(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Thu 23 October 2025 5:00, UK
While we often hark back to £3 pints and jumpers for goalposts as hallmarks of a better Britain, there is one cultural relic that seems to slip through the cracks: Top Of The Pops.
It was a primary school disco on steroids, where instead of Fruit Shoots, they sold warm cans of lager to all the best and worst bands of the country. It was a place where Boyzone and Oasis could rub shoulders, without fear of looking uncool either way and a place where Noel Gallagher could take Liam’s role, mime the words to ‘Roll With It’ and no one would bat an eyelid.
Sadly, like reasonably priced pints and the innocence of kicking a partly flat footy in the local park, Top Of The Pops slowly ended. The slow twisting knife of digitalisation finally reached the heart of the show and it was consigned to the bins of history.
“It could have been a show that, you know, really parked its tank on the lawn of what the music business is now,” former executive producer Chris Cowey explained. “You know, the whole kind of digital revolution, Top of the Pops, could have, should have, would have been at the vanguard of that.”
Because it ultimately had a rich heritage that we could have protected. Moving forward into the future, the brand could have evolved to act as a bridge between the past and the present, protecting an institution that allows new bands to have shared something with the likes of The Beatles.
Because while many bands gave the show plenty of iconic moments, they unsurprisingly delivered one of the best, on June 16th 1966. Facing the imminent reality of their touring hiatus, and with a pocketful of yet unheard, psychedelic songs, they showed the world what they would soon miss.
What did The Beatles play on their final Top of the Pops appearance?
Making a surprise appearance on the show, the band played a couple of tracks from their upcoming album Revolver. In what would be their last live musical television appearance, the band played ‘Paperback Writer’ and ‘Rain’, with the latter being a bold presentation of this new psychedelic style that awaited us.
The latter tune was one of two from Revolver that pushed the boundaries of what was possible in the studio. Like ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, ‘Rain’ featured a backwards melody which serendipitously came to Lennon during a weed-addled writing session.
“I got home from the studio and I was stoned out of my mind on marijuana and, as I usually do, I listened to what I’d recorded that day. Somehow I got it on backwards and I sat there, transfixed, with the earphones on, with a big hash joint. I ran in the next day and said, ‘I know what to do with it, I know … Listen to this!’ So I made them all play it backwards. The fade is me actually singing backwards with the guitars going backwards. [Singing backwards] Sharethsmnowthsmeaness … [Laughter] That one was the gift of God, of Jah, actually, the god of marijuana, right? So Jah gave me that one”
It was, the ultimate tease, in the fact that not only would we never see a live performance again, but we wouldn’t also get to see these new interesting ideas being played regularly.
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