Sounds of the Seventies

Satin flares, silver stacks, sequins and eyeliner were fashions of the 70s - and that was just for the boys. With performances from T Rex, Sweet, Slade, Gary Glitter , Mott the Hoople, Mud, Alvin Stardust , Suzi Quatro , David Cassidy , Donny Osmond , and the Bay City Rollers.

Tonight's programme features some of the pioneers of glam rock. With the Moody Blues, the Who, the Rolling Stones, the Faces, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Queen and Elton John. 

A look at soul music and its influence. With performances from Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Michael Jackson, Gladys Knight, Bill Withers, the Three Degrees, Labelle, Chic, Rose Royce and the Real Thing. 

A look at the "heavy" music of the early 70s. With performances from Free, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Yes, Focus, Captain Beefheart, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band and Dr Feelgood.

Glam, disco and plain old schmaltz were equally at home in the 70s mainstream, as were a startling array of costumes from satin trousers and bobble hats, to aluminium foil body-suits and boas. With performances from 10cc, the Carpenters, Abba, Sparks, Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, David Essex, Wings, Kate Bush and Boney M. 

All through the 70s, programmes like In Concert and The Old Grey Whistle Test gave a stage and a live audience to some of the best singer-songwriters in the business. Many of them featured in acoustic solo sets. Tonight's performances are from Carole King, James Taylor, Neil Young, Randy Newman, Don McLean, Paul Simon, Janis Ian and Joan Armatrading.

The giants of laid-back, mainstream rock - cult bands and million-selling transatlantic troubadours who could fill a stadium - played sets for the BBC in the 70s, mainly on The Old Grey Whistle Test, introduced by "Whispering" Bob Harris. Tonight's performances include the Eagles singing Take It Easy (from 1973), Hall and Oates with She's Gone (1976), Little Feat and Fat Man in the Bathtub (1975), Lynyrd Skynyrd with Sweet Home Alabama (1975), Peter Frampton and Show Me the Way (1976), and two British names who continue to play to large audiences: Eric Clapton singing I Shot the Sheriff from 1977, and Dire Straits with their 1978 hit Sultans of Swing. 

Punk music had earned itself the reputation of being a pernicious influence long before it finally arrived on the BBC in the late 1970s. Tonight's performances - of punk and the new wave that superseded it - include Tommy Gunn from the Clash, the Buzzcocks with Sixteen Again, X-Ray Spex and Art-i-ficial, Smash It Up by the Damned, the Stranglers with Hangin' Around, the Jam singing Eton Rifles, Siouxsie and the Banshees with Love in a Void, the Undertones and Jimmy, Jimmy, Magazine with Definitive Gaze and Joy Division's Transmission. 

America had its own punk phenomenon. Nobody could say what it was, what it sounded like, or when it started, but it became known as "new wave".Many of the leading names played on The Old Grey Whistle Test throughout the decade, winding up with a glimpse of "the future of rock and roll" - the Boss himself.Tonight's performances include Alice Cooper singing Under My Wheels (from 1971), the New York Dolls with Jet Boy (1973), Horses from Patti Smith (1976), Iggy Pop's I'm Bored (1979), the Ramones and Don't Come Close (1978), Blondie singing Presence Dear (1978), Psycho-Killer from Talking Heads (1978), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with American Girl (1977), and Bruce Springsteen singing Rosalita (1979).

Last in the BBC archive series of vintage rock, pop and soul.Performances are from Ian Dury and the Blockheads, the Police, the Boomtown Rats, Elvis Costello , Simple Minds, Kraftwerk, Human League, the Specials, and Madness.