This sixth episode of the podcast which asks: a Lego submarine full of maggots? Really?
This episode sees us throwing ourselves between two stools marked ‘GLAM/FUNK’ and ‘PUNK/DISCO’ and sprawling awkwardly in the space marked ‘1975’, in order to check whether it really was one of the tawdrier years for Pop. Spoiler alert: yes, it rather is, actually.
Emperor Rosko (looking for all the world like a Transatlantic Stu Francis) empties out a massive lucky bag of Pop-rammel, which includes people in silhouette pretending to have oral sex with Telly Savalas, someone who wasn’t brave enough to be Alvin Stardust hiding behind a dog, Chicken-In-A-Basket (but really decent chicken, not Findus) soul, And Pan’s People are dressed like sexy, sexy Vileda SuperMops.
It’s not all bad, however: The Sweet come back hard on their tottery platform heels one last time, the Goodies wear matching dungarees with a ‘G’ on them, like radical-feminist Crips, Susan Cadogan drops one of the greatest reggae tunes of the decade, and it’s 1975 and Bohemian Rhapsody hasn’t come out yet, so you already know what’s No.1.
Al Needham is joined by Neil Kulkarni and Simon Price for a proper snuffle around the bell-bottomed, tartan-fringed crotch of April ’75, veering off to sing disgusting variations of Bay City Roller songs, discuss why pirate radio was a bit crap, actually, the thrill of Snuff Delivery Day in old peoples homes in Coventry, and being bequeathed platform shoes by your father. The longest episode yet, full to the brim with swearing.
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Emperor Rosko for me is in the same category as people like Gilbert Harding and Simon Dee – someone who was obviously very, very famous, but who had almost completely disappeared by the time I came along. I encountered traces of him, in those pre-internet times: he gets mentioned by Rigsby in Rising Damp (probably). There was a picture of him in a Radio 1 Diary I got for christmas one year in the 1980s, at the microphone wearing a tambourine as a hat. No-one could tell me anything else about him.
All The Goodies black and white minstrel stuff was at least satirical – unlike the actual B&WMs.
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