Life After TOTP
Even after their departure from Top of the Pops Pan's People were much in demand for personal appearances. Dee Dee Wilde knew the name was still marketable and kept Pan's People alive as she continued to dance with and manage a new group of girls: Pauline Crawford, Abigail Higgins, Patricia McSherry, Francesca Whitburn and Sarah Woollett. A member for a short time during this period was Sarah Brightman, who went on to join the more raunchy Hot Gossip before marrying Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The best remembered of the original members is Babs Lord, as a result of her marriage to the actor Robert Powell and her subsequent career as an amateur yachtswoman and world explorer, having made several trips to the Himalayas, the Sahara, both Poles and the jungle in Guyana. She holds the remarkable record of being the oldest housewife to visit both the North and South Poles. Lord was the subject of BBC's This Is Your Life in November 2001. She appeared on the final regular weekly edition of Top of the Pops on 30 July 2006, the only member of any of the show's dance troupes to appear in person at the recording.
Top of the Pops continued to use professional dancers until 1981, with Colby remaining as the show's choreographer through the entire period. Pan's People were followed by a group called Ruby Flipper, which featured male and female dancers. However, there was pressure to return to the all-girl format, and after six months Legs and Co. were created, and named after a viewer competition. Both Gillespie and Mehenick from Pan's People featured in Ruby Flipper, with Mehenick going on to join Legs & Co. Pearson was Legs & Co's manager. Legs & Co performed every week on the show until 1981, when they were replaced by Zoo – a large troupe of dancers where individual members could be selected to perform each week, depending on the song. Flick Colby became the 'Dance Director' for Top Of The Pops at this time. By the early 1980s Zoo's role had shifted towards leading the audience, and eventually the group was disbanded, some members remaining in the crowd as strategically placed 'cheerleaders'.
In 1997, Gillespie appeared as a panelist on Channel Five's nostalgia quiz Wowfabgroovy.
Colby died of bronchial pneumonia on 26 May 2011, at the age of 65.
Clarke died of heart failure on 24 August 2012 at the age of 62.
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