Editing Pan's People (section)

==Formation and early history==

===Formation from Beat Girls===
[[File:BeatGirls1966.jpg|thumb|September 1966: Beat Girls picture showing original Pan's People dancers; from left, Dee Dee Wilde, Lorelly Harris, Babs Lord, Flick Colby and Penny Fergusson. Dancer and choreographer Diane South, who was never in Pan's People, is almost completely obscured at the back.]]
The origins of Pan's People lie in [[the Dance Centre]]-based Katy-Dids, a six-girl jazz dance group formed in May 1964 comprising Linda Bywaters, Linda Lawrence, Jenny Ferle, Lyn Wolseley, Diane South and Ann Chapman. This group, renamed the Beat Girls following the commencement of their residence on ''[[The Beat Room]]'' in July 1964, subsequently appeared on many music and light entertainment TV programmes in the UK and Netherlands.

Following numerous line-up changes, by December 1966 only [[The Beat Room#The Beat Girls after the Beat Room|two members were left who had appeared in ''The Beat Room'']], which ended in January 1965:
* '''Barbara (Babs) Lord''',<ref name="Girls Who Bring Glamour"/> who appeared from September 1964
* ''' Diane South''' – despite having appeared in the Katy-Dids and Beat Girls since 1964, she was never a regular, for she frequently stood in as choreographer when their choreographer/manager, Gary Cockrell, was unavailable.<ref name="DianeS"/>
The other members at this time were:
* '''[[Flick Colby|Felicity (Flick) Colby]]'''<ref name="Girls Who Bring Glamour">{{cite web |title=Top Of The Pops Annual 1974: The Girls Who Bring Glamour To The Show |url=http://www.panspeople.freeserve.co.uk/totp1974.htm |website=the Unofficial Pan's People Homepage |access-date=19 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322144634/http://www.panspeople.freeserve.co.uk/totp1974.htm |archive-date=22 March 2012}}</ref> (1946–2011) – recruited in January 1966, though she already had a Dutch TV special, featuring the Beat Girls, built around her.
* '''Patricia (Dee Dee) Wilde'''<ref name="Girls Who Bring Glamour"/> – joined in March 1966; she had attended the Elmhurst School for Dance in Surrey.<ref>{{cite news |title=Dee Dee Wilde remembers getting her kicks in 1973 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/11058597/Dee-Dee-Wilde-remembers-getting-her-kicks-in-1973.html |date=28 August 2014 |access-date=13 June 2017}}</ref>
* '''Lorelly Harris''' – joined around May 1966
* '''Penelope (Penny) Fergusson''' – joined around May 1966; a former member of the [[Royal Ballet School]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Royal Opera House Collections Online |url=http://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?performance=16152&row=1 |website=Royal Ballet school |access-date=3 June 2017}}</ref>

Following an [[Equity (trade union)|Equity]]-backed dispute with their management over pay rates for Dutch shows,<ref>{{cite web |title=Watervlugge Beat-Girls niet meer voor AVRO |url=http://one-for-the-dads.979225.n3.nabble.com/The-Beat-Girls-tp3027945p4128322.html |website=One for the Dads |access-date=12 June 2017}}</ref> three members, Colby, Lord and Wilde, walked out and formed a new group on 8 December 1966 in London.<ref name="dee_dees">{{cite news |title=Dee Dee's Top of the Pops memories |url=http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/848408.dee_dees_top_of_the_pops_memories |newspaper=Wiltshire Gazette and Herald |access-date=26 July 2014}}</ref> After considering other names, including ''Dionysus's Darlings'' they agreed on the name ''Pan's People'', named after the Greek god [[Pan (god)|Pan]] as the "god of dance, music and debauchery".<ref name="Express"/> By 18 December, they were joined by two of the remaining three Beat Girls, Harris and Fergusson. This marked the end of the Beat Girls as a regular act on British television; however, with new recruits joining Diane South,<ref>{{cite news |title=The new beat girls |url=http://one-for-the-dads.979225.n3.nabble.com/The-Beat-Girls-tp3027945p4127617.html |newspaper=De Telegraaf |date=14 January 1967 |access-date=9 June 2017}}</ref> that group continued their Dutch engagements from January 1967, finally ceasing to perform in May 1968.<ref>{{cite web |title=List of Moef Ga Ga performances |url=http://hardprog.pagesperso-orange.fr/moef_ga_ga_episode_guide_1895.htm |url-status=dead |website=Hardprog |access-date=12 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916092132/http://hardprog.pagesperso-orange.fr/moef_ga_ga_episode_guide_1895.htm |archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref>

By Christmas 1966 Pan's People recruited '''Felicity Balfour''' (sometimes called Felicity Balfour Smith), who had briefly been in the Beat Girls, and had been a schoolfriend of Dee Dee Wilde. Thus they formed a [[sextet]],<ref name="sextet">{{cite web |last=Rose |first=Gary P. |title=Felicity Isabelle Colby – Her Story in Words and Pictures |url=http://www.panspeople.com/?q=node/1168 |website=PansPeople.com |date=26 December 2011 |access-date=26 July 2014}}</ref> with Colby also acting as choreographer.

Press accounts during the lifetime of the group omit the Beat Girls involvement from Pan's People's history;<ref name="Throw">{{cite web|title=Don't Throw This Away|url=http://one-for-the-dads.979225.n3.nabble.com/Pans-People-Promo-Brochure-Don-t-Throw-This-Away-tp4115119.html|access-date=5 June 2017|quote=She...appeared for a year and a half in the BBC TV series Beat Room and Gadzooks}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Fabulous 208 magazine|url=http://missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/8377/offer-research-nmes-disc-show?page=7|website=Missing Episodes|access-date=5 June 2017|date=23 September 1967|quote=The six met while rehearsing (separately) at rooms in Covent Garden and decided to join up.}}</ref> however, modern-day recollections include this time<ref>{{cite news|title=Dee Dee Wilde and Babs Powell: how we made Pan's People|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/sep/02/how-we-made-pans-people-dee-dee-wilde-babs-powell|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=5 June 2017|quote=Three of us had previously been in a dance group called the Beat Girls on the BBC2 programme The Beat Room.|date=2 September 2014|last=Simpson|first=Dave}}</ref> though sometimes incorrectly as a continuation of the previous group.<ref>{{cite news|title=Dee Dee's Top of the Pops memories|url=http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/848408.dee_dees_top_of_the_pops_memories/|website=Newsquest|access-date=12 June 2017|quote=The Beat Girls, as we were known then, had just walked out of their head quarters, The Dance Centre ... Flick Colby who was to be our new choreographer, Babs Lord and I, sat up all night reforming the group & creating a new name for it.}}</ref>

===Early work and line-up changes===
Their first TV appearance was in the Belgian TV programme ''Vibrato'' in January 1967, with the initial line-up.<ref>{{cite web |title=PP on Vibrato, 1967 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpoHi2FAMzY |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/PpoHi2FAMzY |archive-date=11 December 2021 |url-status=live |website=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In February/March 1967, Felicity Balfour's contract was terminated, due to her being unsettled in the group. After Pan's People, amongst other subsequent activities she performed with the Denise Shaune dancers, and worked in musical theatre, notably forming part of the original London cast of ''[[Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rice |first=Tim |title=Oh What a Circus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m4ECNNvdvTYC&q=%22felicity+Balfour%22+dancer&pg=PT183 |date=October 2012 |access-date=13 June 2017 |quote=Felicity Balfour, captivating dancer in the first West-End Joseph |isbn=9781444762174}}</ref>

Following an audition, Balfour was replaced by '''Ruth Pearson''' (1946–2017).<ref>{{cite web|author=Jessica Gibb |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/ruth-pearson-dead-pans-people-10706175 |title=Pan's People star Ruth Pearson has died at the age of 70 |website=Mirror.co.uk |date=27 May 2017 |access-date=30 June 2017}}</ref> Like Lord, Pearson was an original Beat Girls member, performing in the group until early 1966, then in a prior Beat Girls breakaway group, [[The Beat Room#October 1965-December 1966 - UK and Dutch TV programmes|Tomorrow's People]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Top of the Pops 2 interviews |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/totp2/trivia/pans_people/ruth_pearson/page1.shtml |publisher=BBC |access-date=12 June 2017 |quote=There was a disagreement about how our current group the Beat Girls were going and three of us left and formed our own group called Tomorrow's People. Then about a year later we split up and I had heard that the girls had formed Pan's People...They weren't sure for a time and I had an audition. And then they later contacted me and told me I was in.}}</ref>

Pearson also did some of the group choreography over the first two years in the group.<ref name="Throw"/>

The new line-up with Pearson appeared on ''[[Dickie Valentine|The Dickie Valentine Show]]'' in September and October 1967, replacing the Beat Girls from the 1966 series. All the Pan's People in this line-up, except for Pearson, had appeared in the earlier series.<ref>{{cite web |title='The Dickie Valentine Show' TV Pans People 1967 |url=https://www.rexfeatures.com/search/?kw=dickie+valentine&js-site-search_submit=Go&order=newest&iso=GBR&lkw=&viah=Y&stk=N&sft=&timer=N&requester=&iprs=f |website=Rex Features |access-date=15 June 2017}}</ref>

The group were to appear in a ballet performed with [[the Yardbirds]] in December 1967,<ref>{{cite web |title=NME: The Rock and Roll Years |url=http://theafterword.co.uk/its-wonderful-to-be-here-its-certainly-a-thrill-its-1967-on-the-afterword-almanac/ |access-date=13 June 2017 |quote=An hour-long ballet written by [[the Yardbirds]] and with all music played by the group, is premiered at the Paris Olympia on 13 and 14 December. Still untitled, it is being presented by French impresario Bruno Coquetrix, and the initial performance will be filmed for subsequent TV screening in France and Sweden. The ballet will be danced by BBC-TV dance team Pan's People, choreographed by Flick Colby, and the director is Sean Murphy.}}</ref> but it was cancelled shortly before it was to be performed.

Also in December 1967, Penny Fergusson left to do other work, and was replaced by '''Louise Clarke''' (1949–2012).<ref>{{cite journal |title=Louise Clarke: Obituaries |url=http://www.thestage.co.uk/features/obituaries/feature.php/37307/louise-clarke |journal=The Stage |date=12 September 2012 |access-date=23 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121015133326/http://www.thestage.co.uk/features/obituaries/2012/09/louise-clarke/ |archive-date=15 October 2012}}</ref>
In February 1968 three of Pan's People (Lord, Colby and Wilde) appeared on the West German show ''Beat Beat Beat'' with [[Tom Jones (singer)|Tom Jones]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Tom Jones – Beat Beat Beat – 1968 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo9-49I-fQg |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150623235802/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo9-49I-fQg |archive-date=23 June 2015 |url-status=dead |website=Youtube |access-date=3 June 2017}}</ref> This series was unique in that Ruth Pearson got sole choreography credit.

In the final change before the ''Top of the Pops'' era, Lorelly Harris chose to leave in March 1968, ultimately going into the [[Margaret Kelly Leibovici|Bluebell Girls]]. She was replaced by '''Andrea (Andi) Rutherford'''<ref name="Girls Who Bring Glamour"/> (1947–2015).<ref name="AndreaObit">{{cite web |title=Family Announcements: Andrea Rutherford |url=http://www.family-announcements.co.uk/hertfordshire/view/3951726/andrea |newspaper=Hertfordshire Mercury |date=10 December 2015 |access-date=19 June 2016}}</ref>

===Early management===
Colby's future husband, James Ramble, was manager, initially in partnership with promoter [[The Flamingo Club#The Flamingo Club|Rik Gunnell]], but solo by the time of his marriage to Colby in 1967. He retained this role into 1970, the year of his divorce from Colby. In 1970 he claimed to have created two rules; one that the dancers must wear their hair down, and another that they must get married rather than have partners;<ref>{{cite web |title=Going Going – a go-go marriage |url=http://media.photobucket.com/user/cornershop15/media/Documents/FlickColbyandJimRambleDailyMirror7thMarch1970.jpg.html |website=Photobucket |date=7 March 1970 |access-date=4 June 2017}}</ref> however, the second rule was also reported later the same year as saying that marriage was not allowed until the end of 1971.<ref>{{cite web |title=It's Pan's Playing it on camera |url=http://one-for-the-dads.979225.n3.nabble.com/Pans-People-pre-June-1974-tp4062102p3027197.html |website=OFTD |date=23 January 1970 |access-date=13 June 2017}}</ref>

Following the end of his management, the troupe members managed themselves; later accounts of the history of Pan's People focus on this second structural phase.<ref>{{cite news |last=Simpson |first=Dave |title=Dee Dee Wilde and Babs Powell: how we made Pan's People |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/sep/02/how-we-made-pans-people-dee-dee-wilde-babs-powell |newspaper=The Guardian |date=2 September 2014 |access-date=5 June 2017 |quote=But we told them: "We are already emancipated females. We organise ourselves and don't have a male in our midst."}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Webber |first=Richard |title=Dee Dee Wilde: 'My wages on Top of the Pops started at £19 a week' |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/fame-fortune/dee-dee-wilde-my-wages-on-top-of-the-pops-started-at-19-a-week/ |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=11 July 2016 |access-date=5 June 2017 |quote=Perhaps representing ourselves rather than having a manager didn't help.}}</ref>