The Rolling "Top of the Pops" BBC4 Revival thread.

I'm pretty sure that the dream Iggy had that inspired 'TVC15' didn't look like Ruby Flipper's interpretation.

Jesus fuck, Heavy Metal Kids.
how did punk ever happen after that? how could that not make every youth in the country immediately swear never to make chugging pub rock with out-of-tune faux-working class vocals?

</reductive mis-analysis of the trends of 35 years ago>

also sadface because "Heavy Metal Kids" made me think of Kraftwerk with Rother and Dinger. But still, Archie Bell and the Drells!

(did the presenters get to choose the acts? last week's was very conspicuously all white, in rather stark contrast to the acts pictured in the chart rundown at the start, so this week's was a refreshing change after that. wondered if JS should get any credit for that or if I should continue to be skeeved out by him)

I don't think that the presenters had any real say in who was on. By the mid 70's the producers of TOTP had to pick from whoever was available, the programme not being able to get the big hitters like Bowie or the Stones. Hence the procession of uninspired soul/disco groups, Ruby Flipper, videotapes of MOR stuff like Barrie and Sarstedt, and arse-end-of-glam bands like HMK (the singer desperately trying to sound like Ian Hunter and failing dismally).

I don't know about 'punk had to happen' but certainly something had to happen. If I was a young teenager in 1976 I'd have been in fucking despair.

favourite bit was Archie Bell and the Drells 'looking for their contact lenses' dance moves
also didn't know the junkie from Auf Wiedershen Pet was in a band

(the singer desperately trying to sound like Ian Hunter and failing dismally)

Ah! That works, yes.

Or rather, it didn't work. But it probably was the general idea.

Wikipedia has the goods...

in 1976 their single "She's No Angel" was regularly played on BBC Radio 1, a favourite of legendary DJ John Peel, and this led to an appearance on Top Of The Pops

Can't see why Peel would particularly care about them. There is something very vaguely proto-punk about them, highlighting that glam was quite a big part of punk.

And HMK minus the more obvious theatrics would be more or less Sham 69.

I thought HMK was okay! What the hell's going on with this J J Barrie character though.

wondered if JS should get any credit for that or if I should continue to be skeeved out by him

i am always creeped out by any of these R1 DJ sleezers standing amidst teenage girls. Whole atmosphere is unwholesome.

watching now ffs no charge

The always excellent blog Pushing Ahead of the Dame has reached the last Bowie/Bolan colab, mentioning Bolan's connection to punk:
http://bowiesongs.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/the-bolan-collaborations/

Would have thought HMK OK minus the singer. Lively tune.

ok now i live in world where the wurzels are blessed relief.

"Introduced by Jimmy Saville O.B.E."

decent one overall! Archie Bell + Drells, Real Thing, little of total awfulness.

I'm pretty sure that the dream Iggy had that inspired 'TVC15' didn't look like Ruby Flipper's interpretation.

No I now choose to see bowie-in-berlin through the Ruby Flipper lens - Iggy does headstand on table, Bowie mugs at image of woman on tv then somersaults, Eno walks on hands across living room. Everyone is dressed confusingly.

(looking forward to Pushing Ahead on The Lodger. Been listening to that a lot lately)

It did seem that Gry Holton's performance was cut just after he tried to get the audience to clap along, or do SOMETHING anyway...

Yeah, John Peel would have championed them, it wasn't all Ramones at his place at this point in history, it was The Faces, Mott etc...

I thought that Katie Kissoon sold her shit song rather effectively. Once she ditched the hopeless Mac, she forged a more-than-respectable session/backing singing career.

> I now choose to see bowie-in-berlin through the Ruby Flipper lens - Iggy does headstand on table, Bowie mugs at image of woman on tv then somersaults, Eno walks on hands across living room. Everyone is dressed confusingly.

genius. the whole thing did look like some kind of fever dream.

must admit i ffwded through the repeats of things last night

The dance sequence to the Bowie track was just unbelievable.

for posterity & the non-iplayered

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD4Om04vECY

Yes, I mean Flick Colby RIP and all that but wtf was she thinking? Why was the black guy dressed like a jockey? It's nice that HM Kids were making some sort of effort but it was still terrible, and then punk started and one nanosecond later they were dead and Gary Holton was phoning his agent and looking for acting roles

I think the Bowie living room routine was a spookily accurate portrayal of what it meant to be a Bowie fan in Britian '76.

it reminded me of Talc & Turnips from Big Night Out.

Staggering Noosha Fox - Ben Goldacre fact, too.

I read that then, later the same day, happened to meet BG at a gig. I drunkenly assailed him with "NOOSHA FOX IS YOUR MUM!" Not my greatest moment. No, actually, scratch that. My greatest moment.

Alternate A.C. Song titles

(xp) What was his response?

He changed the subject. Then I offered to photograph his wedding. I was really covering myself in glory.

Did you tell him you had a s-s-single bed?

Mike, it totally was your greatest moment, and it was the future Mrs G's greatest moment when she immediately asked you if you were offering to photograph the wedding to "spend time with Noosha".

Apparently, he later let it be known that he's actually very proud of his mum, once all the rabid fans such as ourselves were out of earshot. So much for rationality and science, eh?

I thought that maybe it had been dropped, but it's on tonight at 7:30.

Oh right..

I saw that the episode on Thursday isn't on at 7:30 but the 35 minute edition is, later on the same night.

Is there much of a difference or do they just edit out a lame track/crappy DLT 'joeks'?

Well, one week they edited out "Fool to Cry" the Rolling Stones...

I quite like the 1st Heavy Metal Kids album. No idea what they sounded like by 1976 though, I haven't been watching this. Although I'm now intrigued by the couple of Fox LPs in my grandpa's old record collection.

Studio average seems to be one good act (Gladys Knight and the Pips most recently), one that's of historical interest (HM Kids, Fox) and one complete WTF (Ruby Flipper etc). The rest is unalloyed dross.
On last week's they seemed to have run out of money for acts, so played the theme music (?) for an extra two minutes at the end, while filming the studio lights.

I think that was Mistura's "The Flasher", not the TOTP theme tune there.

according to bbc4 (although i must check, yep) the one on tonight is the same one that'll be on on thursday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00704hg/episodes/upcoming

"From the year that sculpted pop, Tony Blackburn introduces the Glitter Band, New Edition, JJ Barrie, Our Kid, Cliff Richard, Mud, Thin Lizzy, Dolly Parton and the Rolling Stones."

maybe they (there was another skipped week recently) are missing from the archive?

btw, was in the lexington yesterday and some weekly show there is using an A3 picture of noosha on their posters.

30 minutes tonight
40 minutes thu (late)
40 minutes sat + 2 other programmes:

00:10–01:40
Big Hits: TOTP 1964 to 1975
With the Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, Status Quo, Procol Harum, Stevie Wonder and the Kinks. (R)

01:40–02:30
Top of the Pops: The Story of 1976
Top of the Pops in 1976, as a barometer of the state of pop and light entertainment TV. (R)

"Changed their name singe Gary Glitter retired"

I bet "Our Kid" got the piss ripped out of them at school for this.

Oh, they had all sorts offering them TV series, etc..

Was so glad they went away!

Still, a bonafide classic appears, "The boys are back in town"...

Missed out, repeats of "Devil Woman" and "Shake it down"..

Right, that week was somewhat scattered around the schedule, this week presumably back to normal..

if only there was some way of looking up, i don't know, the bbc4 schedule...

Thu 23 Jun 2011 19:30
Fri 24 Jun 2011 00:45
Sat 25 Jun 2011 23:25

"Noel Edmonds looks at highlights of the weekly 1976 pop charts and introduces the Surprise Sisters, the Real Thing, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Flintlock, Osibisa, Archie Bell and the Drells, Brian Ferry, the Wurzels and Ruby Flipper."

osibisa... and weren't flintlock the band that one of the tomorrow people used to be in?

lots of non-chart entries in last week's i noticed. unless they are using the top 40 for eligibility but only listing the top 30.

No, a whole bunch of not-charting stuff.

"New Edition" get the wildcard that is "some sort of BBC TV programme tie-in". I remember two theme tunes for "Saturday Special", the variety show that came each week from a different seaside town. One was a hit "Summertime City", and one wasn't, "Get a little sand between yr toes". That one I don't remember at all.

"Natural Rhythm" and "Don't make promises" weren't, but got a fair amount of radio play.

ouch, that Surprise Sisters medley of Beatles songs was really bad. Anyone know when TOTP stopped this variety show nonsense or was it basically just When Punk Happened(tm)?

Not SAHB's best single, but better than yet another repeat of this Archie Bell video.

That cover of Got To Get You Into My Life was all kinds of awful.

have only watched half of last night's but i laughed all the way through alex harvey. the clown. the bassist's hair. the drummer in a suit. the ax!

the surprise sisters were no way sisters.

I haven't seen this weeks yet, but I do remember it, I think.

Did they medley into "You won't see me" ?

Yes.