About Top of the Pops Archive

The TOTP archive has been a real labour of love of mine for the past 5 years. Slowly I have built the site manually using a mixture of CSS, PHP, HTML & the ever increasing TOTP database. As APIs have been updated, and as web standards have improved over the years the design of the site has altered slightly over time.

2017: Humble beginnings

This is where it all began. It took us nearly nine months of hard work to create the TOTP Archive database. Once that was done, we started generating the pages to dynamically display the content from the database, from artist profiles, episode pages, presenter profiles, and lists of performances. Everything was tested on a local server using MAMP, and the TOTP archive was only accessible from a local computer.

2019: totparchive.co.uk

In 2019, we launched the first version of the TOTP Archive online. At first, the content was hosted on cnjb.co.uk for about a year. But the domain name wasn’t very catchy or relevant, so after a year of testing, we shut down the cnjb.co.uk domain and TOTP Archive found a new home and address...

2020: New host. New address

Just before the COVID pandemic hit, we made a big move to a new host and server. We bid farewell to cnjb.co.uk and welcomed totparchive.co.uk as our new primary domain for TOTP Archive. And guess what? We also gave our website a fresh makeover! We upgraded from Bootstrap 4 to Bootstrap 5.1, giving the site a modern, sleek look. We also went for a neon graphics look at first, with pink and blue elements taking centre stage. But don’t worry, that was just a temporary phase!

2023: Standardisation & under the hood changes

In April 2023, we made some exciting changes. For the first time, we started using templates, giving our cards a more consistent clean look. We also made some significant improvements under the hood, allowing us to regularly add new content to the homepage with just a few clicks. And guess what? We even tweaked some visual elements again, consigning the neon graphical elements to the past.

2024: Performance images

Late 2024 was a busy time for us. We made some big changes to the site, introducing a new 'dark mode' to make it easier on the user's eyes. We also added some cool new features, like a gradient background and overlays that explain different performance types. But the most exciting thing we did was launch episode performance images! Now you can check out what an artist looked like when they performed on a specific episode of Top of the Pops. It’s a lot of work, so we started with about 300 performance images.