VIA PRESS RELEASE | “Ready, Steady, Go! was the best rock ’n’ roll TV show of all time. It just seemed more vibrant and real…You always thought you were slightly on the edge there.” —Mick Jagger
The London-based Ready, Steady, Go! began broadcasting in August of 1963 and, within a matter of weeks, became an essential television ritual for the newly confident British teenager. It set trends and became the barometer of popular culture by attracting and presenting everyone who was anyone in popular music: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, The Animals, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Otis Redding, and many more. RSG! also provided the first small screen exposure for then-unknowns such as Rod Stewart, Marc Bolan, David Bowie, Donovan, and Jimi Hendrix. The show ran for three and a half years, setting a blueprint for music presentation and production on television that resonated over the following decades and can still be felt today.
Ready, Steady, Go! has never been documented in full detail—until now, when BMG Books will publish Ready Steady Go: The Weekend Starts Here in the U.S., due out November 6, 2020. Featured in this lavishly illustrated and definitive history of the show are hundreds of photographs—the bulk of them previously unpublished—as well as exclusive essays and more (see below for details). Author Andy Neill fully examines RSG!, from quintessential Swinging London fixture to its current iconic status as the most legendary popular music program of all time.
Ready, Steady, Go! reflected the cultural upheaval of the mid-’60s and was the only place on British television where anything went as far as performance, fashion and attitude were concerned. No other program was prepared to risk an entire hour to showcase, for example, the Tamla Motown Revue (including Stevie Wonder, The Miracles, The Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas). The incredible success of this Sound of Motown special directly boosted the commercial acceptance of black American music in Britain.
Ready, Steady, Go! broke through technical barriers, too. Young iconoclastic directors such as Michael Lindsay-Hogg experimented with camera techniques used in French nouvelle vague cinema. The sets that were designed each week by Nicolas Ferguson were consciously modelled on current mod fashions and art (Hockney, Riley, Blake etc.) that perfectly reflected the handpicked mod audience who were an equally integral part of the program.
The book features:
Exclusive essays by artists, managers, and others intimately involved with the show, including Mick Jagger, Pete Townshend, Ray Davies, Andrew Oldham, Chris Stamp, Donovan, Lulu, and others.
Exclusive contributions from those directly involved (presenters, directors, dancers, set designers, etc.) as well as illuminating and evocative insight from contemporary viewers whose lives the show touched.
Hundreds of color and black and white images — the bulk of them previously unpublished.
Original ephemera and memorabilia (tickets, contracts, letters, etc.), as well as illustrations from the groundbreaking set designs and title sequences.
A never-before-published and fully researched complete guide to all 173 episodes, including songs performed and artists’ appearances. (Only 5% of the filmed performances survive. Read and weep at what has been lost!)
Introductions from the show’s original editor Vicki Wickham and acclaimed director Michael Lindsay-Hogg.
