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29 October 2014
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You then took on the running of Legs & Co, was that a happier time?
Ruth: If it were possible I would have loved to continue dancing. I was turning 30 and it was time for a change. A dancer’s life is a short life and you haven’t got the physical strength you used to have. It’s just the way it is.

Legs & Co left TOTP in 1981, were you involved in their four year tour?
Ruth: No. I don’t think I was the best manager they could have had and I didn’t see a future for them really. Not any reflection on them, but there really wasn’t a market for a girl group. I think we proved that.

Do you find it ironic that the only real difference between Pan’s People and a lot of acts today is the singing?
Ruth: Very valid comment! I think we influenced a great deal but no one would have known things would have turned out this way. No one would have known that the dance element would have been that important?

Did any of you think "This is easy! We could do this!"
Ruth: Well, we made a couple of records but we really weren’t singers. It was all a bit cringe-worthy. But it was fun trying!

What is it like to see yourself on TOTP2?

Ruth: I enjoy it. I saw the Jim Gilstrap song 'Swing Your Daddy' and and I liked the song, although the set looked like it had loo roll hanging everywhere. The costumes were a bit yuck but it was nice. Nostalgic.

Would you have flicked over if it was 'Tie A Yellow Ribbon'?
Ruth: I’d have watched it for the cringe factor. I’d have laughed. You’ve got to take the good with the bad really. It was quite charming in it’s own way.

  Simply Red  
  "That's a bit supermarket, isn't it. I'm not making that many bottles. "  
  Robin Gibb  
  "There's been great moments both as a songwriter and as a performer."  
  Paul Roberts - The Stranglers  
  "We certainly weren't going to call ourselves The Bay City Rollers."  
  Lisa Stansfield  
  "I just thought, how many times do I have to sing this song?"  
  Soft Cell  
  "I think it's the only time that a banjo's been played in the Ministry of Sound."  
  Erasure  
  "Agnetha said she liked it. If I met them I would curtsey."  
  INXS  
  "We really surprised lots of people by simply hanging in there."  
  Kim Wilde  
  "I used to be really jealous of Claire Grogan...I thought she was gorgeous."  
  Dollar  
  "Failure was not an option, we were materialistic and greed was good."  
  Human League  
  "We did a US tour with Culture Club and Howard Jones...solely for the cash."  
  Altered Images  
  "Women were treated as a bit of a novelty in the music business in 1981."  
  Belle Stars  
  "The pop music lark just seems like a lifetime away now."  
  Steve Strange  
  "Look, you’re playing me like a bitchy queen and I’m not like that."  
  Five Star  
  "We all grew up wanting to be famous and we lived our dream..."  
  Phillip from Ruby Flipper  
  "At my age, I'd find it difficult to get my legs where they used to go..."  
  Glen Campbell  
  "I got to work with literally everyone in the business; Nat King Cole, Sinatra..."  
  David Gray  
  "Lots of tension in the camp. We're battling Gareth Gates for the No.1 spot"  
  Robert Palmer  
  "There's this homegenised force feeding of what is hip."  
  Marilyn  
  "I think George manipulated our relationship for publicity"  
  Tom Jones  
  "I'm pulling all my old jewellery out now and comparing my rings with Wyclef"  
  Ruth From Pan's People  
  "I could show you dozens of times I forgot the moves..."  
  Badly Drawn Boy  
  "Everybody has to do what everybody else does in order to have a hit single"  
  John Otway  
  "I think the music business is probably not happy with what we've done..."  
  Jimmy Cliff  
  "I look at someone like Ms Dynamite, I come away with a positive feeling."  
  Human League  
  "We wouldn't trust anyone that didn't wear eyeliner."  
  Status Quo  
  "I probably went about four or five years with a pair of stage jeans"  
  Gary Numan  
  "There are so many things in my past that you could make fun of."  
  McAlmont and Butler  
  "We were big enough to get over any-thing that may have been exchanged."  
  Primal Scream  
  "The producer at the time told us we'd never work again."  
  Oasis  
  "I prefer miming, I prefer if we weren’t playing live."  


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