Fact #162852

Billy Bragg : When I had my honorary Number One with She's Leaving Home, after four weeks of showing the Wets Top Of The Pops finally let me on. The problem was I'd only sang the song once, when I actually recorded it, so when it came to the show I scrawled the words down on a piece of paper and put it on the stage by my feet, just to prompt myself if I got stuck. What I didn't realise was that BBC dry ice clings to your ankles, it really covers the top of your DMs, so I couldn't actually see my sheet of paper. If you look back at the tape you can see me waving my foot around, trying to clear all the dry ice.

Another thing that put me off, during the same show, was a bloke walking across the back of the studio with a big ladder. I was watchin' him, he was watchin' me, and when he came to lean the ladder against the wall it fell over like a bloody great tree trunk - timber! There was an almighty crash, which you couldn't hear on the broadcast, but it completely threw me. I thought they'd go for another take, but they didn't. I think the producers were a bit pissed off with me, 'cause I'd always insisted on singing live. Their attitude seemed to be 'Well, he's brought this on himself...'
(Source : not known)