The Chart Show

What a fantastic programme this was! There has been nothing as good as it ever since on UK TV. It was always superior in my view to Top of the Pops with its usually inane presenters (the wonderful John Peel excepted) and terrible miming from so many of the stars (though that did change later on as more bands wanted to play live).

Australia does have Channel Ten's Video Hits which is sometimes similar in its approach but has two of the dullest, ignorant presenters appear on it far too much.

"The Chart Show" was a simple concept - just stick on a load of music videos and add the odd captioned comment. It did indeed introduce tons of us to new bands and musicians as well as how good (or awful) music videos could really be.

Top Of The Pops was arguably the most successful, longest running and should we say popular music show on TV in Britain, whose roots originated back in the early 60s. But whilst that show was famous for its bands and artist's performances, ranging from the sublime to the uncanny, there wasn't really a TV show dedicated solely to artists' music vids. MTV was indeed an American invention, which later hit the UK via satellite and cable television and where The Chart Show differed from other music shows was the fact it didn't have a main presenter. In a way, it revolutionised and changed the way we view and watch music television and it is that in particular that we should be grateful to The Chart Show that it had done this. It showed endless streams of vids, in a decade where popular music was at its prime peak. The 80s wasn't just the MTV generation- it was a decade for new romantics, of Madonna, Michael Jackson, Prince, Hall and Oates and PWL to name. We didn't have satellite TV until 89/90. Well, in the UK that is.

The programme concept of The Chart Show was it would show past and present videos and then towards the end of the programme there was the week's top ten. The programme rounds up by showing preview clips of upcoming music vids yet to be released. Since The Chart Show's demise on terrestrial TV, the music scene has suffered tremendously as a result and thus, with the state of music programmes today and the music scene in general, it has since recently declined in twofolds.

Even though I quite liked TOTP, The Chart Show remains a huge favourite of mine, simply because it succeeded in showing quality music vids and in showing them in a way that was easily accessible to us as the public. Back then, unless you had MTV, you had no other alternative but The Chart Show when it came to viewing music videos.

When it ended, I was so disappointed- having said that I do think the music scene at the time towards the end of the 90s partly contributed to its loss. When the quality of the music in the charts declined, so did the videos and so the unfortunate thing had happened and hence, The Chart Show was taken off the air.

Still, The Chart Show will always be a cult favourite with retro music fans such as myself. Thus, long live The Chart Show!

I have very fond memories of watching the ITV Chart Show when it started in 1989. Don't forget in those days very few people in the UK had satellite TV and the only music programmes that was shown regularly was Top of the Pops. I was a big fan of Top of the Pops most of the 80's, but when The Chart Show was broadcast on ITV in 1989, I was hooked !!!! There was The Chart Show on Channel 4 before 1989, but I rarely did see it, mainly it was because it was shown on Friday evenings, where my brother dominated the TV remote control. When The Chart Show was switched to ITV in 1989 on a Saturday morning, I had the total use of the remote control, fortunately because my brother was working on a Saturday.

The Chart Show was so different from Top of the Pops. It didn't have annoying presenters and it played music from different genres, which represented charts from rock, indie, dance and the Top Ten. The Chart Show wasn't simply just playing random music videos, but it had a structure, where New Exclusive videos was shown next to specialist charts and the Top Ten.

The specialist charts (rock, indie and dance) on the chart show exposed me to the different genres, which Top of the Pops couldn't really do, as they were only allowed to play Top 40 music. My musical tastes was influenced by the specialist charts and it got me interested in listening to rock and indie music.

I don't think a new version of the chart show would be appropriate now, because of YouTube and satellite TV. The Chart Show lost its charm after 1996 and I started to lose interest in it, as I had MTV, which played rock and indie music. Also the chart show got rid of the interface graphics shown on the middle of the screen and replaced it with boring graphics, that didn't look appealing.

A great show from 1989 until the mid-90's, but a new version - No Thanks !!! Anyway I got YouTube to see the old classic ITV Chart Shows !!!