From 1966 though to 1969 the C’Mon TV show was appointment viewing for Kiwi pop fans.
There were bands, pop stars and go-go girls all clothed in pop fashion and surrounded by pop culture iconography. It made local pop artists like Sandy Edmonds, Mr. Lee Grant, Shane, The Chicks, The Keil Isles and others into household names.
As C’Mon celebrates it 50th anniversary, we talk to the show’s original producer Kevan Moore, go-go dancer Barbara Dean (now Fraser), drummer Bruce King, singer Shane and in London Mr. Lee Grant.
C’Mon opened with a snappy theme song, performed by the Keil Isles. It was introduced by a flashy compere, Pete Sinclair (who wrote his own scripts and was a rock-solid anchor) and also featured groovy graphics, swinging London Street fashions and Go-go Girls in risqué short skirts. As producer Kevan Moore says: “They were part of the grand design.”
When the pilot for C’Mon screened in November 1966 it was reviewed as “the brightest thing that has happened on New Zealand TV this year” and resulted in six months of weekly 'Come On!' shows being commissioned by the NZBC for 1967.
With a talented technical crew and producer Kevan Moore at the helm, they began churning out weekly C’Mon shows to a very tight schedule.
Choosing the latest overseas music (and some NZ originals), the music was prerecorded. The house band drummer Bruce King, who got the gig because he could read music, remembers: “You’d arrive for a session and there would be sixteen charts on your desk and you were counted off and you rehearsed it once and then you recorded it”.
He adds “most of my responsibility back then was listening to the Hit Parades of the day, keeping up to date with what was going on, so you were sometimes familiar with the material we were going to record. You didn’t know who was going to be singing it often, you just recorded the backing tracks.”
The Go-Go girls learned as many as eight dance routines during the week and then after full dress rehearsals, it all came together at 7pm on Saturday evening when the show was filmed “live”.
Go-Go dancer Barbara Dean remembers that “after the show we’d sit in a little room with a little TV screen and our choreographer Dolly .. and if you knew that you had made a wrong move, you would be cringing, because you knew what was coming afterwards.”
C’Mon became destination viewing for New Zealand kids who followed the fashions and quickly adopted various singers and bands as their pin ups. Along with the advent of Radio Hauraki, C’Mon was one of the foundation stones for a fledgling ‘pop’ industry that had previously been held back by cultural cringe.
It also groomed and developed unknown talent like Bogdan Kominowski who became an instant success as Mr. Lee Grant. Glyn Tucker from the Gremlins remembers that Mr. Lee Grant’s good looks and superb showmanship made him stand out from the average. It was no surprise to Glyn that once C’mon hit our TV screens he became an instant pop star. Mr. Lee Grant quickly gained legions of screaming fans and was frequently mobbed.
Mr. Lee Grant says “ I can remember doing a show in Mataura (north of Invercargill) and I lasted 30 seconds on stage. There was no security … and I literally walked on stage and a thousand girls attacked me and I got concussed.” The only way he could escape the fans was by swapping clothes with a policeman.
C'mon advertisment Photo: Supplied
About six weeks into the first series, Moore introduced a New Faces element into C’Mon to replenish the talent pool. As a result he ‘discovered’ bands like The Underdogs – a band who despite their talent were possibly not what mainstream TV would find acceptable, but Moore took risks. He says “…remember that we had to be adventurous because in general there was a hostile press and a neutral radio scene so we had to create our own publicity” …
Consequently one time when the Underdogs performed a psychedelic number and were shrouded in dry ice, The Truth newspaper came up with headline “NZBC Goes To Pot”. Moore laughed at the memory of that. It was precisely the sort of headline that could drive ratings.
When the 1967 series of C’Mon finished, the brand was kept alive with the C’Mon Tours. It was a massive tour lasting 7 weeks and featured Mr. Lee Grant, Sandy Edmonds, The Keil Isles, The Chicks, The Underdogs, Go Go Girls and Pete Sinclair.
Moore arranged for the Underdogs to look after The Chicks who were still very young. It was a kind of reverse psychology. "It was a poacher turned game-keeper view … I figured that the most dodgy ones of the group would be the ones who knew all the tricks.”
The 1968 series saw some stars like Mr. Lee Grant leave for the UK and that opened the door for Ray Columbus to return from the States and for relative new comers like singer Shane Hales to get the gig replacing Mr. Lee Grant. It was literally a baptism by fire.
Shane Hales on C'mon Photo: supplied
Shane says “I didn’t know what I was doing and Kevan was a hard task master, but he instilled discipline. I learned so much in those formative days … Kevan did have you on tender hooks some times …. There was one particular time .. you’d wing it some times cos suddenly you’re doing gigs all over the country, you’re doing this TV series, you’re trying to keep up with new songs every week, so you’d wing it … and there was one particular day I remember where I was just not getting the song right … and this voice came from above ‘Shane you’d better get that correct at the next rehearsal or your television career is going to come to a very abrupt end’ … and from then on I didn’t wing it any more”
In 1969, after the 3rd series of C’mon, the show was axed by mutual consent. Moore says “It had really done its run in the format that it was in.”
The music and the scene changed and the feeling was that the public wouldn’t put up with the increasing numbers of records that were ‘glorifying sex and drugs'. Moore says “It was a family show and the lyrics that you can brush aside on radio… but when you see people singing them, the words become more important and the overtones of the sex an drugs … the rock n roll is ok but the first two are a problem with a family show”
It could be considered that the legacy of C’Mon is that it changed the perception of how the public viewed NZ talent. Shane remembers how one year he was voted by Kiwi voters 2nd as top Vocalist. Only Elvis was above him.
Also it created a template for music programmes that were to follow. In 1975, when Moore took over as Head of Programming, he gave Peter Gratten the go-ahead to launch Radio with Pictures in 1976.
New Zealand music has much to thank shows like C’Mon for. It may have only screened 50 episodes between 1966 and 1969 (only 2 episodes have survived) but it established a pop culture template that became destination viewing for young New Zealanders and evolved into a thriving scene.
C'mon's Anthea, Carol and Barbara in 1968 Photo: Supplied
Music Details
Artist: The Keil Isles
Song: C’Mon theme
Composer: Cannon, Jean
Album: C’Mon
Label: Frenzy Music
Artist: Sandy Edmonds
Song: Come See Me
Composer: Tubbs, Jackson, Barnes
Album:The Sounds of Sandy
Label: EMI
Artist: Mr.Lee Grant
Song: Opportunity
Composer: Joyner,Harshman,Marascalo
Album: The Very Best Of…
Label: EMI
Artist: Mr.Lee Grant
Song: Thanks to You
Composer: Van Dyke
Album: The Very Best Of…
Label: EMI
Artist: Leo De Castro
Song: Funky Street
Composer: Conoley, Simms
Album: C’Mon
Label: Frenzy Music
Artist: Larrys Rebels
Song: I Feel Good
Composer: Toussaint
Album: I feel Good
Label: Frenzy Music
Artist: The Underdogs
Song: Sitting In The Rain
Composer: Mayall
Album: Blues and Beyond
Label: Ascension
Artist: The Chicks
Song: Thanks For Loving Me
Composer: Hatch, Trent
Album: C’Mon
Label: Frenzy Music
Artist: The Underdogs
Song: Inner Limit
Composer: George Harrison
Album: C’Mon
Label: Frenzy Music
Artist: Mr Lee Grant
Song: Big Man
Composer: Belland, Larson
Album: The Very Best of…
Label:EMI
Artist: Ray Columbus
Song: Tighten Up
Composer: Butler, Bell
Album: C’Mon
Label: Frenzy Music
Artist: Shane
Song: Hurdy Gurdy Man
Composer: Donovan Leitch
Album: C’Mon
Label: Frenzy Music
Artist: Shane
Song: Do The Alligator
Composer: n/a
Album: C’Mon
Label: Frenzy Music
Artist: Shane
Song: Rice is Nice
Composer: Pieka,Pinz
Album: C’Mon
Label: Frenzy Music
Artist: Shane
Song: Saint Paul
Composer: Terry Knight
Album: The Very Best of Shane
Label:EMI
Artist: Ray Woolf
Song: Lazy Sunday
Composer: Marriot, Lane
Album: C’Mon
Label: Frenzy Music
Artist: The Keil Isles
Song: I’m A Man
Composer: Winwood,Miller
Album: C’Mon
Label: Frenzy Music
Artist: Shane
Song: No Regrets
Composer: Tom Rush
Album: The Very Best of Shane
Label: EMI
Artist: The Keil Isles
Song: C’Mon theme
Composer: Cannon, Jean
Album: C’Mon
Label: Frenzy Music
