[peel] 1977 Festive 50 The Elusive Musical Grail

[John Bravin]

I'm sitting here listening to the 1977 tapes not knowing there was such 
intense interest out there.  I'm tempted to produce some spoof entries 
that will cause some severe loss of faith out there in Peel land - such 
as the surprising choice of "Blood on the Rooftops" by Genesis or 'Looks 
Like We Made It' by Barry Manilow (both 1977 blockbusters) , but to be 
honest I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you..

My tapes don't cover the Festive Fifty as such in 1977, but do cover the 
competition for 5 lucky winners to select the playlists for 5 programmes 
covering the 10 year anniversary of Radio 1 (and hence the Peel Show in 
its then current form)..  They were played on 5 consecutive night 
(probably in September) and produced by John Walters working with the 
prize winners.  John Peel introduced the tracks often reading out the 
winners letters. Of the 5 winners I have the following names:

Stephen R Cook of Salisbury
Barry Wilson
Neville Thorner of Shepton Mallet
Dave McClennan of Glasgow

Some of the tracks played coincide with what has been attributed to a 
Festive Fifty including Ranking Trevor's Truly and Clash's Complete 
Control. 

And as a footnote a Google search shows the band Some Chicken claiming 
their New Religion single was in the 1977 FF at #16......

John
**