Phil can hardly contain his joy at finally being on a non-yewtreed show
03/12/81 (hosted by David Jensen)
(34) Bad Manners – “Buona Sera”
Buster goes all Latin here with a typically energetic effort but the song rose no higher.
(4) Soft Cell – “Bedsitter”
Marc goes all leather here for this studio performance of Bedsitter but this song was now also at its chart peak.
(27) Status Quo – “Rock ‘N’ Roll”
Edited out of tonight's 7.30 pm slot.
(26) Duran Duran – “My Own Way”
Duran Duran round off a successful debut year with perhaps one of their least known hits, although it did quite well reaching number 14.
Jonathan King – US chart rundown:
Journey – “Don’t Stop Believing” (live clip)
Rod Stewart – “Young Turks” (video clip)
Olivia Newton-John – “Physical” (video clip)
Not too surprisingly this section was edited out of the 7.30pm showing.
(5) Diana Ross – “Why Do Fools Fall In Love?”
Well, Zoo go all Legs & Co this week for this fun routine which maybe helped Diana Ross go up one place higher in the charts.
(21) Godley & Crème – “Wedding Bells” (video)
But who would have thought that the week's best dance routine would be performed by Godley & Crème! Nice suits too. Wedding Bells though proved to be their second and final top ten hit peaking at number 7.
(20) Fun Boy Three – “The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum)”
More like the lunatics have taken over the garden centre! The boys seem to have brought along the contents of their greenhouse this week but the song could not grow any further up the charts.
(9) The Human League – “Don’t You Want Me” (video)
At long last the Human League manage to make it onto BBC4 in 1981, after their three previous hits all ended up on yewtreed editions. And just in time for Christmas too.
(1) Julio Iglesias – “Begin The Beguine” (video/credits)
And as David Jensen mentioned it really is 'hasta la vista' from Julio here with his first and final week at number one.
Talking of yewtree, the next edition, December 10th 1981, is hosted by Jimmy Savile. So tomorrow on BBC4 it will be December 17th.
Ah, but Angelo, will we get the JS 10th Dec show uploaded to the blog? Has anyone got it? The suspense is immeasurable.
ReplyDeleteNeil B has put it up Dory, though annoyingly I can't get it to play at the moment:
Deletehttp://www.4shared.com/video/ty5wSRgxce/TOTP_1981-12-10.html
Can you ask him to put it on dropbox or WeTransfer, as this is easier to download.
DeleteOr alternatively it should be easy for you to do once you have opened it on 4Shared.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteWell, I couldn't resist, but here's the link for Neil B's 4shared page with the JS show, which opened immediately for me:
Deletehttp://www.4shared.com/video/ty5wSRgxce/TOTP_1981-12-10.html
Suffice to say that this was one of the best shows of the year, and can't wait for the blog. What a pity it is Yewtreed, when you see the superb playout with Yellow Pearl, and the Ant Rap video, not to mention the first TOTP studio appearance in two-and-a-half-years by the Police since Roxanne in 1979!
Neil has kindly put this show on WeTransfer too, so I will download it from there this evening if I'm still having problems with 4Shared:
Deletehttps://we.tl/mjsNRudU0b
Neil is also promising to put the full, uncut version of the 3 December show, with JK, up in the next few days.
Wow, it seems like Neil B has the full catalogue of TOTP episodes, well of UK Gold anyway, so yeah, lets get the UK Gold edition of 3rd Dec, so that we can see Jonathan King's part of the show which we were cruelly denied last night by BBC4.
DeleteIs this the first time in history anyone has described not seeing Jonathan King as "cruelly denied"?!
DeleteTHX, it's cos JK is part of TOTP history in the early 80s, so the shows are not the same without his passion for the American charts, and considering that at the time there was no other way to access American chart acts with their videos, as we only had our own TV channels and only with UK chart videos.
DeleteDidn't Paul Gambaccini do the American chart on the radio (which he's about to finally stop doing on Radio 2)? OK, you wouldn't see the videos, but there was exposure.
DeleteVideos are the complete package, so need as much JK inserts as possible.
DeleteI'd rather they showed the videos without JK! They would only show snippets anyway in that section, they were worse than The Chart Show.
DeleteJohn G, still no sign on Neil B's page for the full uncut show of 3rd Dec to include Jonathan King's portion of the show. Can't wait to see it, so please let us know if you spot it soon, as it was not shown on both the early evening and late night versions on BBC4 unfortunately for us fans of the show.
DeleteI'm keeping an eye out Dory, but it hasn't appeared yet - I'll let you know if I spot it.
DeleteNeil has now made the full 3 December show available at WeTransfer:
Deletehttps://we.tl/Rv0jrZhzA5
Brilliant stuff, and thanks for the heads up. It's always nice to see the shows as they were originally broadcast in 1981, even with the JK part of the show on a UK Gold version like this, and not with BBC4 edit, trying to rewrite history 35 years later and pretend it did not exist.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Deletethis is on Vimeo on Meer's page for anybody with trouble looking at any of the other sites - By the way anybody got the J.King part of this show ? maybe we should load up his section each week just so we csn see the show as it was ment to be seen
DeletePat - the JK part of this show is available at the WeTransfer link I mentioned above:
Deletehttps://we.tl/Rv0jrZhzA5
John thanks for pointing that out Just didn't see it - Hopefully Neil can help us out for each show in 1982
DeleteOnce again, I missed the WT download which is no longer available. Any chance of uploading it again or on Vimeo or 4shared?
DeleteIt can be found at vimeo/27331911
DeleteYer wanna see madness it must be love video
ReplyDeleteBad Manners - did anyone notice that Bad Manners were trying to copy their rhythm from Special Brew which got to No.3 a year earlier? They started it slow with the slow dancing, then went berserk-fast in the middle of the song, and then endif off slow again with more slow dancing. Sadly the public (and myself) were not convinced, and it made it no higher in the charts than this week's No.34.
ReplyDeleteDiana Ross - so these were three members of Zoo? Not bad, and lovely shiny green evening dresses, some would say very sexy, but still I would have preferred seeing Legs & Co in these outfits. Imagine Rosie and Gillian in the same green ballgowns. Mmmm, very tasty indeed.
Fun Boy Three - I must admit I never liked this debut single at the time, and at the time rued the fact that they broke up The Specials for this drab outfit. However, having listened to this all the last week or so, I have changed my mind and quite like this now in my older age, which I could not back then in 1981 when I was still only 13.
The Human League - the best part of this, as well as being a classic disco floor-filler and one awesome video, is Angelo's caption above, which is probably one of the best stills ever to have been put up, and a fascinating picture of pop history if ever I saw one. Hats off to Angelo for one if his best moments in my opinion. Brilliant!
Julio DoubleGazias - I'm really enjoying this because it is more a romantic summer hit than a winter one when it got to No.1, so it is one of the only times were it fits nicely that BBC4 are 6 months out of synch, cos this one is one for the summer holidays and long daylight hours, you could say perfect for June, so well done to BBC4 for showing this December show in June!
I watched the early edition this week, in part because it doesn't look as if we will get the full show late tonight either. Presumably JK's arrest has given the Beeb all the excuse they need to erase his US chart slots from history - I wonder if he will make another complaint?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Kid guides us through the show in his normal capable manner, though I did groan internally as Bad Manners immediately show up for what feels like their 535th TOTP appearance. I thought this was a bit of a mess, a combination of a slow tango part with full on rock 'n' roll, but somehow ending up totally unmemorable - it's no great surprise that it flopped, really. Buster also now seems to be struggling for fresh sartorial inspiration, while some of the band look to have been taking fashion tips from Beggar & Co - perhaps they realised the writing was on the wall...
Marc looked resplendent in leather for this studio performance, though the set surrounding the tiny stage looked more padded cell than bedsit - perhaps the designer was taking her inspiration from the duo's name! I wonder if Dave Ball grew that horrid moustache as a tribute to Ron Mael? I watched the Status Quo performance on YouTube, though there's nothing that remarkable about it; however, this must have been the band's last TOTP appearance before John Coghlan quit, as he walked very soon after this. The song itself is not very rock 'n' roll at all, but it does have a good tune and builds nicely to an excellent guitar solo at the end.
Kid damns Duran Duran with faint praise as "one of the most fashionable bands around," and it has to be said that this is not one of their better songs. There are some nice synth washes, but it feels thin and underproduced, and the chorus is lyrically challenged, to say the least.
After Zoo channel the spirit of Pan's People and Legs with a trad but fun routine to Diana Ross, Godley & Crème appear, in nasty shiny suits, to dance their way through their new single. I thought they handled their moves pretty well, though given the reputation they had acquired by now as hotshot video directors, this video seemed fairly basic. The song is quite soulful, though not as powerful or menacing as Under Your Thumb. I'm surprised to learn also that this was their last Top Tenner, as I always thought Cry managed to reach those dizzy heights.
Quite why the fun boys were surrounded by plants I don't know - given the song title, they ought to have been on the Soft (Padded) Cell stage! As with their previous appearance, there are also a whole host of unused conga drums cluttering up the stage, for some reason. Finally, the Human League at last get on BBC4! It's just typical that it had to be with their most overfamiliar song, though it is a classic slice of 80s pop and there is a compelling soap opera element to the lyrics. Good video too, with plenty of moody close-ups of the band. Joanne Catherall looks the best, perhaps making up for the fact that she doesn't get to sing! Apparently Jacko was a fan of the video, and for that reason later hired the director to do the promo for Billie Jean...
i too thought "cry" (g&c's finest moment for me by far) was more successful than it actually was!
DeleteYes, you'd have thought the video would have helped propel it into the Top 10 - I remember it got a lot of airplay at the time.
DeleteThe video was better than Under Your Thumb at least, the confetti idea was interesting.
DeleteGolden Boy was another missed hit of theirs.
DeleteSpeak up, Kid, can hardly hear you over that jumper.
ReplyDeleteBad Manners, well it was only a matter of time before somebody covered Buena Sera, and I suppose it had to be these scamps. Buster sartorially disappointing - running out of ideas already? Who did the mid-80s cover of this that Janice Long used to play a lot on her Radio 1 evening show? The something Brothers?
The art director taking not the song but the band's name literally for Soft Cell's glimpse of pre-internet Britain. Nice energetic turn from Marc, and Dave even cracked a smile.
Status Quo, with a title like that you'd expect more 50s revivalism, but nope, you have a whistley little ditty and a reflective tone. Seems like ages since we've seen them on the show.
Duran Duran running out of lyrics on a song I don't recall, and that may be because it doesn't have a tune, it's mostly production quirks instead.
Three little maids from Zoo dancing to Miss Ross, perhaps a comment on their predecessors when the blonde one goes to dramatically lift a leg and then thinks better of it.
Weird to see Godley and Crème dancing, but they're not too bad in a Temptations pastiche sort of way. The song's not bad either, but I like the middle eight better than the verses and chorus.
Fun Boy Three where the director proves some things stay the same on TOTP, yes, the potted palms. Quite what they were going to do with the bullets is another matter, were they channelling their inner Che Guevara?
At last I can see The Human League on my TV, except it's the clip they always show. I went through a long spell of indifference to this track, but now I've come out the other side and love it, funny how that goes. The meta video is a classic too.
Last up a man who Dennis Hopper would describe as "suave", though the mystery of why he sings the first line in English and the rest in Spanish remains. Kid's intro leads us to expect Arnold Schwarzenegger doing the crooning in this post-1991 world.
Yes I thought it was a Motown/60s style from G&C, the chorus didn't really pack a punch.
DeleteThe set design for Soft Cell was apparently imported from their stage shows.
Bad Manners does sound like a cover of a rather generic sounding song. The twist is hailed by rock n roll cliche phrase followed by the quicker tempo. It sounds cobbled together.
Duran Duran with more a dance track than pop melody, a bit simple and cold though has energy.
host: he may be one of the prettiest radio 1 jocks (not that there's a lot of competition in that department) but the kid (sorry - david "kid") looks a bit out of place in his red jogging sweater amongst all the glittery young things. but to give him credit he's already aware of the saying "hasta la vista", which didn't really take off as a hip way for non-spanish speakers to bid each other farewell (unlike "adios") until 10 years later in "terminator II"
ReplyDeletebad manners: buster & his chums make an effort to leap aboard the cod-latin bandwagon, in the process making modern romance sound like they come from downtown havana with this bizarre mixture of tango-meets-rock 'n' roll. i think this might be their totp swansong, but buster still tours under the name (i don't know if other original members are involved - does anyone care?) and was recently performing in my hometown on the south coast. although apparently these days he spends most of the time seated, which considering what he was renowned for sort-of defeats the whole point really!
soft cell: although i've never been a fan of moustaches, i always thought david ball looked better with one than without. but the peaked leather cap is not a good look for marc. i wonder if the padded cell set was specially constructed for this show, or if they used it whenever they did gigs? does anyone remember the clip below of richard madeley reporting on the leeds new romantic scene where soft cell are featured ? by pure chance i saw him on countdown this week, looking hardly any different 35 years later!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_pe7CDvp5M
quo: i wondered if the kid (sorry - david "kid") was being facetious in his introduction. but no, the quo are actually doing something a little different from normal. some keyboards can actually be heard for a change - in fact they dominate the song, with francis and rick practically playing air guitars until the solo kicks in at the end. if this is their idea of progression for the shiny new 80's then i'd rather they stuck with their signature sound, no matter how dated and cliched it might have been by now
duran duran: the sailor boy chic has now been ditched in favour of pseudo-military gear, which was not their best look for me. although nick rhodes and andy taylor have thankfully now ditched the bleach. musically this is probably their best effort so far, although it's still somewhat inferior to japan's "quiet life" that it clearly takes inspiration from. but simon le bon's whiny singing is really beginning to irritate me now, as is the headband. i like the way roger taylor insists on playing the drums to the letter, as if to make a point it was actually he and not some gnarled old session guy who performed on the actual recording
two-parter alert:
ReplyDeletejonathan king/US segment: i always thought mr king was a total tosser who also had a face that was begging to be smashed in with a lump hammer. but despite that i'd still rather see him on the show than be edited out due to his latest brush with the law. apparently he's been arrested as part of something called "operation ravine", so does that mean we'll be referring to "ravine'd" episodes as well as "yewtree'd" ones in the future?
diana ross/zoo: julie "chopper" harris of tight fit fame pops up again!
godley & creme: it's not the first time these two have done a pastiche of the 50's doo-wop sound, as 10cc did "donna" nearly 10 years earlier. i'm not a particular fan of this kind of music, but i prefer it to their last single. and i love the suits they're wearing. but not only is lol creme dwarfed by the black guys behind him, he's also effortlessly outdanced by them as well. although i'm sure he was well aware of that
fun boy three: although it's a new performance (with some of the congas being replaced by tropical plants that bear an uncanny resemblance to terry hall's new hairstyle), the director still uses the same "smudgestick" effect as last time
human league: presumably the appearance of the video at this early stage means they won't be seen in the totp studio at all for these 1981 re-runs? i still don't mind this, though like others of my generation i've heard it ad nauseum. despite their massive success at this point i think they were still tied to a contract where they got next-to-nothing in terms of royalties, and as a result phil oakey had to admit in much more recent times that they were basically compelled to keep performing as otherwise they would have to sign on the dole!
We will see the League in the studio for the Christmas Eve show, but sadly their Christmas Day performance of Love Action will be out of bounds. I suppose we could start referring to "ravined" episodes, though somehow it's not as catchy as "yewtreed"...
DeleteBad Manners followed this up with an unseen top 44 smash, but they returned to the studio once more with another cover (of sorts) in 1982.
ReplyDeleteThat other version of "Buona Sera" was by The Chevalier Brothers - and it was on the same label as Bad Manners!
The Chevalier Brothers! Thanks a million! I thought it was The Valentino Brothers but kept thinking, nah, that isn't right. I wonder where they are now?
DeleteThe Chevalier Brothers (of which only one was actually a Chevalier) disbanded in 1988, but singer / saxophonist Ray Gelato still gigs on the jazz scene...
Deletehttp://www.raygelato.com/shop/the-chevalier-brothers-live-and-still-jumping
Good to know! I thought they were named after Maurice, but apparently not.
DeleteWell this is a bit of a rarity isn't it? An all-new Pops with only Hoolio's vid being a repeat. So which act will get the early evening chop?
ReplyDeleteIt's not Bad Manners who get the show off to a decent enough start with an energetic if barrel-scraping version of an Italian standard from the fifties. Like Modern Romance last week, the performance area is a throng of amateur and professional dancers which adds to the atmosphere, but makes it hard to see the band. Not that the band have made any effort, choosing to come dressed 'as you are'.
Soft Cell with Dave Ball caught smiling, and Marc Almond in a Gay Club version of a biker's outfit.A bit 'out there' for middle England I suspect and I can well imagine a whole of slew of bank managers and estate agents tut-tutting over their pipe of old shag at what they were being forced to watch by their children.
And now we can reveal that its the Quo who have been ousted in order to keep BBC4's evening schedule on track. I don't like Quo. I don't like their sort of neanderthal chord-crunching but according to Kid this is ' something different'. And so it is - couldn't bring this to mind just from the title but it came back as soon as they startd to play. More reminiscent of their early flower-power music than the likes of Down Down, this isn't too bad. Watchable at least.
Duran Duran are up next and they have really taken to this New Romantic look haven't they? A good performance of a good song this one - strange it didn't make the top ten.
JK in the USA is the second 'act' to be chopped and, again, no great loss. But he is also cut from the late night show as well! Is this confirmation that he is now officially and permanently 'Yewtree'd? And, if so, how did he slip through a few weeks ago>
And The Leggers make a welcome return. Oh no, wait - it's the all-new, hip and happening Zooologists who out-leg The Leggers in the literal stakes. Not as literal as Godley and Creme though.
Now Kev and Lol are many talented things - singers, writers,musicians, video-makers, electric-guitar-gizmo-thingy inventors etc. They are NOT dancers. And although there is a piss-taking element to their routine, it may have been funnier with proper dancers. Good song though.
Another weird cut before the chart countdown part 1. When watching the earlier 7.30 version the show just seemed like a procession of such cuts, obviously because Quo and JK were excised, but what has gone on here? Was this how the original broadcast was aired or has something else been cut here? Strange.
Fun Boy Three's ode to Ronald Reagan's trigger-twitching presidency. Very annoying overuse of the visual effects box spoiled the performance for me.
Now then - iconic 80s moment siren. The first showing of Don't You Want Me on the Pops and its the much-seen video-making video. As much as this has become a Magic FM staple and played far too much, you still have to say its a classic, even if its hard to recall how good it sounded when we first heard it. A deserved future number 1.
And talking of number 1s, that old smoothie Hoolio seduces his way through to the end of this week's episode as the credits run over revealing that there are no longer any quotation marks in David Kid Jensen's name and that Flick Colby is designated as 'Dance Director' and not choreographer.
Scores. The Kid scores well tonight. So much more relaxed and at ease in front of the cameras than most of the other DJs, little in the way of cringey audience involvement, a decent chart countdown ( despite Kid calling it a count UP - a point dropped right there Kid) He scores 8
Musically this was a good un. The awful Diana Ross cover aside it was a solid run of goodies. Also an 8.
I spotted that cut before the first chart countdown as well. To me it seemed just as clunky as the BBC4 editing out of JK, but I assume this must have been present in the original broadcast!
DeleteBad Manners' TOTP swansong would come in the summer of '82 with 'My Girl Lollipop', a cover-by-numbers rendition of Millie Small's only real hit - only a few months, and it will be on BBC4! They were an entertaining group, and I loved 'Walking In The Sunshine' - but they were ultimately eclipsed by Madness.
ReplyDeleteI would describe Godley & Creme's excellent 'Wedding Bells' as a nod to classic Motown rather than a pastiche of doo-wop. When I voted in the British Rock & Pop Awards (the forerunners of the Brits) that year, I nominated 'Wedding Bells' as Best Single. Unsurprisingly, though, it lost out to Ultravox's 'Vienna'.
G&C's subsequent hit 'Cry' may have missed the British Top 10, but it did reach the Top 20 in both the UK and the USA as well as hitting No.7 in Canada, thus becoming their biggest international hit.
Poor old Millie Small was reduced to getting her kit off in the 70s in "gentlemen's publication" Mayfair, so she could have done with the royalties by '82.
Deletemillie had nothing to do with writing "my boy lollipop" (in fact her recording was a cover), so she wouldn't have picked up any royalties from the bad manners version. and as you can see from this album released in 1970, she was no stranger to getting her kit off:
Deletehttps://www.discogs.com/Millie-Time-Will-Tell/master/677247
Wow, even more unfortunate for Millie. Mind you, if appearing naked with norty bits covered on your album cover was good enough for Prince...
DeleteShe wasn't exactly that good, even with her kit off on that link.
DeleteOn the top 40 show back then, Blackburn claimed that Wedding Bells had the worst edit he'd ever heard on it. It's obvious where he means, but surely he's mistaken as G&K wouldn't issue a song like that. Where the music abruptly stops and the vocal kicks in sounding like a tape getting up to speed (although that isn't what is happening) is surely how they intended it to sound.
ReplyDeleteIt's a strange moment as it's such a smooth song.
DeleteMy main problem with the video though is the rather annoying pulling down the rope on the church bells. Very literal and silly looking.
That's the key change, a staple of a lot of songs, but it is a bit clunky. There was a dodgy bit in their last song where the synth sounded a bit out of key, maybe that was their trademark to included a mistake.
DeleteBad Manners to begin with the most obvious 'it's going to speed up in a minute' song ever. It looks a bit like Buster was actually singing the slow bit at the start but surely can't have been.
ReplyDeleteNice to see Soft Cell in the studio, and it was a good performance too.
I'm not sure why Kid was so surprised about the Quo song, it's not like they hadn't done ballads before! I quite like this one actually.
I seem to be the only one who likes the Duran Duran song! The band included, given that it appeared on an album in a different, slowed down version and didnt appear on either 'Decade' or 'Greatest' IIRC.
Not missing much in the JK segment this time then - one we've seen, one we presumably will and a song that bombed here until bloody Glee made it ubiquitous.
Not keen on Zoo or the song they're dancing to, 'Wedding Bells' I do like and I also think the video concept is good but would have been better with Kevin Godley just singing and Lol Creme having a couple more choreography sessions....
Fun Boy 3 song still crap.
Now....I adored 'Don't You Want Me' at the time but it has been well and truly ruined by radio and TV stations acting like it's the only Human League song. For goodness sake, I saw Chris Packham do a jokey link using a lyric from the song (you can guess which one) to announce that Martyn Ware would be on Springwatch. That's Martyn Ware, who had nothing to do with the song....
Shame we didn't have studio dancing to Julio. Weird that they captioned him with a still shot at the end - it made it look like he'd died!!
Bad Manners did the same tactic a year earlier with Special Brew, starting slow, speeding up, and then back to slow. It seemed to me here that they were longing for the pre-Xmas tactic on Special Brew to give them a new Christmas No.1 with Buona Serra a year later now in 1981.
DeleteThe JK rundown would have had the first showing on our shores of Young Turks by Rod Stewart on this 3rd Dec show, cos in the UK he chose to release Tonight I'm Yours at the same time as releasing Young Turks in the US, and it would have been nice to see the video now, as we would have to wait another two weeks till the 17th Dec for it to arrive on TOTP in the UK charts.
I already hate those crazy uber-happy dancers who are pretending to be random crowd members standing alongside Kid. I prefer the real thing even if they are as miserable as sin and sue the presenters 35 years later.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that it was at this point in time that I fell out of love with Bad manners. This zany cover of Bouna Sera was just one zany cover too many and I didn't buy it although viewing it today it's quite a funny performance. With his hair damped down harmonica player Winston seems to be channeling Andy Kauftman while the sax player wouldn't be out of place in a hairy prog band.
It's so brill to see these clips of Soft Cell again, I had forgotten just how good they were and they actually are in a specially constructed soft cell set this time (it was only at this point I got their name). I'm so busy looking at what Marc's doing I forget to look at Dave ball who is just standing there looking like Marc's sensible older brother (funnily my name is Dave, my brother's name is Mark). I'm not entirely in love with the leather look Marc has adopted here, it does seem like he's never worn the gear before (the waistcoat is a size too big and that cap is a bit plonked on).
In complete contrast Status Quo. I have no memory of this at all but despite it's rather boring title it's actually quite good and a departure from their usual style. Nice to hear them name check Radio Caroline in the lyrics.
Duran rewrite Girls On Film with a disco beat. God I hate those violins, so naff like Liquid Gold on acid. Simon still dances like a fat girl. The rest of the band look like ugly drag queens.
Before Kid announced that it was Zoo dancing to Diana Ross I thought we were in for a return of Gamourpuss (remember them?). A ho hum song, and a ho hum dance routine, I was so bored I was drawn to the crowd dancing in the background, one of the guys seemed to be about 8 foot tall, he was towering over the Zoo girls and they were on a stage.
Godley and Creme reinvent themselves as The Four Tops. This was another fave of mine at the time. Superb song and a superb video harking back to the 1960s.
Welcome return from the FB3, the potted plants make a return last used Jungle Rock in '78, A return also for the bleaching out technique that was popular in the early 1970s.
No less than 4 number ones in the Top 20 this week. Sad to see that ABC are stuck at number 19.
The Human League video we all know and love, albeit slightly edited for some odd reason. The film editing/viewing table Adrian Wright is using in the video is a Steenbeck which was exactly the same as the one we used in the film research company I worked for.
And we end with the Begine, I bet if Paul Burnette or Noel Edmunds were presenting that's exactly what they would say.
I saw a great interview with Phil Oakey from 1982 on YT. He's being interviewed by Rob Brydon-lookalike BA Robertson who rightly gets a lot of hate. It's quite funny if you have the time to watch it:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a08yvEU0FN0
Just noticed that the video for Fun Boy Three called The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum is not on Utube for some bizarre reason, and considering it was not shown on TOTP in favour of two studio performances, the video is quite good and appears to have been filmed in Kew Botanical Gardens, but iTunes has come to the rescue and has a crisp version for download. Any takers?
ReplyDeleteThese shows are getting better as 1981 draws to a close. ‘David’ Kid Jensen is a smooth host as usual.
ReplyDeleteBad Manners – Buona Sera – Spoke too soon!! FF we go. Didn’t even remember this one. Please tell me that there are no more appearances to come although something in my head says ’Samson and Delilah’ and I’m not referring to Middle of the Road.
Soft Cell – Bedsitter – Prefer the video but it’s a very similar looking performance to ‘Tainted love’ with Marc wearing less make up than in the video.
Status Quo – Rock n’Roll – One of the very best Quo tracks for me. Just love it. The single was great value with two tracks ‘Hold you back’ and ‘Backwater’ on the B Side which had to be played at 33. Once again Francis has his green guitar out and the keyboard player looks quite involved in proceedings.
Duran Duran – My own way – Prefer the re-recorded version on ‘Rio’ but this is a very ‘in period’ Duran Duran visually on their way to greater things (and yachts).
(JK insert – thought there was a jump here – er scissors…sorry to miss the ‘Don’t stop believing’ clip…and wasn’t there another ‘jump’ later on?)
Diana Ross – Why do fools – Very Legs & Co. as described by Anglo.
Godley and Crème – Wedding Bells – Somehow you don’t think of G&C and ‘dancing’ in the same breath and it therefore looks weird to see them suited and booted and strutting their stuff. Always felt that there was a clunky edit about half way through this single (noted by other folks above). My ‘worst edit’ vote goes to Laura Branigan’s ‘Self Control’. The 12” version hasn’t got it but the single and album version have.
FB3 – Lunatics – It’s got a kind of hypnotic insistence about it but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a great bit of music. The hairdressing industry must have been in hysterics over Terry’s hair.
Human League – Don’t you want me – Now I know after watching the following week’s show before this that this screening of the iconic video was something special and not easy to come by. I wonder if anyone realised at the time and 35 years later except ourselves on this blog?
Julio Iglesias – Begin the beguine – Never seen a show end with the no.1 ending at the very end and showing the artist name like this. In retrospect it seems a very unusual single to reach no.1 but at the time it must have had a certain ‘buzz’ about it.
Actually I have just thought of another awful edit - the single version of 'Lyin' Eyes' by the Eagles. A real lurch to one side and the narrative of the lyrics completely ruined!
DeleteA lot of early 90s dance tunes have terrible single edits. One that springs to mind straight away is 'Rockin' Over The Beat' by Technotronic.
DeleteOh, and check out the 7" of 'Stay Together' by Suede where they chop out the long intro not entirely convincingly.
the single version of bowie's "wild is the wind" (that i've mentioned extensively in another recent post) had a terrible edit in it as well - the irony being that bowie's full-length album version extended the original version merely by repeating sections (including lyrics), and it could have been edited quite nicely to the same form as the original!
DeleteGreetings from my hols where I have no roaming capabilities and can't watch the shows. Can I join in the clunky edit game? I give you "Jack In The Box" by The Moments, a great track which had choruses and verses rejuvenate so badly you can hear Al Goodman sing the word "I" twice at the start of one line.
ReplyDeletei remembered the 7" version of cerrone's "love in c minor" having a quite horrendous edit where it seemed to actually skip in the instrumental breakdown in the middle. so i checked the official video to confirm that, but there was no sign of it. i thought perhaps i was deluding myself, and although i still have the record around somewhere i wasn't looking forward to the task of digging it out to confirm that. but fortunately someone else has posted a uk pressing on youtube which has the same problem. but does that mean someone actually cocked-up in the editing suite, or was it just a bad pressing? either way though it shouldn't have happened!:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70fKpoaPemU
That was meant to say rejigged and not rejuvenate. Fecking predactive tixt!
ReplyDeleteHow come BBC cut out JK from this show after this
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2050698/BBC-apologise-paedophile-Jonathan-King-deleting-Top-Pops.html
Yes, it does seem odd, as the article was in 2011, they don't seem to have kept to their word in 2016 after apologising to JK in 2011 for removing him from a 1976 repeat. Very strange.
DeleteHe was arrested last year, and is still under investigation as far as I am aware, so that would explain why he's been cut now.
DeleteConcise Nibble catch-up…
ReplyDeleteBad Manners – can can I like this? No, I can’t can’t!
Soft Cell – padded cell, good cop, kinky cop, fine tune
Status Quo – how exactly is this rock ‘n’ roll?
Duran Duran – have it your way, I’m off
JK etc FF
Diana Ross – My God, finally, a Zoo routine I can enjoy!
Godley & Creme - G&C R&B, doing ABC before ABC, and VVVG
Fun Boy Three – seen this…next!
Human League – a much seen classic (except on BBC4, it seems)
Julian Churches – Begin the beguine? No, stop it now!