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Cathy McGowan presented the ground-breaking rock music show Ready Steady Go! from 1964-1966.

The launch of Ready Steady Go! Coincided with Beatlemania across the globe. Its slogan was “the weekend starts here” and was shown on Friday evenings from 6.00-7.00 p.m. Its original presenter was Keith Fordyce however Cathy joined in 1964 and instantly became a trendsetter for the nation – she was 21 at the time and among 600 girls who applied for the position, having been previously an employee at Womans Own magazine in the fashion department. Cathy eventually won the role by answering R.S.G.’s executive Elkan Allan that fashion was more important to teenagers than sex or music.

Eric Burdon, soulfull lead singer of the sixties band The Animals described Cathy as being “the girl of the day” – she totally reflected the “swinging London” vibe and was at the cutting edge of fashion.

Cathy soon acquired the eponym, “Queen of the Mods” - much of her appeal lay in the fact that she was in the same age group as that to which Ready Steady Go! Was primarily directed – she was looked upon as a role model by girls who rushed out to Biba or Mary Quant (if they could) to copy her style.

Barbara Hulanicki, who founded Biba, recalled that “the girls aped Cathy's long hair and eye-covering fringe and soon their little faces were growing heavy with stage make-up”.

Men were of course attracted to the fact she was a complete fox! Sixties singer Donovan described her as having a “young Mary Quant hostess look”. Being a regular performer on Ready Stead Go! He found her easy going – musicians felt neither patronised nor ingratiated by her interview technique, and her fashionable words, (which are very much part of my existing vocabulary!) such as fab, tripped naturally off her tongue.

The infamous Anna Wintour, future editor of American Vogue, was among the teenagers whom the show introduced to fashion, according to Wintour's biographer Jerry Oppenheimer.

In 1965 a decision that artists should perform live on Ready Steady Go!gave it the additional immediacy and edge that its substantially longer-running BBC rival, Top of the Pops (1964-2006), never really acquired however the programmes momentum had begun to flag by the time of its demise, it had become a “cult programme” whose substantial impact on the music scene and, notably through McGowan, on the “swinging” sixties more generally was widely acknowledged. The show ended 23rd December 1966.

McGowan, who was a 5 foot 4½ inch brunette, also did modelling work during this period and presented a show on Radio Luxemburg.

After Ready Steady Go! Cathy contined to work in journalism and broadcasting. She was a board member of London’s Capital Radio when it was launched in 1973.

In the late 1980s she worked for the BBC's Newsroom South East, specialising in stories relating to entertainment interviewing a range of celebrities, including some she had known in the 1960s and others, such as singer Michael Ball, who became her partner, and Deborah Harry, “new wave” star of the late 70s, who had just released her third solo album Def, Dumb and Blonde and explained to McGowan, (who later described her as the most beautiful woman she had ever met), that she had reverted to “Deborah” in preference to “Debbie”.