Siouxsie takes her hubby, and his xylophone, for a night out ..
28/04/83 (David Jensen & John Peel)
Galaxy featuring Phil Fearon – “Dancing Tight” (20)
First of four top ten hits for Phil Fearon & Galaxy, this one peaking at number four.
Sweet Dreams – “I’m Never Giving Up” (23)
They didn't win Eurovision but they did go up two more places in the chart.
David Jensen – Far East charts:
Paula Tsui – “Fantasia” (video clip)
China Doll – “Chasing The Dragon” (video clip)
Lam – “Mirages” (video clip)
The Creatures – “Miss The Girl” (37)
The only single taken from their top 20 album Feast, Miss the Girl peaked at 21.
John Peel – European charts:
Cook Da Books – “Your Eyes – La Boum” (video clip)
Hoffman & Hoffman – “Rucksicht” (video clip)
Mireille Mathieu & Patrick Duffy – “Together We’re Strong” (video clip)
Nena – “99 Luftballoons” (video clip)
David Bowie – “Let’s Dance” (video clip)
Tears For Fears – “Pale Shelter” (22)
The band's third of seven top ten hit, Pale Shelter peaking at number 5.
Kissing The Pink – “The Last Film” (24)
Went up five more places.
Spandau Ballet – “True” (1) (video)
The first of four weeks at number one.
The Kids From Fame – “Friday Night” (17) (audience dancing/credits)
This was the final hit from the Fame Kids, reaching number 13.
Next up should be the 1000th edition of the show from May 5th 1983, but guess what ........
So instead BBC4 will skip to May 12th.
The Rhythm Pals are on top irreverent form here, Peel especially during his jaunt across the Channel and on the Top 10 rundown, but giving so much time over to the international charts does greatly limit the number of acts we see this week, which slightly undermines the point of the show. Still, as a warm-up for the big 1000th edition the following week it is enjoyable enough.
ReplyDeleteGalaxy are first up, with an amiable but unremarkable floor filler enlivened by Phil Fearon's gratuitous somersault in the middle of the performance. Sweet Dreams return with their stools and with their Eurovision dreams in tatters, but they certainly deliver a professional enough routine, and the song has grown on me a bit.
Kid's jaunt to Singapore is diverting enough as a one-off, but it's just as well they didn't try to make this a regular feature. Amusingly, that China Doll song did sound a bit as if it could have been made by Japan! Some right old schlock was dug out for Peel's cross-channel visit, especially that hideous duet featuring Bobby Ewing. The Cook Da Books track sounded pretty ropy too from this brief snatch of it, but having done a bit of research I discovered that it got to number 1 in France, Italy, Germany and Hong Kong, and was used in the soundtrack of the French comedy film La Boum 2, starring Sophie Marceau. However, the band would never translate this international success into record sales back home. Interesting to see Nena featured again, still the best part of a year away from cracking the UK chart.
Back in the studio, The Creatures offer up another hypnotic, if slightly repetitive, single - the heavy use of tubular bell and glockenspiel on this put me in mind of Mike Oldfield. The fabulous Pale Shelter is my favourite Tears For Fears track, and it was great that we got virtually the whole record here, as I love the way it builds and builds at the end. No strange dancing from Roland this time, but Curt was playing a very peculiar bass - anyone know what make it is?
Kissing the Pink return, but the Gumby keyboardist has now lost his moustache and appears intent on turning himself into Buddy Holly. A slightly less manic performance this time, but still irritating. Spandau waste little time getting to the top, and here is the video with its achingly trendy split screen, as recently also utilised by Duran Duran, and annoying lighting which makes it looks as if the band are performing in an aquarium. The final link from our hosts was definitely edited, presumably because they made reference to the 1000th show that BBC4 viewers won't get to see, and then the audience shuffle along half-heartedly to this dire Kids From Fame track, despite the best efforts of the cheerleaders to gee them up...
Forgot to mention, JP's reference to JK in his France segment was not edited out, so presumably it is now OK to mention him, but not to show him!
Deletethose basses were the latest thing back then, and highly fashionable for a while. not to mention highly expensive! my first thought was it was alembic who made them, but my recall failed me there. however, a bit of digging up has jogged my memory in that it was a steinberger (like many instruments it was named after its inventor). more on it and a pic here:
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_guitar
Thanks Wilberforce, I knew someone here would have the answer!
DeleteI haven’t watched this show yet, but I thought the whole premise was in its title “Top Of The Pops”, i.e. mostly UK chart hits, not two dollops of chart filler from abroad interrupting proceddings. Instead of getting that, we could have had one or both of “True Love Ways” by Cliff Richard at number 8 and “Flight Of Icarus” by Iron Maiden at number 11, neither of which got a look-in at all on the show.
ReplyDeleteBlimey! Mireille Mathieu, something of a light entertainment staple back in the day who managed one UK top 30 scraper back in 1967 with “La Derniere Valse”. Cook Da Books released at least eight singles in the UK spread over four labels and had eight flops.
Right then - tis the anniversary of the birth of Mrs Shakey today and I am off work so there is stuff to do - almost all of which does NOT involve me sitting here contributing to this blog. So lets get on with this lickety split.
ReplyDeleteGalaxy or Phil Fearon & Galaxy - whichever- get us underway with a lightweight, underproduced slice of Britdance. This needed a bit of oomph because I could feel myself drifting off halfway through. Not sure about those pants though, Phil.
The early edition edits out the riseable Sweet Dreams which saves me from FF-ing the bejeezus out of it. I missed commenting on this lot last time out so allow me to just say that this is utter garbage. It is committee-written europap of the highest order and whoever wrote it deserves to be tied down and have an eight inch stylus shoved up their arse and revolved at 45prm until they promised to never ever write anything else again. Ever. Utter, utter crap.
Jensen goes back to the 'Far East' again for no discernable reason apart from giving us another excuse to laugh at Johnny Foeigner and his weird ways. Look, the Orient has never, and will never be at the cutting edge of music and showing us ten second clips of their 'top' tunes aint gonna change that. Lets just leave them to their boys-dressed-as-girls boybands and move on, shall we?
The Creatures. Not as clever as they think they are. The glock sound is good enough to be a featured instrument, but it needed other stuff in there besides Siouxsie's pair of metal whatever-they-wheres. And didn't it go on? Talk about interminable.
Peelie's turn for a foreign jaunt now and he, wisely, sticks to nearby France (possibly not even bothering to leave the port of Calais)The Euro chart has nothing much to recommend it with the glorious exception of the rather delightful Nena. The singer, with a godly portion of the Black Forest in her pits, was storming her way across Europe a la 1939, but it would take an English translation and several months before she achieved what Herr Hitler never could, and conquer the English. Nicely sardonic commentary from Peelie throughout this section made it more digestible thatn it otherwise would have been. Did not know Cook Da Books had success in Europe and did not know that Patrick Duffy was as bad a singer as he was an actor.
Back to the proper business of the show with only 4 tracks left to play. The first two are great. Tears For Fears finally get success with Pale Shelter after it flopped last time out. One of their finest singles, this, and signs that Orzabel is starting to become the defacto leader of the band - even having his name written on the keyboards! I love this song still - its just so 80s.
Another outing for Kissing The Pink and a very similar performance; all manic David Byrne jerky movements which makes it harder to watch than it perhaps might otherwise have been. It's a good song though, and the female part is a nice touch. Talking of which, I was under the impression that their name came from, ahem, well lets just say front-bottom kissing, shall we?
The Spands and that tedious video are atop the charts and we play out with an atrocious last-stab at making money attempt from the guys behind Fame. The Law Of Diminishing Returns has never been more applicable.
Scores. 9 for the mighty Peel/Jensen combo, mainly due to Peel's sardonic turn of phrase. They just make every show they're on, that much better. Which is a good thing considering the quality of this one. TFF and Kising The Pink were very good, The Creatures weren't bad, but the rest of it ( Nena's hairy armpits aside) wasn't worth my time 3.
I was never a fan of Galaxy - give me Cadbury's any day. Boom boom tish!
DeleteKissing The Pink's name was derived from a snooker commentary term for another ball just touching the pink ball, but the band decided to put a 'fnar fnar' spin on the name, even extending it (cue Sid James laugh) to releasing an album called "Naked". Had they released a follow-up album called "Tipping The Velvet" we'd really have got the idea!
shakey with regard to the "orient" (you can't call people from that part of the world "orientals" any more - it's now officially racist!) never being at the cutting edge of music, one might argue that the yellow magic orchestra and ryuichi sakamoto in particular offer up some proof otherwise?
Deletei love the crack about roland having his name put on the keyboards! not that he was an egotist of course...
Deleteyou've also reminded me that it was around this time that the fat kid of that name first appeared on "grange hill" (or rather, ro-LAND as that young black girl used to call him!)
Wilby - I am sure OrientAL is considered racist in the USA but The Orient ( as I wrote) simply describes The East in geographical terms (just as Occident is The West) I can't see how that can be deemed to be rascist, just as calling someone like me a Northerner shouldn't be deemed rascist either.
Deletei think the racist "oriental" thing is mainly confined to the united states, where those of such ethnicity now apparently wish to be known as "asian-americans", in the way black people are now descibed in the rather unwieldy manner of "african-americans". but for some reason white people of british, scandinavian or similar origins never get termed as "european americans"!
DeleteTell you what - never mind Sweet Dreams, I'd have loved it if we'd entered "The Last Film " in Eurovision instead!
ReplyDeleteAnother one with poor picture quality, with some poor audio quality (ie most of the jaunt around the world to match, sadly)
ReplyDeleteGalaxy - They were most noticeable for their ever-changing names. Just the group name, Phil Fearon's name at the front, his name afterwards. All made an appearance. I only liked one of their songs though, and this isn't it.
Sweet Dreams - I make no apologies for loving it!
Far East nonsense - Oh dear. 2 out of the 3 songs sound (ironically) like bad Eurovision entries. The China Doll song is just about OK.
The Creatures - Nothing of interest here.
Euro Chart - That Patrick Duffy thing is beyond awful, it was worth doing this segment just to see that!
Tears For Fears - One of their very best singles, a vast relief after some of the other rubbish on the show.
Kissing The Pink - I found their performances then very exciting, and it's great to see them again. For the rest of their single releases, we can though take a cue from the commentators in 'That Mitchell & Webb Look' and say "Oh, that's a bad miss..."
Spandau Ballet - 4 whole weeks of this rubbish at the top, god help us...
Kids From Fame - Wasn't the official title to this 'Friday Night (Live)' though it's difficult to discern that it's any different from a studio performance. This was Danny's chance to shine - unfortunately the actor playing him hasn't got a great voice.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteTOTP now more like a comedy show with the Rhythm Pals presenting, but I'm not complaining.
ReplyDeleteGalaxy, now I would have thought dancing tight would be pretty difficult, especially if it involved doing the Phil flip, but he seems happy to be here. Pleasant enough light disco otherwise.
Sweet Dreams have adapted their stool-based routine, and do a little "Ah! fooled you!" look at the drop bit to the audience who appear none the wiser. Nice footballer's haircut on Mr Dreams. The song, well, it's not the worst Eurovision entry ever, but it is undistinguished.
The Far East charts, having a look on Wikipedia it seems Paula Tsui is still going strong, and her trademark is not her songs, but her enormous dresses. China Doll seem to have been lost in the mists of time, but when Kid started bigging up a Hong Kong heartthrob I thought it would be Leslie Cheung, not this Asian version of Harry Enfield's Scousers. According to Wiki, one of his films is called Disco Bumpkins, which sounds like the great lost Wurzels single. Anyway, don't do that again, TOTP.
The Creatures with the stark, obsessive-sounding Miss the Girl, instrumentally sort of an experimental mix of Rolf Harris and Patrick Moore. Quite like this, and it stands out when there's so few bands on this episode.
La Boum 2 sounds like the most 80s French plotline ever, and that clip looks to have been taken from the film. Sophie Marceau and Brigitte Fossey in the same movie? My goodness me. Moving right along, to Patrick Duffy, no let's go back... He was more a backing singer on this one, and when you hear his pipes you'll understand why.
Tears for Fears with a song about that most famous of shelters, a Pale Shelter, far more celebrated than a bus shelter. Um. What's a Pale Shelter, then? Anyway, another strong single from them, though the pitch does seem a bit high for the vocals.
Bristling with nervous energy, and appearing chuffed that they have a hit single (sort of), Kissing the Pink return - popular or very available? Ever since the keyboard player was compared to Davey Stott, I can't unsee it.
With more split screen than a Brian De Palma movie, ver Spands hit the top spot. I suppose it's a well-crafted tune, but it's never going to be my type of thing.
Kids from Fame get about five nanoseconds to end on, I remembered it once they got to the chorus. And then forgot it again.
Did anyone notice that whilst introducing his Far East segment, a nervous David said "you're not going to like this....."
ReplyDeleteI think he knew it was a bad idea!
Soon after this edition's original airing, I read in 'No.1' that Phil Fearon once taught sciences at a comprehensive school somewhere in the capital. If that is correct, then he must be the most successful science master ever in the British singles chart (see his Wiki entry), with 1 more Top 10 hit and 3 more Top 75 entries overall than Roger Whittaker! I fondly remember Phil's excellent work with Kandidate, and he maintained his high standards throughout his era as leader of Galaxy. In more recent times, however, he has been overshadowed by his daughter Stephanie, who was a semi-finalist in BBC TV's talent series 'Over The Rainbow' and has since forged a successful career in the West End.
ReplyDeleteSparsely arranged though it is, The Creatures' 'Miss The Girl' has an irresistible hook that makes you want to join in, as I did when Siouxsie and Budgie first performed it on TOTP. The latter actually plays a MARIMBA - not a glockenspiel, which is made of metal rather than wood. However, Siouxsie's claves (pronounced "clah-vays") are made of metal.
Liverpool's Cook Da Books enjoyed considerable success on the British independent chart, but gained greater acceptance on the continent, at least for a short period. Despite landing support slots on tour with Men At Work and Joan Armatrading among others, CDB never quite made the big time - and judging by 'Your Eyes', I can understand why. Though their musical competency cannot be denied, the song plods along without leaping out of the TV/radio and grabbing you.
Mireille Mathieu and Patrick Duffy - seemingly the David Hasselhoff of his time - teamed up to record a cheesy cabaret effort that nevertheless reached the Top 5 in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Finland. Surprisingly, the song was co-written by Richard Palmer-James, an early member of Supertramp who also contributed lyrics to some of King Crimson's albums. It would have been perfect for Donny & Marie Osmond; indeed, it reminds me somewhat of their minor US Top 40 hit 'On The Shelf'. Here's Mireille on her own, meanwhile, with an exquisite French translation of Barbra Streisand's 'Woman In Love': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWRrcjrJLWM
Tears For Fears, another band with a rhyming name, show Cook Da Books how it should be done with 'Pale Shelter' - a perfect platter that has hardly dated. Like most of the Bath-based duo's hits, it contains all the key ingredients that Cook Da Books' effort sorely lacks: crisp production, punchy delivery, a sharp lyric and, most importantly, A MEMORABLE TUNE.
As for Kissing The Pink, I always thought they took their unusual name from a snooker commentary: "He's kissing the pink (ball)".
Tears For Fears and Kissing The Pink were the highlights of the show in my opinion, especially this new version of Pale Shelter on the apparent re-release after the initial release didn't make the charts in 1982.
Deletemuch already said about this one here, so my own views will be somewhat brief. fortunately i'm, pushed for time anyway...
ReplyDeletehosts: probably their best one yet, although kid... sorry david (peelie still refers to him as kid by the way) slips up by giving us the correct grammatical use of the thompson twins title
galaxy: a middling brit-post-disco effort. phil's gymnastics looked great on first viewing, but a replay showed a very deliberate approach beforehand. the backing singers fail to make use of the the rather redundant balloons on the floor by giving them a good kick - the lady diana lookalike finally only does so with great annoyance when one gets in her way!
sweet dreams: is that a dress carrie's wearing, or did she forget to put her strides on? in relative terms this isn't too bad for a euro effort on repeated listening - certainly better than the previous year's bollocks by bardo
oriental... sorry, asian bit: firstly we are told the lady in the toilet-holder dress is appearing at an anti-drugs event, and then we hear a song whose title is a slang term for shooting up heroin! and as for the third (dire) effort, you knew it was an accident waiting to happen with that nerdy guy's many dancers all trying to run up that very narrow walkway across the water... and it nearly did!
creatures: this actually sounds more oriental.. sorry, asian than the stuff in kids'... sorry david's feature. although to be honest more gamelan-like indonesian than chinese. budgie does an excellent job of miming on the marimba, but i do wish he hadn't stuck some gum in his gob beforehand. siouxsie just does what she always does, regardless of the musical backing. it's okay but a bit sparse, and doesn't really go anywhere other than when there's an ill-advised tempo change
euro bit: cook da book's song actually sounded quite french if you know what i mean, so perhaps no surprise it was a hit there. i don't think patrick duffy's singing was that bad, but either he's very tall or mireille is very short! we get an early glimpse of nena's unshaved armpit, the topic of which was far more interesting than the track itself when it annoyingly became a massive hit in blighty the following year. the other thing was typical total euro shit, and just what was the point of wasting time showing the dame's video when it's already been on the programme several weeks running?
tears for fears: by far their best single effort so far, although in my opinion much better was to come. i have this in my mp3 collection, but i'm not sure if it's the original album track or re-recorded single (i'm guessing the latter). this line-up is the "live" one that i saw on tour later that year, and i remember roland being interviewed and describing one of the synth players as "doing the donkey work"! that bass may well be achingly trendy, but by taking away most of it you lose the visual appeal. and i'm sure whenever curt played the fret at the bottom he was concerned his hand might go over the edge!
kissing the pink: why does the keyboard player need three of the things? whatever the reason, contrary to popular belief he is probably the first guy to appear on the show wearing a skirt (as opposed to the very manly kilt sported by spiny norman three years earlier, and whatever it is that boy george wears). but that apart he lacks any femininity whatsoever. so does that make him a transvestite? whatever, this wasn't one-off for him as he wears a similar garment in a video made some three years later:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytcH_CNzdNk
further to my last observation, i've now remembered that barry humphries wore women's clothes when he appeared on the show in the late 70's as edna everage. however, that doesn't really count for two reasons:
Delete1 - he was actually wearing a dress (or a "frock", as dame edna would put it) rather than a skirt
2 - he was playing a role in character, rather than being himself!
The balloons on the floor during Galaxy opening the show, were not just ordinary balloons. They had some new TOTP branding, which is the first time I have seen this type, and that was more eye-catching I thought than the performance itself!
DeleteFunny old show this one. Lots of film fillers which, without JK hosting them we actually get to see on BBC4 here, although he is mentioned!
ReplyDeleteGalaxy- Dancing tight – Dancing sh*te
Sweet Dreams – I’m never giving up- Grown on me this and love the blonde’s tight white trousers! The winning song at the Contest in 1983 was Luxembourg with Corinne Hermes’s ‘Si la vie est cadeau’. Remember it? Me neither. I did like Vicky Leandrous’s ‘Apres Toi’ (or ‘Come what may’) in 1972 though; a stonking tune.
Far East Charts – Never heard of any of ‘em!
Creatures – Miss the girl - Gave this one a miss c/o FF
European Charts – Surprised to see Bobby Ewing in one of these clips – never realised he sung!
Tears for Fears – Pale Shelter – Much prefer the original version which was called ‘Pale Shelter (you don’t give me love)’ and I managed to track down at a Record Fair around this time. Why did they bother rerecording I wonder?
Kissing the Pink – The Last Film – FF
Spandau Ballet – True – Don’t think I recall seeing the video before. It’s entirely suited to the song; not too clever.
Kids from Fame – Friday night – Good night Kids.
JP seems to really like commenting on the ‘multi-talented’ artists in the top10 but again is unkind to Toto. What did he have against the band I wonder? Meanwhile when his mate introduces ‘True’ at no1 he just stares at the camera making his views on the record hard to determine. Why were JP and DJ always together? Btw there was a glaring jump towards the end of this show; a very clunky edit.
Onwards for show 1000 which, as with other milestones features undesirables to it’s off to the net to view it.
i too cannot understand why peelie wasn't playing toto on his radio show alongside the likes of bogshed and birds with ears!
DeleteIndeed, I too was unaware that Patrick Duffy (aka Bobby Ewing of Dallas) did a record, and cop the height difference between him and his pretty beloved in the duet!
Deletewell sct353 it appears you are in the same camp as the late great John Peel in not remembering the 1983 Eurovision winner. I have to say I don't remember it at the time but I have checked it out on Youtube a few years back and is now my favourite eurovision winner of all time. I am not quite sure why I love except for its a beautifully sung ballad that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up (i suppose thats as good a reason as any!!)
DeleteSct - I presume the clunky edit was to hide the 'next week's presenters are...' bit,because it's a Yewtree'd ep. Also I think Peel had a healthy dislike for most of his fellow jocks and probably insisted on being paired with his Canadian chum. When Jensen leaves (next year) Peel will have a brief fling with Tommy Vance before settling down with fellow Scouser Janice Long for the remainder of his ToTP stint.
ReplyDeleteI’ll milk this for all it’s worth – a plain effort from Galaxy with the troupe dressed more like Milky Bars! I bet Phil Fearon still ‘Revels’ in his fame!
ReplyDeleteThree different ways to hold a mic (and one lazy way to put one hand in your pocket) demonstrated early doors by Sweet Dreams, of whom only Helen seems to have turned up fully dressed. Loved her little wink when sliding the back of her head down Pocket Boy’s nethers. Never mind Carrie, I’m going to miss this saucy minx. I wonder if, at this stage, the trio thought they had a great career ahead of them or did they think “Ach, we only finished sixth, we’ll probably never be singing on TOTP again, let’s just enjoy it”?
Unless I’m getting old and forgetful, that clip starting off Kid’s far East section looked and sounded very similar to the beginning of his report the last time he bored us abroad. That’s a few minutes of my life I’ll never get back. So, “Gissa Job” Lam’s a heartthrob? You live and learn.
If only Patrick Moore was helping out The Creatures! Certainly something different in that there chart. What was it called again?
I loved Peelie’s irreverence when giving us that European slop. The German entry doesn’t translate as “rucksack”, sadly, the title means “Consideration”. Mireille and Patrick knock punk and synthpop into a cocked hat with the sort of happening tune you’d get on syndicated pap like “The Monte Carlo Show”, and Nena gets her bushbabies out and proves that, not only did she never cover the song “Venus”, she never used their razors either!
Tears For Fears on top form, though I wish they’d written “Curt” on the bass drum to level things up. Curt’s instrument reminded me of a band I knew where the bassist played not a bass, but a ‘stick’. Sheesh!
Strange how, with so few studio acts on the show, they stuck the two synthy tunes next door to each other. Was Kissing The Pink’s skirty chap made to sit down to be less irritating, I wonder? I noticed he thwacked his keyboard with the drumstick near the end. Great monitor grinning at 26:57 and 27:32 by the same group member, and Josephine moves to a different postcode to her mic for her solo.
Oh dear, it’s Spandau’s oh so smug video followed by the execrable Kids From fame. I preferred the far East chart section to those two!
arthur your comment om the creatures has reminded me of when i was watching some late night telly a few years back and was on the verge of falling asleep when "the stars at night" came on, and patrick moore was somewhat surreally discussing astronical stuff with brian may of queen!
DeleteNena was now on her second 1983 plug on TOTP - firstly on a recent JK section, and now this week on John Peel's European chart section. Considering both appearances were in the German sound and title '99 Luftballoons', it still did not register with the British public until a year later when it was released in English language as "99 Red Ballons" which subsequently earned the German lovely a nice top 5 hit in the UK charts. If only they thought of it in English here in early 1983, it would have charted by now, and not a whole year later!
Deleteanybody got the link that was edited out at the end ?
ReplyDeleteIt's here:
Deletehttps://we.tl/pF6LgQvv9N
Galaxy - other chocolate bars are available. This soft soul groove was plesant enough but wasn't really my type of thing. Nice backflip though and the crowd seem to love it. They seem to have got rid of all of the really annoying over-dressed cheerleaders now and the crowd seem rauthentic.
ReplyDeleteNo one in the studio seemd particularly interested in Sweet Dreams and their kitsch theatrical actions in fact half the crowd are looking the other way.
When Peelie said they were going to do the Asian charts I thought he was joking but no it was real. I quite liked the China Doll songle and it was good to hear that Dexys were so popular in Hong Kong. Did sales of dungaress go up?
The Creatures song is just weird and oddly has an oriental vibe about it. As there were essentially only three regular members of Siouxsie and The Banshees at this point it's odd that this wasn't recorded as SATB but maybe because Steve Severin had formed The Glove with part-time band member Robert Smith this was Siouxsie and Budgie's revenge.
Then Peel with the Euro charts that they used to play on Radio Luxembourg - the cheesy duet between Mireille Mathieu and Patrick Duffy reminds me of an album I have by Jack Jones he recorded with his (then) girlfriend actress Susan George in so far as one can sing, the other can't. A shame we didn't get to hear the brilliant Major Tom by Peter Schilling that was used as the theme music to the 2016 German TV drama series Deutschland 83.
Then the real UK charts - if Bauhaus are "Nothampton's finest" what does that say about the rest of the city?
Tears For Fears dreassed in black and gray bit looking quite happy at least Row-land does. Curt Smith always struck me as a reluctant frontman and here is seen here mimimng bass guitar (badly) and trying not to look at the camera. Good tune though, I bought this at the time and liked it a lot. Was never sure about the line about having cold hands but they're very good for making pastry. Mary Berry would approve.
Interesting (or not depending on your point of view) to spot future Siege Siege sputnik frontman Martin Degville hamming it up behind Peelie.
A return for Playing The Pink Oboe, the keyboardist has lost his moustasche but the drummer/backing singer/brass player lady has developed a manic dance routine.
Spands are number one. True or False? I never liked this video even at the time, it has a dark, grainy look about it.
Playour with just a snatch of The Kids From Fame which is probably a good thing. If this was my Friday night I would have slashed my wrists.
Sweet Dreams - I am a mega-Eurovision fan, but was in the STates in 1983, so have never heard this before. Actuallyt a pretty good song (Bucks Fizz obviously having an influence here)
ReplyDeleteTears For Fears - Don't remember this song being so good. I think someone mentioned it was a remix - perhaps I only heard the original. How radically different was it?
Kissing The Pink - Never heard this before. I have to say I thought it was very good. Not sure how it would stand up to repeat listens...
Pretty good to have three new discoveries in one show!