Missing Episodes News and Features

A MISSING Top of the Pops performance featuring The Hollies in their heyday has come to light on Youtube.

Standing in front of a distinctly groovy Sixties stage, the Manchester band perform “Bus Stop”, a hit single from the summer of 1966.

MISSING CLIPPY: A still from The Hollies' "Bus Stop" Top of the Pops appearance, June 1966.

The black and white film clip is generally in good condition and runs to 2″58′. It contains the entirety of the song, which reached #2 in the charts. The discovery is especially important for capturing The Hollies with original bassist Eric Haydock, who left the band that year.

Youtube user ‘jleepixprod’ is to thank for the incredible find, which dates from the 23/6/66 edition of Top of the Pops (included as a telerecording of the 16/6/66 performance).

It has been confirmed the poster, a retired film editor based in the US, only possesses the Hollies insert but never-the-less it is an exceptional find, being both the first contemporary performance of the song to surface and also the first material to emerge from either edition of the BBC’s iconic show.

The discovery will only add support to a long-standing rumour that the 16th June edition, which featured The Beatles in their only live appearance (playing “Paperback Writer”), exists somewhere in the States.

Here’s the link to Bus Stop.