Thursday 20 November 2014

A Night at Top of the Pops

The 15th November 1979 is now upon us, and this is the last show where we'll see a presenter until Simon Bates makes his debut on the 6th December!

Now you see me.....


15-11-79: Presenter: David Jensen

(26) DYNASTY – I Don’t Want To Be A Freak (But I Can’t Help Myself) (and charts)
(4) THE JAM – The Eton Rifles
(46) CLIFF RICHARD – Hot Shot
(14) DONNA SUMMER & BARBRA STREISAND – No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) (danced to by Legs & Co)
(27) THIN LIZZY – Sarah ®
(43) THE TOURISTS – I Only Want To Be With You
(15) B.A. ROBERTSON – Knocked It Off
(11) SUZI QUATRO – She’s In Love With You ®
(41) THE MOODY BLUES – Nights In White Satin
(16) KOOL & THE GANG – Ladies Night (footage from Soap Factory)
(38) SECRET AFFAIR – Let Your Heart Dance
(13) THE RAMBLERS – The Sparrow ®
(48) SHOWADDYWADDY – A Night At Daddy Gee’s
(1) DR. HOOK – When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman (video)
(24) THE ISLEY BROTHERS – It’s A Disco Night (Rock Don’t Stop) (and credits)

Dynasty ~ play over the charts with their only UK top 20 hit

The Jam ~ are back in the studio for a second performance of The Eton Rifles, the only single to be released from their latest album, Setting Sons.

Cliff Richard ~ hoping to follow up his huge hit We Don't Talk Anymore, but Hot Shot misfired and got no higher than 46.

Legs & Co ~ after some initial high heel balancing issues the girls soon find their feet in the disco part of this top 3 Donna Summer & Barbra Streisand hit.

Thin Lizzie ~ some major 7.30pm culling now, with this repeat showing of Sarah being the first victim.

The Tourists ~ they only want to be on the late edition, this one was also 7.30 chopped!

BA Robertson ~ also found himself knocked off the 7.30 show.

Suzi Quatro ~ was edited out too, with She's in Love with You at her peak in the charts.

The Moody Blues ~ "amazingly it's 12 years ago since they first appeared on the show with this song" says host David ~ and 12 years into the pop past seemed a long long time back in 1979.

Kool and the Gang ~ perform their disco classic in a Soap Factory full of ladies, of course. Ladies Night was the first of a long string of hits for Kool and the Gang over the next 8 years or so.

Secret Affair ~ with the mod follow up to Time for Action, but Let Your Heart Dance didn't make the top 30.

The Ramblers ~ another showing for the girls of Abbey Hey Junior school, now nearing their peak of number 11.

Showaddywaddy ~ this single ended a run of 9 consecutive top 20 hits for the group stretching back to 1976.

Dr Hook ~ finally made it to number one, but it was hard.

The Isley Brothers ~ play over the credits this week, with their last ever top 20 hit.


The next show is the 22nd November 1979. Due to a strike at the BBC at the time, this show was made up mostly of videos and repeats, and presented by voice over. Unfortunately for us, the voice is that of DLT and so BBC4 are skipping it. This means that next Thursday we will see the (still on strike) edition from the 29th November, which was voiced over by Peter Powell.

34 comments:

  1. The last winter of the 70s was now settling into the final few weeks of 1979 with the dark evenings and none other than David Jensen this week in the hot seat of TOTP.

    The Tourists – I remember liking this at the time as an 11-year old just starting secondary school that term, but hearing it now, 35 years later, it just feels so weak, I don’t know why, but I just can’t get into it again like Barbra Streisand & Donna Summer which still sounds strong and brilliant to this day.

    Suzi Quatro – epitomized the 70s and this was my favourite single of hers because it’s so much fun.

    Kool & The Gang – early doors in the Kool run of the next 5-6 year till the mid-80, and for me an essential start to a fabulous early 80’s launch on the pop charts, as more was to come after Ladies Night……smooch smooch….The Soap Factory backdrop to this video was in the mode of Anita Ward’s Ring My Bell earlier in the year, and I think it was he same video set.

    Showaddywaddy – end of the 70s was also end of the road for the fabulous Waddies, and Darts to that effect , as both groups were on their last legs, as a new decade round the corner could no longer hold the do wop sound.

    Dr Hook – a record hanging the round the number one spot for so many weeks has finally made it to No. 1, says Kid Jensen. Well deserved Dr Hook, I’m still in love with your beautiful woman in 2014, whoever she may be.

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  2. With Band Aid 30 in the news, let us not forget that members of Kool & The Gang participated in the original and best version of the superband. The enduringly popular Isley Brothers, versatile as ever, embraced disco with their usual adroitness, though this song is now unjustly forgotten by classic hits radio.

    There would still be a place for traditional rock and roll in the 80s courtesy of Shakin' Stevens and The Stray Cats, but not Showaddywaddy or Darts.

    Apart from Kool & The Gang, several other performers on tonight's TOTP went on to greater things in the 80s: Annie Lennox and David A Stewart would leave The Tourists to form the mega-successful Eurythmics, Secret Affair drummer Seb Shelton would join Dexys in time for the worldwide chart-topper 'Come On Eileen', and BA Robertson would co-write several notable hits for Mike & The Mechanics, including their international smash 'The Living Years'.

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    1. I remember that Kool & The Gang had about 9 or 10 band members on stage when they appeared in the TOTP studio at a future point, and it seemed hard to figure out who was who. I can see that would be a plus point for the original Band Aid single in 1984, as it felt like a population of two bands. All aboard!

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  3. Dynasty, appropriately I can imagine Fontaine Khaled grooving to this on her tiny dancefloor.

    The Jam, was Paul Weller's suit still at the dry cleaners? I notice the other two made the effort to get dressed up for the occasion.

    Cliff Richard, no wonder this wasn't a hit, it's one of those records that's so intent on proving it's a good time party song that it has nothing to back that claim up. You can't pretend to have fun.

    Even Babs was jumping on the disco bandwagon, Donna was already on it, in some ways she'd kicked it off. Liked this at the time and it's better than Ethel Merman's version of disco at least. As for Legs & Co, no Rosemary this week, it's probably about time she had a holiday.

    Just noticed Phil Lynott's silver neckerchief. Doubt you can buy those anymore.

    The Tourists, as mentioned above, at the time this sounded pretty cute, but now it sounds like a very basic light rock karaoke cover.

    B.A. Robertson, could have done without the bar mitzvah mime there, he's not exactly one to talk with a hooter like that.

    Suzi still doing that fist pumping. Kid mentioned she had been popular recently on American TV, would that be her famed Happy Days appearance?

    And slooowing things right down with the Moody Blues, all very classy and ethereal I'm sure, but it's a bit tedious. Still, flute solo!

    Kool and the Gang, I know it's a disco classic but for me this is strength 5 cheese, not my favourite of theirs. What was Soap Factory about then, and more importantly, why that odd name?

    Secret Affair, cursed with some of the most half-hearted audience participation ever seen on the show. Did Mr Affair actually play that trumpet? Can't recall in hindsight.

    The Ramblers, now rivalling Showaddywaddy for TOTP appearances. Listening to the lyrics, I have a problem: she mentions she once had a boyfriend called Bertie who builds a nest for her, fine, then to illustrate her bad luck she tells us he "tripped up and fell off the tree". But presumably Bertie was a bird, so could quite easily fly back on the branch. So what was the big deal? Was he making excuses for backing out of the relationship?

    Talking of ver 'Waddy, I can see their mistake here: Romeo Challenger (still chewing) wasn't on drums, where we all liked to see him. End of chart career right there.

    Dr Hook, now I'm listening closer to this as well, it's an extremely paranoid song, isn't it? Lots of sleepless nights in evidence, and not for the reason he'd wish for. There's even a bit of paranoid miming from Mr Hook in the video.

    Be interesting to see the video-packed version of the show next week.

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    1. Secret Affair's Ian Page DID play trumpet on both 'Let Your Heart Dance' and 'Time For Action'. Referring to my previous comment, he also went on to greater things in the 80s, though not as a musician; he became a fantasy author and contributed to the long-running 'Lone Wolf' series of gamebooks.

      As for glam rock holdovers Showaddywaddy, their time was up. British talent of a much more substantial nature, in the forms of both the ska revival and the post-punk/New Romantic movement, was arriving.

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    2. "Dynasty, appropriately I can imagine Fontaine Khaled grooving to this on her tiny dancefloor"...clutching a Cinzano and lemonade, no doubt..

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    3. Thanks for the info, Julie, I do love the Behind Closed Doors album. There were always those rock 'n' roll weekends at Butlins for Showaddywaddy. I suppose, but was Shakin' Stevens any more accomplished, looking back?

      Arthur, Joan Collins released a record or two herself, nothing disco but I think her spoken word version of Imagine was included on a world's worst record list or two.

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    4. who the hell is fontaine khaled?

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    5. Fontaie Khaled is Joan Collins's character in "The Bitch" - you know, where Joan wears a peaked cap (not a flat cap) and a black basque.

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    6. sorry arthur and co - i assumed it must be some current soap-star or celebrity in the jungle person (so that's why joan was mentioned)...

      talking of which: i read an entry in a recent viz "letterbocks" page that mused "if you were shagging joan collins and she suddenly turned into that hairy bloke like in the snickers ad, would you carry on?" (!)

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    7. with regard to the above, some of you might consider the thought of "shagging" octogenarian joan somewhat gross? i know i certainly would - i'll stick with jane fonda, thanks very much...

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    8. Everybody knows the best-looking octogenarian is Leslie Caron.

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  4. Ah, November 79. The future Shaky Shakerson is rapidly approaching the legal-to-drink-and-vote age of eighteen. He has a job.He has a girlfriend -honest! His parents are offering up driving lessons as a birthday present. He is keenly looking to the future. Unlike the producers of ToTP, who have at least one of their eyes set on the past. Showaddywaddy's fifties-based chart career is into the very last scrapings of the barrel here with their version of a song that nobody had heard before. Or Cared about. Or liked.

    The Moody Blues with a thrice-reissued Nights In White Satin. My appreciation of this song had increased around about this time thanks mainly to an old Barclay James Harvest album I played a lot. One of the tracks was Poor Mans Moody Blues which was a rip off/homage to Nights In White Satin and was inspired by a criticism of them being merely a poor man's Moody Blues.

    The Tourists with a bland, weedy, insipid, unispired, boring version of a sixities song that nobody really needed to hear again. (SIDE BAR: Am I the only person in Britain who never got the Adoration Of Annie Lennox? I never found her attractive, nor interesting in interviews, nor enjoyable to listen to. . . . Just me then?)

    Repeat showings of Lizzy, Suzi, and The Ramblers - earning four stars two stars and minus five stars respectively.

    The Jam - Bruce and Rick be-suited, but Weller favouring a more casual approach and - hurrah!- no chorus-line soldiers this time.

    B A Robertson. Once again the heroically-nosed singer takes his jacket off and then puts it on again ( just like he did in his Bang Bang performance.) And is that lining really vermillion like he indicates it is?

    Cliff.He has sung worse songs before and would do many times in the future, but this is really not suited to him.

    Kool And The Gang. I had a few years as a wedding DJ and I grew to hate this song with a passion. Mind you I started off by actively disliking it back in 79 anyways!

    And we play out to the Isleys and Its A Disco Night which aint no Summer Breeze.

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    1. shaky, from what you say it sounds like you were born practically the same day as me? my circumstances were the same at the time too... apart from the girlfriend that is! my mother made my father try to teach me to drive, and she once insisted he give me a lesson the morning after i'd been on a massive bender the night before - i nearly crashed the car as a result and he refused to teach me after that! so i didn't get to pass the test until several years later...

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    2. Barclay James Harvest had form in parodying other people's songs - they also recorded The Great 1974 Mining Disaster, which was basically a deconstruction of the Bee Gees' first hit, New York Mining Disaster.

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  5. Interesting to discover that Suzi Quatro's contract with RAK expired in 1980, and she found herself signing to songwriter Mike Chapman's label which folded pretty quickly. Only one more TOTP appearance for our Suze if we're lucky, in January 1980 with her last top 40 hit - in fact, only one of her last seven hits earned a mugshot, so Suzi suffered much as Darts and The 'Waddy did at this time.

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    1. Suzi did indeed sign to Chinn & Chapman's Dreamland label, run as a subsidiary of RSO, soon after leaving RAK in 1980. Two singles on that label, 'Rock Hard' and 'Lipstick', were minor hits in the USA, the former also being featured in the film 'Times Square'.

      After the Chinn-Chapman partnership ended in '82 along with Dreamland, she transferred to its distributor, Polydor. There she had a minor British Top 75 entry with 'Heart of Stone', a cod-Smokie country-pop number that sounded too close to 'If You Can't Give Me Love' for comfort.

      Returning to RAK in '84, she made a highly respectable - but, alas, unsuccessful - bid for acceptance by the new synthpop audience with 'I Go Wild', which was written by Nicky Chinn with Steve Glen and Mike Burns. After that, musical theatre and Radio 2 beckoned.

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  6. I don't think Kid's comment that the Moody Blues had first performed Nights in White Satin on TOTP 12 years earlier is correct. Assuming Popscene's show listings are accurate, the song didn't feature on TOTP at all following its original release in '67, and this performance was in fact the only time the band did it in the studio. In any case, I thought it was a fine (if slightly truncated and reordered) rendition of one of the greatest love songs ever written. It also catches the band at a transitional moment in their career, between the departure of mellotron maestro Mike Pinder and the arrival of his successor Patrick Moraz.

    Overall, I thought this edition had plenty of variety and interest, and I was quite taken with the Secret Affair track. I had never really heard of the band prior to these reruns, but I have enjoyed both the singles that have appeared on the show. By contrast, the Tourists' version of the Dusty classic does sound rather pallid now, lacking the warmth and depth of the original.

    Cliff's effort wasn't bad, I suppose, but lacked a hook to turn it into a hit. His next single was a lot better, and would deservedly take him back to the Top 10 for his first hit of the 80s. There appeared to be a load of kids sitting behind him, who I assumed were the Ramblers, but I'm not actually sure that was the case as their performance was a repeat.

    In retrospect it is amazing that Showaddywaddy were still getting on TOTP this late, but it is no surprise that the public were finally tiring of their limited musical palette and wardrobe. Still, you have to admire them for making the most of their modest talents by churning out the hits for as long as they did. Kool and the Gang were at the beginning of their chart career, but I tend to find a lot of their stuff rather tedious and samey. I don't mind this one, though, and the video is fun.

    I normally can't stand Barbra Streisand, but this team-up with Donna Summer is a great disco record, and there was an imaginative Legs performance to go with it - I particularly liked the black-and-white costumes. We will of course see more from Babs next year, collaborating with another big act from the disco era...

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  7. Here are some alternative titles we could have used for the subject header "A Night At Top Of The Pops":

    Top Of The Pops Hot Shot
    I Only Want To Be With Top Of The Pops
    She's In Love With Top Of The Pops
    When You're In Love With Top Of The Pops

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  8. Dynasty - I actually discovered the original after I heard some non-entity 90s dance act do a cover of this on one of the many compilations I bought at the time. It's a bit of an odd track, but quite enjoyable.

    Cliff Richard - I don't think the song is too bad, certainly didn't deserve to miss the 40 altogether, especially as his previous single was a chart topper. Maybe it got lost in the pre-Xmas rush to buy other stuff.

    Legs & Co - Nice start, then it all got less interesting after they moved from the black and white split.

    The Tourists - I seem to be the only one who still likes this version then!

    Moody Blues - What a magnificent song this is - I just love the choral overload as the chorus kicks in. And top marks for doing it live too as we really haven't had many acts at all doing that lately.

    Kool & The Gang - Nearly all their tunes are what I like to call 'housewife songs' with 'Celebration' being the worst offender ('housewife song' AND 'enforced jollity' - a lethal combination) but this is almost as bad.

    Secret Affair - That's the second one in a row from them that I didn't know very well but which I now really like. Nice sharp suit on show too - unlike many other fashions displayed on 70s Pops, that still looks good.

    Showaddywaddy - Oh dear, sad to see them in decline. And appearing not long after Secret Affair makes them seem even more dated.

    Isley Brothers - I agree with you Julie, a good song. And you may be pleased to hear that I *will* be playing it on my radio show when I do a 1979 countdown next week!

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  9. i've only managed to watch half of this show so far thanks to a mis-functioning i-player at a chum's house - bah! will have to catch up with the rest at the library tomorrow...

    dynasty: don't have a recall of this at the time ,but came across it on a disco compilation CD a few years back and was quite impressed

    the jam: oh no, not the bloody modfather again! he and his chums seem to appear on this show so frequently that surely they've taken over the caravan in the totp car park recently vacated by smokie? anyway, i skipped past them as usual...

    cliff richard: "look cliff, i know you've just had a big surprise no. 1 hit and all that, but you can't keep deluding yourself you're a teenager when you're pushing 40 - why don't you quit while you're ahead, find yourself a nice wife and start raising a family?"

    donna summer/barbra streisand: that slow intro seems to go on forever, which kind of defeats the point of it being a disco record. maybe for that reason i don't think it got played in the discos i went to at the time. just as well - to me it's just disco-on-autopilot with two screeching divas trying to outdo each other - hideous!

    the tourists: did they resort to churning out this pub rock cover-by-numbers because their own material wasn't cutting it chart-wise? the only thing that stands out is the huge crunching drum noise at the beginning and end...

    ba robertson: again one has to ask, what is the point of this, and who exactly was this aimed at? it's not as if anyone even knows what the subject matter's about... as such i wasn't really paying much attention, so i have to ask: did the band put on their shades around half-way through, or did they just magically appear a la showaddywaddy's different-coloured suits?

    moody blues: by this time justin hayward and john lodge were recording credited as a duo, so presumably the moodies had actually called it a day, but then hastily re-convened thanks to yet-another re-release of this over-rated chestnut? johnny pearson must have been licking his lips at getting the opportunity to recreate the massive orchestral sound of the record (take away that and there's not much left!) - the fact that he didn't must have told him his days as totp musical director were numbered. oh yes, they pre-dated the currently-fashionable huge crunching drum noise as used by the tourists (and later on the isley brothers) with one massive hit at the start of the flute solo...

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    1. The Moodies did temporarily split in the mid-70s, and Hayward and Lodge released the Blue Jays album together in 1975, plus the Blue Guitar single (though that was actually recorded by Hayward with 10cc). By 1978, the Moodies had reunited and that year released Octave, their first album for six years. Mike Pinder quit shortly afterwards (hence his absence from this performance) and Patrick Moraz would take his place for 1981's Long Distance Voyager album, which topped the charts in the States.

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  10. Ah Wilberforce, the secret to getting the Donna Summer / Barbra Streisand song perfect at discos, is with the classic double turntable, where you start this song in the background halfway through the previous song, so that the audience knows whats coming up, and then start the disco (dancing) part of No More Tears as the previous song is fading out.

    Any good DJ sould be able to do this at a disco, and it is something I did when DJing in the 90s when I would put on 70s disco music, and this song No More Tears worked a treat.

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    1. if i were at one of dory's discos and he played "enough is enough", i might be tempted to do a paul calf and smash it up with a hammer! but as they say, each to his own...

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  11. It appears that Neil B. has already uploaded the UK Gold 22nd Nov edition with DLT in voiceover, of which this show will not be shown by BBC4 this Thursday.

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  12. managed to watch the rest of this show at the library this morning (yes - they open on sundays now!), so here's the rest of my report:

    kool and the gang: i've mentioned this before, but this is the first of several disco songs featuring those electric piano quaver stabs (i'm not talking about crisps - think "one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and"). personally i've always liked this, but the shark-jumping moment came shortly hereafter - the smoothie frontman drafted in helped make them a fast (disco) buck, but also destroyed them as a credible funk act (a friend who loves their early instrumental/chant stuff can't bring himself to mention the vocalist by name: just "that singer"!). i don't know if it was intentional, but i didn't notice many ladies of colour in the audience. presumably the soap factory was a disco that actually used to be a soap-making place? there is/was something similar in manchester called "sankey's soap" which was an old factory converted into a trendy nightclub playing house etc...

    secret affair: a much better cod-soul effort than "time for action", although the title is a bit weedy for a band out to make some kind of youth statement. the singer doesn't really know what to do with his trumpet once he's finished with it (which is for most of the song) - perhaps he should have studied the earth, wind & fire/emotions "boogie wonderland" video for some tips?

    showaddywaddy: in relative terms, in my opinion this is probably one of the best things they ever did. i presume (unlike their last few hits) it was an original composition for which they felt they were now in a strong enough position to push again, but lightning was striking twice (remember the self-penned "trocadero" flopping about 3 years earlier?) as it seemed that most of their punters were only interested in them rehashing old stuff...

    isley brothers: good on you kid for only announcing the first bit of this clumsily-titled track (and not the desperate disco cash-in bit in parentheses). i love much of their 70's stuff but by this time all their upbeat numbers were getting the huge crunching/clapping treatment, which dates it rather horribly these days...

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    1. Re The Wads; No, "A Night At Daddy Gee's" was yet another cover (written by Tommy Boyce and Curtis Lee as "Under The Moon Of Love" and "Pretty Little Angel Eyes" had been also).

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    2. oops! thanks for that martin - i should have checked that out before posting comment. however, regardless of being self-written or not, perhaps by this time the only way they were likely to continue their run of hits would have been if they'd started doing medleys of elvis songs or suchlike rather than obscurities like this...?

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  13. I've got a bit behind with these programmes lately (whether on iPlayer or otherwise), but I'm catching up now. These last few weeks are quite probably first-time watches for me - for reasons mentioned previously this would have been the time when we were without a telly and therefore everything seems more 'unfamiliar' the 'familiar'.

    The opening performance by The Jam is totally familiar though - I still have the 25th Anniversary VHS tapes (would have been amongst the first videotapes I purchased, dating from the time I bought my first VCR - an ex-rental top loader which weighed a ton!). Notwithstanding Paul making no attempt whatsoever to stay 'on mic' and Rick at front of stage with his plastic cymbals, this is pure audiovisual dynamite.

    This is one of my favourite Cliff singles. Just as my other fave, Hank Marvin's 'The Day I Met Marie', captures the spirit of 1967 (at least for those of us who don't actually remember it!), 'Hot Shot' is pure '1979' thanks to its distinctive B. A. Robertson lyric.

    Meanwhile the man himself was messing around with footballs on stage. Hasn't Rod Stewart already done this a few years previously?

    I was quite impressed with the Legs & Co routine this week. I thought that the 'black and white' sequences were split-screen until they crossed into each other's areas! I can remember reading someone's opinion that this song was more of a duel rather than a duet - perhaps it's a good thing that Flick didn't go along with that line of thought!

    Don't be fooled by the Tourists sounding weak and insipid - what we have here is an MU-compliant quickfire recording for TV. This is not the single!

    The Moody Blues performance does seem a bit familiar, but looking at Popscene it was repeated two weeks later and I think we had got our new telly by then.

    Soap Factory ??? Presumably it's American. I had long forgotten that this was Kool & The Gang's first UK hit and was surprised to find it was this early. After all, it would be a year before they saw the Top 20 again.

    I remember this Secret Affair single well, but I don't think I've heard it since 1979, unlike the bigger hits either side of it which stuck with me ever since. The Showaddywaddy single has survived though, thanks to 'Best Of' (i.e. singles compilation) CDs. Believe it or not, they continued to have a Top 40 presence until 1982!

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    1. Ladies Night was indeed not noticed by many people in 1979 when Kool & The Gang made their world debut, largely due to the fact that they made no visits to the UK to announce their arrival, and there was only one showing of their Soap Factory video on TOTP, so you could forgive people for overlooking them.

      It was not until a year later with Celebration did we all stop to look up, as this hit would take top billing at many discos around the country, and then Ladies Night had to be reintroduced to avoid falling over as an unknown track, and it soon started to make a name for itself on its own.

      Going forward to 2014, Ladies night has taken over from Celecration as the most requested Kool & The Gang song in the 2000's (only by ladies of course), simply because it has endured the ravages of time a lot better than all their hits put together. Anyone agree with me?

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    2. i recall "ladies night" being a fair-sized hit in its own right before (bile-rising alert!) "celebration" - it was certainly a big club hit. if "ladies night" has more staying power than the rest of their james taylor-era hits, then that's because it's miles better than all the rubbish they produced afterwards! of course the true katg fan would dismiss all that stuff in favour of their earlier classics like "funky stuff", jungle boogie" and "open sesame"...

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  14. Quite enjoyed this show despite the odd fast-forward duffer. I see Lena Martell was now looking in the opposite direction for her chart descent, and Dynasty seem to like percussion in the plural while something about their tune’s backing reminded me of Gene Chandler’s “Get On Down”.

    Kid really should have swapped garb with Paul Weller so the lad matched the sartorial elegance of his comrades. Cliff couldn’t have swapped that shirt and tie with anyone. He had to be careful not to fall off that tiny box stage. So, Cliff’s brother looks like him? What a coincidence. Good thing he didn’t look like the milkman instead.

    A bit of a pispronunciation by Kid. Streisand and Summers? What, Andy Summers? Does he really sound like that? The pillars behind Patti in the black and white section should have been darker for symmetry and contrast. Hark at me, a would-be set designer! I see Lulu had learnt all the words to the tune once again.

    I agree about The Tourists – a basic, functional cover, and I could never see the attraction of Annie Lennox. Sadly, this tune has a different resonance for me, as it was played over a farewell montage by Thames Television the minutes before their franchise finished. Then the execrable Carlton took over, and ITV died.

    Apt stage props for BA Robertson – a right load of balls. Boom boom!

    I liked the obvious moody blue backdrop for The Moody Blues, but the drummer barely used what must be the largest drumkit to grace the TOTP studio. In reverence, Kid sounded like Whispering Ted Lowe or Whispering Bob Harris during their intro.

    Ah, “Soap Factory” – a Bold idea with Daz-zling artists, but reception’s poor so you might need to readjust your Ariel. They should have replaced Kool with Persil Sledge for this outing. Oh, well, that’s Life, Buoy!

    I spy those fake yellow cymbals for Secret Affair, whose drummer probably decided he’d prefer to play in a group with more brass instruments.

    Talking of drummers yet again…”Okay, Malcolm, stop stamping and screaming, we’ll let you go behind the kit for our nest single. Romeo, you go upfront and do the low vocals like that lad in Darts. This tactic’s bound to cement our place in the BBC car park for years to come”.

    So, Kid, you’ll be back next week, will we? Not if we see you (or whoever it is) first. Great outro by the Isleys. I would have much preferred this instead of “Ladies Night”. Sud it!

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