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

1st episode tonight the worst in a long while.

It was tough going

I can imagine the ego salving conversation the producers had with Michael Bolton / Michael Bolton's "people" re him introducing the show: "OK so we'd like Michael, er, Mr Bolton to introduce the show and announce that Barbara Striesand is going to be on. But then he'll perform last for an unreasonably long time with a terrible cover version so really he's the most important act on the show, OK?"

2nd episode was kind of rough as well.

the 1980 one though was hit after hit, all things you still hear, 42 years later.

Janice and John presenting the 1985 one. both dead now.

Dismal last night - never in human history have so many session musicians displayed such gritted-teeth fake enthusiasm. The rest of it made a minor 2 Unlimited hit and sodding Stiltskin seem like the bleeding edge of musical innovation.

Carry Me Home is one of the best singles ever, but it wasn't the best performance of it. A bit too croaky and mixed a bit too high.

In 1994 I was living in a shared house where one of my housemates had cable TV. Among the channels was The Box - 'Music television you control' - in other words a fairly basic video request channel. People would phone a number and then dial a three digit number to select a particular video. For about a month in 1994 it seemed like the only two videos they played were Prodigy's 'No Good' and General Levy's 'Incredible'.

At some point we'll get to see the episode of TOTP where Levy gets the audience to chant "booyaka booyaka".

Carry Me Home is one of the best singles ever, but it wasn't the best performance of it. A bit too croaky and mixed a bit too high.

Definitely better this week. Overall there was a lot to love tonight.

Swamp Thing! In my memory I'd written it off as a slightly annoying novelty, turns out it was in fact an absolute tune.

I remember The Box well, but from a few years later than Snoball. Home of 'No Way No Way' by Vanilla.

1994 episodes dire again.

1981 contained good things i haven't thought about since, well, 1981. the bad manners, the hazel o'connor. and i don't think i'd ever heard that version of John I'm Only Dancing. and teardrop explodes at #8 in the chart (not played but...)

Swamp Thing is really terrific. It also led a trend of (mostly bad) country Eurodance-y type things; although only Two Cowboys (in a week or two) and later Rednex did really well, there was also Bravado's Harmonica Man (37 in June) and 2 in a Tent's When I'm Cleaning Windows (25 in December), the latter of which, while not country obv, is still the most obvious ST descendant.

strangely enough I loved Swamp Thing at the time and didn't care for it much last night.

otoh there was 'Babies' which is still one of my favourite songs, really happy to see that.

Enjoyed some bits of these even if it was mostly mediocre. Mariah's performance really stood out to me.

I associate Pulp too much with the dreary dominance of Britpop to fully love them, but realise that's unfair - Jarvis is/was an incredible performer and yes babies is a bit of a banger.

One of many odd minor editorial choices in this era is only giving the viewers the name of the EP rather than the song from it being performed, cf Babies.

I think that whether or not you support Manchester United, or care about footy at all, we can all agree "Come On You Reds" is a gorgeous piece of music.

It's a race for the remote whenever that one pops up for me. Fingers in ears and lalala to drown it out. Visceral hatred. Granted I'm a Liverpool fan but I don't think it's entirely that

and now you've got it stuck in my head again thanks

Schemiechel, Parker, Pallister
Irwin, Sharpe, Bruce and Ince
Hughes, McClair, Keane and Cantona
Robson, Kanchelskis and Giggs...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J36msFlBRTI

I've always felt that Angus Deayton's presenting style is this washing machine advert and very little else.

I liked him on it tbh. Overall first episode was far better. The second peaked in the opening three minutes (though, admittedly, so did the first) and bottomed out on the forever horrendous Cleopatra's Cat.

hated Deayton, his snarky remarks about Robert Palmer were a low point

Just catching up on recent episodes - what was with the butchering of large chunks of the verses on ‘Babies’? Don’t remember that when it aired in the 90’s.

didn't notice that when it aired last week

Oasis - what if Slade were knobheads?

I wonder why people bother covering Cameo's 'Word Up'? The original is perfect. Gun's version here is better than Mel B's attempt from 1999 but still it just sounds like a cover a band would throw into a live set to mix things up. Their cover version of Hot Chocolate's 'Every 1's A Winner' - which they also released as a single - is a similar mix of competency and head scratching "why would anyone do this?".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFkBXas4YL4

I prefer Alan Vega's approach of ignoring the tune... and the words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA7z-rSYxjQ

the 1978 show was like punk never happened

the Gun version is one of two covers I can think of that was later supplanted by a soundalike for a similar audience (Korn)

the other is how Tiesto shoved aside Orbit/Corsten's Adagio for Strings (not as much a soundalike as Korn to Gun admittedly, but definitely the same audience in theory).

the Julian Cope was an odd thing, one for being a random album track and another for his performance (which the audience seemed to enjoy)

What DID totp bloke think your dad would be saying about Julian Cope? I think my dad would have prob called him a poser.

Gun, weirdly, had among the most enthusiastic fans in the TOTP audience I've seen.

Is it known how TOTP audiences were chosen? Did bands get to bring their entourages/fan clubs?

Always funny when there's a Reggae or R&B artist singing about the black experience and it cuts to the awkward dancing of the blondest 14 year olds you've ever seen.

My sister was in the audience once, I should ask her. I think it was the same as any other TV show with an audience, you bought tickets in advance, you just had to hope there was somebody you liked in the studio that week.

I've been in the audience before when it was recorded at BBC TV Centre. A friend and I just turned up after hearing from somebody that there was a good chance of being let in if you arrived in time. This doesn't really make complete sense but I can't remember any more about what inspired us to go.

The girls in my school would sometimes go on around this era.

the Julian Cope was an odd thing, one for being a random album track and another for his performance (which the audience seemed to enjoy)

― koogs, Monday, 17 April 2023 06:33 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

It was very odd - it looked like something off The Tube, but with a terrible sound mix (as you say, maybe the audience got a better one)

TOTP already shifted to 9pm tonight because of the snooker and now it's been delayed a bit more. Sometimes things don't change a bit. At least the balls aren't orange tonight.

Anyone who saw the beginning of Britain's Got Talent last Saturday will know that Ant & Dec still can't dance.

This week's shows only worth it for a few songs - Shampoo, Rozalla, Youssou N'Dour and Neneh Cherry - but still worth it.
Really coming back to me how much Wet Wet Wet can fuck right off.

A good friend of mine until quite recently thought Youssou N'Dour was two blokes called Youssou and Dour.

Haha, that’s brilliant.

My mum thought Del Amitri was a bloke called Derek.

The first time I saw Olivia Newton John on TV, there were three people on stage, so I thought...

What was Wet Wet Wet's deal, exactly? Audience reactions seem to suggest they were a kind of boyband, but their music doesn't resemble NKOTB or even Take That in any way (plus they play instruments). I'm having trouble thinking of another group that you could compare them to, though their uniqueness by no means makes them less crap.

I remember at the time, but can find no current reference to, suggestions that Wishing I Was Lucky had had more spent promoting it than any previous major label debut single.