Tributes have flooded in for Vicki Wickham, the ITV legend and music manager who died on Friday July 31 at the age of 87. Wickham helped shape British music television through the pioneering 1960s ITV show Ready Steady Go!, which helped launch some of the biggest names in pop, before going on to manage Dusty Springfield.
A pioneering show
At its peak, Ready Steady Go! drew 14 million viewers a week. Wickham was just 24 when she found herself in charge of a production team even younger than she was. The programme was more youth-oriented and informal than its BBC rival Top of the Pops, with the audience joining in as dancers and artists interacting with the crowd.
Wickham started out in the ITV typing pool and worked her way up to become the show's tea girl, booker, writer, producer and finally editor. Although she later claimed not to know who the Beatles were, the band would go on to appear on the show. She toured clubs handing out tickets to the best dancers and trendiest dressers, despite describing herself as clueless about fashion.
Only artists she liked
Her booking policy was to feature only artists she herself liked, and that list included The Rolling Stones, The Who, Sandie Shaw and The Walker Brothers, plus black acts such as Otis Redding, The Temptations and James Brown. This led her to produce The Sound of Motown, the first-ever black music show for British television. It featured The Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas and Stevie Wonder, presented by Dusty Springfield.
Wickham had first met Springfield in 1963 and the pair became lifelong friends. She managed the singer for 13 years, until Springfield's death from cancer in early 1999. Along with future Wham! manager Simon Napier-Bell, Wickham wrote the English lyrics to Springfield's only British number one, “You Don't Have to Say You Love Me”, adapting the Italian song “Io che non vivo senza te” at the singer's request. It became her signature track.
After Ready Steady Go!
When Ready Steady Go! ended in December 1966, Wickham worked with Brian Epstein, then manager of The Beatles, to produce Sunday-night rock concerts at the Saville Theatre. She moved to the US in the 1970s, where she ended up running the New York office of Track Records rather than breaking into American television.
That move contributed to her switch into artist management. She took over the career of feminist girl group LaBelle, best known for their hit “Lady Marmalade”. The band included Nona Hendryx, who would become her long-term partner.
Awards and tributes
In 1999, Wickham received a Music Industry Woman of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2013 she was appointed an OBE for services to music.
Tributes poured in once news of her death became public. One friend wrote on Facebook: “An extraordinary woman who I first met in 1965 on the set of Ready Steady Go! with Nina Simone (as the founder of her British appreciation society). Over the years, Vicki Wickham and I forged a personal friendship that was precious...heartfelt condolences to Nona Hendryx and Vicki’s family and friends everywhere. May she rest peacefully.”
Another tribute read: “Vicki was a trailblazer in so many ways - RIP. And condolences to Nona - another trailblazer in her own right!” A third added: “Sad news. One of the fascinating behind-the-scenes figures of the 1960s pop world and beyond.”
