The Old Grey Whistle Test Pan Alley phrase from years before. When they got the first pressing of a record they would play it to people they called the old greys – doormen in grey suits. Any song they could remember and whistle, having heard it just once or twice, had passed the old grey whistle test. On 23 February 2018, a one-off three hour special of The Old Grey Whistle Test was broadcast on BBC Four, hosted by Bob Harris to mark 30 years since the final episode aired. The show's focus on "serious" rock music, rather than chart hits covered on BBC1 by
The Rubinoos Be Your Boyfriend," which had been released in 1978 and received heavy airplay in England and Europe. In support of this album, the Rubinoos appeared on "Rock Goes To College", "The Old Grey Whistle Test", "Top Pop" and opened 56 shows for Elvis Costello on the U.S. portion of his 1979 Armed Funk tour. In 1980 Royse Ader was replaced by Al Chan. The Rubinoos then recorded the demos for a third album which never came to fruition. These demos, released in the 1990s as "Basement Tapes", engineered by well known audio guru, Dan Alexander, is still thought to be