"THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE."

This was the slogan that opened every episode, right before the 1963 surf rock instrumental WIPE OUT started blaring. British teens would tune in weekly to see their favorite bands and singers perform live.

It aired a year before its rival, Top of the Pops, but was more youth-oriented and less formulaic. Countercultural rock n' roll icons, like Jimi Hendrix and The Who (performing 18 different times), the Rolling Stones and psychedelic folk singer Donovan, made appearances on the show.

The hedonistic, modern, "flower power," sexually liberated youth of the Swinging Sixties was its target audience, which was incredibly progressive for the time.

The show featured its viewers as dancers and randomly chose the most hip, stylish people in clubs all across London. The musicians would appear on tiny stages and even stairsteps, interactively surrounded by the audience.

It gave women lead roles as presenters, such as Dusty Springfield, and embraced Black performers, like Stevie Wonder. Ready Steady Go! was the first time that Hendrix made an appearance on British telly, resulting in a sold out U.K tour. Nina Simone also made an appearance and there was an entire special dedicated to the artists of Motown.

Black artists like The Supremes, Smokey Robinson, and James Brown were introduced to Britain, all thanks to Ready Steady Go! giving them a platform. 

It was received with adoration and resonated with the youth. It pushed the barriers of gender and race on screen, executive producer Elkan Allan deliberately ensuring that Black dancers were present in the audience.

"Ready Steady Go! was the unique television program, both then and now, to have its finger on the pulse of the contemporary teenage Britain," wrote Iain Chambers, a British music composer, in the 1980s.

The BBC Top of the Pops focused on mainstream music from the hit charts and Ready Steady Go! featured underground, up-and-coming gigs. It also showcased the trendiest new dances and sought to replicate the atmosphere of a London nightclub.

"Ready Steady Go! was the best rock n' roll TV show of all time. It just seemed more vibrant and real and could, sometimes, be sensational. It was exciting to be on, while the other shows, Thank Your Lucky Stars, Top of the Pops, Ed Sullivan, were more like commercial vehicles, rather than being shows in themselves," said Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger.

The 1960s Scottish singer Lulu also remarked on the success of the show among the swinging youth, "I was a teenager in Glasgow and the whole of the city used to empty when Ready Steady Go! was about to come on… I watched it every week because it was what was happening with the dances and fashion…when my first record came out in 1964, I did other shows but none were as cool as Ready Steady Go!"

Ready Steady Go! is, tragically, shrouded in a sort of mystique and halcyon nostalgia with most footage from the episodes wiped out and forever lost to history and very scarce clips surviving. Despite being short-lived, it lives on in memory and influence.

In 1978, Billy Idol’s punk rock band Generation X performed a homage to the show, in a song fittingly entitled Ready, Steady, Go.

"Like Ready, Steady, Go, I want it fabulous,

I say, 'Ready, Steady, Go!'

I'm still in love with the Beatles,

I was in love with the Stones, no satisfaction,

I was in love with Bobby Dylan,

'Ready, Steady, Go' and all things, she said," sings Idol in a love letter of sorts to the show.

This article is from Youthquaker Magazine, a print arts & culture publication pushing youth-driven journalism on untapped multidisciplinary subject matter.