Thursday 28 April 2016

Passionate Top of the Pops

September arrives and the Top of the Pops 'party atmosphere' is very noticeable now with balloons, fancy hats, whooping and people in the audience who look like they can dance! And here's a question for you ~ which future Top of the Pops presenter was born on the very day this edition was first broadcast?

I know! I know!




03/09/81 (hosted by Peter Powell) 

(16) Modern Romance – “Everybody Salsa”

Tonight's show kicks off where the last one ended, with Modern Romance and Legs & Co leading the audience. Everybody Salsa made it to number 12.

(40) John Foxx – “Europe (After The Rain)”

Despite several appearances on the show John never quite made the top 30. Number 40 was the peak of this latest effort. But edited out of tonight's 7.30pm slot.

(7) UB40 – “One In Ten” (rpt from 20/08/81)
Now at its peak. Also edited out.

(32) Bucks Fizz – “One Of Those Nights”

Already their third hit of the year, this one reached number 20. But again edited out of the 7.30pm showing.

(33) The Teardrop Explodes – “Passionate Friend”

The third and final top 30 hit for the group when it peaked at number 25.

(6) Gary Numan – “She’s Got Claws” (video)
Gary's penultimate top ten hit already at its chart peak.

(31) Dollar – “Hand Held In Black & White”

It was over a year and a half since their last top 30 hit and here the duo return having had a thorough 80's makeover which helped this one peak at number 19.

(29) The Pointer Sisters – “Slow Hand”
Peter Powell says that 'there is no show without Legs & Co' and this week the ladies do a tinselly routine around what looks like a giant doughnut to what became the first of three top ten hits for the Pointer Sisters when it peaked at number 10.

(23) OMD – “Souvenir”

Paul Humphreys steps forward to take the lead vocal for this song which became the band's second top ten hit peaking at number 3.

(1) Soft Cell – “Tainted Love”

The first of two weeks at number one for the duo.

(47) Funkapolitan – As Time Goes By” (+ credits)

Gary Numan now decides to turn up in the studio, but its too late they've already shown his 'film'! And now for the first time (I think?) we get a live band (and Legs & Co for a third time tonight) in the studio to play us out over the credits. This was Funkapolitan's only hit and it reached number 41.


Next is the 10th of September 1981 but this is a Jimmy Savile edition so won't be on BBC4. Instead we will see September 17th hosted by Steve Wright.

108 comments:

  1. Ah, the arrival at last of Modern Romance. For me, this was the defining moment of the New Romantics movement, as they looked more the part than even Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet etc.

    Everybody Salsa is just one of the best party tunes ever to have hit our party collections, and the trumpet and brass section are just out of this world. Another example, like Soft Cell and Bad Manners, where the debut hit had no video, but who cares when you got a party tune this good. I mean even Legs & Co were so taken by it that they were in the opening introduction with Peter Powell!

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  2. I "cheated" a bit this week and watched the YouTube copy of the full-length show in advance. I think it's definitely one of the stronger editions of the year, with hardly any duffers on display, while despite being a live show Michael Hurll once again imparts a real feeling of slickness to the direction.

    Modern Romance certainly get the party atmosphere going quickly, aided by Legs and what appear to be some refugees from the Notting Hill Carnival with large playing cards on their heads. While the group are not exactly prepossessing in the flesh (the singer looks like a cross between David Tennant and Hitler, with a voice that oscillates between Bryan Ferry and David Sylvian), this is a good fun record which I can't bring myself to dislike. John Foxx provides a sharp contrast in musical style, though unfortunately this effort falls into the "pleasant but forgettable" category. I would love to know what he made of his former band's recent commercial breakthrough...

    The Bucks Fizz song deserved to go higher than 20, but perhaps the slower pace compared to their previous singles put the public off a bit. Even so, it has a nice rousing chorus, and when Cheryl and Jay do their backing vocals just before the chorus they sound a bit as if they are prefiguring Enya! A nice tune from Julian Cope and co follows, with the man himself cutting a striking figure in leather jodhpurs on top of that piano. While this song is not as catchy as Reward, it is a definite grower.

    Sadly we then get the one real clunker of the week in the shape of Gary Numan's feeble effort. He really was running out of musical ideas by this point, and some nasty discordant brass can't disguise the fact that he is just treading over old ground. I wasn't keen on the "film" either, as Gary looked a bit pervy staring at those cat-like ladies - also, given he was in the studio why didn't he perform the song there? Happily Dollar get things back on track with an irresistible pop confection that is possibly their finest moment, and a great advert for Trevor Horn's production skills. I noticed the great man was surreptitiously playing bass at the back of the stage during this performance.

    After an unremarkable Legs routine to a decent Pointer Sisters song, OMD step forward to effortlessly claim the "best in show" prize with the first of three classic singles from Architecture & Morality, a strong contender in my view to be regarded as the finest album of the decade. Souvenir is a wonderful, ethereal tune which Paul's rather limited vocal range somehow fits perfectly, while the mix of choral samples and synths is beautifully realised. However, even better was soon to come from Andy and Paul...

    As far as I know, this is the first time a studio act has been used for the playout. I haven't heard the Funkapolitan song before, but it has a good beat that helps to make up for some clunky lyrics. Anyone notice David Van Day clapping along to this in front of the big screen? Host-wise, PP once again seems very excited to be in charge of a live show, and generally does a good job. The only moments that made me cringe were when he asked the girl next to him what she thought of John Foxx, and the assertion that there couldn't be a show without the Leggers, something that would be comprehensively disproved within a couple of months...

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    1. I thought Dollar did much better than that. It was a nice production of course, but that was the highlight for me. The melody itself didn't grip me.

      Bucks Fizz has a pretty good song. The chorus part where it simply moves up in pitch is very effective and I think they could have left it like that. Instead they round it off with some more music, when a quick break back to the verse to stop any lose of energy would have been better.

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  3. To answer Angelo's question, it was Fearne Cotton who was born that day!

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    1. You go straight in at number one, John :-)

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    2. She's actually the first cousin twice removed of Bill Cotton, who came to the end of his stint as BBC1 controller at around the time we have now reached on the repeats. I'm sure Fearne's family connections played no role in smoothing her path in the broadcasting world...

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    3. i do actually know who fearne cotton is (although i wouldn't recognise her if she passed me in the street), but i was making a facetious comment about how insignificant celebrity is in this day and age - i think anything concerning the 21st century should be banned from this site (unless it relates to gerry anderson productions of course)!

      and john i'm sure you're right that her family connections played no part whatsoever in getting her break in showbiz. ditto claudia winkelman and zoe ball, and no doubt many others i can't be bothered to think of!

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    4. Wilberforce - I guessed that there was a whiff of sarcasm behind your question, though wasn't sure if you knew anything about her family background! I have only occasionally seen her on the TV, and after that I had no great desire to see any more of her...

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    5. I'm glad I don't know who Fearne Cotton is.

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    6. Fearne Cotton is a nice girl, perfectly fine presenter, but one of those personalities who sends a certain type of viewer/listener into an unreasonable rage of accusations of "dumbing down". I say not everyone on TV has to be Richard Dimbleby.

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  4. Whilst watching Dollar, I had to google to check, and it was indeed Howard Goodall on keyboards

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  5. Modern Romance - a great dance track to start the show and a nice party atmosphere provided by the crowd including quite a few professional dancers judging by the way they ran to the stage with such graceful ease. The trumpeter here is John Du Prez who went on to write the theme tune to One Foot In The Grave and several film scores.

    John Foxx - I remember seeing this at the time and being totally bowled over by it, not just the song but the performance. It wasn't really my sort of thing but I loved the piano and I ended up buying it. Stylish and superb!

    One In Ten, perhaps UB40s best song and still relevant today, a worthy repeat.

    Bucks Fizz – One Of Those Nights. not bad but I'm looking forward to the next trio of hits The Land of Make Believe, My Camera Never Lies and the acapella song Now Those Days Are Gone.

    Miss Radio 1 Roadshow 1981 indeed - was there a Mr Roadshow and did PP put his arm round his waist? I suspect not.

    I loved Passionate Friend to bits back in '81 and seeing this again bought back a lot of happy memories. The band in their wacky gear, drummer Gary Dwyer's cool flat top and Julian Cope atop John Foxx's lady friend's piano barefoot. He looked a proper nana in those trousers but there was just something about this song that did it for me. I realise now that some of the tune is nicked from other songs (eg Marianne Faithfull's As Tears Go By) but it is very '60s and should have been a bigger hit.

    Gary Numan - I have no recollection of this but it sounds okay, although he seems to have dropped the synths altogether on this one and replaced them with Saxophones. I like the video which reminds me a bit of the video for Rain by The Beatles taking place in a Kew Gardens style hot house.

    Dollar - a good tune and another good performance with David and Thereza in Sgt Pepper inspired outfits. Nice to see producer Trevor Horn on bass duties here, I didn't recognise any of the others until I read above it was Howard Goodall.

    The Charts and no less than - 6 medleys in the Top 30 this week which seems bizarre today.

    Next up Legs dancing to The Pointer Sisters on a what looks like a giant Polo mint, pity the poor people stuck in the middle who have no room to dance but they do get a nice close up view of Legs' legs.

    OMD - I've ben waiting for this one after seeing it on the Big Hits show - Paul Humphreys has a really weedy thin vocal on this but what a great tune and another great atmosphere with tons of dry ice and a soft focus lens. The dancing couples is cheesy but it works and full marks to Michael Hurl for putting all this together so well.

    The Top 10 and then Soft Cell at number 1. This was the first number 1 since The specials that i approved of and was the first in a long line of soft Cell singles that I bought. That's manager and Some Bizarre label owner Stevo (real name Steve Pearce) sitting on the stage on the left with curly hair trying to look calm despite the fact that his band are at the top spot.

    Then gormless Gary Numan pops up mumbling some incomprehensible words, wearing a big hat to disguise his pre-hair transplant noggin. I'm allowed to say that being a baldy myself.

    And then Funkapolitan - what! I think this is the first time they closed the show with a non chart act since Chris White's Natural Rhythm in 1976 and certainly the first time ever with a non chart act in the studio and with all the other acts dancing in the background,. But what a great funky dance track. I completely missed this at the time. "Probably did, probably didn't".

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    1. Bama, as Roy Walker used to say on "Catchphrase", it's good but it's not right. Chris White's was the last completely chart free single used for the outro, but six weeks later "Sideshow" by The Chanter Sisters (then at 50, peaked at 43) ended the show.

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    2. I bow to your superior knowledge Mr Nibble. In fact Chris White never even made the Top 75 with his follow up to Spanish Wine so maybe he was the first and only act to end the show who wasn't in the Top 75, The Chanter Sisters were the first non-Top 40 act to end the show, while Funkapolitan were the first non-Top 40 act to end the show but in person.

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    3. I found John Foxx's rocking back and forth with his guitar all through quite annoying.

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    4. The B Side of Chris White's next single 'Don't look down' is probably more well known than you'd think. Called 'Summertime, summertime' it was used as a jingle on Radio 1.

      "It's summertime summertime, sum-sum summertime, summertime summertime, sum-sum summertime...". You get the idea.

      Not on YT, so you'll have to take my word for it!

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    5. I have Chris White's album on CD, it has the jingles he did on it as as well. He also did some Kenny Everett jingles before Kenny discovered another Chris, Christopher Rainbow.

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  6. Anyone notice a young Barack Obama vocalising with Funkapolitan ? ...

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  8. A lot of darn good 80s pop on this show, though I do wonder what the bloke in the Killing Joke leather jacket made of it all, he was conspicuously not dancing.

    Modern Romance start with their salsa, I thought this lot were great when I was little (them and Chas and Dave) and they are a good time band which still comes across. Simon McCorkindale on tom-toms, too.

    John Foxx fails to have a hit yet again, in spite of his cheekbones well to the fore. Kind of monotonous, and lost amidst the more tuneful business elsewhere.

    Bucks Fizz glamorising smoking in the opening line, tut. Apart from that, not bad wine bar soul, if you could call anything they did soul, like the "aaah-aaah!" bit before the chorus.

    The Teardrop Explodes, ah, now THIS was the performance where St Julian was tripping on acid and was gazing at Bucks Fizz enviously wishing he could join them. That comedy aside, another excellent pop melody, love the "baa-baa-baa!" and "doo-doo-doo!" bits. And Miss Torquay approved, too.

    Gary Numan returns with an underwhelming effort and silver lipstick. Was she going to eat that bird? Sounds too much like We Are Glass to be distinctive in itself.

    Dollar wisely hiring the services of Trevor Horn, another great pop melody, lighter than air and looking ahead to the dream pop to come. Peter Powell uncommonly excited by this.

    Legs & Co break out the Bacofoil and the cartoonishly raunchy moves for the Pointer Sisters' tribute to Eric Clapton (presumably). Not my favourite of theirs, but tolerable.

    OMD, more ethereal pop, and one of their finest moments, Miss Torquay appeared to agree judging by that clinch. This always reminds me of playing Oids on my Atari, there's a weirdly specific reference. Anyway, more of the great synth tunes, this is so much better than the medleys.

    Soft Cell jump up to Number 1, but I couldn't face hearing it again. More interesting was Funkapolitan (is that George Clinton's favourite ice cream?), with David Thewlis on keyboards. Not much of a tune, but the audience just wanted a beat to dance to and they provided it.

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  9. shaky shakerson29 April 2016 at 10:47

    It's a proper party start as Ol Smiley Voice introduces Modern Romance who perform beneath a layer of hair lacquer that was the single largest cause to the hole in the ozone layer. Always pictured this lot with the blond guy on vocals. Was the pink-suited mustachioed one bumped for the pretty guy after this? Not a tune - or band - I much care for but a suitable start for party-era ToTP.

    John Foxx comes up with his own take on a Vienna-style single which, sadly, doesn't have the depth of production his ex-band had. Don't remember this at all, but it's not that bad. It could have been a much bigger hit and a much bigger deal had he got Trevor Horn in rather than producing it himself.

    Buck's Fizz with a rare flop. With the boys up front and spouting some drivel about beaches and rain and cigarettes this is a nothing song that was a black mark on their early run of excellent pop tunes. Nice bit of thigh from Jay Ashton.

    Baldy trumpeteer number two pops up next on Teardrop Explodes' Passionate Friend. The weakest of the band's opening trio of hits, this is still head and shoulders above a lot of other stuff in the charts during this time.

    Once again Ol Smiley Voice tries to convince us that the 'film' of the next artist was 'captured' by the ToTP cameras. Clearly we are still in an era where 'video' useage is rare enough and novel enough for him to assume the viewers would believe that to be true. This particular 'film' for Gary Numan's She's Got Claws features a lot of images that would show up in other video's later in the 80s. Oh and the sax was played by Japan's Mick Karn fact fans!

    Dollar in a decent-piece-of-pop shock. Weedy vocals don't contribute too much but its still a decent enough effort.

    First part of the chart rundown precedes Slow Hand danced to by The Leggers because - according to PP- there wouldn't be a Top Of The Pops without them. Even without the benefit of hindsight that is palpably untrue. The Pops has been forced off our screens numerous times for numerous reasons and not one of those reasons involved the girls not being available. As mentioned above the girls are on the vinegar strokes of their career as ToTP dancers and watching this you can kind of see why. This is so Light Entertainment, I'm thinking that Michael Hurl had little option but to bin them.

    OMD with the excellent Souvenir and a shot of Miss Torquay slow-dancing in the foreground there. A change of mood - and singer- from their previous stuff; vocally weak but that only adds to its charm.

    Ol Smiley Voice concludes the rundown and introduces Soft Cell deservedly at number one. Who is the girl who steals his hat and after is shown cuddling Gary Numan? She looks annoyingly familiar.

    Funkapolitan keep the party going with an ok piece of BritFunk that probably slipped by me. . .probably.

    Scores then. Ol' Smiley Voice keeps his same old schtick going and its becoming wearisome to flag them up all the time. He gets 3 - and a warning that he really does have to tighten up his links, some of which bordered on the Stanley Unwin spectrum.

    Musically, this was a step up on recent shows with only Gary Numan hitting a bum note, no 'comedy' or medley records and UB40 being the only repeat. A well deserved 8.

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  10. I looked up 'vinegar strokes' and got two answers:

    1) In days of yore, the final act of a sales transaction was to exchange the money in the form of coins. To avoid the transmission of germs, the buyer put their coins into vinegar and the seller took the coins out of the vinegar. Hence 'The vinegar stroke'.

    2) Erm, the point-of-no-return state of a chap just before what a particular type of film calls "the money shot".

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    1. shaky shakerson29 April 2016 at 17:57

      I've never heard of the first one Arthur, so yeah, its the second. I thought it was a fairly common expression, but maybe its an older generation thing ( I'm in my fifties) or a Liverpool/North West idiom.

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    2. i'm a peer of mr shakerson but i've never heard that expression. i don't know what "the money shot" means either!

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    3. I've heard of both those expressions... The money shot is so-called because it's what the male "actor" is paid to do. No, I DON'T spend all my spare time watching porn!

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  11. I can't help wondering if money changed hands to end the show with a non-Top 40 act.

    Just discovered that the Funkapolitan song was produced by August Darnell, that's Kid Creole to you and I. It's a shame he couldn't persuade the TOTP producers to close with Coati Mundi's Que Pasa/Me No Pop I when it was in the Top 40 back in July, that would have been a great way to end a show!

    There's a great video for the song on Youtube:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO06a2KNBOs

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  12. The OMD song is of course classic, though I'd rather he not move his head around so much while singing.

    The Foxx song was ok I thought, the weakest part being the chorus which after the break had an extended run before being ditched for the nice ending.

    The Cope song was ok I guess but I definitely think he did better.

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  13. host: pp's hairstyle is now somewhere between his 70's perm and his 80's austere crop (and suiting him quite well actually). of course there's the usual stumbling and forgetting ("everybody....... salsa!") and the cringe-inducing interaction with what was in my opinion a very plain-looking beauty queen. but despite that he's just the right man for the job of presenting what is probably the strongest show of the 80's so far (thank the lord it never got given to mr now-then, now-then!)

    modern romance: these chancers have nearly got the look right with the floppy wedge haircuts and baggy pastel suits (like john taylor, david sylvian and a few others i could mention, bassist and co-band leader david jaymes was a true pretty boy of the early 80's british pop scene), but the singer's spiv tache is well dodgy. and sadly they couldn't find a real trumpet player cool enough looking for the act, so had to resort to employing a middle-aged slaphead. as for the music, if this is salsa then i'm fidel castro! it sounds more like not-very-good funk to my ears, which was in fact another breaking spin-off of the new romantic scene (their album which surprisingly tailed to take off despite the hit singles was full of similar stuff). if the cod-latino kings-in-waiting blue rondo a la turk were watching this, they must have thought "we're dead in the water now before we've even got started!". even though this is the epitome of naff, i still can't help but admit it's well-suited to the new totp era with professional dancers, background partying noises et al. but what's with the playing cards being held up at the back?

    john foxx: a ragged cheer for this, which knocks all of mr foxx's previous efforts into a cocked hat. he's once again accompanied by eddie and (a rather self-conscious) sunshine - the latter was probably in her twenties at the time, but looks an awful lot older! unlike modern romance with their gaudy colours, they are mainly garbed in understated yet stylish shades of monochrome. and a nice touch to to have one of the marble busts on the drum stool! apart from john and his chums looking the part, this really does epitomise all that was great about early 80's synth-pop in my opinion, and has all the class and subtlety that "everybody salsa" patently lacks. (and like bama i rushed out and bought it - in my case the 12" version). but obviously most failed to see it that way as i think it actually dropped in the charts after this showing. also: one for the ever-lengthening modulation list, as after the instrumental break it goes into the major version of the original key

    UB40: maybe the totp crowd used to dance with utter gay abandon to their tunes of woe as ali campbell always sounded like he'd got a bag of spanners in his mouth, so had no idea what he was actually singing about? probably the last great track of their early era before they descended into covers-on-autopilot territory for which they rightly got a pasting - even if it ensured they didn't have to dig out their old signing-on forms again!

    bucks fizz: does bobby g not realise that smoking in bed is hazardous to your health? i have to admit that i was known to do that occasionally back then, but unlike steve marriott i lived to tell the tale! "making your mind up" was never a favourite of mine, but rather that any day then this awful dirge that must have even had fans of theirs (did a manufactured act like that actually have fans as such?) head-scratching. jay's forgotten her strides again, but i have to admit that cheryl was much more to my taste anyway - despite being much longer in the tooth! by the way, another one that modulates between minor and major versions of the same key

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    1. The Foxx song had a strange look for me, a new romantic look on top and below what looks like an older woman on a classical piano.

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    2. Wilberforce has just told us that the femle pianist is Sunshine Patteson from electro pop duo Eddie and Sunshine (and Eddie's also there as well playing synth on the right). She wasn't that old actually but went for that 1950s elegant look that was popular around '81/'82 that made girls look older than they were.

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    3. Ok, though a 50s look is probably more relevant to retro sounding music, like Mari Wilson for instance.

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    4. mari wilson was inspired by the 60's rather than the 50's. presumably she'll appear on the show soon enough (unless cursed by yewtree)?

      bama is right in that there was a fad for the 50's retro-look (especially for ladies) in the early 80's, regardless of one's musical taste - i remember several second-hand clothes emporia where i lived that were full of such things (much of it from the actual era), that unlike now were actually quite cheap to buy...

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    5. The hairstyle here though did look like the hair was built up on top a bit like the Mari Wilson one, even if it wasn't quite a beehive.

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    6. when it comes to ladies' hairstyles i'm not going to give the likes of nicky clarke and john frieda sleepness nights, but i'm reasonably sure that sunshine is modelling what is known as the "french twist" (as made famous by audrey hepburn)...

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  14. part II:

    teardrop explodes: slight shades of 60's pyschedelia in this forgettable effort after the last couple of pretty decent singles. and julian cope's voice is now starting to get on my nerves. is that modern romance's middle-aged slaphead on trumpet? also, is that les pattinson of echo & the bunnymen on bass?

    gary numan: gaz had obviously been listening really hard to japan's records in recent times, to the point where he even employed their bass player. but despite that he was never going to give david sylvian sleepness nights - either as a songwriter or (despite his new shimmering pink shade of lipstick) as a pretty boy. there's yet more combined vocal-synth unison lines, as if the guy doesn't think his voice alone is up to the job (and he wouldn't be wrong there either - not with the weedy melodies he comes up with!). and why does gaz appear in person on totp at the end of the show? maybe to give us another chance to savour his magnetic charisma (NOT!)? and is the lady in front of him the fan that later became mrs n?

    dollar: the keyboard player quite clearly has no idea it's the 80's and has forgotten to make an appointment at the barber's to get rid of his perm accordingly. and i wonder how many watching back then recognised the nerdy speccy guy in the background playing bass as "the buggles singer" (as no doubt he was still known as to many at the time)? i can't say i was ever a fan of dollars' gossamer-thin pop sound, but mr horn's interjection has resulted in a slight improvement on their previous efforts

    pointer sisters/legs: what exactly does it mean to have a "slow hand"? does this have anything to do with why eric clapton was so-nicknamed? and "slow hand" surely isn't exactly a complimentary way to describe a rock guitar god (who is vastly over-rated in my opinion)? like clappo's stuff this is pretty tedious as far as i'm concerned. regarding this legs performance: i remember once watching mr t of "a-team" fame appear as a guest on "the word", and when asked for his opinion of the show at the end he spluttered "the word is weird!" in utter bemusement. but then remembering he was on a hip yoof show he backtracked with ".... but the word is cool!". that's how i would describe the stage arrangement around legs here, with that small enclave of hemmed-in audience behind them!

    omd: if ever there was such a thing as a cool-looking bank clerk/office worker, then paul humphreys personified that (sadly he's not aged well though). and even though his ethereal delivery suggested that singing was only a part-time thing at best, i still preferred that to the harsher tones of usual lead vocalist andy mclusky. and this was probably their best effort for me. i think this might be the first time a totp audience has been witnessed "smooching", although surely there have been loads of more appropriate songs on the show in the past? afterwards i'm not sure what's more surreal: our host in some kind of headgear that defies description, or the woman next to him who looks like an extra from the "day of the dead" films?

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    1. I think Who Were You With In The Moonlight was better as a song, this one for is all production.

      The slow hand song I think refers to tender loving caresses. The hemmed in audience looked like they were imprisoned there.

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  15. part III:

    soft cell: marc & dave celebrate reaching the top by getting themselves a pervy cage to be locked up in. but even that can't persuade me to listen to this for the one hundred millionth time. bring on "bedsitter" i say!

    funkapolitan: like modern romance, they're hitching a ride on the funk branch of the new romantic bandwagon (although in this case they were officially endorsed by the movers and shakers). but also like modern romance they're not particularly good exponents of it either. and by using the name of the style of music you play surely limits if not dooms your chances of long-term success? not that i imagine this bunch had a lot else in their locker anyway. never mind the time standing still, the guitarist's like a fucking statue from the waist down! this got played to death on the radio, but surely the reason they never earned a top 30 mugshot was down to a palpable lack of tune? by the way, the "young barack obama" actually looks more like a blacked-up version of rodney from "only fools and horses" to me!

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  16. A moment's silence, please, as tribute to Phil Kives, head of K-Tel who has passed away aged 87. He was the inventor of the compilation album, as plugged in ad breaks across the planet. RIP.

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    1. shaky shakerson29 April 2016 at 20:18

      Also the inventor of the KTel Automatic Record Selector. 'Just tilt the first record forward and all the others follow'. A boon to the teenage Shaky who was 'fed up of searching for that one record in a pile of twenty records'. Halcyon days.

      Not available in stores indeed.

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    2. fans of k-tel and other budget compilation labels of the 70's and 80's might like to read my "funk amongst the junk" feature:

      http://www.gavinunderhill.co.uk/FATJ1.htm

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    3. although he was hardly a household name, i felt a bit of a chill when i read of the death from cancer of actor mark farmer who was a peer of mine. some of you may remember him from "grange hill" and also "minder" (where he played arfer's cheeky young protege justin)...

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    4. I also remember Mark Farmer from Minder and he did a sitcom with Matthew Kelly called Relative Strangers. It's always sad when someone from TV your own age dies before their time.

      And regarding K-Tel, I recall my brother buying a Record Selector and being disappointed that a) it didn't take double albums and b) it always fell over whenever the records were pushed back after being 'selected'.

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    5. Had to look up Mark Farmer but I recognise his face. Sad news. When Tucker goes I'll be really depressed!

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    6. benny's already croaked! but the good news is as far as i know that gripper's still around...

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    7. does anyone remembering watching mark farmer as the eponymous character in a teenagers-coming-of-age drama series called "johnny jarvis"? i never saw it and only learned of it through reading his obituary. i'd love to watch it now - it sounds very similar to phil redmond's "going out" series that was also from the early 80's (that i managed to get a bootleg copy of a few years back)...

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    8. ... further to the above, i've just taken the plunge and blown £25 on a rare dvd copy of the complete "johnny jarvis" series that was on ebay!

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    9. I have the Johnny Jarvis bootleg DVD set and would have made a copy for you, they're all taken from the same source. This show has some great period music in it from 1977-81 and it really takes you back to those times.

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    10. sorry to hear that bama but thanks for the offer anyway (hopefully once i've watched it i'll be able to get at least some of my money back on ebay)

      if anyone wants a dvd copy of "going out", then contact me via my website: http://www.gavinunderhill.co.uk/

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  17. A decent show, the upbeat opening and closing acts really adding to the party atmosphere. A few random comments

    Bucks Fizz wearing curiously uncoordinated outfits for once
    The Teardrop Explodes - a strange song, more a medley of unrelated musical phrases!
    Gary Numan - his loyal fans were still buying, but this was the beginning of the end
    Dollar - amusing to see composer and music presenter Howard Goodall on keys here, his first appearance on TV?
    Funkapolitan - seriously young looking lads, they look like a school band!


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    1. Gary was rediscovered by the Marilyn Manson Goth rock crowd in the 90s and won a new lease of life, so he's sorted for his retirement.

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  18. This was a bit of a hit-and-miss one for me, comprising as it did of stuff I don't remember at all (John Foxx, Teardrop Explodes, Funkapolitan) and some numbers which I do remember but couldn't place them in a particular year (Modern Romance, Dollar).

    As well as the 'party atmosphere' this show would also appear to be the debut of the (dummy) mics sprayed black. A little later they would replace the leads with a 3 inch bolt covered in black PVC tape, which resulted in enquiries to the BBC regarding their radio mics, because the sound quality was awesome....

    I had to watch the Dollar performance again after reading this. For me, Howard Goodall will always be remembered for the Red Dwarf theme; if ever a theme tune didn't fit the programme content, this was it.

    As for Peter Powell, he has always struck me as A Bit Of A Prat but he seemed to be much worse here. Probably his worst appearance since his first or second, when he physically jumped in the air after The Jam were on!

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    1. i enjoyed watching "red dwarf" when it was originally broadcast (i remember it lost it completely though when one of the original writers packed it in!), but never liked the music much. and it ripped-off bowie's "loving the alien", which devalued that otherwise pretty good track!

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    2. Goodall isn't the only TV theme writer here, the bald trumpeter from Modern Romance is John Du Prez who did the One Foot In The Grave theme with Eric Idle.

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    3. I always liked the Red Dwarf theme, though the Blackadder one has to be Goodall's most memorable contribution to the sitcom genre.

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    4. I would say that it was more a rip-off of Wizzard's 'Angel Fingers', which Bowie himself borrowed from.

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    5. The Red Dwarf theme was deliberately done to be timeless, I love it!

      They wanted to avoid going for something "futuristic and sci-fi" as such music always dates horrendously

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    6. perhaps some good examples of "futuristic" music dating really quickly were a couple of pieces (by "andrew preview") on the "rollerball" soundtrack that otherwise had timeless classical music on it. but having said that, i think they're really cool:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wV97o4K37o

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PThydby5yk

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    7. The short-lived sci-fi show Star Cops, which ran for one series in 1987, came in for criticism for using a distinctly non-futuristic ballad, Justin Hayward's It Won't Be Easy, as its theme tune. Shame really, as it is a good song, and I think it does have a bit of a spacey feel.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8YiXdTP-5E

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    8. i had a listen to "it won't be easy - justin's voice sounds a bit shaky, but otherwise it's a fairly decent piece of pop-rock for its time (i like the guitar solo). but as a theme for a sci-fi show? well in my view whether they are written to sound "futuristic" or not, they should be instrumental!

      thanks john for bringing this to my attention - another vintage/retro series i've not heard of before, and one i shall be looking out to get hold of on dvd to watch...

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    9. I remember seeing some of Star Cops at the time - my Dad liked it, but I was a bit young then to appreciate it. Despite being created by someone with the credentials of Chris Boucher, arguably the true creative force behind Blake's 7, the BBC had lost interest in SF by that time and effectively killed the show by throwing it out in a dreadful Monday night summer slot on BBC2.

      For the purposes of the show, it probably would have been better if they had just used an instrumental version of Justin's song - as you say, the guitar solo is the highlight. I assume Justin got the gig as The Moody Blues had dealt with SF themes in their music, and of course there was his involvement in The War of the Worlds too.

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  19. Just to make an observation re nocturnal smoking habits. A couple of years down the line I saw Tom Robinson being interviewed just after he'd hit the charts with Atmospherics. Apparently on one TV appearance he'd been 'advised' to change the line "smoke another cigarette" to "avocado vinaigrette".....

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    1. to my recollection there were already "smoking may damage your health" warnings on cigarette packets by the early 80's, although they were much more discreet than they are now (i ignored them until the late 90's!). but can anyone determine what was the last song in the charts that actually mentioned smoking fags?

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  20. this has nothing to do with this week's show, but i was discussing "hey jude" with someone last night and we were wondering what would have been the first hit single that featured a fadeout as on that recording, rather than a "proper" song ending? hopefully some of you will come up with suggestions?

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    1. Tennessee Ernie Ford's 'Mule Train' (1949) must be a contender.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGy-G_O2sF0

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    2. yes, i don't think you'll likely find anything older than that. by chance after i posted my query i was listening the everly brothers "all i have to do is dream" from the late 50's that also fades out. but i suspect the practice was still quite uncommon until the mid-60's...

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    3. The Beatles Eight Days A Week fades IN but doesn't fade out. The Smiths Hand In Glove fades In and out. Regarding the first that song that faded at the end, it seems that this practice started in the 1930s eg Fred Astaire Flying Down To Rio but that was pre-charts.

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    4. That's interesting Bama - I always thought that the fade-out ending was a result of the advent of magnetic tape mastering, which was a postwar thing, but it's logical that it started with records cut from film soundtracks.

      The Pretenders '2000 Miles' is another example of a song which fades in but has a proper ending.

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  21. PP seems to have grown his hair a tad longer – getting nearer to that 80s ‘big hair’ look. He’s as bubbly and enthusiastic as ever and seems to really like a lot of the music. After last week’s good show, this maintains the high standards with, mercifully no medleys.

    Modern Romance – Everybody Salsa – Whatever happened to Modern Romance? A few hits and then they were gone. No stadium tours or comebacks for them as far as I recall. This performance is one of those massed audience participation efforts plus Legs & Co that looks like one big party. I wonder how much organisation this took? Not their best song….their best year was still to come.

    John Foxx – Europe after the Rain – The fifth of Foxx’s flops (I think all featured once on TOTP). This one for me is a little more uplifting than the other dreary efforts, but why is John strumming an acoustic guitar when there doesn’t seem to be one on the track?

    UB40 – One in Ten – Again….zzz…..

    Bucks Fizz – One of those Nights – Not to be confused with ‘One of these Nights’ by the Eagles, this song, like the previous single ‘Piece of the action’ is really quite good. Nice performance sees Cheryl and Jay wearing completely different outfits whilst the single sleeve shows the whole band wearing the same jumpsuits.

    Teardrop Explodes – Passionate Friend – Not very rewarding….

    Gary Numan – She’s got Claws – “I know, let’s have women dressed as cats in this one” said the video producer, whilst Gary looks like he’s got two black eyes. Gary was on a musical tailspin by now to mirror his flying hobby, and each single release was just not in the same league as ‘Cars’ etc.

    Dollar – Hand held in Black and White – Wowee, this has aged well! A quick check and its Trevor Horn behind the production but who wrote the song as nobody is credited on the record label? It’s a fine production as you’d expect from Horn (who incidentally is joining Yes for some of their tour dates in May to sing on the ‘Drama’ tracks which he originally sung on in 1980). Really kick-started Dollar’s fortunes this and, in the words of Clifford T Ward, ‘the best is yet to come’.

    The Pointer Sisters – Slowhand – Tribute to Eric Clapton? I don’t think so. Actually I thought this single had been banned originally due to its suggestive lyrics (“come and go in a heaving rush” indeed!). It is for me the best release ever for the girls and a quick check shows that it was co-written by John Bettis; Richard Carpenter’s song writing buddy. Legs & Co just look slinky here and really do the song justice in their shiny mini dresses. Love it, and the US folks appreciated a lot as it sat at No.2 for three weeks in their chart – presumably scuppered by flippin’ Olivia Newton-John with her 10 week ‘Physical’ reign.

    OMD –Souvenir – Rare vocal outing for Paul Humphreys (with Andy strumming double bass!) and OMD maintain their high single standards with this wonderful, smooth song. I bought the 10” version (remember short-lived 10” singles?) and it had an additional verse inserted which was missing on the album ‘Architecture and Morality’ as well as the standard 7” release.

    Soft Cell – Tainted Love – Marc and Dave were keen! Another new TOTP appearance. I wonder who holds the record for the most different performances of the same song on TOTP? I’ve still got the 12” of ‘Torch’ in my head after last week’s posts!

    Funkapolitan – As time goes by – Not the famous ‘Casablanca’ song but some disco-style offering that I don’t recall at all. As Anglo observes, this is strictly non-standard as this spot is a playout! The number one song should either be the last performance or playout over the credits (a la ‘Being with you’). Stick to the rules Mr Producer! Nice to see the Legs & Co girls hung around this time after scarpering off a few weeks ago after ‘Green Door’.

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    1. There is an extended version of Souvenir as a bonus track on the remastered CD release of Architecture & Morality, which I imagine is the 10" version you mention.

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    2. Stephen, the only album of note by Modern Romance is their greatest hits, which is quite superb I must say, and you could literally play it in full from start to finish, for an audience to dance to it non-stop, it is that good.

      Everybody Salsa and Ay Ay Ay Ay Moosey were their finest moments, and it was just non-stop partying, fun, colours, etc. Ah, the good life!

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    3. i had to listen to "europe after the rain" again is i thought i was imagining things, but there is definitely what sounds like an acoustic guitar (in fact there are two) being strummed on it

      that reminds me: this track is featured on one of my mixes that was previously featured on a now-defunct website. so i've now uploaded it afresh to my mixcloud page:

      https://www.mixcloud.com/wilberforcemixes/rise-of-the-machines/

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  22. Greetings, bloggers - after a 3-month break, I've decided to return as an occasional guest.

    My favourite record by Modern Romance has to be their 1983 masterpiece 'Walking In The Rain' - one of the most underrated soul ballads ever recorded by a British band. By then, of course, Michael J Mullins had taken over as lead singer from the posing Geoffrey Deane, who would subsequently become a scriptwriter for 'Birds of a Feather' and 'Babes In The Wood' among other TV comedies. Alas, 'Everybody Salsa' is too repetitive for me.

    John Foxx was a deep thinker with a sound grasp of atmospherics, undoubtedly - but memorable tunes were not his forte. 'Europe After The Rain' is very much the reverse of 'Everybody Salsa': musically ambitious, but hardly party material. Soon afterwards, his colleagues Eddie and Sunshine came up with the splendid 'Another Teardrop Falls' - which boasted a riff stolen wholesale from 'Stranger On The Shore'.

    OMD's Paul Humphreys has a most beautiful voice, and 'Souvenir' thoroughly deserved to make the Top 5; in an ideal world, Hoylake's finest would have reached the very top with this immaculate piece of work.

    Bucks Fizz may have been a manufactured band, while Dollar were refugees from another manufactured band (Guys 'n' Dolls) - but both acts made some very fine pop singles. One of Bucks Fizz's overlooked later singles was 'Golden Days' - a collaboration with Tina Turner songwriter Terry Britten, who would also write for Dollar's Thereza Bazar during her brief solo recording career.

    Now to the highlight of this week's show, for me anyway: Funkapolitan! The first act to record on the revitalised London label, they showed great promise that, sadly, they never fulfilled. I had forgotten what a superb piece of Brit-funk 'As The Time Goes By' truly is. What an honour for them to be one of the very few acts to close TOTP in person. Where are they now?

    Though I will no longer be a regular contributor to this blog, this is not the last you will hear of me; I will continue to visit this site on an occasional basis.

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    1. Welcome back Julie - I too have been somewhat 'intermittent' over the last few months (with my policy of not reading this blog until I've seen the show and getting way, way behind!).

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    2. Greetings to you too - considering how many songs are repeated from show to show, you could probably cover most of them in occasional comments!

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    3. as the eagles say: you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave...

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    4. I agree regarding Funkapolitan as being the best performance on the show this week, which is probably why TOTP gave them the closing performance.

      I mean just look at the way Legs & Co were moving to the beat at the back of the stage, and I have never seen them enjoying a live band on the show as much as this, just judging on the way they were dancing to it. Brilliant!

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    5. Welcome back, Julie! I've got "Maybe", the Grizzly Adams theme tune, back in my head following your return.

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    6. Another Tina Turner connection is that Bucks Fizz sang What's Love Got To Do With It (apparently a Terry Britten song too), never got released till later though.

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    7. Welcome back Julie, please don't become a stranger. I struggled to keep up with posts here but I try to do it when I can.

      I have to disagree with you about Europe After The Rain, it has a great tune and is very dance-friendly (I know I danced to it, even last week when the show was on) although John Foxx is everything Modern Romance aren't.

      I agree with you about Funkapolitan, it was a surprise and a delight. I briefly got into this type of electro-Latin jazz dance music in 1981-82 buying 12 inch singles by I-Level, Lynx, Freeze, Coati Mundi (mentioned above), Incognito and others. I didn't have the Funkaplitan track but I do remember it.

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  23. Well, I thoroughly enjoyed that. A fresh, exciting show with loads of new songs (not all of them up to scratch but you can’t have everything) and Pete in good form though he bordered on Jim’ll territory with Miss Torquay. An interesting black and white photo of The Teardrop Explodes promoting this edition on BBC iPlayer, by the way.

    Lovely early cameos for Gill and Lulu before we get the unpretty boy fronting the Conga Haircut 100. I prefer Doritos Salsa to this.

    Five people applauding the start of John Foxx’s vocals-just-out-of-tune arty kitsch. Loved Buster on drums, mind you.

    So, Pete, Bucks Fizz might have MET every European city? Do you mean visited, and would that include St. David’s and Ely, then? A nondescript song with a “Bermuda Triangle” style rhyming couplet (cigarette / figure it) but I couldn’t believe that blond idiot front stage in the white shirt looking away from the remarkable Jay Aston, the first of three acts tonight who made me hungry for chicken thighs.

    A very ABC-type song from the Teardrop Explodes, until they get to the ba-ba-doo-doos which they used to diminishing return effect in the chorus of minor hit “When I Dream”. Someone please take the batteries out of the bassist.

    Loved the claws mime by Pete either side of Gary Numan’s din. That gal was far too close to the panther’s cage. Wouldn’t get that past health and safety now. Polaroids! I remember those!

    Dollar find the magic formula with Trevor the bassist. Loved the ponchoed drummer on a non-acoustic song. Thereze was the second thigh moment for me. David Van Day was all over her like an octopus. Lucky chap.

    Interesting first third of the chart rundown, featuring a proper photo of Startrax and a woman’s breast representing Hi-Gloss, before we get the third thigh moment with Legs & Co, sponsored by Bacofoil economy version. How did they decide who’d be inside the doughnut?

    Here comes an unsung hero, smiley Malcolm the OMD drummer, and there’s Andy emulating Matchbox and Can with a double bass which, of course, spares us from his teacher dancing. I bet that bloke couldn’t believe his luck, smooching with Miss Torquay.

    I bet that girl dressed like an Alice In Wonderland extra was mortified Pete didn’t chat to her before the number one… it’s The Conch Shell and The Twig! I’m surprised Marc could lift his hands, what with all those wristbands and bracelets.

    That gal kissing Gary Numan’s hand blew his android pitch – he seemed to like it.

    Not only do we get a rare studio outing for the outro, we also get the smallest lead singer since Graham Parker. Funkapolitan’s single was released on London, but they changed the label to read “The Sound Of Young London”. Deep sigh.

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    1. yes, i also noticed the teardrops explodes pic on iplayer - two of the band (dave balfe and alan gill) had departed by the time of this totp appearance, with replacements including the brilliantly-named and outrageously-caped troy tate on guitar

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    2. The talented Troy Tate - previously in SHAKE with future Human Leaguer Jo Callis - made many fine solo recordings, both during and following his stint in Teardrop. Sadly, none of them charted. Here's a brilliant Smiths-like offering from his period at Sire Records in the mid-80s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ngeqmuJumc

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    3. troy tate (that was his given name apparently) later joined fashion (whose album "fabrique" was a favourite of mine), but sadly he couldn't fill the void left by the departed dee harris. talking of the smiths: he was also their original producer, although none of his productions got released until many years later. one wonders what someone like him who was on the fringes of the music biz back then is doing these days?

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  24. With Gary Numan's work referred to as 'film' at this point in music history, the term 'video' was still not coined yet by Sep 1981.
    I looked at the stats for household uptake of video recorders (VCRs), and apparently by 1982, only 10% of households in Britain owned VCRs, so by now in Sep 1981 we were still not talking 'videos' yet with such a low uptake of the new hardware in Britain, and it will be interesting to see when the first mention of 'video' will arrive on TOTP in these re-runs, but clearly not yet, because firstly people on the whole were not doing recordings yet at home, and also not every new single had a video (rem 'film'), for example in this week's chart Modern Romance, Soft Cell to mention just two.

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    1. "Video" had certainly become a commonplace term by 1984, as I remember it being used on TV at that time. Mind you, my family didn't get our first VCR until 1985.

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    2. i think my family had a vcr machine by the mid-80's (with a cable for the hand controller to my recollection), although i had long-since left home by then. however i do remember making a point to go back to visit whenever there were major athletics championships on, so that not only could i watch in colour but also record them (i still have some of the old tapes knocking about somewhere)! i got my own video recorder (with remote conroller!) in 1987, but i made my girlfriend of the time "buy" it as i didn't had a tv licence! but despite that investment, rather amazingly i never actually owned a colour tv of my own until a couple of years ago!

      that makes me think: i wonder what the kids of today would make of the fact that in the early 80's we had to physically get up and go to the telly every time we wanted to change channels?!?

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    3. shaky shakerson2 May 2016 at 16:38

      I think we are all waiting for the moment when we can go 'A-ha - THATS when the term 'video' became commonplace'. And yet, and yet . . . By this point in time Buggles have had a massive hit with Video Killed The Radio Star and in America there is a competitor to the newly-launched MTV called Video Jukebox. So clearly the term was being used quite widely and we are just waiting for everyone to get on board.

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    4. Our house had our first VCR in 1985 when they became affordable, and I'm sure that by then the term video had been coined for a pop promo like that of Gary Numan this week for example, but as for exactly when TOTP used the phrase for the first time, is something we can all relish in waiting, and it's quite exciting really as part of our trip back in time and history of pop music.

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    5. My Girlfriend at the time's folks had a VCR in 1980. They weren't short of a bob or two. I was in awe and my parents didn't buy one until late 1985 like John G's family. I think it was at this point that the whole VCR thing started to expand. Our VCR however soon developed a fault where, on FF it chewed up tapes and ruined them! Thank heavens for DVDs!

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    6. Our VCR worked well, fortunately. The exciting bit of new technology that we tended to struggle with at the time was the Dragon 32 computer, as in order to play games on it you had to load up tapes, and for some reason if the volume setting on the tape recorder wasn't exactly right, the game would refuse to load!

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    7. I mentioned this last time - I used to work for a film research company that sourced film footage (eg the film clips used in the video for Queen/David Bowie's Under Pressure - that was our work). We called it 'film' but it was transferred to video after editing and the TV stations played it as VT (video tape) which is where the name comes from.' Video' as a term for a promotion film didn't come into common usage until 1982.

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    8. 'Video' as a household term was definitely gaining traction at this time - witness Honey Bane's song with the line "I videoed your soul" from a few months back. I can remember a school trip in 1981 where I saw a couple with a VCR on a suitcase trolley and a huge shoulder-mounted camera. Tomorrow's World introduced a new title sequence around this time and as a tech-savvy kid I thought it was strange (read: supremely ironic) that it was scratchy old film instead of the technology which they were regularly featuring.

      As I've mentioned before, my parents didn't by a VCR until 1985/6. I bought my first one in early 1989, the catalyst being Episode 3 (I think) of Remembrance Of The Daleks. By this time I was living 'away from home' and the 'Mum System' of video recording had failed miserably! Fortunately a friend had recorded it. The machine was an ex-rental early-'80s top loader; a couple of years later I splashed out on a JVC Hi-Fi recorder and never looked back.

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    9. Note the end titles where it says "Top Thirty specially prepared for the BBC and Music and Video Week" so the industry were already using the term.

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    10. In this context they were not referring to promo videos (pop videos) as 'video week', so the term had still not arrived on TOTP, as they were still referring to these as film, even here in September 1981.

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  25. Big thanks once again to Neil B, who has uploaded the 10 September edition to 4shared:

    http://www.4shared.com/video/7ZdGuKnLce/TOTP_1981-09-10.html

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    1. I just copied and pasted your link John, and a tab came up on my computer saying "this file has a virus", so I'm not sure if anyone else is also experiencing this, and whether to try it or not!

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    2. It played fine for me Dory - in fact a message briefly flashed up saying that the file had been checked for a virus and didn't have one! Maybe it is something to do with the virus protection on your PC? I seem to remember 4shared has caused similar problems for people in the past.

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    3. Cheers for the 4shared url, John ~ I'll put the 10/09/81 up very soon :-)

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  26. Quite a romantic show this week with Peter Powell.

    From Modern "Romance" to start the show, to Peter Powell introducing Miss Torquay 1981 with an introductory cuddle, to her having a slow dance in her shorts on OMD's souvenir, to Lovebirds Dollar with Hand Held In Black And White, the great chemistry of the two couples in Bucks Fizz including Jay Aston's sexy dress, and then one of the greatest love songs of all time, Slow Hand by The Pointer sisters with Legs & Co feeling all romantic.

    Shame that Soft Cell had to come and spoil the romantic flow of the show at the end with a song called "Tainted Love."

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  27. As we now reach the peak of No.7 for UB40 this week and just before the slide down to No.9 on next week's Jim'll show, we never got to see the video for this on TOTP, so I had a look, and it's one where the boys are performing in an empty stadium in the outdoor sunshine.

    Suffice to say that they had much more space to perform this in the video than on their two TOTP studio appearances!

    Anyone know which stadium this was, cos it looks like an American one, but I can't figure it out:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usYgf8cVfvU

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  28. That mugshot photo for Hi-Gloss was taken from the picture sleeve of the UK release of the single. Checking the 45cat website, the cover shot used for the single in Germany and The Netherlands wouldn’t have made it past the TOTP sensors – the PVC clad torso of a pneumatically built woman!

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  29. shaky shakerson3 May 2016 at 11:24

    Well, what a comment section this turned out to be. Apart from the usual episode discussion we've only gone and covered. . . . . (deep breath) nepotism in the BBC, show-closing songs, porn terminology, 50s/60s hairstyles, deaths of KTel founder and a minor TV actor, use of the term 'video', 70s teenage tv shows, theme tunes and song fade-outs. Plus Julie Joanne Beavan makes a welcome return AND we hit a century of comments. It's like an internet version of The One Show, but with more interesting stuff and less Gyles Brandreth.

    Well played everyone.

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    1. this edition deserved a century of comments as it's vying as the best ones so far in the run. can anyone put forward their contenders for best show of these re-runs?

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    2. shaky shakerson3 May 2016 at 19:45

      For me, very few editions pre-81 have stood the test of time. An over-reliance on Seaside Special acts spoiled many a show prior to this year. Checking on my - sometimes illogical- scoring the only one that beats this is the Yewtree'd edition from 30th April this year, featuring the debut of the classic mixed-sex Human League as well as Tenpole Tudor, Teardrop Explodes, Spandau, The Beat, Ai No Corrida and Is Vic There? An excellent show and such a shame it was Yewtree'd.

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    3. For me it was the following:

      (Saville and DLT cannot be counted in making our choices, as Wilberforce clearly states TOTP re-runs, and so the Yewtreed editions were not shown as part of these re-runs)

      1976 - 26th Aug - the two Ruby Flipper performance made this show stand out a mile.
      1977 - 24th Nov
      1978 - 4th May
      1979 - 5th April
      1980 - 29th May
      1981 - 3rd Sep

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    4. it's interesting in that like scoring a hundred runs in a cricket match (or indeed winning a hundred international caps in sports like cricket and football), contributing a century of comments on any editions of the shows featured on this blog is considered a milestone and rare achievement to be celebrated!

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  30. Blimey, I watch this one a few days after broadcast and find that the ton is up for comments for the first time in ages!

    I also mostly loved this show, though PP was a bit more over the place than usual as it was live.

    Modern Romance I usually liked, although their next 2 singles were better than 'Everybody Salsa'. I hope we get to see their rap song!!

    The John Foxx song is OK, but I prefer 'Underpass'. His 1983 single which didn't even get into the 40 called 'Endlessly' is my favourite of his.

    To answer an earlier question, I know someone who was in the Bucks Fizz fan club!
    This single is middling, given the choice I'd have preferred to have seen 'Piece Of The Action' and have this Yewtreed instead.

    Teardrop Explodes - Nice song, and considering he was apparently out of it, a good performance by Julian!

    Gary Numan - Oh...well, this puts a downer on things. At one of the radio stations I worked for, a colleague played this and the MD practically came running into the studio shouting 'What the **** is this?!'

    Dollar - Best thing on, by a mile. I absolutely love all the singles that Trevor Horn did for them. Admittedly he was a bit of a shit later on for blocking them from being released on CD for ages. Still, he's a pop genius and I like the way that he mostly keeps out of shot here. Howard Goodall went to the same school as me, you know. No idea what he's doing on keyboards here, mind.

    After a dull ballad, a better one by OMD. I don't have a problem with Paul Humphreys vocals, but he's clearly uncomfortable as a frontman sadly.

    Soft Cell I also have to skip now, especially as this one was the clip that they always show on other programmes.

    Funkapolitan - I don't get the love for it at all, it does nothing for me.

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