Thursday 9 March 2017

Top of the Pops 1000

The 1000th edition of Top of the Pops, originally broadcast on May 5th 1983, will not be shown on BBC4 due to (among other things) one of the hosts being Jimmy Savile, so a huge thanks here to Andy Pearman for making it available for us here on Youtube


Yes it's still number 1000, it's Top of the Pops!


05/05/83 (1000th edition) (Radio 1 DJs)

Richard Skinner interviews David Jacobs
Thompson Twins – “We Are Detective” (7)
At its peak position.

Steve Strange, Roger Taylor, John Deacon – brief interview

The Human League – “(Keep Feeling) Fascination” (3)
Went up one more place, and the last we will see of them for a year.

The Beat – “Can’t Get Used To Losing You” (29)
The band's final top ten hit, made it to number 3.

The Dave Clark Five – “Bits & Pieces” (clip from 19/02/64)
Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas – “Little Children” (clip from 26/02/64)
The Supremes – “Baby Love” (clip from 07/10/64)
Sonny & Cher – “I Got You Babe” (clip from 12/08/65)
The Rolling Stones – “Get Off Of My Cloud” (clip from 04/11/65)
The Bee Gees – “Massachusetts” (clip from 26/12/67)
The Rolling Stones – “Let’s Spend The Night Together” (clip from 26/12/67)
The Beatles – “All You Need Is Love” (‘Our World’ clip)
Cliff Richard – “All My Love” (clip from 26/12/67)
Manfred Mann – “Mighty Quinn” (clip from 15/2/68)
Joe Cocker – “With A Little Help From My Friends” (unknown clip)
Status Quo – “Pictures Of Matchstick Men” (clip from 15/02/68)
The Move – “Fire Brigade” (clip from 15/02/68)
Cilla Black – “Surround Yourself With Sorrow” (clip from 27/02/69)
The Beatles – “All You Need Is Love” (‘Our World’ clip)
Cilla Black – brief interview
Noel Edmonds - clip from 01/02/73

Heaven 17 – “Temptation” (8)
Heading towards a peak of number 2.

Chas & Dave – brief interview
Gary Glitter – brief interview

The Rolling Stones – “Brown Sugar” (clip from 15/04/71)
Rod Stewart – “Maggie May” (clip from 27/12/71)
Elton John – “Your Song” (clip from 14/01/71)
T. Rex – “Get It On” (clip from 27/12/71)
David Bowie – “Starman” (clip)
Gary Glitter – “I’m The Leader Of The Gang (I Am)” (clip from 25/12/73)
Abba – “Waterloo” (clip from 02/05/74)
Queen – “Killer Queen” (clip)
10cc – “I’m Not In Love” (clip )
The Boomtown Rats – “Looking After Number One” (clip)
Blondie – “Picture This” (clip)
The Police – “Spirits In The Material World” (clip)
Adam Ant – “Goody Two Shoes” (clip)
Duran Duran – “Is There Something I Should Know?” (clip from 23/03/83)

Bill Wyman – brief interview
Gary Numan – brief interview

New Edition – “Candy Girl” (30) (Zoo)
Bobby Brown and the gang's only top ten hit, but it did get to number one.

Jeffrey Daniel – brief interview
Clare Grogan – brief interview
Jonathan King in New York
Messages from Sting, Charlene, Lionel Richie, Meat Loaf and Rod Stewart

Blancmange – “Blind Vision” (28)
Became their second of three top ten hits, peaking at number 10.

Sandie Shaw and Kim Wilde – brief interviews

The Fun Boy Three – “Our Lips Are Sealed” (16)
This was incredibly their final single, possibly it was their best, and it made it to number 7.

Bucks Fizz – brief interview

Spandau Ballet – “True” (1)
Second of four weeks at number one, having their cake and eating it!

Men At Work – “Overkill” (24) (audience dancing/credits)
The band's final top 30 hit, peaking at number 21.



Next up is May 12th 1983.

31 comments:

  1. here's one i did earlier thanks to whoever posted it on youtube! plenty of competition for most excruciating presenter, but not surprisingly slimy manages to win fairly comfortably in the end. i did actually quite like gary davies's "young boy three" joke though, and kudos to dlt for getting on down at the end of the show. i can't recall seeing either kid - sorry david jensen or peel on it though. however i skipped through all the usual suspects on archive that the blundering beeb more by accident than design managed to stop from being wiped, so i might have missed their contributions?

    thompson twins: why is tom dressed in a police uniform? i thought the detective branch of plod wore plain clothes? he obviously wouldn't make much of a detective in real life. also: as one whom i believe actually worked as a teacher before he became a pop star, wouldn't he be aware that the title of this dirge is gramatically incorrect? meanwhile the black guy continues his impression of being a spare prick at a wedding, and the annoying blonde woman challenges kevin rowland in the "who can wear their hat most vertically" competition

    human league: i preferred the all-black look in the video to the more casual attire here. and what exactly is that thing that suzanne is wearing? it was a bit risky putting least-visual member adrian wright centre stage, but fortunately there were close-ups on the others most of the time

    beat: this is a nice song, and this is a pretty good treatment of it (ranking roger's tedious toasting apart). but surely there's still no excuse to release it as a single over three years after it was recorded? especially as they had only just released their third album! having played in it, saxa is also roped back in from retirement as well - thus leaving his replacement wes magoogan in an unenviable position of thinking "should i pretend to play along with him or not?"

    jackson 5... sorry: new edition: to my recollection there were accusations of plagiarism at the time, but i don't know there was any legal action taken or not. i hate both this and what it ripped-off, so i'm not going to bother making the effort to find out

    blancmange: i listened to a "best of" CD of theirs a while back in the hope of finding another "living on the ceiling" but came up empty. yet listening to this now it sounds pretty good - rhythmically anyway (with some nice funky guitar chops, courtesy of peter gabriel sideman david rhodes) as there's not that much in the way of a tune. the lyric line "it's getting hard" couldn't help but put me in mind of beavis and butthead! by the way, this came from their magnificently-titled second album "mange tout"

    fun boy 3: i never thought too much of this at the time, but listening now it's actually quite listenable. however once again it shows that singing drummers are not a good idea, as i originally thought the female vocal might have been an unseen member of the go-gos rather than june miles-kingston labouring away at the back

    spandau: i'm sure that not only was gary kemp feeling very smug at getting to number one, the fact that his band succeeded his hero and role-model at the top made success even sweeter. as i've mentioned here before a while back, he didn't actually get to meet the dame until a couple of years later at live aid - where bowie apparently had no idea who gary was!

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    1. It was a little surprising to see the return of The Beat who graced our charts back in 1980.
      Coming back three years later in 1983 with this new hit, did not really fit the moving 80s rhythm.

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    2. The Beat did have a couple of Top 40 hits in 1981 but I guess that for most people you would be right in thinking that comparisons would be made to their 79/80 offerings as they were much bigger hits!

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    3. Yeah, I'm referring to 'Mirror In The Bathroom', and 'Too Nice To Talk To', which were my two favourite hits of theirs, but this surprising return in 1983 just did not do it for me.

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  2. This was an impressive milestone celebration, very well marshalled by Michael Hurll, even if the celebrity "interviews" were beyond banal - at least John Peel subverts them a bit in his brief encounter with Clare Grogan. Nice to see Noel back, and they certainly packed the clips in. I think I said this before at the time of the 900th episode, but it must have been very exciting back then to see all this archive footage, as opportunities were so much more limited for doing so. Not sure why that Joe Cocker clip got included, given it wasn't from TOTP - if memory serves, it came from a show called How It Is. We get a new main set too, the light cascade replaced by the flashing squares and circles which make up the first TOTP set I can remember. The title sequence gets a fancy makeover too, and so has the theme tune, though this now sounds as if it has been sped up too much.

    Thankfully a few songs manage to slip in amongst the celebratory backslapping. The Thompson Twins' performance is an amusing complement to their video, with some tango moves thrown in. I note that Alannah has ditched her baseball cap here for a big wide-brimmed hat, presumably for the sake of ringing the changes. After an embarrassingly awkward PP/Master Bates interview with Steve Strange and half of Queen (sorry Roger, but you didn't perform Under Pressure in the studio), the League proceed to look a bit awkward themselves, all squashed up in a line on a small stage. Adrian Wright must be a Judge Dredd fan, presumably...

    The Beat's career was drawing to a close, but they managed one final hit with this rerelease, a highly respectable cover version which, as is the case with good covers generally, does something a bit different with the song. So, Heaven 17 did find themselves in the studio with their ex-bandmates this week - I wonder if there was any fraternisation backstage? This new performance isn't especially remarkable, though Glenn Gregory seems enormously pleased with himself throughout.

    Wrighty manages to make himself look a total idiot by getting Chas & Dave mixed up (not sure if this was deliberate, but I sense it wasn't), and Bill Wyman is wheeled out once again for a completely unenlightening interview, as he was on the 900th show. Zoo then go all Haysi Fantayzee on us with this routine to ABC, er Candy Girl. It's an entertaining, energetic effort from Flick's gang, but the song itself is plagiaristic pap, and knowing what a loathsome individual Bobby Brown would grow up to be makes it worse.

    Gambo and Mike Read are in their element swapping chart stats, albeit clearly pre-rehearsed, and then Blancmange return with a significant improvement on their previous single - I still wish Neil Arthur would put his shades back on, though. The best song of the evening up next, as the FB3 save the best until last with this excellent tune, the subtle production and arrangement knocking the Go-Gos' version into a cocked hat. Good performance too, with June Miles-Kingston on the drums coming over quite alluring. Funny how The Specials performed their last single on the 900th show, and the Fun Boys' theirs on this, although unlike their former band they did still have one further studio appearance to go.

    This is the studio appearance of True that always gets repeated, and there's not much to say about it other than I find Tony's jacket rather annoying! The dream team of Jim'll and Gary Glitter bid us goodnight, and while DLT boogies away to this tuneless Men at Work song (no wonder their career fell away so quickly) the Spands pose and sign autographs around a giant cake - did it get divvied up among performers, presenters, audience and crew afterwards, I wonder?

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    1. I did wonder why The Human League were all standing in a line, all cosied up. I did like the embrace of the keyboard player with the blonde female vocalist at the end, which made it easy for him to do so when in a line.

      Indeed, there probably was some rivalry between Human League and Heaven 17 appearing on the same show, and I think Heaven 17 took up the idea from Human League, to have of a female side vocalist, and made theirs even more sexy, as it was an interesting dress on the black lead on Temptation, wearing less clothing than on her first appearance a couple of weeks earlier. The suspender made a final statement here to Human League's more subtle approach.

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  3. Those two clip compilations had me thinking Noel would appear at the end to tell us they were available from K-Tel. And who was immediately reminded of the Vic and Bob spoof of Noel and DLT at the end of the second one: "It's a photo of me looking slightly different!"

    Anyway, there were some bands on between the backslapping, The Thompson Twins with Tom apparently playing the synth melody on his accordion, but not the accordion melody. Huh?

    Continuing the police theme, we get an identification parade, a line up all in a row, of The Human League, selling their song well.

    The Beat, it's a nice arrangement and a cute idea, but not a particularly cool single, especially for their last hit (though Rog is still persevering with the band and sounding pretty decent).

    Heaven 17, oh, did you know they took their name from A Clockwork Orange? Yes, everyone knows that.

    Zoo dance to Candy Girl, a catchy little ditty but there's something so cloying about it that it's not too great to listen to, at this remove especially. We have the bratty video to come...

    Blancmange, another strong single from them, very well produced and dramatic. The Indians seem to have been ditched in favour of a soul boy backing!

    Fun Boy Three, and a rare occasion of two different versions of the same song being equally good in their respective ways. Another one that benefits from a dramatic production.

    Then ver Spands to end on, after which we get to see the DJs groove to... Men at Work? Always thought this was called Who Can It Be Now?, but it isn't. Moody number, not bad but far from the fun of their previous smash.

    Oh, and nice to see David Jacobs, I still miss his Sunday night show.

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    1. i always thought the follow-up to "down under" was "who can it be now" and not what they played over the credits - i had no idea who or what it was until i checked angelo's blog!

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    2. Who Can It Be Now does sound very similar to Overkill, to me anyway.

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    4. I did feel that Men At Work's single at no.24 should have had a main play instead of Zoo doing Candy Girl, as New Edition would have been better fitting for the playout than Men At Work. I would have thought that the Men At Work video for Overkill would have been available at this time, as they always seemed to chart in the US before the UK, so this was a missed opportunity for the Men At Work.

      However, considering that there was a no new videos policy on the show this week in order to make way for the video clips of yesteryear, I can somewhat as to why New edition were chosen ahead of Men At Work for a main play.

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  4. So we've made it to the 1000th show (well, the BBC made it to the 999th and 1001th, but we'll gloss over that...). I recorded this at the time on a Sony C120 cassette, not sure why, presumably just because of the novelty of TOTP in stereo on the wireless.

    I dug this old tape out and discovered two things. Firstly my Akai dual capstan cassette deck (a considerable outlay just seven years after the events depicted here, which really puts things into perspective) has finally given up the ghost and won't play or even rewind. Hopefully it's nothing more than drive belts.

    Secondly, risking the tape in an inferior machine, it's not stereo TOTP as we came to expect during the last 15 years of the programme's life, which is hardly surprising since TV Centre was definitely not geared up for stereo in 1983. Generally, only the artist backing tapes and Yellow Pearl were in stereo. The archive clips were rendered in 'fake stereo' and, intriguingly, a slight separation can be heard between the presenter mics. Heaven 17 and Spandau Ballet were in mono (were these repeats or pre-recorded inserts?) and the backings for Zoo and the end credits were also in mono (these would have been sourced from the vinyl singles, presumably transferred on TVC equipment).

    And one thing I never knew was that the same 'applause' cue was played at the beginning and end of every performance. Never noticed it before but it sticks out like a sore thumb on the radio broadcast!

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  5. Did anyone spot Jeff Stewart (PC Reg Hollis from The Bill) pulling faces behind Tony Blackburn during a link? A clip of Billy Idol appears when Noel Edmonds mentions Johnny Rotten.

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  6. Another milestone extravaganza denied to the BBC4 masses. Given there are a number of undesirables here it’s not surprising, but I cannot see why they couldn’t show it with some subtle edits (or not so subtle edits like the 28th April show!). It’s a good selection of current songs and archive clips, even though most of them have been showed umpteen times.

    To the main show:-

    Thomson Twins – We are Detective- A suitably eclectic performance to get things started.

    Human League – Fascination – Nice red frock Jo’s wearing for dancing! It would be over a year before we saw the League again and by then things were on the wane. I noted that Adrian was sporting a T-Shirt proclaiming ‘I am the law’ which is one of my favourite tracks on ‘Dare’.

    The Beat – Can’t get used to losing you – The only Beat track I liked. Sounds uncannily like Andy Williams does Dave (sans left handed guitar). The rap bit I could have done without mind you.

    Heaven 17 – Temptation – Love it. Very insistent sound.

    New Edition – Candy Girl – How on earth did this rubbish get to no1? Sold relatively poorly mind you. The lowest selling no1 of 1983 selling less than the likes of ‘Words’, ‘Moonlight Shadow’ and ‘Love of the common People’ to name a few superior records that didn’t top the charts.

    Blancmange – Blind Vision – I have decided that I definitely underrated Blancmange first time round. This is another fabulous record augmented by some spicy brass. In fact I am so taken with Blancmange that I’ve checked out their performance of ‘The Day before you came’ from a year or so later and that’s great too with the Indian musicians returning.

    Fun Boy Three – Our lips are sealed – Like The Beat, this is the only FB3 track that I really liked and even Terry’s deadpan delivery can’t hide a stonking tune. Co-written, of course with Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Gos, their original version deserved better than no42 a year earlier. Is that the Go-Gos performing here I wonder as they’re uncredited on the single?

    Spandau Ballet – True – Very appropriate that a band wearing ties should be no1 on the 1000th show as there were probably a number of bands doing so on the first show.

    Men at Work – Overkill – Like Wilberforce I didn’t realise that this was MAW until I read the blog as I don’t think I have heard the record before. I bet the cake cutting sequence went on longer that was broadcast here but we won’t get to see it.

    Clips. I won’t comment on all, but a few thoughts. Someone loved the Rolling Stones as we get three clips. I was waiting for T.Rex’s ‘Get it on’ to appear with Elton on keyboards and sure enough… The Cliff Richard clip of ‘All my love’ was great as its one of my favourite 60s singles of his. Nobody commented to John Peel that he was featured on the ‘Maggie May’ clip. Finally the intro of Noel Edmonds introducing Olivia Newton-John’s ‘Take me home Country Roads’ was from the 1st February 1973 ToTP that John G made us aware of last week as a ‘resurfaced’ show, so if it was around in 1983 where has it been all this time? What was the big joke on Noel as well?

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    1. Clips from that 1/2/73 show have been in circulation for a long time, and I have seen the Whiskey in the Jar performance more than once on TV. Not sure why it's only come on to YT now, but perhaps it was posted up before and taken down again.

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    3. Yeah sct353, I could count a total of five 'undesirables' on this show,i.e., Jimmy Saville, DLT, Jonathan King, Gary Glitter, and Paul Gambaccini (although the Beeb did a U-turn and remove his ban).

      Also, the fact that Jimmy Saville and Gary Glitter appeared side by side at the end, where JS said that TOTP will still be around in 2002 for the 2000th edition, he was correct, and even appeared on the last ever show in 2006.

      However, no-one on the 2000th edition in 2002 said that TOTP would still be around in 2021 for the 3000th edition. Erm, no.

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  7. Thanks for this show, Andy. I skipped all the interviews and clips and focussed on the studio outings.

    ‘Ello ‘ello, it’s Tom Bailey incorrectly dressed. As for “there’s something strange about his gloved left hand”, could they mean this?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPnR-zIwvQ0

    Great keyboard miming by the lawless Adrian at the start of “Fascination”!

    A fine Andy Williams impersonation by The Beat’s Dave. Strange to see Roger with a guitar and Dave without.

    Carol Kenyon looked alluring, Glenn Gregory not so. Nice touch to hold back on the Heaven 17 caption until after Glenn’s early solo.

    New Edition and Zoo, an horrendous aural and visual combination.

    Ooh, Blancmange with backing musicians on the balcony. Is that a first?

    Fun Boy Three with a superb ‘lower key’ version of this song and Neville looking almost as useless as The Thompson Twins’ Joe Leeway. I see Crew 7 wanted to big up themselves with that decoration.

    We finish with Spandau Ballet, smugness on a stick (but at least they did sign autographs at the end as mentioned previously, so fair play) and a sped up version of “Who can It Be Now” with some of the laziest lyrics ever with virtually every line finishing with “...ation”.

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  8. Is there another way to watch this as the YouTube link is not working

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  9. Wurz - this is the YT link that I watched....

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shb2Cg3h9gc&t=1267s

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    1. Tried that,still no joy or is it because I'm trying to watch it on an I pad and not a computer ?

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    2. Looks like it has been taken down unfortunately. Can someone put it on we transfer or similar please?

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    3. Just watching it now, so it must be back!

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  10. Quite an entertaining show, although the interviews were a complete waste of time and should have been jettisoned for more clips I reckon!

    Bates naturally wins the prize for the worst interview, forgetting one of the biggest selling singles of all time. Mind you, Roger Taylor seems to have forgotten about 'Las Palabras De Amour' as well, though that it more understandable.

    Shame we didn't get to see The Human League perform, though at least the video is entertaining enough.

    The Beat song is one that I've always liked, and I would have had no idea that it was a cover at the time.

    The 60s clips are a pretty good bunch though it's a shame that they got the awful Cilla to represent the decade in studio. Then we get what must be the beginning of the mostly not hilarious pranking between DLT & Tidybeard.

    The 70s clips are things we've mostly seen a million times now (T Rex, Elton, Bowie) with barely anything from the second half of the decade (and that Boomtown Rats clip is an odd choice) and some big names missed out. Where were Slade for example?
    Then the 80s are represented by 3 songs, one of which has only just been a hit? OK then.....

    New Edition - Loved it at the time, but I was probably in the target age group. I can tolerate it now at least.

    Blancmange - I've always loved this song, it's very much their forgotten Top 10 hit.

    Fun Boy 3 - Also good, and there seems to be an even split here between people who like the Go-Gos version and those who don't. I'm in the latter camp, it just sounds underproduced to me. What an extraordinary barnet Terry Hall is sporting, and to mark the special occasion he's in 'smiling' mode.

    I'll skip over the drivel still at No.1, and the Yewtree dream team on screen to the final song. I don't mind 'Overkill' actually, though I can understand why it spent ages pootling around the lower reaches of the chart. In hindsight, they may have been more successful with a re-release of 'Who Can It Be Now?' which contrary to popular belief was a) Their first single and b) Not a Top 40 hit.

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    1. There seemed to be growing trend in 1983 for male bands to thrown in some female GoGos of their own, or 'lookers' as some may say, to bolster there cred on the show. Fun Boy Three, Blancmange, Human League, Heaven 17. Good Lord, everyone seemed to be at it now!

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  11. The 'montage' at the end of the 80's section was repeated during the 20th year show as well.

    Interesting that Noelly Tidybeard did a few links more than he would have done.

    Surprised DLT didnt do more of those links, as he was still part of the current team unlike Noel.

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  12. By the way, has anyone tried to do a Yew Smithed friendly edit?

    Its impossible isnt it?

    Had to lose the Chas & Dave section as GG was in the shot, thus cutting Noel's intro into the 70's clips plus Savile's links, cutting the opening in half & losing Gambo & Ready's 'facts' too as it was 'Yew Tree' heavy!

    Had to keep Dlt's 'Hit Squad' over Noel in, despite bloody Cilla!

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  13. Interesting to see a 35-year old Meat Loaf with a cameo appearance just before Rod Stewart, to congratulate TOTP on the 1000th edition. He did seem to stutter a bit on his lines, seemingly not having rehearsed it well enough.

    Meat Loaf at this point in 1983 was in a split with his manager Jim Steinman, and Meat was releasing a new (Steinman-free) album called Midnight At The Lost And Found, which was hardly recognised in the UK, as nothing was released from it here. I recommend two tracks on it:
    "Don't You Look At Me Like That", and, "Wolf At Your Door."

    Suffice to say that Meat Loaf will be turning 70 this year, and the Bat Out Of Hell musical already launched at the Manchester Opera House, will be making its London West End debut in June.

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  14. Any chance of anyone posting the 5/5/83 edition without the 'Archive TV' logo?

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    1. https://mega.nz/#!Sg0TXTYJ!mHPdzf-HHmN0OhUD1JjCuAi6ADaws5XalgqolawuAwo

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  15. Did anyone notice Jeff Stewart behind Tony Blackburn? A year later he would be co-starring in The Bill!

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