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

Apparently 1000 featured Savile AND Travis AND Glitter AND King, which is quite the royal flush.

haha wow.

http://www.tv.com/shows/top-of-the-pops-uk/5th-may-1983-1000th-episode-417528/

Massively extended party edition with many old and new performances to celebrate the 1000th edition of the show.

Presenters: Dave Lee Travis, Steve Wright, John Peel, Gary Davies, Mike Smith, Paul Gambaccini, Peter Powell, Simon Bates, Tommy Vance, Richard Skinner, David Jacobs, Mike Read, Tony Blackburn, Noel Edmonds, David Jensen, Janice Long and Jimmy Savile

Playlist:
Thompson Twins - We Are Detective [Performance]
10 C.C. - I'm Not In Love [Repeat Performance]
Abba - Waterloo [Repeat Performance]
Adam Ant - Goody Two Shoes [Repeat Performance]
Beatles - All You Need Is Love [Repeat Performance]
Bee Gees - Massachusetts [Repeat Performance]
Billy.J.Kramer & The Dakotas - Little Children [Repeat Performance]
Blancmange - Blind Vision [Performance]
Blondie - Picture This [Repeat Performance]
Boomtown Rats - Looking After No.1 [Repeat Performance]
Cilla Black - Surround Yourself With Sorrow [Repeat Performance]
Cliff Richard - All My Love [Repeat Performance]
Dave Clark 5 - Bits & Pieces [Repeat Performance]
David Bowie - Starman [Repeat Performance]
Duran Duran - Is There Something I Should Know [Repeat Performance]
Elton John - Your Song [Repeat Performance]
Fun Boy Three - Our Lips Are Sealed [Performance]
Gary Glitter - Im The Leader Of The Gang(I Am) [Repeat Performance]
Heaven 17 - Temptation [Performance]
Human League - Fascination [Performance]
Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends [Repeat Performance]
Manfred Mann - Mighty Quinn [Repeat Performance]
Police - Spirits In The Material World [Repeat Performance]
Queen - Killer Queen [Repeat Performance]
Rod Stewart - Maggie May [Repeat Performance]
Rolling Stones - Brown Sugar [Repeat Performance]
Rolling Stones - Get Off Of My Cloud [Repeat Performance]
Sonny & Cher - I Got You Babe [Repeat Performance]
Spandau Ballet - TRUE [Repeat Performance]
Status Quo - Pictures Of Matchstick Men [Repeat Performance]
Supremes - Baby Love [Repeat Performance]
T.Rex - Get It On [Repeat Performance]
The Beat - Can't Get Used To Losing You [Performance]
The Move - Fire Brigade [Repeat Performance]
Zoo / New Edition - Candy Girl [Performance]

(2-2 for man u vs brighton, late equaliser from brighton. man u won 4-0 in the replay)

joboxers again, different song.

I really have no memory of them. I'm surprised, as I would have thought that a band that was a bit Dexys and a bit Madness would have caught the attention of a nine year old snoball.

my brother had their album, I thought they were crap. amazed that most of them were in Subway Sect though.

Thread:
In Praise of: "Just Got Lucky" by the Joboxers

FFS when do these presenters stop mispronouncing Depeche Mode "Depesh-ay Mode"?

Also I'd forgotten what a massive creep KC looks like singing 'Give It Up', adding an extra dimension to an otherwise by-the-numbers summer pop hit.

Well, its clear the sunshine band had sacked it, there's Howie and two women bv's, it looked like he got a quick last minute flight over not expecting a number one.

oblig: "is that a boy or a girl?" comment (c) everyone's dads 1983

Noddy Holder takes a break from trying to look like Ian Hunter ("my oh mmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy") and has a go at Slade Xmas Karaoke.

better that than sounding like Big Country..

I don't see this 'Relax' record getting to number 1 unless the BBC do something stupid like, I don't know, ban it?

I'd forgotten "Father Jack" from Father Ted had a hit single..

"'Ullo John Gotta New Motor?", performed by what appears to be someone on the board of directors of the company I work for...

keep seeing the smiths and the bunnymen in the rundowns but not on the actual show (doesn't help that the pvr didn't pick up the first couple of shows because Totp 1983 and Totp 1984 had different series ids)

anyway, found this, which is depressing:

https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/comment/86198310#Comment_86198310

Smithed?

mike?

I thought it meant something like Morrissey slapping an injunction on any broadcaster showing moving images of him on the same stage as Mike Joyce.

... or vice versa.

yeah, one of the messages a few up from that list says

"Basically in 1984 we're due to lost 14 episodes that are DLT, Savile and Smith (both of Savile's apperances are also Smithed)"

and

05/07/84 (Jimmy Savile & Mike Smith)

confirms that. i know nothing about what mike smith has done, other than die recently. no scandal that i can see.

TOTP Mike Smith Episodes?

While he was alive, Mike Smith decided not to sign the licence extension that would allow the BBC to repeat the Top of the Pops episodes that he presented. Since his passing, the BBC is continuing to respect his wishes.

wtf?

Yeah, we tried petitioning Sarah Green,but.

woah that's weird.

Another thread here that seems to imply it was Savile related:

http://z6.invisionfree.com/popscene/ar/t14077.htm

Jesus christ, could Sade's bassist possibly wear his bass any higher!?

This has gone too shit in the last couple of months.

Does it ever improve again or is it downhill all the way from now on?

Maybe it's because of the missing Mike Smith episodes. Maybe it's the increasing familiarity of the songs - I was watching TOTP every week at this point. There are a lot of high points from '84/'85 that I remember - there are some real classic number 1s coming in the next few weeks that still stand up today. But also it was a time where there wasn't much new happening - the influences of rap/hip-hop/dance music weren't really in the mainstream yet. A lot of the acts that came up in the early 80s were still around and there was not that many people coming up behind them. We're in the lull just before the late 80s really kicks in. For me the real turning point was the first Pet Shop Boys' number 1 at the beginning of 1986. Towards the end of '85 I was getting a bit bored with music, but that record in particular really got me back into music in a big way.

> the influences of rap/hip-hop/dance music weren't really in the mainstream yet

the break dance thing at the start of this week's episode was part of the rot for me, cash-in stuff, like all the landfill disco from the tail end of that.

PSB are part of the problem for me, not part of the solution.

17/05/1984
With Break Machine, Deniece Williams, Marillion, Hazell Dean, Womack & Womack and Ultravox

10/05/1984
With Queen, The Flying Pickets, Terri Wells, The Pointer Sisters and Duran Duran.

03/05/1984
With Blancmange, New Order, Kenny Loggins, Jocelyn Brown, Human League and Duran Duran.

26/04/1984
With Duran Duran, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Flying Pickets and Lionel Richie.

19/04/1984
With Blancmange, Queen, Nik Kershaw, Lionel Richie and Kool and the Gang.

the bunnymen are the only thing out of those that i'd cross the road for (blancmange and human league also, maybe)

Watched the one with the three-piece Bunnymen doing "Seven Seas" in those fish / penguin costumes last night (this one:)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VGF1mtZ1iVg

Tiny detail I found diverting: there are two fellows down the front with the wave effects - the one on the left I think is Bill Drummond, and both of them are wearing t-shirts which read "FRANKIE SAYS WHERE'S LES?"

youtube comments say:

"He refused to do the show cause it was not live (lip sync)"

I was just watching that Bunnymen perf earlier. I'm not sure if its embarrassing or brilliant.

I'm leaning towards embarrassing

Always loved that song though.

Great song

I remember Lenny Henry's parody of this Prince video but the original is pretty lols-y as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zmSn8tnJtA

Fuck me, that Elton John song was awful.

From past his prime Elton to past his prime Rod. Christ.

I liked it as a kid, and it's not bad bad, it's just Bernie and Elton being lazy.
Also Spandau Ballet looking like massive wankers at this point.

Finally, some quality!

And again, childe snoball thought this Rod song was catchy, but it's shit-awful lazy songwriting on the verses and a half-arsed vocal performance.

Those of-the-moment fx in the video of that Rod song, though!

I'm glad that at least 'Careless Whisper' was on this episode, though... if they'd 'Agadoo' instead it would have been fairly lousy from start to finish.

*played

Then again, it wasn't particularly a great chart that week... Okay, so Prince was in there, and Grandmaster Flash and the two Frankie singles which were all great, David Sylvian surprisingly in there but that track was never gonna get played, and Tears For Fears' 'Mothers Talk' one of their lesser singles... most of that chart was terrible, though.

'84-'85 were odd years - there were some great singles and some terrible dross, and not much in between. George Michael replacing Black Lace at Number 1 is a jarring flip from one extreme to the other.

It's not like 1984 and 1985 were short of great music... 1984 probably moreso than 1985, you wouldn't have thought it watching that, though!

The transition from 1980-1981 to 1984-1985 both musically and aesthetically has always fascinated me, though... reading through the Smash Hits archive, you can feel things change with Duran Duran's mega success, then Frankie, then Live Aid happens and by 1986 the whole feel of the decade has changed entirely.