Flick Colby RIP

mike65

Somehow this seems the right place for oulwans 'n' oulfellas

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/may/29/flick-colby-pans-people-dies

The driving force behind Top of the Pops' fondly-remembered dance troupe Pan's People has died of bronchial pneumonia at the age of 65.

Flick Colby was the dancer and choreographer credited with co-founding the group that went on to become an iconic part of British pop culture.

Before the age of the music video, which dawned with the arrival of MTV, the dance troupe provided the visual entertainment when an artist could not appear on the BBC show.

They were not the first such group to appear on the pop programme - they were preceded by the Go-Jos - but they were TOTP's first exclusive set of dancers.

And they came to be as synonymous with the much-loved chart show as cigar-chomping Jimmy Savile and the pounding Led Zeppelin theme tune.

Although Colby was an American who grew up in Clinton, New York, it was on British television that she found fame.

She joined dancers Babs Lord, Ruth Pearson and Dee Dee Wilde and recruited Louise Clarke and Andi Rutherford to form Pan's People in 1966.

Ah those were the days.

Hard to believe. It seems like only yesterday that we were allowed to watch TOTP on TV as a special concession when I was in boarding school. Pans People were the ultimate in "cool". I guess even they can't stay forever young. (sigh)

Rubecula

I fondly remember the once a week bit of tv with my boyish interest in dancing...........

RIP Flick Colby and thank you for helping my formative years.