We also have something extra-special uploaded for us by Steve Burgess, who worked on this show as a broadcast engineer. It is a gallery talkback recording he made "while I was busy "colour-balancing" the six cameras during the live transmission. The recording runs from a couple of minutes before on-air so you can feel the tension build as Tomorrow's World's titles end and BBC1 continuity prepare to take studio TC3 live to the nation!"
He has uploaded it all as an mp3 file here at Soundcloud
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Also a big thanks to Crystal Coates for putting together this week's entire Top 40 on Mixcloud
Sure, I can do it live, I'm not a kid any more you know....
4-3-82: Presenter: David Jensen
(2) TONI BASIL – Mickey
Toni gets the show off to an unfeasibly energetic start with a new routine and outfit for her only top ten hit which was now at its peak in the charts.
(35) GARY NUMAN – Music For Chameleons
A very dapper Gary Numan shows what a smoothie he has turned into with this number which peaked at 19 in the charts.
(14) MADNESS – Cardiac Arrest (video)
On the buses now with Madness but they couldn't conduct this tune any higher than number 14.
(39) GOOMBAY DANCE BAND – Seven Tears
A soon to be number one. And edited out of tonight's 7.30pm slot.
(40) IMAGINATION – Just An Illusion
Became the band's biggest hit when it peaked at number 2. Also being saved for later by BBC4.
(US 11) LITTLE RIVER BAND – Take It Easy On Me (video)
(US 4) THE CARS – Shake It Up (video)
(US 1) J. GEILS BAND – Centerfold (video)
Jonathan King's American segment is edited out once again.
(26) THE JETS – Love Makes The World Go Round
I make this the third time on the show now for this song still edging its way up to number 21.
(30) ABBA – Head Over Heels (video)
The second single from their number one album The Visitors, peaking at number 25 this ended a run of 18 consecutive top ten hits for Abba, which also included 8 number ones.
(13) ADAM & THE ANTS – Deutscher Girls
The Zoo girls slip into their shortest lederhosen for this high kicking, thigh slapping routine. This was not a new song, but one of the very first the band recorded back in 1978. It got no higher than 13 and was the final top 30 hit before Adam left the ants.
(15) ABC – Poison Arrow
Rapidly whizzing towards the top ten.
(1) TIGHT FIT – The Lion Sleeps Tonight
The girls are in serious jungle outfits tonight and we also have a gorilla as well as a couple of lions. The first of a three week run at number one.
(23) ROBERT PALMER – Some Guys Have All The Luck (crowd dancing) (and credits)
Working its way to number 16.
It's March 11th next with Simon Bates.
Huge thanks to Steve Burgess for that fascinating behind the scenes insight. I have to say, though, it peaked at the very beginning with that beast barking the orders – “Sit! Sit! No, not you – if you got nowhere to sit, don’t sit!”
ReplyDeleteFine handling of the live show by Kid as you’d expect, apart from his referring again to that pesky hitsound countdown. He had a handful, what with that gurning gal to his left both after ABC and before the outro, and the woman in the blue top desperate to be seen and diving into the air just 28 seconds into the show.
Another whirlwind performance by Toni Basil, and superb mic stand routines verging on gymnastics, but she got crowded out too often and once again the backing track wasn’t top quality.
Surely that was a Gary Numan imposter! He was grinning (GRINNING!) at the very start of the song and I had to ‘rewind’ a couple of times to make sure I wasn’t seeing things, he moved about a lot instead of standing stock still, and he was wearing a coloured hat! While I’m at it, had he been listening to Japan or vice versa?
I liked the gallery talkback approval for the Madness video – “good promo, this” (and I loved Suggs’s hat trick), despite the Beeb being very reticent to show a vid with Chas Smash made up to look pasty and mimicking a panic attack bordering on the song’s subject matter. Apparently the song was influenced by Chas’s dad’s myriad heart attacks. Very tenuous link, this, but I think some years later there was a very short lived TOTP section for other charts (dance, indie etc.) and on one occasion it featured a snippet of the indie chart topper by art punks The Cardiacs.
I’ve written this after the chopped version of the show, so no idea if The Goombay Dance Band had brought the fire eaters and scarves this time round or indeed how many legs (if any) Leeeee John’s trousers had. Maybe there weren’t any and it was just an illusion. Boom boom tish!
The Jets in their Blackpool kit this time round. Enough already!
I have to say, I thought the Abba girls looked dreadful and I thought the song was really dreary. In fact, I’d got it mixed up in my heads with the Tears For Fears song of the same name and was waiting for that to kick in by mistake.
Hmmm, lederhosen and string vests for Zoo. More like it, but only they were being worn by Cherry, Rosie, Gill...
BBC iPlayer’s details for this show listed ABC (with Anne Dudley), so she must have been wearing some good make-up as I couldn’t make her out in the band. Martin Fry got the Gary Numan grinning bug at 22:10 into the show.
Far too much of the prototype Paddy McGuinness and Animal Kwackers in the chart topper coverage, and not enough Chopper or the future Mrs Waterman. The outro song summed up Steve Grant perfectly – some guys have all the luck!
Whether you would call this gymnastics by Toni Basil, she seemed to have a great petite body for 38 years old, more like a teenager's body in that minidress, although I don't recall this performance in the TOTP studio. At No.2 already, I remember at the time hoping it would get to No.1. Nice pins though.
DeleteI seem to recall 'Mickey' being broken on the Saturday evening comedy prog 'Three Of a Kind' when Toni Basil's cheerleader routine was very well presented. It might even have featured co-presenter Tracey Ullman, but not sure (I bet she mimicked it at some point). Anyway really liked Mickey at the time and took a chance and bought Toni Basil's album. Oh dear, oh dear it remains the worst album I have ever bought even to this day!!
Deletei learned the salutory lesson of not wasting my hard-earned money on albums as long ago as the late 70's, when i bought the first slave LP having loved the two singles from it and also been informed by the august "blues & soul" magazine that the rest of the album was just as good (it wasn't by a long stretch). it seems incredible that even today albums are held in high esteem by most music lovers, yet in the majority of cases they were loaded with filler or inferior product that punters hadn't even heard before they bought it - what a giant con by the music industry! for me it's always been about the actual music rather than the media it appeared on, and i really wish i'd had access to music back then like we have now, so i could acquire it on the strength of having heard it myself rather than taking someone else's opinion of it... or just taking a shot in the dark!
DeleteI said last week that it was a BBC TV special called Two for England that broke TB over here, it was shown in January and repeated later after Mickey was a hit.
DeleteThe Radio Times said - "A rare opportunity for British viewers to see the talents of American singer, dancer, choreographer and video director
Toni Basil recorded in England during a recent visit."
Yebbut Toni was on Three of a Kind doing Hey Mickey six months before that. For some reason that famous performance has been taken of YT, oddly.
DeleteBut if it was shown 6 months earlier why didn't it get in the charts then? I guess it must have been the TV special that gave it the push it needed.
DeleteUnless Mickey wasn't released when it was on Three Of A Kind. I remember they had The Style Council on one 1983 Three Of A Kind doing Harvest For The World but bizarrely that was never released as a single.
Just checked and Mickey wasn't released until Nov 1981 whereas Three Of A Kind was on in July 1981, so she promoted a song that wasn't available. How strange.
DeleteThe only thing I can think of is that the record industry moved a lot slower pre-internet, and the single wasn't ready when Toni was on 3oaK. Does seem a long time to get their act together (so to speak).
DeleteAlso enjoyed the gallery talkback - anyone else hear someone (Hurll?) comment during the Madness video, "Bit of an arrogant character that Gary Numan...I don't really know how he's got where he is."
DeleteI meant to compare Toni Basil's mic stand technique to what's known as rhythmic gymnastics, but I felt that might have looked worse!
ReplyDeleteMadness - seemed to take us through British life in a typical working day from leaving the house in the morning to the London Routemaster bus, and then onto the office. It was more like On The Buses antics, just minus Blakey & Co.
ReplyDeleteThe Goombay Dance Band - among the impressive fire-eating capabilities of the lead singer, I was focused more on the full-bodied backing singer with the shiny carnival dress/outfit.
The Jets - third TOTP studio appearance and still only at No.26. Something tells me that TOTP were flogging a dead horse here, and unusual perseverance with this one.
Abba - only one appearance of this video on TOTP at No.30, and notably the first flop in the career of Abba, and the beginning of the decline. However, I liked this one very much, and was surprised this did not make top 10 in the UK.
Adam & The Ants - seven good-legged Zoo dancers playing seven German (Deutcher) Girls. The energy of the girls on this one was far more than the energy I could imagine from Legs & Co, had they done this one.
Bizarrely there was no video from Adam & The Ants for this one, so it was welcoming for us to have the perfect pins of Zoo this week.
ABC - apart from the obvious shiny gold party suit worn by Martin Fry, I liked most the male-female mumbling on the track in the instrumental break, just before the last part of the song.
Will someone please upload the full show with the JK segment with the American charts. Any takers?
I'm not surprised there was no video for Deutscher Girls, given it was an old song that I assume Adam had no interest in promoting.
Delete'Head Over Heels' was by no means ABBA's first flop, Dory!
DeleteAfter 'Waterloo' topped the charts, they had several singles that under-performed in the UK until 'SOS' (for me, their finest moment) rescued their career.
From memory, the Abba 'flops' were "Ring Ring" twice (released before "Waterloo", no chart entry, and re-recorded and released after "Waterloo" peaking at 32), "So Long" (no chart entry) and "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" which peaked at 38.
DeleteBoth "Waterloo" and the re-recorded "Ring Ring" listed the act on the label as "Abba (Bjorn, Benny, Anna & Frida)" - a bit confusing, as the band aren't listed in correct alphabetical order and Anni-Frid's name is shortened and starts with an F instead!
I meant to say the Abba 'flops' early doors, as they failed to reach the top 30 with two of the final three singles before their permanent break.
DeleteI wonder if anyone remembers an early release/flop by Abba called "When I Kissed The Teacher" which also had a video but is quite politically incorrect nowadays, and they never seem to show it nowadays, despite its pure innocence nowadays:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXpzPWwEFOI
It wasn't released in the UK as a single, Dory. They did a promo for 4 tracks at the same time (IIRC) which was intended for international use as some tracks would be released in certain countries but not in others.
Deletehost: it's made out to be of great esteem, but what exactly was the point of having "live" editions of top of the pops? still, if the beeb insist on broadcasting a potential nest of vipers as if it's 1964 or something then i suppose david "kid" is the man ("boy"?) for the job - the only (minor) mistakes made were in the chart rundown i.e. getting george benson's track title wrong
ReplyDeletetoni basil: she may be a bit long in the tooth, but you can't fault her agility and the way she works that microphone stand. sadly no pom-poms this week, and it was disappointing that the balloons behind her weren't made use-of either. there have been several singwriting copyright cases recently where non-credited musicians have contested their right to royalties many years after the records were hits - seeing as toni wrote the chant which is the bit most remember about this record, shouldn't she put in a claim too?
gary numan: the numanoid continues his new career as a bargain-bin japan, although actual japan bassist mick karn has now been replaced by his clone pino palladino. going by the stop-start nature of this (cod-funky passages followed by dirge-like breakdowns), presumably chameleons liked to dance for a bit before taking a break to catch their breath?
madness: an excellent video even by their standards (which makes the relatively-poor chart placing even more inexplicable), with "bez" member chas smash getting a chance to star whilst suggs plays narrator and the others have multiple roles a la monty python. i especially love barso's briefcase opening up to reveal a xylophone whilst "bus conductor" tommo looks on in bafflement at his playing before joining in on toy sax. only marred by the shots of the cadillac that were rather too literal and unnecessary (it would have been better if it had been "filled in" in the crossword in speeded-up time). but was that the late caroline ahern sitting next to chas on the bus?
goombay dance band: the good old british charts continue to throw up anomalies and anachronisms for followers of contemporary music to scratch their heads at in bemusement - this time it's a poor man's version of boney m! i'm not sure what i despised more at the time: the dreadful music (funnily enough a similar stabbing keyboard rhythm occurs in kraftwerk's "neon lights", even though musically it's in a different universe), the cabaret-style name, or the guy with the naff wet-look perm and baco-foil costume. it almost pains me to mention that this rubbish modulates (in a really bad way) half way through. also sadly elfin safety wasn't around at the time to prevent the guy's fire-eating routine, otherwise their hopes of lighting up the charts might have gone up in smoke
imagination: despite being their biggest hit, i always thought of this as one of their lesser singles. but listening again now it oozes class and is certainly their most capable floor-filler thus far. having had to take a back seat for "flashback", ashley gets to do the "mr bass man" routine again. and actually makes an effort to pretend to play the bass this time. and i love leee's marcel marceau piano solo mime. errol forgets to come out from behind the kit to boogie on down this time, a shame as he could have put those tiger-tail things around his neck to good use. by chance i was looking up forthcoming events at london's prestigious jazz cafe venue this week, and i noticed that "imagination featuring leee john" are billed to appear soon...
I always thought "Seven Tears" sounded like a rip-off of "Auld Lang Syne". Just to throw the detail in now, The Goombay Dance Band weren't one hit wonders, as the repeatedly reissued "Sun Of Jamaica" smashed its way to number 50.
DeleteI always used to wonder who the hell bought drivel from the likes of Goombay Dance Band, Tight Fit, Joe Dolce, The Tweets, Agadoo et al.? I've never met anyone who's owned up to buying this stuff.... any one here want to own up?!
DeleteA lot of kids' pocket money was spent on those.
Deletewas it the same people buying those records, or different ones? and did these people buy "credible" records as well as "rubbish" ones? maybe before post-modern irony came into play there were those who deliberately built up a collection of what most considered incredibly naff records?
Deletei used to see tight fit's version of "the lion sleeps tonight" as novelty nonsense a la goombay dance band, joe dolce etc, but (unlike the rest) i've really grown to love it now. i suppose the reasons behind the change are a: i've grown to love kitsch over the years, whereas at the time i was deadly serious about music. and b: if you take away the the kitsch/novelty/people in animal costumes element and just listen to the record, it is actually really well performed and produced!
my view on all this is that no-one should feel obliged or pressured into listening (or not listening) to something because the arbiters of taste have decreed as such. inverse to the "true music fans hate novelty rubbish" mantra is that "true music fans love legends of rock". mercifully i managed to see beyond that indoctrination at a very early age (it probably helped that i didn't have older brothers who had already been "converted"), yet even today i fall out with others who can't handle my opinion that the likes of jimi hendrix and led zeppelin are as repellent to my ears as joe dolce and the goombay dance band!
Very well put, Wilberforce, though I don't mind Hendrix and Led Zep at all unless they're going down the noodling cul-de-sac. Nothing wrong with eclectic taste, in fact I think it's a must to appreciate these repeats and their idiosyncrasies.
DeleteI started collecting naff records when I heard Kenny Everett's Bottom 30s back in 1977 and 1980. Sometimes I bought bad things by accident. I posted some of my odd finds on a site called the 365 Days project.
DeleteI never really heard Kenny Everett on the radio, but I did have a book that listed his Bottom 30 and was fascinated, it sounded like something I had to hear. Now the records are on YouTube, but I too have amassed a collection of novelty records on CD, there's some excellent compilations of weirdness out there. Seems like there was a time that every celebrity was making their own song (or singing somebody else's!).
Deletept II:
ReplyDeletejets: this seems to have been hanging around for ages - is this the one that boy george danced to, or was that something else? regardless, it's time to fast-forward
abba: not one of their best. benny has obviously had a word with bjorn, saying "look, i want to be the "bearded one" in abba, right - at least as long as we keep going!". which of course wasn't much longer, as bjorn has been a beardy practically ever since their split
adam & the ants: this cash-in by his old record company actually features a similar tango-like feel to the abba effort. in terms of national representation it would have been more appropriate for these "deutscher girls" to have been goose-stepping rather than doing the can-can. but somehow i don't think that was ever going to happen
abc: mr fry still has the gold lame suit (i recall reading his claim that he ended up flushing it down a toilet!), but his colleagues have now been upgraded to silver bolero-style outfits. mark lickley is still hanging on in there, seemingly happy enough to pretend to plonk along on an upright bass (i still don't know why he left/got fired)
tight fit: no jungle this time, but the (welcome) return of the drummers, lion and gorilla. did reaching the summit mean they could afford to pay for these additional performers? not according to either chopper harris or future-mrs waterman, who i read became somewhat disgruntled at the lack of money being thown their way despite playing their part in helping this top the charts and sell over a million copies!
Boy George danced to The Polecats I think, and not The Jets.
DeleteIt was The Jets George danced to, and upstaged, when they performed Yes Tonight Josephine.
DeleteWhile I like Boy George he did look a propr nana in that outfit he was wearing, like a hippie squaw in a dad cardigan. What was he thinking?
DeleteRe ABC, Mark Lickley may have left the band early but unusually for a lot of bands he is one of the co-writers of this song and at least three others on the Lexicon album, so he still gets writing royalties.
Deleteas a credited songwriter, it would be really interesting to know exactly how much mr lickley receives in the way of royalties - enough so he doesn't have to worry about working for a living?
Deleteby the way, i've seen copies of "the lexicon of love" CD (presumably remastered with bonus material etc?) on the shelves in tesco recently, so that might be helping mark pay the rent!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteToni kicks us off, or high kicks us off anyway, with her funtime smash that leaves you exhausted just watching her, though she never seems to be out of breath. Think the previous performance was better, but there's no denying her energy to make up for it.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm right in saying Alan Partridge mimed to this Numan track on the second, not very good in comparison with the classic first series of I'm Alan Partridge. It's as close as Gaz got to a funk workout, and why is he dressed as a golfer?
Great video as usual from Madness, sweetening the pill of a rather blasé invitation to lighten up and enjoy life - or else. Toy saxophone manufacturers must have made a fortune in this decade.
Ah, now here's real class. The Goombay Dance Band and the number that their leader Bent seemed baffled was the big hit it was here when he felt Sun of Jamaica was his greatest achievement. We disagreed. Many of us disagreed that Seven Tears was any good either.
Imagination, will they bother to mime their instruments this time? Hmm, sort of. Leee even does a bonus mime (keyboard). Terrific, liquid bassline on this, and the mask on backwards is just the ridiculous touch that makes this band what they were.
Were The Jets Showaddywaddy's substitute team? They seem to have been on often enough. Mr Fairbrass, who looked to be just about to pick a fight with an audience member during the Goombay number, very visible here.
I really liked this ABBA single at the time, but it sounds kitschy now, not necessarily in a good way. Sounds a bit like the Kick Start theme in the chorus, too. Their comedy stylings in the video wouldn't give Madness any sleepless nights.
Funny how Adam and the Ants' reissued singles at this time sounded very conventional, compared to the strange, idiosyncratic pop they evolved into. As for the routine, judging by the constant manic whooping and screaming, they'd been overrefreshed at the beer steins.
ABC - there you go, Bent, this is how you wear gold lame. If anything, they're even worse mimers than Imagination.
Tight Fit, something for everyone here it's safe to say, including the hand puppet.
Then audience and Zoo arseing about to Robert Palmer till the end of the credits. I notice one of Zoo was Bunty - she'd changed since the days of The Four Marys.
i always thought alan partridge mimed playing on an actual bass to numan's "we take mystery (to bed)" at the end of the episode where his plans to watch every bond film in order over the bank holiday are scuppered thanks to sunny delight being splilt on his videos. but i can't seem to find any video proof of that - can anyone confirm or am i deluded here?
ReplyDeleteJust checked, there's a terrible quality clip on YouTube that confirms it's Music for Chameleons Alan mimes to. Doesn't seem to be the same bit you're referring to, though - did they use the same joke twice with different tunes?
Deletethey probably used the same joke twice, but i'm not sure if they used different tunes or not. of course they are both very similar pseudo-funk efforts featuring trademark pino palladino riffs...
DeleteIts the episode where the tax inspectors arrive. He plays virtual bass. Was also series 3 not 2. 2 being the greatest comedy series ever. I know, Im tragic knowing this :)
DeleteThere were only two series of I'm Alan (the first is the masterpiece), though before it was Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge where they recreated the chat show format of the radio series and got a lot of confused viewers phoning up TV Centre to complain when they thought it was real. Before that Alan was a feature on The Day Today, and before that the radio series that spawned him, On the Hour, featuring the hilarious Sumo wrestler routine.
DeleteIf you're tragic, Leetree, I'm positively apocalyptic! Also weird that Alan looks younger in his movie than he does on I'm Alan...
THX, I can only salute your knowledge. Quite correct with the titles. Series 2 of "Alan" was the one where he was in the Linton Travel Tavern..."equidistant from London and Norwich". Thats my favorite series ever.
DeleteSpeaking of the Day Today, remember "thats liquid football". :)
I just liked him appreciating a goal with a simple yell of "Shit!"
DeleteI'd be quite partial to watching Kenny Everett after all that, thanks, "Kid".
ReplyDeletethe episode of the kenny everett tv aired after this top of the pops was a classic with toyah performing i want to be free,then kenny dragged up as toyah to have a go at the song too :)
DeleteShame really that BBC4 didn't repeat an episode straight after TOTP - they missed a trick there!
DeleteI was allowed to stay up to watch the Kenny Everett show - I can remember that more from 1982 than I can TOTP!
DeleteA show that was fraught with potential danger this one, not least in the fact that it was broadcast live and included a man spitting fire.
ReplyDeleteFirst up Toni Basil. Last time she was on, the stage seemed crammed to capacity; this week she gets it all to herself, creating a less than engaging three minutes, but allowing the lads at back of stage an unfettered and fairly length at her under garments when she bends right over.
Gary Numan - Music For Chameleons. One of the things Chameleons are noted for is their ability to make themselves virtually invisible.Just like the chorus here.
Madness. Much more appealing on vid than their studio appearance. Still lacking a decent chorus though.
Goombay Boney M. This has to come from Germany dosn't it? The singer looks as though he is singing with a German accent anyway and its so reminiscent of Boney M, surely Frank Farian is involved? When the singer has finished spitting fire he turns his back and spits out the rest of his gasoline onto the stage floor. Health & Safety failure right there! Nice to see Fairbrass keeping up his Nob behaviour at the front of the stage, pushing another dancer out of the way because he was standing in Fairbrass's centre-screen spot.
Abba. Shame. They were so hugely popular and successful that they deserved to end their careers as they began, with a number 1. This had no chance really, did it? A bit of a nothing.
Zoo dancing to Adam & The Ants' cash-in release. Yawn.
Somehow, beyond all reason, Tight Fit whim-their-way into pole position, and Robert Palmer sees us out.
So then the scores.
The Kid. A pretty faultless performance considering it was live and he had to put up with an exceptionally irksome look-at-me crowd milling around. 8
Musically this was a huge come down from last week. I mean HUGE!! Bigger even than some of the hairstyles on show. 2 (saved from a 1 by Robert Palmer's playout)
Due to cash-ins, Adam Ant found himself having hits in quick succession on his current label (CBS), two former labels (Decca and indie imprint Do It, the latter co-founded by M’s Robin Scott), and a label who lifted two tracks Adam had recorded for the “Jubilee” film soundtrack they’d released (EG). Adam had recorded another song for the film with Toyah (“Nine To Five”), and EG released this as a single by Adam and Toyah as a further cash-in attempt but, due to contractual reasons, they had to withdraw the single and re-release it under the name of Adam and Toyah’s fictitious band in the film, Maneaters. It didn’t chart.
ReplyDeleteWasn't that the same way that Human League released Being Boiled to a top ten hit in early 1982, when it was originally penned in 1978 when no-one had heard of them?
DeleteSounds pretty similar to me.
DeleteKid now appears to have displaced PP as the go-to presenter for live shows, and on this evidence that is no surprise as he turns in a very slick and professional performance, even managing to preserve his good humour while fending off the annoying people around him.
ReplyDeleteToni Basil comes tonight dressed as a humbug rather than a cheerleader, but the lack of pom-poms and crowd interaction makes this performance seem rather static, despite Toni's impressive moves. It doesn't help that the song has been re-recorded again (why?) and sounds distinctly flat. There was definitely a hint of Japan about this Numan song, but that's no bad thing. It's an improvement on She's Got Claws, with a good atmosphere, but just lacks a memorable chorus. Gary appears to have been taking fashion tips from Midge Ure, who had worn a similar cap on one of his TOTP outings the previous year.
A well-directed and amusing video from Madness follows, though I'm slightly surprised the heart attack acting got past the BBC censors in those days. Far more surprising, however, is the fact that Seven Tears managed to get to the top of the charts. I suppose it does have an anthemic quality, but it's a deeply mediocre one and the singer joins Adrian Gurvitz in the competition for worst hair of 1982 (we still have some choice contenders to come in that category). I can only come to the conclusion that the live fire-eating must have had something to do with it...
Imagination greatly up the class factor with perhaps their best song. The performance is unusually restrained, but I loved Leee's two faces and his playing of the invisible keyboard - just an illusion indeed! The Jets seem to have taken Matchbox's place as TOTP ever-presents even when their chart positions don't really warrant it - their fashion sense seems to be getting worse with each appearance, too. No ABBA single is a complete waste of time, but Head Over Heels does betray some signs of tiredness, lacking the effortless pop perfection of their greatest songs. Still enjoyable though, and nice to see them attempting a more light-hearted video after the grimness of the One of Us promo.
I don't think I've ever heard Deutscher Girls before, but while not having much in common with the later Ants sound it is a decent effort. A nice, thigh-slapping, Legs-style routine from Zoo as well, which is probably the best thing we have seen from them so far. We then move on to a fairly unremarkable new ABC performance, before Tight Fit celebrate getting to the top by bringing back both the gorilla and the lion. The latter didn't do much sleeping, and also appeared to be wearing shoes, while the gorilla did rather an impressive flip! Clearly fidelity to the behaviour of these animals in the wild was not high on the agenda here - as we know, lions don't live in jungles anyway!
Thanks Angelo for the link to the gallery recording, which I shall listen to with interest later on. Incidentally, any particular reason why your last two posts have looked so colourful?
I remember this Toni Basil performance of Mickey more than the first, never has a woman found so many things to do with mic stand and the people sitting at the back get a good look at her knickers when she bends over, which is a little odd. Poor Craig Fairbrass is demoted to sitting and clapping along with the others this week, also along for the ride is disco dance champion Phillip Tan, now a successful actor and stuntman. He turns up again later doing some mad dancing to The Jets.
ReplyDeleteFretless bass alert. Gary adopts the 1920s Great Gatsby look and looks very cool. I have no memories of this song at all but it's quite nice. Pete Shelley nicked the tune of this one for his song No One Like You,
Madness dropped down last week but went up 14 places this week. I remember the video well - great fun despite the song's serious tone. I like the way Mike Barson plays the xylophone hidden in his brief case and the way he closes the lid afterwards and I like Suggs' subtle tribute to Stan Laurel lifting his bowler by blowing into his thumb. I remember the 253 bus route well when I lived in London but I don't remember it going down Upper Street in Islington so I think it must have taken a slight detour for the filming.
.
The effing Goombay Dance Band filling the gap left by Boney M. My god I hated this at the time and my feelings haven't changed much. Interesting to see the lead singer doing a bit of fire-eating during the instrumental break, at least we know where he gets his gravelly voice from. I note that Craig Fairbrass almost starts a fight with one crowd member who is waving at the camera,.
Imagination with their best song to date, all the usual ingredients plus air keyboards, never seen that before. Not sure I want to see it again.
Oh no its the Jets for the third time and they've only got to number 26, how do they do that? Interesting close up of a drum stand towards the end that must have been an mistake surely. Some very odd dancing going on here.
Kid looks decidedly uncomfortable standing alongside those peroxided, preened, poseurs, the guy at the back is so surly it's scary although not as scary/creepy as the guy with the pencil moustache who has a nervous tick and appears to have taken his dress sense from Earth Wind and Fire album covers. Where did they find those people?
I quite like this ABBA song, although it's not one of their best as Kid informs us, but it grows on you.The video is simple but very funny and I love the line "she's a girl with a taste for the worst". I wonder how the clothes designers of the stuff Anni-Frid is wearing felt about having the designs described that way?
Deucsher Girls - It's like Legs and Co never went away, same meat, different gravy. But they certainly look like they're having fun, which you can't say about most of the Zoo performances up to now.
ABC return with a new performance. While I miss Mark White at the piano and Martin Fry's use of it as a prop during the spoken word bit, he does a better job of miming the xylophone parts (even if he does miss a couple) while the drummer is where he should be behind the kit.
Tight Fit at number one and I still can't see what all the fuss is about. Even if you do fancy the two girls, or indeed "singer" Steve, why did you have to buy the record. I feel a bit sorry for the two black guys playing the drums and doing the "a-wim-o-weh" backing vocals, and for the two extras inside the money and lion skins.
I looked up this night on the BC Genome sight and the Radio Times ironically said of Kenny Everett - "Tonight finds Kenny in a relaxed mood and going out on the town to really enjoy himself -and why not, these shows were taped weeks ago, so now he can do whatever he likes ... you didn't think they were live, did you???".
Not a bad show but a soup of mixed emotions all told, With ABC, Madness and Adam Ant on the plus side and Tight Fit, The Goombays on the other.
I always thought the ABBA lyric was "She's a girl with a taste for the world". Interesting there's also a line about "Pushing through jungles every day" - I wonder if Anna-Frid ever bumped into a bloke in a lion costume and a model in a string vest?
DeleteI checked and you're right the lyric is "she's a girl with a taste for the world" but in a way I think my lyric is better. That happens a lot with songs, you sing along thinking you know the words but sometimes they turn out to be rather mundane and nowhere near as good as you thought they were.
DeleteMondegreens can be more entertaining, true. Sometimes it's better not to know!
DeleteRe The Jets - nobody else seems to have picked up on this but Mike Read did say that they had the same producer as Shakin' Stevens and, as has been commented before, the then unknown Shaky seemed to get a lot of invites to perform on the show given his lack of chart success. Of course it could just be a coincidence....
DeleteThe producer was Stuart Colman. Apparently in 1976 he and a group of others organised a march on the BBC complaining about the lack of rock and roll played on the radio. The gave him his own show which must have acted as a god platform for the groups he produced.
DeleteHark at you, TXH! Mondegreens? That took me back to watching "Call My Bluff" on BBC2 at 9.00 on Mondays in the late 60's and early '70's - immediately after either "The High Chaparral" or "Alias Smith And Jones" !
DeleteI thought mondegreen was a fairly well known word, though I notice my spellchecker doesn't recognise it. "Scuse me while I kiss this guy" and all that.
DeleteI used to watch The High Chaparral on Sunday afternoons at my gran's house, must have been repeats by then. Always liked Henry Darrow in it - just Googled him and happy to read he's still alive at 82!
"the high chaparral" (that i seem to remember always watching early on a sunday afternoon before the football) was okay as a western series, but the lighter "alias smith and jones" was much better in my opinion. i hadn't seen it for ages until two or three years back when they showed the complete run on (i think) itv4, and it was great fun to re-watch. but it was a shame that pete duel killed himself during the making of it, and (thanks to the network pulling the plug due to poor viewing figures in the US) that we never got to see if the pair were pardoned. the same thing happened with the "planet of the apes" tv series that came out around the same time - for all we know, those two astronauts are still marooned there!
Deleteby the way, mondegreens sounds like some kind of vegetable - if you don't eat up your mondegreens you won't have any pudding!
Deletei remember reading an interview with henry darrow in the 70's when he said he changed his surname (from delgado) so he wouldn't get typecast as a latino. but (as in "the high chapparal") he still ended up playing latinos more often than not anyway!
DeleteI love the way we've gone from talking about ABBA to the High Chapparal and Henry Darrow. Is there a word for that?
DeleteDigression, probably!
DeleteI don't know when we'll see the Stones next on these repeats, but there's a Keith Richards doc tonight on BBC2 at nine, directed by Julien Temple who makes terrific music docs (like the Sex Pistols at Christmas or the rediscovered Clash footage ones). Might be worth a look?
ReplyDeleteIt was indeed worth a look, excellent doc, right up to Temple's high standard with these things. Nice to hear where Richards got his inspiration from, it's usually Mick who gets interviewed so it was good to hear the other one be so articulate for so long (and smoking like a bastard, natch).
DeleteI had the pleasure of seeing the Rolling Stones Exhibition today at the Saatchi Gallery in London, which takes you through from when the group shared a one-bed flat in London for 6 months in 1963 until present day. Worth forty licks I would say.
DeleteI can imagine! There's an interesting fact about the famous meeting between Mick and Keef on the train in that doc that I never knew. It's right at the end, with a rare photo. The whole thing's on iPlayer and strongly recommended.
DeleteAny sightings of the full edition with JK's insert? Was it on UK Gold that someone may have a copy of it?
ReplyDeletethanks to Neil B. it's on 4Shared
DeleteCan anyone get it onto WeTransfer, as 4Shared transfers viruses?
DeletePleased to say that Meer has kindly put up the original show on his Vimeo site, including the Jonathan King slot with the American charts. Nice to see J Geils Band taking a 4th week at No.1 in America, while only making it to No.3 in Britain.
DeleteHere's the full show uncut:
https://vimeo.com/176067136
Still don't know why JK is presenting his links in blackface. If it's a tan why are his arms so pasty?
DeleteThanks to Neil and Meer for making the full show available. BBC4 viewers didn't miss much through the loss of the JK segment, unless they wanted to see the man himself wearing an Indian headdress. I was not previously familiar with either the Little River Band or Cars tracks, but they both sounded utterly forgettable from the small amount we heard.
DeleteI noticed that week's show is the first of ten consecutive TOTP shows with no yewtree element, i.e., from beginning of March 1982 until the next DLT show in mid-May, BBC4 will be able to give us all ten shows, but we'll still need this week's one last JK insert, before he returns on the Jim'll show of 10th June.
ReplyDeleteWhy the three-month break? I thought JK was supposed to be with us every three weeks on TOTP with his American chart update, as he was doing so since Nov 1981?
This was a fun show with much less Fairbrass than usual and Kid in charge, which both helped.
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit of a shame that 'Mickey' has been re-recorded again (unless they were using the previous version) and that the performance wasn't as exciting this time.
Although it's a blatant Japan rip-off, I do like 'Music For Chameleons', Partridge air-bass and all.
The 'Cardiac Arrest' video is very entertaining and I think that Chas suddenly perking up at the end of it is the group's concession to getting it played on TV otherwise it really would be too grim!
Goombay Dance Band - Hmm...tragically I think that I didn't mind it at the time.
Imagination - Their best song, with a reasonably restrained performance from Leeeee & Co. Who'd have thought?
ABBA - Not their finest, but I love almost all of their singles. It was also featured on the Ronco compilation of the time (as were quite a few other songs on this edition of the Pops) Chart Busters 82 so got a lot of plays in the car!
Adam & The Ants - This gives an indication of why the Ants Mk1 didn't get anywhere. Mind you, I quite liked 'Young Parisians'.
Tight Fit - The dark haired lady is Mrs. Waterman, right? Assuming this is so, he did very well there....
denise gyngell aka mrs waterman is also a blonde like chopper harris these days. and dare i say it, actually looks better now than she did back then...
DeleteJust trying to think – can anyone else come up with an act that was completely remoulded like Tight Fit, or another which was fine tuned, like the reincarnation of Brotherhood of Man?
ReplyDeleteWasn't someone saying recently that Kenny had interchangable band members. And weren't the first incarnation of the Bay City Rollers all different barring Les? I may be wrong on that one.
DeleteThere's the Sugababes of course, though that was never really intentional!
50 something here..
ReplyDeleteI've got a Drifters compilation that runs to 58 tracks - one for each accredited Drifter. For all I know there's still some incarnation of the band playing the circuit right now.
The Drifters definitely fit into this category. In 1958, their manager George Treadwell fired the existing group (already much changed from the original line-up with Clyde McPhatter five years previously) and rechristened an entirely different group called The Five Crowns (lead singer: Ben E King) as the new Drifters. The rest is history, and a great many more members as the years rolled by...
ReplyDelete