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

Because, the first one (tonight) is 1976, where we get :

01/04/1976
With Abba, the Brotherhood of Man, the Beatles, Fox, John Miles, Diana Ross and Sailor. (R).

Then after that they are on Thursday night, 7:30pm, and basically are running weekly, each
episode being from (exactly) 35 years ago (near enough)..

Until BBC4 sack it.

Brilliant idea. I can relive my childhood. My earliest musical memories (from pre-school days) are stuff like Abba, The Wurzels, Showaddywaddy and Hot Chocolate.

This docu that's on now makes grim viewing.

The docu made some interesting points, and for all that I'd have loved if they'd started in 1964 (or whenever), 1976 is a good year to kickoff from.

The big point made was that the charts had become a 'variety' show source, as opposed to the 'teen hit parade' of the sixties. So, loads of Mathis, Roussos, BroMan, Abba and Radio DJs having comedy send-up hits.

It'll be like this for a while, but one I do remember being somewhat of a life changing moment was when Eddie and the Hot Rods did "Get out of Denver",and I went straight out and bought the (expensive) ep the next day.

I know, thesedays peopple decry the rods as being "not as seminal as Dr Feelgood", but I saw a repeat on TOTP2 and it was as good as I remembered. So, soon come, that show which showed the juxtaposition of this band against the other acts on that night.

(also, it means that the quality of dodgy Punk TOTP compilation DVDs are going to shoot up. If they get that far, of course)

What tickled me most was the former TOTP producer saying that they didn't get the Pistols on for "Anarchy In The UK" (which peaked at #38) because it didn't chart high enough, very important that we always stuck by the rules etc etc... followed by an April 1976 show featuring two (useless) acts which never charted at all.

The Hot Rods did well to get a TOTP appearance for "Get Out Of Denver", as a) the Live At The Marquee EP peaked at #43 and b) it was the lead track on the B-side.

It was track 2 on the a-side, but yeah.

Also, the funny was having Dave Bartram saying "yeah, a TOTP appearance guaranteed you a top 10 hit" and demonstrating this with a screening of their massive top (fillinasecond) hit "Trocadero"...

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xpost - Aaargh, so it was!

The big point made was that the charts had become a 'variety' show source, as opposed to the 'teen hit parade' of the sixties. So, loads of Mathis, Roussos, BroMan, Abba and Radio DJs having comedy send-up hits.

Am I misunderstanding? cos the 60s had big hits for Ken Dodd, Englebert Humperdinck, the Barron Knights etc etc

Oh sure, but the theory being that those were in the minority, show-content wise.

oh on the show. yeah probly fair enough. chartwise it was variety a-go-go

Yeah, I don't think the point was that the charts had become (more) like a variety show, but that TOTP had.

fuck Noel Edmonds and his 'comedy' links

fuck Noel Edmonds and his 'comedy' links

I know, what a dick. Still we had the Four Seasons doing "Silver Star" this week. Also Eric Carmen's "interview" with Noel Edmonds, where you couldn't hear a word he was saying, don't be shy Eric!

Interviews on TOTP? that's a rarity...

"Inteview" not really the word.

"You wrote a song for Dana didn't you?"
"Mumble mumble mumble"
"What's the best song you've ever written?"
"Mumble mumble mumble All By Myself"
"Well all the best with the new single"
"Mumble"

Don't know what song he wrote for Dana

Oh and Noel was saying what a good album "Eric Carmen" was: a rare display of good taste from Edmonds there!

Noel had to say he liked it cos he didn't want to blow a raspberry.

My god that it horribly formed.

*is*

OK so Google tells me Dana covered "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again" from the aforementioned "Eric Carmen" album

Is Dana the one who did some religious kids programme called 'Wake Up Sunday'?

Sounds likely

10CC, "Mandy Fly Me" was on too. Fantastic!

NEdmonds always had his love of singer-songwriters, to be fair.

Big fan of Harry Chapin, yer Edmonds.

Balderdash certainly describes droll Noel's career.

This was easily the most WTF song on this week's show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iISUroWbu2U

I watched last night's 1976 episode, it was amazingly and compellingly bad. Lots of odd-looking folks I've never heard of awkwardly performing novelty songs, and one of Pan's People doing some remarkably gratuitous ass-shaking in the direction of the camera. I need more.

70s was the golden age for ugly blokes, you could still end up in a band on TOTP with groupies galore. Rubettes' (sans caps) song sounded more like the Beatles than the Rutles!

I'm watching this now. LOL at the male members of the Vagabonds miming the female backing vocals. Something massively depressing about second tier disco groups though, like they're trapped in time, it's as if they're composed entirely of all the bits of late 70's disco that don't influence music today.

Shoeless and carrying a walking stick with a bicycle bell on it? Fucking hell, Harpo could teach Lady gaga a thing or two.

Sheer Elegance one of the most misnamed bands ever judging by what they were wearing, the uglyness of the Rubettes & their overcocky drummer, the utter WTFness of Harpo. mandatory viewing from now on!

I'm sure Punk would never of happened if Sky+ would of been available in 1976...ended up fast forwarding most of last night's show...bring back Noosha Fox...become a little obsessed with s-s-single bed...

^^^ same goes for watching it on iPlayer. I don't know if 'compellingly bad' is the term, or just 'bad'.

the uglyness of the Rubettes & their overcocky drummer

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx-aH0oBscw

definitely 'compellingly bad' for me. and Fox lady really reminded me of Alison Goldfrapp which is a Good Thing.

Noosha F missing link between Clare Grogan and Goldfrapp. Love that record.

Ah, been catching up via good old iplayer on the wii.

Old enough to remember these episodes quite clearly in some cases.

Sad that they haven't gone back far enough in time to have Sparks on.

Still, don't recall that Gilbert O'Sullivan song though I must have heard it then.

Oh, last I heard, they are definitely doing this run for a year.

After that? Who knows...

Still, don't recall that Gilbert O'Sullivan song though I must have heard it then.

He was long gone as commercial proposition by 1976. That song sounded like a demo, did artists have to re-record tracks? I know they had to re-record vocals, hence the ubiquity of the Ladybirds. But then other acts obviously just mimed to the record.

They did 'have' to.

A lot of them switched the tapes post-session, apparently.

ooooooo-oooooooooooooh Vienna it's Slik

It's Midge Uuuurrrr...

And Paul knickerless

Jesus Christ, superstar?

DLT looks like Badly Drawn Boy.

This is sooooo much better than last weeks....

Only one novelty act so far.

Shit Brotherhood Of Man are still number one...

That might have been down to the backing musicians:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hale_and_Pace#%22The_Stonk%22
Brian May playing keyboards and guitar, (...) David Gilmour and Tony Iommi on guitar, with Neil Murray on bass guitar. Cozy Powell, Roger Taylor and Rowan Atkinson – appearing as his character Mr. Bean – performed on drums. Joe Griffiths and Mike Moran contributed on keyboard.[

Madonna fails to unseat Jason Donovan from #1 - I'd forgotten how totally obsessed the public were with him at the time. Also I think this is the first Guns'N'Roses appearance on TOTP despite them being huge for two years by this point.

catching up...

i guess if you're going to mime playing synth on totp then mime using a 'cost the same as a house at the time' fairlight.

> Also I think this is the first Guns'N'Roses appearance on TOTP

GnR was the playout video a couple of episodes ago too. lots of wasp and poison(?) recently too

> lol Lenny Henry fucks up his link "I'd rather jack Profumo" or was that what he meant to say?

iirc he said Supremo, corrected to Profumo by the other presenter. the comic relief thing was an entire show of comedians fluffing their lines or saying them off mic.

lol at reynolds girls dissing the olds and being followed by dusty springfield.

The main riff from Kon Kan's 'I Beg Your Pardon' seems to be the same as Spagna's 'Call Me', except played on a cheap Casio keyboard. Also this single seems to be equal parts Jive Bunny and The KLF, with some can't-be-arsed early 90s Eurodance vocals.

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Madonna snipped at the end there because of 'controversial' black Jesus? I know the Pepsi advert was pulled very last minute that same week (or the previous week).

It's been short every time I've seen it, like little more than a minute each time, but longer tonight, if anything. Oddly it does seem to be the black Jesus part, ie the end.

The The, tonight, but nothing like their best. Fuzzbox ditto. The Cult ditto.

Kon Kan sound to me like a cheap new order.

Can you keep a secret? Brother Beyond are shit. Oh wait that's not a secret.

xp I think we're entering the TOTP era where if you were #1 and couldn't/wouldn't appear in the studio, the producers wouldn't play more than 2/3 of your video the first week, then the merest suggestion of the video on subsequent weeks.

They were really big on the whole "Look!!! Bands and singers appearing in the studio!!! Still (mostly) miming, but in the studio!!!" at this point.

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The shit-arse Ritzy's nightclub I used to frequent as a student just two years after tonight's episode would play Simply Red's version of 'If You Don't Know Me' as the last record of the night.

INXS reminding me of how much I loathe 'band in the studio recording the song you're listening to' videos.

also live footage badly synced to the recorded version

I turned violently against TOTP at the end of 1988 and I think I only saw it twice* in 1989 so I'm seeing these for the first time and often don't seem to have any memory of the tracks.

*I have a vague memory of seeing the Beautiful South doing that "I love you from the bottom of my pencil case" song shortly after we moved house that summer and I'm pretty sure I saw Black Box doing 'Ride On Time' in the autumn, but that's it

The first half of 1989 was even more of a renaissance than I’d remembered. So much good stuff. I think it continues for at least another year or so; there was a solid run of Number Ones at the start of 1990.

I don't remember seeing Roland Gift's cartwheel into a piano riff.

Wasn't expecting Metallica the other week.

I'm pretty sure nearly-15-year-old snoball saw that and said "FUCK YES!!! METAL!!! RAAAAARRRRRRWWWRRRR!!! WIDDLY-WIDDLY-WIDDLY-WIDDLY-WIDDLY-WIDDLY-WIDDLY-WIDDLY-WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" and then went out and bought a black t-shirt.

Yeah cudos to the editors for playing the thrashout half rather than the ballad half!

*kudos

According to Bill Drummond's intro to the reprint of 'The Manual', Edelweiss followed the instructions in the book to get this hit.

and it's godawful. looks like the skits they do on red bull soap box races.

Somehow that tie doesn't suit Freddie Mercury at all. A couple of fairly duff episodes in a row, but IIRC 1989 was like that generally.

Stefan Dennis' 'Don't It Make You Feel' is the worst Neighbours related single and in some sense simultaeously the best, because it's so brazen in it's awfulness.

Haven't seen the latest ones yet, but feel like taking a few minutes off from coronavirus-gloom to talk about last week's ones. As I've said before, I scarcely saw any TOTP in 1989 so these repeats are filling in gaps for me. I bought 'Rok Da House' by Beatmasters/Cookie Crew in early '88 and until the last few weeks assumed it was a one-hit-wonder for both groups, so it's been a pleasant surprise to see both of them had more chart success the following year. I knew the Beatmasters one, just didn't know it was by them (and was convinced as a 15-year-old that it went 'Wolves in the house!'). 'Eternal Flame' is a guilty pleasure of mine. Whenever I hear it, I'm transported back to that weird period where secondary school has kind of half-finished but not completely - all the 16-year-olds who weren't going to college fucked off at Easter and those of us who were left had two or three weeks of cramming before the GCSE exams started.

Yeah that Edelweiss thing is horrific.

I quite like "eternal flame" now but it was bloody EVERYWHERE at the time

I'll see your Stefan Denis and raise you the theme to cell block h.

Acapella thing was on twice yesterday, hadn't heard it before.

Aside from those, there's a lot in the chart that you still hear, usually on radio 2.

Wow, this (terrible) Live Report song I am hearing for the first time here, apparently came 2nd in Eurovision with 130 points… amazing how the UK’s popularity has fallen so much.

Never heard that Stefan Denis thing before. It was a special kind of awful, but I think the London Boys one a week or two before was possibly worse.

As a bit of a connoisseur of Hi-NRG I enjoyed that one.

Yes the Stefan Denis song is admirably terrible.

I was surprised by that London Boys track in that it seemed like the kind of thing that would've gotten some meme revival or brought up more in lol 80's discussions so I googled them and, well, that explained that.

Come on, Requiem is a masterpiece compared to Stefan Denis

You are referring to their untimely deaths in a car accident?

Didn't know that, blimey.

'I Drove All Night' - I always thought the line was "crapped in your room".

"Is that alright?"

the Beautiful South doing that "I love you from the bottom of my pencil case" song

'Song For Whoever' - this song illustrates my general problem with The Beautiful South, in that lyrically they frequently risk sounding like they think they're being clever in self-congratulatory way.

How do you distinguish between a songwriter who sounds like they think they're being clever, and one who sounds like they are clever? "Song For Whoever" is fantastic.

Or a songwriter who is clever even though they don't (immediately) sound like they are? It's not that 'Song For Whoever' isn't a great song, because it is. It's that I can see the scaffolding, and for me at least that's a bit distracting. Soft Cell's 'Say Hello Wave Goodbye' (similar in that the character singing the song is a shithead) works better for me because the writing is less noticeable, even though all lyrics are written. I prefer the lyrics of Duran Duran as they are clever even though they frequently sound stupid. Compared to Spandau Ballet, where the lyrics are obviously written. I guess I like songs best when the lyrics don't sound like they were written, which is ridiculous.

Urgh I hate the Beautiful South. Clever lyrics sure, but so musically beige.

lol Simon Parkin

Way too much Bono these past two episodes.

Yes, the Clannad thing is rubbish. I only know them from Robin of Sherwood.

Back to Life though - what a fucking tune to this day.

Goes without saying, but watching old ToTP generally demonstates that the songs that endure do so for reason.

"back to life, back to reality" - if only eh!

Goes without saying, but watching old ToTP generally demonstates that the songs that endure do so for reason.

Absolutely. Also noticeable just how much doesn't endure or even exist as a bad memory despite being ubiquitous at the time. Before all these reruns I would have guessed Kim Wilde had had about three or four hits, but she seems to be on TOTP every week. As for Shakin' Stevens, he seems to have had dozens, but does anyone actually remember them? I'd have been able to name This Old House, Green Door and that Christmas one and then I'd have been struggling.