12.05.2010

ROCK TV BEGAN IN THE 1960'S: SHINDIG★ HULLABALOO★ AND WHERE THE ACTION IS


Shindig! was the first of a kind in the US- a prime-time rock music TV show that featured live... maybe rehearsed and then taped live... performances by the top acts of the early Sixties.

The Studio band for Shindig were called The Shindogs.. the band lineup was Glen D Hardin Delaney Bramlett Joey Cooper James Burton and Chuck Blackwell. Never knew Delaney was in this group!



Rolling Stones on Shindig!

The Shindig show, hosted Jimmy O'Neill, was broadcast live on ABC September 16, 1964, with house band the Shin-diggers (later the Shindogs) and the Shindigger dancers (the reason anyone over twenty-five might be watching the show). Most of the 'Shindig' shows were broadcast in glorious black and white.



On January of 1966, a year and a half after the series debuted, it was canceled to make room on ABC's schedule for 'Batman', which was also scheduled to run on two nights a week. Sigh... Oh well, we liked Batman too for a time.


Shindig was an American version of Britain's rock/pop show Ready Steady Go. They featured a lot of British Invasion bands and lots of American music too like Motown, The Birds, Fontella Bass and more. Here is a video of one of my favorite singers Gerry Marsden and Gerry and the Pacemakers "Ferry Cross the Mersey" I got to meet Gerry at the Premiere Center in Sterling Heights in the late 80's. Loved him.


Paul Revere and The Raiders with Mark Lindsay Where The Action Is In 1963, AMERICAN BANDSTAND left the weekday shift for Saturday afternoons. Two years later (1965), Dick Clark created a new spin-off for ABC called Where The Action Is, a half-hour rock 'n' roll show featuring the…


More hits of the day. Buffalo Springfield on Where the Action Is Where The Action Is took viewers to various locations across the US. In addition to Stateside locations, segments were also taped in Canada, Britain and Japan.

One frequent location was Malibu Beach in Malibu, CA, where many of the summer shows were shot. Bear Mountain Ski Resort in Bear Mountain, CA was the frequent site for the winter and holiday shows. Steve Alaimo and Linda Scott were the original hosts.

By 1966, Paul Revere and the Raiders, the house band, took over the hosting duties. That's when the show was it's best. Other series regulars included Keith Allison, Tina Mason, and Jimmy Hubbard. The Action Kids was the series' dance troupe. Where The Action Is was in black and white during its original ABC run.

 

Hullabaloo was a lot like Shindig, and lasted only a year and a half as well, debuting in January of 1965, and continuing until the Fall of 1966. Hullabaloo! in the fall of 1965 was a pretty cool show. It was in color and a bit over produced.


Not as cool as Shindig but we watched our favorite bands anywhere we could find them.  These shows and transistor am radio was all we had to discover new music. No FM, No MTV, VH1 or the internet. Now days the only way I discover new music is on film soundtracks. They rarely announce the names of the bands on the radio.


So if I hear something I really like in a movie I look it up on Amazon for the samplers to listen to. I also really love Playlist.com. It is not a download site it is more of a free jukebox for your favorite tunes. I have lots of playlists for this blog ala the Christmas tunes playing now.

 All of these shows, especially Shindig, captured some of the coolest live songs by the best rock, pop and soul stars, The Supremes, Otis Redding, Beach Boys, and James Brown.

 Read more on RK Florence Ballard and The Supremes Dave Wakeling The English Beat Darlene Love

9 comments:

Cheryl Sinclair said...

"Loved those shows!"

Janet S said...

oh and the Freddie..Loving it...

Janet S said...

"Those shows rocked..totally learned how to dance from them..the Pony, the Jerk, the Swim, the Hitch-Hiker, and of course, the 2-step dance from Paul Revere and the Raiders...

Lori Seth said...

"Watched them all. There was a dancer/girl, with a dark pony tail, her name was Terri. I used to have a fake long pony tail and would wear it during the show and dance the entire show. It was always usually on a beach :) And of course, my white leather go go boots :)"

tipton said...

I have all of the Shindig!,Hullabaloo
and about 80 of Where the Action Is
it makes todays music stuff really looks bad...........

Michael said...

"Got The All The Shindigs! and Hullabaoo an about 80 of Where the Action Is all fantastic stuff makes you see how much music sucks today......"

Nancy Prior Phillips said...

oh...when the Rationals were on Swingin' Time...and SRC..be still my heart!

Retro Kimmer said...

and they call me RETRO?

Fast Film said...

Mr. Twister and his first band Christopher Milk were on "Boss City," yet another groovy show in the late 60s/early 70s from L.A.

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