music...

There's been a whole lot of hoo-haa about the Marmalade, the group I picture here.
High court injunctions and settlements, rave notices from the Windsor Jazz festival, appearances in paper suits, and goodness knows what. Let me add my twopenceworth---The Marmalade could be very big indeed---and as a group, not a news item. Watch out for them.

 

After a shake-up - The Circus

A new act, new kind of music, and a new name---those are the three major changes that have lost us the Stormsville Shakers and given us the CIRCUS.
The change of name and style for this well known outfit happened a few weeks ago. They went off to Rome as the Shakers, and came back the Circus. Says Phillip Goodhand-Tate, spokesman for the group: "It was chiefly a musical change. We'd had enough of blasting out soul music, and wanted to do something of our own. Then Mike D'Abo decided to record us, and suggested the new name. The new act is quite something---the flute player, Mel Collins, comes from a Circus family and knows all about flares and fireworks, and so he lets them off on stage."
Apart from all this, Circus make good music---watch out for their next record, "Do You Dream".

 

The Story of Skip

WHERE JOHN LENNON lead the way, with his books like "In His Own Write", here comes Colin Gibson, 17-year-old bass guitarist with SKIP BIFFERTY, with two collections of fantasy due for publication at the end of the year.
Colin's literacy---chiefly poetry, stories and drawings and entitled "Bananas and Society" and "The Last of the Fake Women"---all stem from the character after which the group is named---Skip Bifferty. He explains: "I was just doodling one day and out came this little man called Skip. I drew some cartoons of him, aimed at kids, but it seems that 30-year-old kids like him the most. Anyway, the idea caught on, and here we are---Skip Bifferty!"
While Skip the cartoon soldiers on, and so do Skip the group. Watch for them on television and on disc shortly.

 

Made-up
and
making it

THIS, IF YOU hadn't guessed, is the Geranium Pond, who are one of the happening groups on the London scene at the moment. The face-make---professionally designed---is a feature of the group.
The Pond, who are very West Coast influenced, were small-time until they played at a dance at Morden, Surrey, where ex-Radio London D.J. John Edward was also appearing.
He took them over---and the result is a record out on Deram shortly. Probable title---"Dogs In Baskets", reported to be "very weird."

 

The Creation of chaos...

THE CREATION made the big-time in Germany with their record of "Painter Man", after performing it and setting a concert hall on fire at the same time. Still, Creation believe in music being visual. I can't wait to see them perform their new release on Polydor, "Life Is Just Beginning."
The Creation believe in life with a bit of zip, and so does their publicist. He writes that Bob Garner "sings naturally" (how else?) and that bassist Kim Gardner "digs Lou Rawls and little graves for dead birds". I see...

PLEASE NOTE

If you have any issues of Top Pops please E-MAIL me, I will pay good prices.

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