Pan's People
Pan's People was a British all-female dance troupe most commonly associated with the BBC TV music chart show Top of the Pops, from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s.
They appeared on many other TV shows in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, as well, and performed in nightclub cabaret.
They were the second dance troupe to appear regularly on Top of the Pops, succeeding the Go-Jos in May/June 1968. Starting with monthly appearances, they became a weekly feature of the programme following its revamp and time extension in January 1970, continuing in the show until April 1976. As a result of line-up changes just one dancer, Ruth Pearson, appeared on the whole run.
Due to their weekly exposure on British television the group acquired a high profile, and in addition as a result of the increasing number of preserved recordings from 1973 onwards, the 'classic' line-up which existed from 1972 to 1974 is still widely recognised today. The dancers in this line-up were:
Babs Lord – member 1966–1975
Dee Dee Wilde – member 1966–1975
Ruth Pearson – member 1967–1976 and choreographer on some shows 1967–1970
Louise Clarke – member 1967–1974
Cherry Gillespie – member 1972–1976
Principal choreographer for Pan's People's entire existence was Flick Colby, who was also a dancer from 1966–1972.
Formation and early history
Formation from Beat Girls
The origins of Pan's People lie in the Dance Centre-based Katy-Dids, a six-girl Jazz dance group formed in May 1964 comprising Linda Bywaters, Linda Lawrence, Jenny Ferle, Lyn Wolseley, Diane South and Ann Chapman. This group, renamed the Beat Girls following the commencement of their residence on The Beat Room in July 1964, subsequently appeared on many music and light entertainment TV programmes in the U.K. and Netherlands.Following numerous line-up changes, by December 1966 only two members were left who had appeared in the Beat Room series, which ended in January 1965:
- Barbara Lord, who appeared from September 1964
- Diane South - though having appeared in the Katy-Dids and Beat Girls since 1964, she was never a regular, as she frequently stood in as choreographer when their choreographer/manager, Gary Cockrell, was unavailable.
- Felicity Colby - recruited in January 1966, though she already had a Dutch TV special, featuring the Beat Girls, built around her.
- Patricia Wilde - joined in March 1966, she had attended the Elmhurst School for Dance in Surrey.
- Lorelly Harris - joined around May 1966
- Penelope Fergusson - joined around May 1966, a former member of the Royal Ballet school
By Christmas 1966 Pan's People recruited Felicity Balfour, a schoolfriend of Dee Dee Wilde's and also briefly in the Beat Girls, forming a sextet, with Colby also acting as choreographer.
Press accounts during the lifetime of the group omit the Beat Girls group from Pan's People's history however modern-day recollections include this time though sometimes incorrectly as a continuation of the previous group.
Early work and line-up changes
Their first TV appearance was in the Belgian TV programme, Vibrato in January 1967, with the initial line-up.In February/March 1967, Felicity Balfour's contract was terminated, due to her being unsettled in the group. After Pan's People, amongst other subsequent activities she performed with the Denise Shaune dancers, and worked in musical theatre, notably forming part of the original London cast of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Following an audition, Balfour was replaced by Ruth Pearson. Pearson like Lord was an original Beat Girls member, performing in the group until early 1966, then in a prior Beat Girls breakaway group, Tomorrow's People.
Pearson also did some of the group choreography over the first two years in the group.
The new line-up with Pearson appeared on the Dickie Valentine show in September and October 1967, replacing the Beat Girls from the 1966 series - all the Pan's People in this line-up except Pearson had appeared in the earlier series.
The group were to appear in a ballet performed with the Yardbirds in December 1967, but it was cancelled shortly before it was to be performed.
Also in December 1967, Penny Fergusson left to do other work, and was replaced by Louise Clarke
In February 1968 three of Pan's People appeared in the West German show Beat, Beat, Beat with Tom Jones. This series was unique in that Ruth Pearson got sole choreography credit.
In the final change before the Top of the Pops era, Lorelly Harris chose to leave in March 1968, ultimately going into the Bluebell Girls. She was replaced by Andrea Rutherford..
Early management
Colby's future husband, James Ramble, was manager, initially in partnership with promoter Rik Gunnell, but solo by the time of his marriage to Colby in 1967. He retained this role into 1970, the year of his divorce from Colby. In 1970 he claimed to have created two rules, one that the dancers must wear their hair down, and second that they must get married rather than have partners, however the second rule was also reported later the same year as marriage was not allowed until the end of 1971.Following the end of his management, the troupe members managed themselves - later accounts of the history of Pan's People focus on this second structural phase.
Early ''Top of the Pops'' (April 1968 to early 1972) and the 'Original' line-up
''Top of the Pops'' before Pan's People
Top of the Pops began on 1 January 1964 as a weekly programme playing a selection of records from the current charts. From November 1964, Top of the Pops had an all-girl dance troupe regularly appearing, the Go-Jos, formed and choreographed by another ex-Beat Girl, Jo Cook. Through to the beginning of 1968, professional dancing had been restricted to approximately monthly appearances by this group, performing to one track on the show typically where the artist couldn't attend.This situation began to change in January 1968 - whilst still in the Beat Girls, Diane South appeared solo on the show, dancing to Judy in Disguise.
On several occasions Pan's People presented brochures to the BBC with a view to appearing on Top of the Pops, the last being in March 1968, but up to this point, they had not been employed on any BBC programme.
Early appearances by Pan's People members
In late March 1968, the producers held an open audition for dancers on Top of the Pops to appear on 4 April 1968 to a routine to "Simon Says" by the 1910 Fruitgum Company. Four dancers were engaged, Dee Dee Wilde and Ruth Pearson from Pan's People, and Janice Kells and Jackie Dalton. An established choreographer, Virginia Mason, arranged the dancing. However a BBC database recording band appearances only indicates 'disc' for this performance, omitting mention of dancers, so there is no direct evidence this performance was ever broadcast.Following the performance, the two Pan's People participants spoke to the producer of the show, Colin Charman, and persuaded him to hire Pan's People as a group. This led a further routine with three members of Pan's People with no extra dancers, and choreographed by Colby. The exact date and performance varies in different sources, alternatively:
- Cry Like a Baby by The Box Tops. The BBC archive indicates this track was only featured on the show on 18 April.
- Young Girl by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap - The BBC archive indicates this track was featured on the show on 2, 16 and 23 May, with later showings after known Pan's People performances
Subsequently, the entire Pan's People sextet appeared in a routine set to "US Male" by Elvis Presley on 30 May 1968.
The final performance of the Go-Jos was either to the 1910 Fruitgum company, whose track was on Top of the Pops on 4 and 25 April 1968 or the Rolling Stones., transmitted 20 June 1968. By either scenario, Pan's People were left as the sole dance troupe by July 1968.
Following the changes in the line-up during their first year, Pan's People by the time of their first appearance on Top of the Pops were:
- Louise Clarke
- Flick Colby
- Babs Lord
- Ruth Pearson
- Andi Rutherford
- Dee Dee Wilde
In summary:
| Date | Track/Performer | Dancers | Choreographer | BBC Archive | Notes |
| 4 April | Simon Says/1910 Fruitgum Company | Dee Dee Wilde, Ruth Pearson, Janice Kells, Jackie Dalton | Virginia Mason | Disc | 1st performance including Pan's People members |
| 18 April | Cry Like a Baby/The Box Tops | Dee Dee Wilde, Ruth Pearson, Flick Colby | Flick Colby | Disc/Dancers | 2nd performance candidate including Pan's People members |
| 25 April | Simon Says/1910 Fruitgum Company | GoJos | Jo Cook | Disc | Final performance candidate for GoJos |
| 2 May | Young Girl/Gary Puckett and the Union Gap | Dee Dee Wilde, Ruth Pearson, Flick Colby | Flick Colby | Promo | 2nd performance candidate including Pan's People members |
| 16 May | Young Girl/Gary Puckett and the Union Gap | Dee Dee Wilde, Ruth Pearson, Flick Colby | Flick Colby | Promo | 2nd performance candidate including Pan's People members |
| 23 May | Young Girl/Gary Puckett and the Union Gap | Dee Dee Wilde, Ruth Pearson, Flick Colby | Flick Colby | Promo | 2nd performance candidate including Pan's People members |
| 30 May | US Male/Elvis Presley | Dee Dee Wilde, Ruth Pearson, Flick Colby, Andi Rutherford, Louise Clarke, Babs Lord | Flick Colby | Disc/Pan's People | 3rd performance - all Pan's People members |
| 20 June | Jumping Jack Flash/Rolling Stones | GoJos | Jo Cook | Disc/Dancers | Final performance candidate for GoJos |
'Disc' indicates the track is played with the accompanying footage either of the audience or dancers
'Promo' indicates a video is played
Late 1960s and early 1970s
Penny Fergusson briefly rejoined the group for the Frankie Howerd show when Ruth Pearson worked as a choreographer on the TV show. In both 1968 and 1969, Pearson was co-credited with Colby for choreography on some shows.Two male dancers, Adrian Le Peltier and Gary Downie also occasionally accompanied the group between 1968 and 1970, in Happening for Lulu, the Bobbie Gentry Show and Top of the Pops.
The group also did shows, their manager said in June 1969, "So far this year they have had 24 free days...to compensate it would be a bad week if the girls didn't pick up at least £90 each".
From November 1969, Top of the Pops began broadcasting in colour, Andi Rutherford appearing in the new colour opening titles.
The earliest known footage of Pan's People on Top of the Pops is rehearsal footage for 1 January 1970 edition.
From 22 January 1970 the programme was extended from 25 to 45 minutes, the group appeared weekly from this point on. Also from this date Colby as choreographer and the group began to be listed in the end credits of the programme and in the Radio Times. They also appeared in the opening titles as a group.
Colby chose to concentrate full-time on choreographing the group's routines, with her last performance as a dancer in February 1972. She was not replaced, so the number of dancers reduced to five.
Later ''Top of the Pops'' (1972 to March 1976)
Middle years and the 'classic' line-up
Andi Rutherford married in December 1971; in September 1972 she ceased dancing due to pregnancy, managing the group till March 1973. She then left on maternity leave though she never returned, forming her own troupe, Sister-matic, in 1976. She was replaced as a dancer in December 1972 by Cherry Gillespie, initially appearing in the show in gift-wrapping.By this time the line-up was:
- Louise Clarke
- Babs Lord
- Ruth Pearson
- Dee Dee Wilde
- Cherry Gillespie
Dancing on ''Top of the Pops''
The dancers rehearsed three days a week for the show. Rehearsals began on the Monday morning prior to that weeks show with Colby scripting a routine, and a costume fitting later the same day. Rehearsals ended with a run-through a few hours before the show on the Wednesday.However due to Top of the Pops being a chart show, problems could arise - Pearson recalled: "We can often spend three or four days rehearsing an intricate dance routine to a certain record. Then, on the Tuesday, when the new pop charts come out, we learn that the record we’re planning for the show has actually gone down in the charts, instead of up... so it’s out. Dropped. We then have to do a completely different record number, and go on the programme with maybe only one day’s rehearsal on it. This really isn’t fair on us, because we are judged on our performance on screen. I’m sure viewers do not know that we’ve had to change the number, sometimes only a day before we do the show".
Late Pan's People
In August 1974 the group released a double A-side record You Can Really Rock And Roll Me/The Singer Not The Song with Cherry Gillespie on lead vocal however it did not chart.In March 1975 Carolyne Argyle joined the group. However she left the group in June 1975 without ever performing because she was viewed as struggling to learn the routines in the timescales needed for the show. Although stating the intention to continue dancing, she ultimately had an acting career.
In September 1975 Lord left, with two members joining the troupe, Mary Corpe and Lee Ward. These were the last permanent additions to the group and briefly brought the group back to six members for the first time since 1972.
After planning to quit earlier in the year to coincide with her planned marriage and the unsuccessful membership of Caroline Argyle, Dee Dee finally quit in October 1975.
Blue Peter presenter Lesley Judd became a temporary member of the group for a one-off routine, dancing to Rodrigo's Guitar Concerto De Aranjuez by Manuel and the Music of the Mountains, transmitted on Top of the Pops on 12 February 1976. The rehearsals and behind-the-scenes footage of the routine were featured on Blue Peter. Judd had been a dancer in the late 1960s and, as an occasional member, had appeared alongside Flick Colby, Babs Lord and Dee Dee Wilde in the Beat Girls 10 years before in the Dickie Valentine Show and in the Pathé film Jetaway Getaway. She had also briefly been in the Go-Jos and Young Generation so was in four prominent 1960s dance groups.
The end of Pan's People (March/April 1976)
In early 1976, the last remaining original Top of the Pops dancer, Ruth Pearson, now approaching 30, was looking to retire. At the same time Flick Colby and Top of the Pops production staff had become keen to develop a new group for the show, with both male and female dancers and also moving away from all dancers in the same costumes and performing the same moves. Ruth recalled: "Flick and I made the decision. The writing was on the wall when Dee and Babs left. I think our time had passed".The adoption of a new group format was done without full knowledge of senior BBC management, who later expressed disapproval of this change.
By March 1976, the replacement group for Pan's People, Ruby Flipper, had been selected and began rehearsing, with just two of the existing Pan's People, Sue Menhenick and Cherry Gillespie, retained as dancers, with Ruth Pearson retiring. There was to be no role in the new group for the remaining two dancers, Mary Corpe and Lee Ward, but they continued to appear in Pan's People while the Ruby Flipper rehearsals began.
However, following the Pan's People performance transmitted on 1 April 1976, Lee Ward left the group. She was reported as saying regarding the change to a mixed-gender group "It's a big mistake. Men rush home to watch sexy ladies. They do not want to see other men." Following this, Ward ended her career as a dancer.
The line-up for the final performances in April 1976 was therefore:
- Mary Corpe
- Cherry Gillespie
- Sue Menhenick
- Ruth Pearson
The following week, the mixed-gender seven-member Ruby Flipper made their first appearance on the show with Colby as choreographer, Pearson as manager, and Menhenick and Gillespie starting the performance on their own, then joined by the new five dancers.
Participant timeline
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Lineups
Work outside ''TOTP''
Among other television series Pan's People appeared on were:| Year | Months | Show | Channel | Notes |
| 1967 | January–March | Vibrato | RTB | Only known show with Felicity Balfour |
| 1967 | September–October | The Dickie Valentine Show | ATV | No footage survives, Colby, Lord, Wilde, Harris and Fergusson had appeared on previous series as Beat Girls |
| 1967 | Hits a go-go | SBC | ||
| 1967 | Carousel d'ete | RTB/BRT, KRO, Czech TV | - | |
| 1968 | Vibrato | RTB | Pearson co-choreographs | |
| 1968 | Beat Beat Beat | Hessischer Rundfunk | Pearson choreographs, only surviving footage shows Colby, Lord, Wilde dancing. | |
| 1968 | Golden Shot | ATV | Guest appearance | |
| 1968 | July–August | The Bobbie Gentry Show | Second BBC show after Top of the Pops | |
| 1968 | September | Top of the Night | RTE | |
| 1968 | Herman van Veen show | VARA | ||
| 1968 | October | Beat Club special | Bremen Radio/TV | Performed Over, Under, Sideways, Down by the Yardbirds. |
| 1968 | Go Go gig | RTB/BRT | ||
| 1968/9 | December–January | Happening for Lulu | BBC | No Pan's People survive, but notable for Jimi Hendrix performance on 4 January |
| 1969 | January–March | Lulu | BBC | Renamed continuation of Happening for Lulu, included A Song For Europe |
| 1969 | Vibrato | RTB | Pearson co-choreographs, Lord is assistant director and not a dancer | |
| 1969 | Jean Ferrat special | VARA | Pearson co-choreographs | |
| 1969 | May–June | Des O'Connor on stage | ATV | |
| 1969 | June–August | The Bobbie Gentry Show | ||
| 1969 | August–September | The Frankie Howerd Show | ATV | Notable for Penny Fergussson standing in for Ruth Pearson |
| 1969 | November–December | The Price of Fame | ||
| 1970 | June | The Price of Fame | ||
| 1970 | December | Into 1971 | BBC | New Year's Eve special |
| 1971 | August | Knokke 1971 | BBC | Won both the first prize and the special iPress- Award in the Golden Seaswallow competition of live television held in Knokke, Belgium in July 1971. |
| 1972 | April | Nancy Wilson | BBC | Nancy Wilson in caberet from The Talk of the Town, London |
| 1972 | May | Glenn Campbell | BBC | Glenn Campbell from The Talk of the Town, London |
| 1972 | August | Night Club | BBC | An international cabaret from The Talk of the Town, London |
| 1973 | February–March | Gentry | BBC | |
| 1973 | March | Frankie Howerd in Ulster | BBC | A concert recorded during Frankie Howerd 's tour of military camps in Ulster. |
| 1973 | April–June | The John Denver Show | BBC | Series of six shows |
| 1973/4 | September–January | The Two Ronnies | BBC | |
| 1974 | January–February | The Jack Jones show | BBC | Series regulars |
| 1974 | June–July | The Two Ronnies | BBC | |
| 1974 | April | In Concert | Pan's People appeared in their own edition | |
| 1975 | December | Morecambe and Wise Christmas show | They danced to Brenda Arnau's version of Big Spender with Morecambe & Wise posing as two new Pan's Persons. |
Surviving ''Top of the Pops'' appearances
Pan's People performed at a time when the BBC routinely wiped the videos of the Top of the Pops shows to save money on new tapes and because it was not thought that anyone would want to watch the shows again. However, organisations such as the BFI and Kaleidoscope have spent time searching archives and as a result many recorded dance routines have been rediscovered. More recently they have found roughly 40 lost dances on home video tapes and have extracted digital footage from the very fragile analog tapes. Estimated video survivals by year:Life after ''TOTP''
Even after their departure from Top of the Pops Pan's People were much in demand for personal appearances. Dee Dee Wilde continued to dance with and manage a new group of girls under the name Pan's People: Pauline Crawford, Abigail Higgins, Patricia McSherry, Francesca Whitburn and Sarah Woollett. Also members for a short time during this period were the future Hot Gossip dancers Sarah Brightman and Carol Fletcher.Babs Lord married actor Robert Powell and became an amateur yachtswoman and world explorer, with several trips to the Himalayas, the Sahara, both Poles and the jungle in Guyana. By 2013 she had visited both the North and South Poles. Lord was the subject of BBC's This Is Your Life in November 2001. She appeared on the final regular weekly edition of Top of the Pops on 30 July 2006, the only member of any of the show's dance troupes to appear in person at the recording.
In 1997 Cherry Gillespie appeared as a panellist on Channel Five's nostalgia quiz Wowfabgroovy.
Patricia 'Dee Dee' Wilde eventually married composer and musician, Henry Marsh.
Flick Colby died of bronchial pneumonia as a result of cancer on 26 May 2011, at the age of 65.
Louise Clarke died of heart failure on 24 August 2012 at the age of 62.
In November 2013, Signum Books released the autobiography 'Pan's People: Our Story,' authored by Babs Powell, Ruth Pearson, Dee Dee Wilde, Cherry Gillespie and writer Simon Barnard.
In April 2014 Babs, Sue, Dee Dee and Ruth reunited to model clothes for isme.com.
Andi Rutherford died after a long illness on 3 December 2015 at the age of 68.
Ruth Pearson died following a battle with cancer on 27 June 2017 at the age of 70.