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

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.

Hmmmm, girlbands weren't quite as, uh, glamorous in the 70s as now, were they? All worth it for SAHB, Alex didn't do much but still looked pretty scary!

BOLAN!

There must have been some kind of BBC enforced limit on the amount of excitement that TOTP could serve up in the mid 70's. Every stomping track had to be followed by some abject shite. Bolan followed by Lancaster & Bile, Frampton ("tube in the mouth") followed by Brotherhood of Spam (another song with a stupid twist ending).

DLT's world famous dual purpose pirate/yokel impersonation...

ruby flipper on acid again last night.

and for all the dreadfulness (bom, wurzels) i quite enjoyed it.

odd how that disco Mud song has been lost to history despite being on TOTP 4 or 5 times.

(i only got 17 minutes of the longer version but the extra bit i saw was a Thin Lizzy repeat)

Yes, Bolan.

Was that his last TOTP appearance? And, didn't he look so young? (and healthy!)

Actually, I shouldn't 'ask' that, I should know..

(There's a "Marc on TV" DVD that I did a sleevenote for, I don't think it has any TOTP though)

'Laser Love' from October 1976?
(and if the BBC can the repeats before we get that far)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tewzXZrUmJ0&feature=related

Liverpool Express song would have been more interesting if they'd bother to write more than just a chorus. Punk Rock = Year Zero, just decimated so much of this stuff.

But you have to remember that 99% of the British population despised/dismissed/detested punk rock and only a tiny handful of punk singles charted in 1977.

That said, my anticipation for Eddie & The Hot Rods grows with every passing week...

But you have to remember that 99% of the British population despised/dismissed/detested punk rock and only a tiny handful of punk singles charted in 1977

I know but its effect in the music business was more profound, it was like they realised that Mr. Big being the Most Exciting New Act of the year was, all things considered, not really good enough. Uh, but maybe I'm rewriting history here because wiki tells me Mr. Big's big hit was 1977!

Ah, but do you remember "Christmas with Dicken"? Their big hit "Romeo" was somewhat at the close of play, but still...

also:

That said, my anticipation for Eddie & The Hot Rods grows with every passing week...

― mike t-diva, Friday, 1 July 2011 11:20 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

We are of a mind, yes.

Demis Roussos looking like Spock's psychic half-brother from that Star Trek movie.

This week is pretty bad so far, two videos and Ruby Flipper pissing about (I'm not even going to call it dancing) to an instrumental.

That New Seekers track is apalling, presumably it was only bought by teenage lads who wanted to check Eve Graham out on totp.

Art Garfunkel clearly doesn't give a shit here.

I remember hating 'Diddy' David Hamilton a lot, but he's not that bad a presenter compared to the dross of Edmondsm the enforced wackiness of DLT, and the crepeiness of Sir Jimmy.

Mostly I watch this for the grim fascination of the awful music, awful fashion, ugly people and the bloke in Ruby Flipper dancing around dressed as a leopard, but I have to say the Roxy Music one tickled my fancy.

Ha Ha...wondered when the first reference to the Summer of '76 would occur...David Hamilton looking appropriately sweaty in his White whistle...

David Hamilton was very dull. His radio show used to play 'versions' from TOTP sessions to get round needletime restrictions, and was the housewives favourite. At least Edmonds was into his music..

Hamilton's R1 afternoon show also went out simultaneously on R2, as I recall - so it was MOR to the max.

RUBBISH EPISODE THIS WEEK.

longer version was 10 minutes rubbisher.

actually, i enjoyed it again.

Yes, I always watch the LONG VERSION.

I enjoyed what in 1976 I might have happily called Ruby Flidder, but obviously would not do that nowadays.

long version had extra Cherry Flipper doing a dance, Alex Harvey again and Johnny ("not Cash") Nash.

It was rubbish this week.

Also, what's with the iplayer not being updated with the longer version anymore?

i don't think it ever has been. certainly all the ones i have (think i'm missing the first) are the short version.

They did get updated previously.

the 5 iplayer downloads i have here are all the short version. am pretty certain all the others are too.

and i usually grab them the monday or tuesday after they air, which should be enough time for them to throw the longer versions up (otherwise they'd only be up for a day before being replaced)

But you have to remember that 99% of the British population despised/dismissed/detested punk rock and only a tiny handful of punk singles charted in 1977.

chapter and verse stats pls.

Big Hits: TOTP 1964-1975 on BBC2 on Saturday was much better. Lots of things everyone has seen before but it worked well enough. Driscoll/Auger still looks like 2028, not 1968.