Ready Steady Go!

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Ready Steady Go! (or RSG!) was a British rock/pop music television programme broadcast every Friday evening from 9 August 1963 until 23 December 1966. The programme was produced without scenery or costumes and with a minimum of choreography and make-up. The live show was eventually networked nationally, it gained its highest ratings on 20 March 1964 when it featured The Beatles being interviewed and performing It Won't Be Long, You Can't Do That and Can't Buy Me Love, the latter a hit at the time. The show went out with the line The Weekend Starts Here!*, and was introduced by The Surfaris' Wipe Out, later by Manfred Mann's 5-4-3-2-1, then their Hubble Bubble (Toil and Trouble), and finally the The Rolling Stones song Goin' Home. There is also the possibility that The Who's Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere was used as the theme music for a short period. The best known presenters were Keith Fordyce and Cathy McGowan, though early shows were introduced by Dusty Springfield. The show was occasionally presented by David Gell and Michael Aldred. Both McGowan and Aldred joined after answering an advertisement for "a typical teenager" as adviser. They found themselves presenting the show, and McGowan's status as a fan was evident in her style; stumbling over lines, losing her cool and her inexperience made her more rather than less popular, and by the end she was presenting alone. She also joined in fun and games, including miming with The Rolling Stones to other people's records, notably I Got You Babe. After the recording of the pilot episode on Tuesday July 16, 1963 Keith Fordyce approached a group of mods who had travelled from Sheffield's King Mojo club and asked "so you chaps have come all the way from Sheffield on a Tuesday no less. I expect you'll be eager to go home and get back to work, what with the weekend coming up and all." John Varney, Sheffield 'Ace Face' replied "are you kidding mate - the weekend starts here" and the slogan was born.