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Oxford Road Show, The

orsTEXTBOOK WORTHY-BUT-DULL show on “issues” for “young adults” by “young adults” presented from a scaffolding-riddled studio on Oxford Road, Manchester (hence the title – not, as many thought, a travelling Radio 1-style revue of scarf-wearing dons, though maybe that would have been more entertaining).

9 Comments

9 Comments

  1. Applemask

    May 10, 2010 at 8:11 pm

    “The ‘Voice of Youth’! They’re still wearing FLARED TROUSERS!”

  2. Sleazy Martinez

    May 10, 2010 at 9:32 pm

    Much excitement in our house when our elder cousins went to be in the audience for one of these shows circa 1982. The two appeared in shot behind Hot Gossip, who were performing a lewd and mildly pretentious cover of The Human League’s “Circus Of Death”. We laughed and laughed and laughed.

    Our. World. Too.

  3. Droogie

    July 26, 2020 at 9:28 pm

    This weird thing about this dodgy early Yoof TV show Is how people remember the 2 classic satirical sketches taking the piss out of it more than the show itself. Not just Nosin’ Around On The Young Ones, but also Hey Wow on Not The Nine O’Clock News with Rowan Atkinson as mime act Alternative Carpark. There was a similar show around the same time called Somethin’ Else that at least had better live music, with classic performances by The Clash, The Jam and Joy Division.

    • Glenn Aylett

      July 27, 2020 at 7:08 pm

      Greek television commercials and music by Lufthansa Terminal were promised on Hey Wow.

  4. richardpd

    July 26, 2020 at 11:22 pm

    I remember the Oxford Road Show was raided for clips for Sounds Of The 80’s.

    Another Yoof TV show at the same time was Riverside, which still exists but thinks to some rights issues can’t be used for clips.

    The Smiths had one of their first TV appearances on Riverside.

  5. Droogie

    July 27, 2020 at 3:04 pm

    Lordy – I’d forgotten Riverside. One of the presenters was Steve Blacknell who was on telly a lot in the 80’s. One of the ORS presenters was Robert Elms . If you live in London, Elms is quite a divisive figure. He has a long running show on BBC Radio London that always has interesting features and guests, but Elms can be a bit of a self-obsessed jerk and will use any opportunity to drone on about being a style guru in the New Romantic era and discovering Spandau Ballet at The Blitz Club etc. He’s beloved by London cabbies who always ring in, but irritating to a lot of other people. Bizarrely his Wikipedia and Imdb pages have no mention of him presenting ORS, though he appeared on Ch 4’s TV Hell years ago saying how it nearly killed his TV career. I seem to recall all these shows had the kids ( or young adults as Nosin’ Around would say) sat on scaffolding, though my memory may be playing tricks.

  6. richardpd

    July 27, 2020 at 11:40 pm

    Chain link fences were also common on 1980s music shows as set decoration, along with some smoke machines misting up the atmosphere.

  7. Droogie

    July 28, 2020 at 12:54 am

    I tried to recall what Yoof TV show of the early 80’s that Jimmy Pursey of Sham 69 appeared on reinventing himself as an experimental surrealist dancer, and it was indeed Riverside!

  8. Tom Ronson

    March 31, 2022 at 2:21 am

    But that doesn’t mean I want you to seduce my parrot…

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