Sixties City presents a wide-ranging series of articles on all aspects of the Sixties, penned by the creator of the iconic 60s music paper  Mersey Beat

Gadzooks! It's All Happening


'Gadzooks! Ity's All Happening!' was a monochrome television pop show that replaced 'The Beat Room' on BBC 2 in 1965. It filled the same half hour spot early each Monday evening in the 6.55 - 7.25 pm time slot and began on 1st February 1965, one week after the final 'Beat Room' show. It was filmed at the BBC TV Theatre in Shepherd's Bush and was co-hosted by Peter Cooke, with Alan David and Christine Holmes (who also co-hosted the children's TV programme 'Crackerjack'). The weekly show ran until 24th May 1965.

Artists who appeared during the run of the series were The Graham Bond Organisation, The Rockin' Berries, The Nashville Teens, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch, Long John Baldry and The Hoochie Coochie Men, Marianne Faithfull, The Moody Blues, Manfred Mann, Adrienne Posta, The Who, Donovan, The Bachelors, Doris Henderson, Tom Jones and Lulu. American guests included Chuck Berry, Davy Jones, The Everly Brothers, The Four Tops and John Lee Hooker.

After five months it was replaced by 'Gadzooks! It's The In Crowd' on 31st May, with Lulu co-hosting with Alan David and with Marianne Faithfull also appearing as a guest host. Presenter Alan David left the programme on 5th July 'due to low audience figures' and Roger Whittaker then took over from 12th July, when the show became simply known as 'Gadzooks!', until its demise.

Barry Langford, the show's producer, commented in the 8th March 1965 issue of the Radio Times: "I'm not booking far ahead. I'm waiting to hear the releases before I engage the artists. The scene is changing so fast that some of the guest will come as a 'complete surprise'. Davy Jones and The Manish Boys who are appearing tonight, are likely to come into this category." In fact, a publicity gimmick was devised to publicise David's television debut. His manager Les Conn sent a story to the newspapers stating that the BBC wouldn't allow David onto the show unless he cut his hair - which resulted in national newspaper coverage with photos of David in a hairnet!

Liverpool trio The Three Bells were resident on the 'Gadzooks! It's All Happening' series and the resident dance troupe on all the 'Gadzooks' shows were the trio The Beat Girls. One of the dance troupe members was Babs Lord, later to join Pan's People and marry actor Robert Powell. No recordings from the series are known to have survived. There were a total of 35 episodes made which included, in addition to the hosts:
1st February: The Animals, Marianne Faithfull, Tom Jones and The Squires
8th February: The Graham Bond Organisation, The Rockin' Berries
15th February: The Nashville Teens, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch
22nd February: Long John Baldry, Marianne Faithfull, The Moody Blues
1st March: Manfred Mann, Adrienne Posta
8th March: Davy Jones (David Bowie) and The Mannish Boys "I Pity the Fool"
15th March: The Who "Shout and Shimmy" and "I Can't Explain", Donovan
22nd March: Chuck Berry, The Moodies
29th March: Alexis Korner
5th April: The Animals
12th April: John Renbourn
19th April: Them
26th April: Tom Jones, Lulu, hosted by Peter Cook
10th May: The Everly Brothers
17th May: John Lee Hooker, The Nashville Teens
24th May: The Four Tops
7th June: The Who "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere"
12th July: Tom Jones, Vicki Carr and Tony Jackson
19th July: The Animals
9th August: The Byrds
     Davy Jones and The Mannish Boys    Gadzooks! It's All Happening



Mersey Beat Magazine Bill Harry attended the Liverpool College of Art with Stuart Sutcliffe and John Lennon and made the arrangements for Brian Epstein to visit The Cavern, where he saw The Beatles for the first time. Bill was a member of 'The Dissenters' and the founder and editor of 'Mersey Beat', the iconic weekly music newspaper that documented the early Sixties music scene in the Liverpool area and is possibly best known for being the first periodical to feature a local band called 'The Beatles'. He has worked as a high powered publicist, doing PR for acts such as Suzi Quatro, Free, The Arrows and Hot Chocolate and has managed press campaigns for record labels such as CBS, EMI, Polydor. Bill is the critically acclaimed author of a large number of books about The Beatles and the 60s era including 'The Beatles Who's Who', 'The Best Years of the Beatles' and the Fab Four's 'Encyclopedia' series. He has appeared on 'Good Morning America' and has received a Gold Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors.

Article Text Bill Harry       Original Graphics SixtiesCity      Other individual owner copyrights may apply to Photographic Images

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