How Pan’s People Kept the British Dancing
Image by Eric Koch for Anefo Wikimedia
Appearing every week on the British popular music phenomenon, Top of the Pops, the all-girl dance troupe, Pan’s People, sensationalized the country. The scantily dressed girls dancing on stage were the main reason that dads joined their children in watching TV on a Thursday evening, and young girls everywhere wanted to be able to dance like them.
Succeeding the Go-Jos in the mid-60s, Pan’s People danced to tracks in the top-twenty charts whenever the performer or group were unable to travel to the BBC studio.
Felicity “Flick” Colby founded it in 1966, with Dionysus’s Darlings being one name considered for the group. They eventually decided on Pan’s People, for the Greek god of dance, music, and debauchery. One of the original dancers, Dee Dee, later told The Times:
“The irony is, when we first started out we earned so little we lived on a diet of chips and mayonnaise.”
James Ramble, Flick’s future husband and then manager, had a few rules he insisted on when the group first formed. One was that the girls should always dance with their hair down, which later became an iconic part of their brand and performances.
Flick, who also did the choreography, danced in the original line-up with Babs Lord, Dee Dee Wilde, Ruth Pearson, Louise Clarke, and Andi Rutherford. Ruth reflected on their rehearsals in 1976:
“We had three to four days rehearsing an intricate dance routine to a certain record, then we’d learn it had gone down in the charts, instead of up… so it’s out. Dropped. This really isn’t fair on us, because we are judged by our performance on screen. Sometimes we had to change the number only a day before we do the show.”
The rushed performances could be quite shambolic too. Ruth remembers not being able to see in the middle of all the dry ice on stage and wondered what she was stepping on. It turned out to be Babs! Once, Dee Dee toppled from a podium into the audience, and another time Babs disappeared off stage after she slipped on the residue left by the dry ice.
In the summer of 1970, the programme extended from twenty-five to forty-five minutes, and finally added Pan’s People to the credit’s list shown at the end of the broadcast. They were at the peak of their career when Jimmy Osmond was asked what he was looking forward to about his trip to Britain. He replied:
“I want to meet Pan’s People.”
Other TV channels began to mention them. In an episode of the sitcom, Porridge, Ronnie Barker’s character, Fletcher, fantasised about what would be his ideal evening. He said:
“We could ring up those girls on Top of the Pops. Pan’s People. There’s one special one… beautiful Babs… dunno what her name is.”
He was, of course, referring to the blonde-haired, long-legged Babs Lord. And the popularity of their dancing only continued to rise from there.
Early on, Andi married and stopped dancing to have her family and work behind the scenes; she was replaced by Cherry Gillespie. The following year, Flick left to concentrate exclusively on creating choreography. In May 1974, Louise decided to leave, with her final performance being “There’s a Ghost in My House” by R. Dean Taylor.
The troupe returned to having five members when Sue Menhenik joined. Her first dance was to “Summer Breeze” by the Isley Brothers.
The girls also tried their hand at a recording career around this time. They released a double A-sided record with Epic called, “You Can Really Rock and Roll Me / The Singer Not the Song” with Cherry on lead vocals. It was followed by “He’s Got Magic.”
Unfortunately, both failed to make the music charts. Babs Lord decided to leave after her marriage to actor Robert Powell and was replaced by two new members, Mary Corpe and Lee Ward. Dee Dee left shortly after to also get married.
In 1976 the TOTP production team announced they wanted to develop a new group with both women and men dancers, which signaled the end for Pan’s People.
The production team finalised selections and rebranded the troupe as Ruby Flipper in March of that year. Lee Ward said in response to the change:
“It’s a big mistake. Men rush home from work to watch sexy ladies. They don’t want to see other men!”
Their final performance on TOTP was on April 29, 1976 to “Silver Star” by The Four Seasons. Flick managed the transition seamlessly; for their final performance, Sue and Cherry began the routine alone on the stage, and Ruby Flipper dancers gradually joined them, including the three male members.
But, Lee had been right. Less than two months after their rebranding, Ruby Flipper vanished from the air.
So, where are they now? Well, Babs became a yachtswoman and world explorer, travelling to the Himalayas, the Sahara, both poles, and the jungle in Guyana. She was featured in a This is Your Life episode in November of 2001.
Cherry appeared in “Octopussy” with Roger Moore in 1983 and now lives in America. Sadly, Flick, Louise, Andi, and Ruth all suffered long illnesses and have passed away.
Unfortunately for collectors, the BBC routinely wiped old video recordings of shows to save money on new tapes. However, organisations such as the British Film Institute and Kaleidoscope, an independent entertainment distributor, have had researchers scour through archives and save a few performance recordings.
Around forty lost dances have also been found on home videos, and some digital footage has been rescued from old, delicate analogue tapes. Maybe one day they will be available for the public to enjoy Pan’s People and their dancing once more.
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Perri Dodgson
Perri Dodgson was born into an RAF family, which meant travelling extensively and receiving a disjointed education. Her first job was a layout designer for a publishing house, then for twenty years she worked in the care sector, looking after the elderly and mentally ill. Now retired and living in Wellingborough, England, and after joining a writing group, she discovered the joy of writing. She has had features published in magazines and online literary magazines and been ‘highly recommended’ in a national competition. She also explores interior design and embroidery. Currently she is researching for her book which will be a biography.
