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

Blummin spelling corrector!

Chris de Burgh, the Alan Titchmarsh of music.

Actually that's kind of harsh on Alan Titchmarsh.

Brother Beyond encapsulate that era perfectly. I don't think I've ever heard that Prince song. I must give Lovesexy a listen sometime. I ignored it as I heard it was poor.

Who was the lady co-presenter? She looked a bit uncomfortable presenting, her eyes were darting everywhere

Sybil Ruscoe.

Ah, it's the time of the acid house scare where they don't even say the track name if it has acid in the title (Jolly Roger, acid man)

Don't think I've ever heard the Kraze track that is in the charts.

A quick YouTube tells me I'm missing nothing

Would that be The Party? It’s a classic crossover house track.

"Jack To The Sound Of The Underground" by Hithouse AKA 'Theme from The Mary Whitehouse Experience'.

Yes that is the violin player from Dexys Midnight Runners playing whatever that wind instrument is next to Tanita Tikaram. I could never figure out what some of the lyrics to this song were - "pig out til you've seen the light"?

susie mathis? was she ever a dj? oh, bbc radio manchester, i guess that counts.

"Subsequently, in 2009, Mathis became a Charity Manager working for Mohammed Al Fayed."

yazz seems to be on every episode recently.

(it's an oboe, i think)

can't remember robin beck. but it sounds familiar. was it a coke advert? ha, yes.

Was the whole of the UK in FM by that point?

Wow they were really pushing the whole Radio 1 FM weren't they.

I have no recollection of this Sam Fox track but it's not terrible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9usE58DQWY

Humanoid's 'Stakker' - another song that they won't show on TOTP because 'oh-noes acid means drugs'.

Just been catching up on these. Quite surreal to see Steve Wright in his smiley t-shirt with Caron Keating saying 'aciiieeed'.

He Ain't Heavy was used in a Miller Lite advert, wasn't it? I'm assuming that the Commodores' Easy was also back in the charts because it was in an advert, but I can't remember what. I'm convinced Lovely Day was in an advert for Mars Milk, but I can't find any evidence on the internet to back this up.

'Easy' was used in a Halifax Building Society advert at the time.

I remember that Sam Fox track, it's ace!

Humanoid's 'Stakker' - another song that they won't show on TOTP because 'oh-noes acid means drugs'.

I'm pretty sure it does get shown on TOTP because I was reading about it a couple of days ago.

Stakker hasn't aged at all, still an amazing track. Snowman mix too

Oh wow it was actually on the very next TOTP (1/12/1988).

Are they skipping any episodes at this point? I doubt js is still presenting but is Mike Smith? Dlt?

What was Susie Mathis doing at this point? Gary said about her being on TOTP in 1968, and I saw she worked as a charity director for the Al fayeds, but was she the new Sybil Ruscoe or some such?

BBC local radio - at this point it was increasingly common for TOTP to be co-presented by a random DJ. Unlike the 90s where they'd bring in Chris Eubank or whoever.

Lol @ Angry Anderson

"Burning Bridges" - the worst Quo single? Mainly because of that interminably long-winded keyboard riff that makes up two thirds of the song. Meanwhile I'd forgotten all about Scott & Charlene's wedding on Neighbours (it was blown up into a ridiculously big deal by the BBC) but now I vaguely remember this song although who's this Angry Anderson?

Also if you think that 'Downtown 88' is a cynical cash grab try the 1976 disco-tastic re-recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7nC_Z773Do

Bernard Sumner dances like someone trying to take a dump while climbing a ladder.

they've changed a bananarama

You've read Karl Marx and you've taught yourself to use a rhyming dictionary... oh wait you haven't because you've tried to rhyme 'Marx' with 'dance'.

(that's weird - i watched 1988 big hits episode this morning and the above line jumped out at me too (is bros))

I'd love to know what Neil is thinking when he looks at the camera here. Maybe something like "fuck everyone at Smash Hits who thought this would be over in a year".

oh wow, is this 'shit Bros lyrics' hour? "I watch you crumble like a very old wall"

Phil Collins looks like a boy wearing his dad's suit. It's a real marvel of late 80s boxy shouldered baggy trousered tailoring.

Xpost I used to think it was "I want your bum boy, like a very old boy"

I knew it couldn't be, but never found out what it really was.

Anyone else watch the TOTP Christmas show yesterday? Would that be what TOTP would be like if it were revived today? Because it seemed very Brit School and safe.

I missed it, I thought it'd be after the Queen for some reason

TOTP Big Hits 1989 - this is a year when there were a lot of big changes in pop music.
Also I was unaware that there was even a Happy Mondays vs Pulp episode of Bargain Hunt.
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/640x360/p06m6pv7.jpg

I really liked this song at the time. However, Marc Almond's 50s rocker / forehead vein look is distressing enough, but it's combined with Gene Pitney's Terry-Venebles-does-Gene-Pitney-on-Celeb-Stars-In-Their-Eyes appearance.

Mike and the Mechanics: their singer looks alarmingly like Phil Collins, I wonder if that was in his contract? 'Clause 15.a.III - must look at least 85% like Phil Collins at all times.'
Also here's Phil Collins with perhaps the worst 'multi-millionaire rock star tells you YES YOU the average person what to think about some social issue' song of the time.

that bargain hunt episode made the national news because someone related to the HM camp was caught bidding for their items.

Bez's girlfriend.

That remake of 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' was unspeakably awful. Somehow I have no memory of it.

Happy Mondays vs Pulp episode of Bargain Hunt.

googled on seeing Candida's hands there and she was diagnosed with arthritis at sixteen. it hurt just looking at that pic.

that bargain hunt episode made the national news because someone related to the HM camp was caught bidding for their items.

― koogs, Saturday, January 4, 2020 4:37 AM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

lmao. I really want to see this episode now.

just watched best of 1989 and it seems like more of the same tbh. the meatiest thing out of the tracks they played was transvision vamp (and then salvaged at the last minute by the stone roses)

AND SO IS MICHAEL FISH!

I don't recall Jacob Rees-Mogg being in U2...
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6d/Angel_harlem.jpg