TOP of the Pops has bitten the dust after 42 years and more than 2,000 shows, and I for one think it's a sad loss.

I don't blame the BBC - audience figures were plummeting, mainly due to the fact that the internet has taken over as the main way of discovering new bands and accessing music.

Now forgive me for shamelessly wallowing in nostalgia but for many of us this show really was a staple part of our youth.

It was a key divide between the generations - you didn't want your parents to like the Smiths.

You wanted your dad to stare in astonishment and declare that Robert Smith's smudged lipstick represented the end of Western civilisation and your mum to gasp in horror at Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Relax video.

TOTP gave us something we could call our own and was always the main talking point in the playground the next day.

For those of us who grew up in a Cotswold backwater it was a window into a world of excitement outside the living room, it gave us a shared experience and furnished us with identities, whether it be new romantic, mod, punk, goth or metal head.

Like Zammo Maguire's overdose and the trashing of the Blue Peter garden, everyone of a certain generation can remember watching All About Eve failing to mime the words to Martha's Harbour.

We can all remember watching Zigue Zigue Sputnik's on TOTP and seeing Boy George for the first time while parents across the land asked 'is that a boy or a girl?'.

So, in the words of David Bowie, 'Ashes to Ashes, fun to funky' - God bless you TOTP.