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"...

32

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...

Travel Travel, apparently xpost

(Soz, 30yrold humor)

Thanks for the Jukebox Jury. It was essential viewing in our house when I was a kid. I'd forgotten about the excrutiating close ups on the audience while they played the singles! I can remember hearing The B52s for the first time on it with 'Rock Lobster', which I seeem to recall was deemed a miss.

A compilation of Pet Shop Boys' performances on the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 10 December 1998.

(a compilation programme of the Boys' TOTP performances, first broadcast in 1998, being shown again tonight)

Oh and it's not a revised repeat, so I don't know why they're using an image from this performance from TOTP in 2000, which definitely won't be in the programme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbJz81cuVcg

Simon Mayo isn't joking about 1988's summer "finally starting hopefully", it was a real wash out that year.

I HEAR THE ROAR OF THE BIG MACHINE

Andrew 'Look I'm totally not a goth OK? It's all just a big misunderstanding!' Eldritch

Random 1987 episode and fyc cover of buzzcocks song that I'd forgotten, a Bowie single I've never heard before (day in day out), a Eurovision thing, ditto, ferry aid. Slightly more interesting than 88. But only slightly.

And this one has Jackie Wilson, Percy sledge and ben e king in the top 10 (the last two being no 2 and no 1). Odd.

Nick Kamen's in the chart as well, so I guess this is all advert and film driven (stand by me)

Bruce Springsteen enters Soft Rock hell.

"You know what I'm going to do? Appear in the crowd on TOTP standing next to Janice Long while holding a taxidermied goose."

I really thought for a moment that Kim Wilde was going to push that cake right in Glenn Medeiros's face.

I realised I'd had that t'Pau song in the back of my head for 30 years and had forgotten it was them

Is this Andy Crane's first TOTP?

Worth sitting through Glenn Medeiros with the sound off to get to the video of George Michael's 'Monkey'.

Anyone else would look like a prize fool Jason Donovan in that hat-and-braces combo.

This is a bit 'songs heard while shopping' but I think it fits better here. After work this evening I was in WH Smiths trying to buy a Twix - which they didn't sell, I mean since when doesn't WH SMiths sell Twixes? I could have bought a giant Toblerone, but not a regular Twix. Anyway they were playing Bros' "I Owe You Nothing", and if the decor had been poo brown and orange (which is how WHS used to roll before they switched to white and purple in the early 90s) it would have felt just like 1988.

You'd think with all their jumping around that Shaky and Yazz would have teamed up to produce an aerobics video.

All About Eve in lipsyncing (in) action.

...and now live.

Top quality nonsense Iron Maiden lyrics here. 14 year old snoball liked this song quite a bit, enough to stick it on a mix tape with IIRC George Michael's 'Monkey' and Michael Jackson's 'Dirty Diana' either side.

Which member of Chris Rea's band on this performance of On The Beach '88 would you most like to hang with?

Mike Read's on the beach / breakers segue actually made me lol - possibly the first time in a while from TOTP.

SPOILERS this Julio / Stevie joint wasn't a future Number 1 after all.

Whew!

LOL at Chris Lowe's 'pissed up Brit in Spain' outfit for this performance of 'Domino Dancing'.

Andy Crane's slicked back haircut makes him look like a mildly creepy shop window dummy that's come to life.

Just looking at tonights episode: '88 was such a dreadful time for pop music. A Jason Donovan bland-out, Phil Collins at no. 1 emoting through his sweaty lips. Pig vomit. No wonder, I paid no attention to the charts at the time and played with my Transformers instead.

might be one for the 'tech advances actually backwards' thread but these TOTP episodes were simulcast in stereo on radio 1. try doing that now...

I don't even remember that Lovely Day remix but wow was that phoned in

"Big Fun" at the outro was lovely though so not all bad

I didn't see that one, was watching around 9pm and the Pasadenas were the outro. I did see Big Fun come up in the chart countdown and said oh that's a classic to my wife

xxxp I feel that simulcasting made them clean up the audio a bit and get rid of that echoey mono sound with loads of crowd noise over everything that the last few months worth of episodes have had. I don't remember if it was Christmas 1988 or 1989 when I got a Toshiba 'walkman' with built-in radio to replace my £6 shit-arse Alba, but I did try the whole simulcast listening experience a couple of times. I usually couldn't be bothered - don't know why, as the sound on our TV was mono and tinny. Simulcasting only lasted for a couple more years anyway, because of the introduction of NICAM. Predictably we didn't have a TV capable of decoding NICAM until years later.

'88 was such a dreadful time for pop music

I can't agree with that. I probably bought more singles in the first six months of 1988 than any other time and it's been great seeing them all on TOTP again, especially S-Express. That said, I got less and less interested in the charts in the second half of the year, only bought three singles (as far as I can remember - Yeke Yeke, Teardrops and Need You Tonight), and after the hell of Mistletoe & Wine v Especially For You pretty much gave up on Top of the Pops altogether by 1989.

It's not quite as bad as the mid 70s, but for a couple of years there was an increasing disconnect between the charts and actually interesting music (particularly hip-hop, house, etc.). Although TOTP doesn't get as bad as the light entertainment wasteland of 1976, because the big artists still went on the show. Among other things that does mean we're in for an increase in performances from SAW acts - Pete Waterman even mentioned during an interview how much they valued getting their singers on the show. It's a situation that doesn't start to line up again until Madchester becomes nationally big in late 1989.

ffs the studio audience clapping out of time to Erasure's performance of 'A Little Respect'.

I remember the simulcast thing, managed to hook up the radio to the stereo audio in on the video. I got the stone roses and happy mondays totp that way.

Was the whole of the UK in FM by that point? I can't recall but i thought that was more towards the start of the 90s. Either way i wonder how many people even bothered with the whole simulcast business. It was very much of the 'Beerling' era wasn't it, all that '31 days In May' stuff and round-the-world yachting trips and suchlike.

I remember that there was a big push to promote Radio 1 as being on FM, because around 1990 the standard station jingle became "Radio 1 FM". Although even in 1988 I sometimes had trouble tuning in.

(Only slightly connected) I used to listen to Capital Radio as a teenager, despite living maybe 8 or 9 miles outside the M25. Chris Tarrant in the morning, Pat Sharp later on (I'm not really selling this, am I?), lots of adverts featuring Willie Rushton (or something who sounded like him) promoting 'London Car Telephones' to the tune of 'Hanging on the Telephone'. As I was outside of London, the FM signal wasn't strong enough for my radio to pick up, so I used to listen on medium wave. At some point in the second half of 1988 I was devastated to wake up to hear loads of 'golden oldies' from the 60s being played by an unfamiliar DJ. It turned out they'd split it into two radio stations and now the MW signal was 'Capital Gold' and Capital was only available on the FM which I couldn't get. I think I listened to Radio 1 for a few months after that, but hated the DJs and just drifted away from pop music. Not sure why I felt compelled to share this, but I've typed it now so might as well post it.

I lived slightly further outside the M25 at the time, and I remember one sole occasion around 1986 where I managed to pick up Capital on my mono radio cassette recorder. At the time we had a TV aerial that was large enough to get LWT, and there'd be adverts for Capital and I fetishised London life through watching programmes like The Six O'Clock Show.

Meanwhile this week, Milli Vanilli mime on TOTP. And everywhere else.

Oh look it's the latest Terminator reboot starring Tom Jones.

I'd actually forgotten how excruciatingly bad this cover version was. The original Prince version gets away with the lyrics because he performs them in a light handed way. But this is like watching a task from The Apprentice. Or Celebrity X Factor.

Incidentally that segue of Anthea Turner over-excitedly introducing Royal House's 'Can You Party' featured in a TOTP documentary, specifically a section about how bad the show became in the mid to late 80s.

I lived slightly further outside the M25 at the time, and I remember one sole occasion around 1986 where I managed to pick up Capital on my mono radio cassette recorder. At the time we had a TV aerial that was large enough to get LWT, and there'd be adverts for Capital and I fetishised London life through watching programmes like The Six O'Clock Show.

I hear you.

And now "Capital" radio is everywhere St's local radio station

Blummin spelling corrector!