Rehearsals, Rediffusion Television Studios, Studio 1, Wembley, north-west London
ITV’s Ready Steady Go! — Broadcast live, 6:08-7:00 pm
The Story
Another side of Jim McGuinn and his 1964 Rickenbacker 360/12 during a break in rehearsals on the set of Ready Steady Go!
Following this live broadcast, after weeks of hyperbolic headlines in the British press trumpeting the impending arrival of ‘America’s Answer To The Beatles,’ Anglo resentment toward American performers in general, and The Byrds in particular, is finally unleashed in the readers’ letter sections of the various music weeklies. From the New Musical Express (August 13): “They were pathetic. The sound was thin, and why was the show built around them? After this performance I shouldn’t think there’s a Byrds fan left,” writes one, while reader Paul Menzies-Reid complains: “On RSG they were just another group — and they’re about a year late with their long hair — it’s out.” And in the Melody Maker, G.J. Poole writes: “But on Ready Steady Go! we were presented with a pleasant, inoffensive little group who relied heavily on Dylan-type singing and Kink-type guitar distortion. They whipped up about as much hysteria as a plate of cold porridge.”
Also appearing on this week’s Ready Steady Go!: The Who (who perform as a three-piece without Roger Daltrey, who is ill), Sonny and Cher, and Brian Poole & The Tremeloes.
Photographer unconfirmed — likely Cyrus Andrews / Image formerly from the London Features International Ltd. — John Halsall archives
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