The troupe were formed by Jo Cook, who had been a member of the TV dance troupe the Silhouettes in the early 1960s. She then became a founder member of the Beat Girls, appearing in the weekly pop show on BBC2, The Beat Room, from July 1964. She was forced to leave the Beat Girls in October 1964 due to a contractual dispute. In November 1964, Top of the Pops producers had decided a dance troupe was needed to perform when the act was not available. Jo Cook won the job of providing this troupe, and so created the group, the Go-Jos, named after herself Their first performance was on 19 November 1964 dancing to Baby Love by The Supremes. The group usually danced on Top of the Pops to the latest pop hits dressed in the mini skirts and high boots that were fashionable at the time.. The Go-Jos were not fully resident; they typically only appeared every few weeks.
Top of the Pops
In the first few months on Top of the Pops, Linda Hotchkin and Jane Bartlett performed with Pat Hughes. Pat Hughes left in early 1965 and Jo Cook herself appeared over the next few months. The troupe changed again in later 1965 when Jo Cook finally quit dancing to focus on choreography. Barbara von der Heyde and Thelma Bignell joined, and Jane Bartlett temporarily left, creating a three-person group. Jane Bartlett rejoined in early 1967, and the group expanded to six in 1968 with the addition of Lesley Larbey and Wendy Hilhouse. However the BBC decided in mid-1968 to replace the Go-Jos with Pan's People on Top of the Pops. Their final performance was on 27 June 1968 dancing to Jumping Jack Flash by The Rolling Stones. Only one Top of the Pops performance by the Go-Jos is known to survive, Reflections by Diana Ross and the Supremes, transmitted on 26 December 1967.
The Jo Cook Dancers
Jo Cook rebadged the Go-Jos as the Jo Cook dancers when they appeared on the sixth and last series of Thank Your Lucky Stars, replacing the Dance Centre group, the Lucky Stars. This series ran from 2 October 1965 to 31 December 1966 with regular Go-Jo dancers Linda Hotchkin, Jane Bartlett, Barbara von der Heyde and Thelma Bignell in performances with a chart band.
Timeline
The following chart shows the timeline of the GoJos on Top of the Pops and the Jo Cook dancers and GoJos on Thank Your Lucky Stars. ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = left:120 bottom:120 top:0 right:10 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1964 till:12/31/1968 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:3 ScaleMajor = increment:1 start:1964 Colors = id:GoJos value:red legend:GoJos id:JoCook value:blue legend:Jo_Cook_Dancers id:bars value:gray BackgroundColors = bars:bars BarData = bar:Jane text: Jane Bartlett bar:Linda text: Linda Hotchkin bar:Pat text: Pat Hughes bar:Jo text: Jo Cook bar:Barbara text: Barbara von der Heyde bar:Thelma text:Thelma Bignell bar:Lesley text:Lesley Larbey bar:Wendy text:Wendy Hilhouse bar:Dolores text:Dolores Bourne bar:LesleyJ text:Lesley Judd PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift: bar: Pat from:11/19/1964 till:03/25/1965 color:GoJos bar: Jo from:05/20/1965 till:08/12/1965 color:GoJos bar: Jane from:11/19/1964 till:08/12/1965 color:GoJos bar: Jane from:02/02/1967 till:06/20/1968 color:GoJos bar: Linda from:11/19/1964 till:06/20/1968 color:GoJos bar: Barbara from:01/06/1966 till:06/20/1968 color:GoJos bar: Thelma from:01/06/1966 till:06/20/1968 color:GoJos bar: Lesley from:12/26/1967 till:06/20/1968 color:GoJos bar: Wendy from:12/25/1967 till:06/20/1968 color:GoJos bar: Dolores from:06/20/1968 till:06/20/1968 color:GoJos bar: LesleyJ from:04/03/1965 till:04/03/1965 color:GoJos bar: Jane from:10/02/1965 till:12/31/1966 color:JoCook width:3 bar: Linda from:10/02/1965 till:12/31/1966 color:JoCook width:3 bar: Barbara from:10/02/1965 till:12/31/1966 color:JoCook width:3 bar: Thelma from:10/02/1965 till:12/31/1966 color:JoCook width:3
Later years
The group continued for several years appearing on a variety of TV shows, including the Val Doonincan show and the Goodies. As The Go-Jos, they worked with Lulu in 1967 on the music and comedy seriesThree of a Kind, which also featured Mike Yarwood. They appeared in the 1966 Southern TV show Tale of Two Rivers with Lesley Judd appearing as a member with Linda Hotchkin and Barbara von der Heyde. The group appeared in the film Moon Zero Two in 1969, however with none of the regular members. Jo Cook and Linda Hotchkin appeared in Top of the Pops: The True Story in 2001 talking about their time on Top of the Pops
