Friday 21 July 2017

Top of the Pops Horses

Sit in your saddle, grab the reins and giddy up, it's time to take Trot of the Pops from March 29th 1984 out for a ride!

The girl in the pink dress throws an impressive hand shadow puppet



29/03/84 (Andy Peebles & Mike Read)

The Special AKA – “Nelson Mandela” (29)
With their first top 30 hit since Ghost Town way back in 1981, albeit with a much changed line-up, this was the Specials 8th and final top ten hit, peaking at number 9.

John Lennon – “Borrowed Time” (33) (video)
The second and final single from the Milk & Honey album, it went up one more place.

Captain Sensible – “Glad It’s All Over” (36)
I always confused this with You Take Me Up at the time, though I preferred this one. It peaked at number 6 and was the Captain's final top 40 hit.

Simple Minds – “Up On The Catwalk” (30)
Peaked at number 27, but edited out of the 7.30 slot tonight.

Siouxsie & The Banshees – “Swimming Horses” (28)
Flying in from France to perform in the studio but this unusual single rose no further.

Madonna – “Lucky Star” (27) (video)
This follow up to Holiday peaked at number 14, and then came an incredible run of 34 consecutive top ten hits that stretched ten years!

Thompson Twins – “You Take Me Up” (13)
All clad in leather jackets to perform the third, and biggest, hit from their number one album Into the Gap, it peaked at number 2, but it was also to be their final top ten hit.

Lionel Richie – “Hello” (1) (video)
Second of five weeks 'outselling all other records'.

Michael Jackson – “PYT (Pretty Young Thing)” (20) (audience dancing/credits)
The sixth and final single from Thriller, it peaked at number 11.



Industrial action meant that there was no April 5th edition, so the next one was April 12th, albeit a very short one, and also one of the hosts was DLT. So the next one we will see on BBC4 will be from April 19th 1984.

104 comments:

  1. Special AKA - It seems the 1980 sound was back again in 1984, with this one sounding like a cross between The Beat and Bad Manners. I would not have associated them with The Specials Angelo.

    John Lennon & Yoko Ono - since when was Yoko Ono a double act on the record with Lennon? I thought that stayed in the bedroom, not on cutting a 7-inch single together. Good Lord! However the video did have a funny moment when Lennon was tucking into a chocolate gateaux in bed with Yoko, instead of tucking into her.

    Anyway, did you notice in the introduction of Lennon & Ono by Mike Read, the female audience member was looking very aroused standing next to him. After all, this was the first show of British Summer Time 1984, as the clocks must have gone forward an hour a few days before the show.

    Captain Sensible - thanks Angelo for informing us it was his final hit. Thank goodness for that, as he can take his cleaners/scrubbers away with him too.

    Siouxie & The Banshees - still going hard at it year after year since their debut in 1978 with Hong Kong Garden.

    Madonna - this hit called Lucky Star is I think the moment when Madonna hit the big time in the UK, and was about to go very big with her singles catalogue shortly after this sprightly offering.

    The Thompson Twins - alas their last stand with three singles in very quick succession, and in as many months: Hold Me Now, Doctor Doctor, and You Take Me Up. Talk about energy or what. I think the balloon finally popped after so much blowing into it in the first quarter of the year!

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    1. John and Yoko had been collaborators in music since around the time they married. Check out the Two Virgins album for some real toe-tappers.

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    2. i wondered how many lennon fans bought his solo albums and gritted their teeth at yoko's unwanted and unasked-for conributions? i always assumed it was her doing some unusually restrained talking background bits on one of the very few lennon solo tracks worth a listen ("dream no. 9"), but only recently found out it was actually his "bit on the side" may pang!

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    3. i certainly wouldn't climb over the gateaux to get to yoko!

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    4. Borrowed Time isn't one of Lennon's finest moments and if he'd lived I don't think it would've seen the light of day other than as a b side. Not sure what Yoko's contribution to it was though.

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    5. i once had the misfortune to endure the talent that is yoko when she "spontaneously" joined lennon's hook-up all-star band dirty mac in the "rock n roll circus" film - it is worth watching though if only for amusement value (but with the sound very much turned down if not off) as she effectively elbows the soloing violinist aside, who then can't decide if he should carry on with her shrieking away right next to him or exit stage left (were it me, i would definitely have chosen the latter option!)

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    6. I would prefer the chocolate gateaux instead of Yoko

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    7. Wasn't May Pang the one who used to fire ping-pong balls out of her vagina as in "She May Pang at any moment!"

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    8. Lennon's cake is mentioned in the lyric to The Ballad Of John And Yoko "Made a lightning trip to Vienna, Eating chocolate cake in a bag".

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  2. There's a profusion on daffodils in the studio tonight, for reasons never explained - I could understand if it was St David's Day, but this show went out four weeks too late! In any case, Mike and Andy make for a likeable enough pairing, and credit to Andy for not mentioning the fact that he was the last person to interview John Lennon in his outro from Borrowed Time.

    As I suspect is true of a lot of people from my generation, I first heard of the existence of Nelson Mandela through the bright and breezy efforts of Jerry Dammers and co, and who knew then that he would eventually turn into some kind of secular saint (Nelson that is, not Jerry). The stage in the emergency studio is pretty packed for this performance, with the ubiquitous Claudia Fontaine and her chum Caron Wheeler well to the fore. I assume that is Jerry on keyboards, but he is so low to the ground and obscured by the crowd that it's hard to tell! Yet another archive clipfest for this highly obscure Lennon offering, which almost veers into cod-reggae at times and would probably have been better left gathering dust in a vault somewhere.

    I remember Captain Sensible vividly from this time, and it must have been for this single, though I don't think I have knowingly heard it since 1984. It's a simple but effective effort, and it looked as if the good Captain was sporting a TOTP badge on his lapel, though I couldn't be sure. Most striking of all was his very smart-looking chart mugshot, where he was practically unrecognisable. Simple Minds next with their normal bombastic sound, the chief difference this time being that Jim Kerr (perpetually in motion, as usual) seems to be doing a Lene Lovich impression in places! It's OK I suppose, but hardly takes them in a bold new musical direction.

    The same can be said for Siouxsie - while this is a pleasant enough listen, it doesn't linger in the mind for long. God knows what the lyrics are about, but I was more interested in the question of whether Siouxsie and Robert Smith did each other's make-up. Something a bit more distinctive next, as Madge ups the ante from the bland Holiday with help from a tune with a bit more force and bite. The video is a very simple affair, strikingly so given some of her mega-bucks later efforts, but it showcases her early street urchin look very effectively. Incidentally Angelo, strictly speaking the long run of Top Tenners did not begin with the next single, as Borderline (for me her first real classic) originally stiffed at 56. Admittedly it did get to the Top 10 later on, but only in 1986.

    The Thompson Twins were really on a roll at this time, but such is the fickle nature of pop that their chart fortunes would soon go into decline. This is another top tune from them, however, perhaps not quite as good as the previous two singles but still pleasingly anthemic. The chunky bling-bedecked leather jackets look a bit daft, as does the silhouetted labourer endlessly tugging at his rope, but at least they do try to do something a bit different with this performance. I wonder if the labourer went on strike the following week? PYT is probably the least known single from Thriller, and with good reason given that it lacks any real energy and is instantly forgettable - perhaps that's why the audience seem to have limited enthusiasm for the end-of-show dance this week.

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    1. Hold Me Now was the Thompson Twins finest moment, although it did not chart quite as high as Doctor Doctor and You Take Me Up, which was their most successful hit reaching No.2.

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    2. Yes, John G you're right ~ I'd forgotten about Borderline missing out first time around!

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  3. Around the time 'Nelson Mandela' charted, the following letter was published in the magazine 'No.1': "I bought the Specials' single, but I didn't get my free Nelson Mandela." The editor's response was: "You have to write away to the South African embassy for one."

    The gritty Beatle's second posthumous Polydor release, with its reggae feel, suggested he had been listening to Paul Simon's 'Mother and Child Reunion'. On a similar theme, this rare B-side by two former Apple Corps songwriters reminds me somewhat of 'Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y9NxbBVqmM

    Raymond 'Captain Sensible' Burns, accompanied yet again by Dolly Mixture (as well as an unknown keyboardist), turns out an admirable anti-war song, albeit with a similar melody to 'Living By Numbers' by his producer (and co-writer) Tony Mansfield's former outfit New Musik.

    When 'Lucky Star' - penned by Madge herself - peaked at No.14 following the Top 10 success of 'Holiday', I predicted at the time that she would quickly be forgotten. How wrong I was! She could have taught Siouxsie a thing or two about memorable tunes - which the Banshees' then current hit desperately lacked. At this point in their career, they were experimenting with synthesisers in a bid to compete with the Depeche Modes and Ultravoxes of this world - but Siouxsie's highest subsequent chart placing would come with a cover of 'This Wheel's On Fire'.

    'You Take Me Up', with its tagline "It's a labour of love", reminds me of the time I spent a whole Saturday afternoon in the spring of '84 making sweets as an Easter gift for my dear Nan.

    Lionel's still No.1, and Jacko leads us out with a competent slice of post-disco penned by Quincy Jones with future 'Ya Mo B There' hitmaker James Ingram.

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    1. The Specials In The Studio album carried a spoof sticker saying Free Nelson Mandela.

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  4. I have mentioned this some weeks back, so apologies for the re-write, but "You Take Me Up" was re-worked as a football record. Chesterfield-born Tom Bailey is a Sheffield Wednesday fan, and he re-recorded the track as "We Are The Owls" (Wednesday's nickname deriving from the club's location in the Owlerton district of the city).

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  5. I’m watching the early show for this so I expect I am missing some acts….but not Billy Joel who is now no17!

    Special AKA – Nelson Mandela – I have to admit, I didn’t know who or what this song was about at the time. Incredible really. Anyway, musically its nothing like anything one would associate with the Specials and without Terry Hall’s distinctive vocals it’s nothing special.
    John & Yoko – Borrowed Time – More clips from the archives but the song is a little ponderous and the chorus takes too long to kick in. ‘Milk and Honey’ was outtakes perhaps?

    Captain Sensible – Glad it’s all over – Listed as a double ‘A’ side with ‘Damned on 45’ this is a big improvement on the other two hits. All seem to be enjoying themselves despite the lyrics.

    Siouxsie and the Banshees – Swimming Horses – Can Horses swim? Or perhaps she means Sea Horses? Who knows? Not as bad as some of the previous hits.

    Madonna – Lucky Star – Originally released in September 1983 in a ‘Sunglasses’ picture sleeve which fetches a shedload now, this is not in the same league as ‘Holiday’ or ‘Borderline’ which bookended it chart wise. Video not quite in the ‘Like a Prayer’ league either!

    Thompson Twins – You take me up – Infectious! The last of the great ‘Twins’ releases. Great video I recall too. Not sure what the silhouette guy is doing.

    Lionel Richie – Hello – Laura Carrington played the lead role in this video and isn’t blind. Second of an amazing 6 weeks at the top – it made no1 in the US but for just 2 weeks.

    Michael Jackson – PYT dance out – Hadn’t everyone got sick of ‘Thriller’ by now? This is definitely a ‘scrape the barrel’ release yet it jumps into the top20!

    Sitting at no59 and going no higher than no54 at present was Cyndi Lauper’s excellent follow up single ‘Time after time’. It would gain a new lease of life in June and deservedly shoot up to no3 eventually, having topped the US charts. Perhaps another JK slot promoted it?

    Wang Chung are on the way down but amazingly Jack Hues and Tony Banks aka Strictly Inc are on YT with the excellent ‘Walls of Sound’ and ‘Only Seventeen’ sung live on Pebble Mill.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoeVmHA3Q8o

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    1. It was a shame that Billy Joel's An Innocent Man got no showings on TOTP, despite it being a firm top ten single. Even with no video available and no TOTP studio performance, they could have put it on the March 1984 playouts, like Michael Jackson's PYT this week at No.20. A few years back they would have given Joel's song to Zoo or Legs & Co to do, in the absence of a video or studio performance by Joel, but it is quite unusual to not even get a playout either!

      I also mentioned above that Special AKA does not sound like The Specials (Terry Hall & co), but it sounded more like a cross between The Beat and Bad Manners in a 1980 sound, rather than 1984.

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    2. Dory, Innocent Man is not very danceable, so maybe that's why they never used it as a playout song. Weird that Billy didn't want to promote it. Maybe he'd fallen out with his record company?

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    3. regarding lionel ri(t)chie's chart-topping: lucky americans - they got off lightly!

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    4. At least the strike that forced the cancellation of the next edition meant that TOTP viewers had one week less of having to endure the video!

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    5. Agree entirely, as we seemed to be smothered with that video at the time for longer than necessary.

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  6. Shakey Shakerson22 July 2017 at 09:15

    Mike Read continues to look and behave like he is a rock star, and to make him look more like that, he has been teamed up with the tragically short, balding, caterpillar-on-the-lip, charisma-bypassed Andy Peebles.

    Off we go, then, with The Specials. Its a decent enough tune - something which can be difficult to achieve when you are trying to get a message across - but it still didn't float my boat.

    Lennon. Oh no.

    Captain Sensible. I'd forgoten all about this, and its really rather good. Presumably its a war protest thing, but the sparce lyrics make it hard to decipher, so I think I'll just sing along with the chorus and forget how dark the world is.

    Madonna. She is still a few months away from the beginning of a record-breaking chart career, with a lengthy run of consecutive top-tenners ahead of her. This is low-grade Madge in all honesty but the performance video is a blue-print for her persona, and she has a certain street-chic sexiness. I think I dismissed her as one of many US female singers who have a couple of hits and then disappear. Could not have been more wrong, could I?

    Thompson Twins - another month another single. The close-ups of Tom Bailey looked - on my telly at least - to be of near HD quality - crisp and clear. Weird. The song is pants.

    Lionel Richie still stalking at number 1.

    This week's playout is Michael Jackson's PYT or, as the Californian Public Prosecuter named it "Evidence Item number 232". Its not bad, but seeing as its the 6th single off Thriller, you could hardly expect better.

    Scores. A better show than of recent weeks. Still no outstanding song/video/performance but a couple of decent ones and enough tomerit a 6.

    Presenters. Before these re-runs, I would have had Mike Read down as one of my preferred hosts. But ther is something a tad annoying about him. Wearing sunglasses indoors is part of it, as is his constant need to show
    'hey , I've got musical chops too'. Andy Peebles is atrocious in front of a camera. 4.

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    1. shakey i was scrolling through and belatedly got the lennon joke!

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    2. You mean you got the joke-o.

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  7. Special AKA begin with a protest song that is actually really good, energetic and catchy melody, you can dance to it, the message (should you care to listen to the lyrics) is clear, and it genuinely did some good in the world about raising the profile of the apartheid controversy in the 80s. Presumably Mike Read would have wanted Nelson to stay in jail.

    John and Yoko, hmm, not so great and a curious choice for a single when it sounded strictly like an album track, or a bonus track on a box set even. Incredibly there's even more clips to edit together for the video, Lennon must have been one of the most filmed celebs of all time.

    Captain Sensible and his friends with a wistful little anti-war tune, sort of like Jonah Lewie's Stop the Cavalry though more oblique and atmospheric. I loved this at the time, and it still impresses.

    Simple Minds with a big, stadium sound they were going to capitalise on in the future, though Jim's microphone technique is deeply unconvincing. They look as if they're being swamped by the audience, seriously, you can barely see the rest of the band.

    Siouxsie and the Banshees with a baffling number: "He gives birth to swimming horses!" quoth she, and the nation is none the wiser. The tune is moody but tepid. It's difficult to play the guitar and keyboard at the same time, isn't it?

    Madonna, back when everyone thought she was here today, gone tomorrow, they miss off the intro here which sounded like the "You've got the time it takes for the board to revolve" music on Bullseye. Pretty basic pop ditty, nice enough, though the video is more captivated by Madonna's navel.

    Never mind the Thompson Twins, is that Jed of Howard Jones fame moonlighting in silhouette behind them? He's replaced his mental chains with a more basic rope. Anyway, the song, they display their usual cavalier attitude to miming instruments and deliver a quasi-inspirational song, as with all of their stuff it's OK in an 80s zeitgeist way but nothing special.

    Lionel master of all he surveys, and then the Smooth Criminal himself to end with, a Pretty Dodgy Thing's hymn to a pretty young thing. Bright little tune, I'd rather hear this than Thriller for the umpteenth time.

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  8. Crikey, it looks like there is no TOTP all next week on BBC4, and so the first April edition with DLT, albeit a very short one (anyone know why?) we have two weeks to comment on it when Neil B eventually comes up with it for the blog. A well earned rest for all of us I think, as the summer of 1984 finally arrives.

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    1. It looks as if the 12 April edition was meant to be 40 minutes long originally, but they had to shorten it to squeeze in the postponed final episode of David Attenborough's Living Planet, which had not been shown the week before due to the strike.

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    2. As there was no 5 April show, how about us coming up with our fantasy line-ups and presenters (based on what was in the chart that week of course). Or perhaps Mr Gravity could do it in the form of a competition like he did back in 1980.

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    3. I'd prefer the well-earned break, as 12th April will be pasted on this week, and then two shows next week on BBC4

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    4. Feel free to give your 5th April lineup, Bama. I think Mike and Andy informed us that it was due to be hosted by Peel & Jensen....

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    5. Oh ok, so its going to be like the summer 1980 scenario when TOTP was off air for two months and while Xanadu was at No.1. Hmm, why not?

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    6. Summer doesn't begin in April. Or do you mean Summer 2017 Dory?!

      Sorry, bit of a pet hate of mine, people getting seasons wrong. In the same area is people wearing shorts constantly from about May to September regardless of what the weather is actually like 'because it's Summer, innit?'

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    7. Yes indeed, summer begins in Britain no earlier than June in terms of sun and warm weather, but I meant British Summer Time (BST) which starts every year from the last TOTP show of March, i.e., when the clocks have already gone forward an hour the Saturday night before the show.

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    8. I've seen people put their shorts on as soon as the sun comes out in April, regardless of how warm it actually is! Some postmen seem to wear their shorts all year round these days...

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    9. I go by the meteorological seasons - summer being 1st June to 31st August, autumn being 1st September to 30th November and so on.

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    10. Okay, I’ll have a crack at the phantom missing TOTP, with acts in descending chart placing as follows...

      (1) Lionel Richie - Hello
      (2) Shakin' Stevens - A Love Worth Waiting For
      (3) Bananarama - Robert De Niro's Waiting
      (5) Depeche Mode - People Are People
      (12) UB40 - Cherry Oh Baby
      (26) Phil Collins - Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)
      (34) Cliff Richard - Baby You're Dynamite
      (37) Cameo - She's Strange
      (39) Psychedelic Furs - Heaven
      (41) Bluebells - I'm Falling

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    11. Oh, I forgot to name the presenters. I'd go for the Rhythm Pals, with Peelie giving it plenty to Phil and Cliff.

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    12. Here's my suggested line up for the missing 5th April edition - a Top of the Pops On Ice Live Special - introduced by John Peel and David Jensen who are dressed as characters from The Thormbirds. Cheerleaders include Reg from The Bill, the Duncan Norvelle lookalike, Carrie Gray/Grant and Craig Fairbrass - all on ice skates, dressed as Fraggles.

      Psychedelic Furs - Heaven (39) New Entry

      Shaking Stevens - A Love Worth Waiting For (2) Video

      Cliff Richard - Baby You're Dynamite (34) New Entry

      Richard Hartley/Michael Read - Bolero (9) with Torville and Dean dancing live on ice in the studio

      Shannon - Give Me Tonight (45) Video

      Depeche Mode - People Are People (5)

      Charts - part 1 (40-26)

      Phil Collins - Against All Odds (Take A look At Me Now) (26) New Entry - Video

      Charts - part 2 (12)

      UB40 - Cherry Oh Baby (12)

      Charts - part 3 (11-1)

      Lionel Richie - Hello (1) Live in the studio with special guest sculptor making an ice sculpture of Lionel's head.

      Cameo - She's Strange (37) End titles

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    13. Some very good suggestions for April 5th! I do like the sound of Top of the Pops on Ice. I'd certainly get my skates on to see that one, it's a shame it has slipped through our fingers :-)

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    14. unless somebody's going to the effort of producing an unofficial show as those guys did when the last strike was on, i think i'll pass on this one. thanks

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  9. Read and Peebles - not my favourite presenting combo, Read looks like he wants to be somewhere else, a UKIP rally perhaps, while Peebles looks like he's been dressed by a blind chimp and learned his presenting style from a zombie. But there's an interesting line up this week with three of the four new entries that were missing last time although we don't get to see all of this weeks new entries

    The Special AKA making the country aware of who Nelson Mandela was and making us dance at the same time. Superb stuff and great lead vocal by Stan Campbell. I was sad when the Specials split up and although I kept an eye on what they were up to and bought the War Crimes single which didn't chart, it wasn't until they released this that I felt they were really back on track. The In The Studio album was superb and they made a video film to go with it.

    I had no memories of this reggae-inspired Lennon single but it works for me. Of course there's no proper video for obvious reasons but the theme of the song goes with these images.

    I also liked this Captain Sensible track which today reminds me of The Lightning Seeds. It was co-written with New Muzik's Tony Mansfield as was the non-charting single There Are more Snakes Than Ladders which was actually a better song and sounds even more Lightning seeds-ish. Nice to see The Dolly Mixtures' Debsey who was later with Saint Etienne.

    More greatness in the shape of The Simple Minds with a song very much influenced by U2. Not sure what Jim is saying but I love that haunting organ sound and the whole spiraling, falling feel of the song. Feel sorry for the band who have a very small spaces to work in as did The Specials but at least they had two stages.

    Not so keen on the Siouxsie song which is perhaps not as immediate as their earlier singles but a good performance with Robert Smith switching from guitar to keyboards. Someone's been cutting pieces out of Siouxsie's sleeves, I wonder what they did with them.

    The Charts and good to see Dead Or Alive, Chaka Khan and Scritti Politti in there, hopefully we'll see them next time.

    Madonna left me a bit cold at the time but I liked this a lot more than Holiday and it's good to see that she was still employing her brother Chris as a dancer. This was of course produced by her boyfriend John "Jellybean" Benitez. I remember an early interview where she claimed she was h him because "I dig skin, lips and Latin men". You can't argue with that.

    The Thompson Twins have a leather and studs makeover and come up with the goods again. I never bought any of their singles at the time but was impressed with their ability to constantly write catchy pop hits. Good performance marred by Read trying to steal their thunder.

    The BBC clearly getting tired of Mr Reynolds and his dodgy bust and are clipping the Hello video.

    Great play outwith Jacko's ode to PMT, at least that was the joke we made at the time.

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    1. Wasn't there at the time in the 80s a political party similar to UKIP?

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    2. could you be thinking of the national front?

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    3. Possibly, but I think that was banned in the UK before then, even though it still exists in France.

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    4. Many of those who went on to join UKIP were Conservatives back in the 80s, until the downfall of Mrs T and the adoption of the Maastricht Treaty drove them out of the party. Nigel Farage was one of those, though UKIP's founder, Alan Sked, was a former Liberal candidate.

      The National Front was fiercely anti-Common Market from the time Britain joined in the 70s, but it would morph into the BNP rather than UKIP. Labour did of course advocate EEC withdrawal in their 1983 election manifesto, aka "the longest suicide note in history"...

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    5. There's your answer Wilberforce

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    6. it was you who was asking dory - not me! i was just offering a suggestion...

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  10. hosts: mr peebles may possibly be the most ill-suited of the radio 1 jocks to present the show (and in the face of stiff competition, that's saying something!), but he gets a thumbs-up from me for pronouncing siouxsie and the ban-SHEES correctly

    special aka: for some reason this particular appearance on totp isn't on yt, although i presume that like the others it features the only other original special apart from dammers (drummer john bradbury). i hate records where the music is used as a vehicle for spouting politicial cant (if that's your bag, then quit being a pop star and become a politician!), but at least they're usually dreary and angst-ridden. what is particularly annoying about this one is that the music is actually very jolly and catchy. and no doubt the message fell mainly on deaf ears (probably including mine at the time) for that very reason! it reminds me of when chumbawumba had their own protest hit 10 years or so on, where most punters just took the chorus literally and thus went onto dance floors and got themslves knocked down (or at least took a deliberate tumble of their own)... before getting up again!

    lennon: one that slipped me by completely at the time. it's cod-reggae of course, however it wasn't sounding too bad for all that until it hit the chorus. but at least there's no sign of yoko on it

    captain sensible: possibly another protest song, although i couldn't be bothered listening to the lyrics closely enough to find out for sure. those silly dolly mixture girls are still playing air guitars when the so-so musical backdrop is 100% synths

    simple minds: as usual when it comes to jim kerr's lyricism, i have no idea what this is about - it doesn't sound like a protest song, but then again there is a reference to politicians (he also mentions robert de niro as well at some point, thus surely giving mr taxi driver some kind of record of a namecheck on two current top 30 singles?). a chum of mine taped this for me on one of those promotional cassettes (and after the "play this side" instruction on the label wrote "LOUD!" ho ho), and it started off with three grandiose tracks that sounded quite similar but were all good in their own way. "book of brilliant things" was the least of the three and this was the second best, but tragically the greatest of the triptich "speed your love to me" (where jim actually came up with a decent melody for a change) has already been and gone without being seen on totp - despite getting into the top 20!

    siouxsie/banshees: another one that triggers no recollection whatsoever. you can usually rely on budgie to spice up their otherwise fairly-dull fare a bit with some off-kilter percussion work, but even he's stuck for ideas here. siouxsie must have had a premonition of that stupid fashion of tops and jumpers with holes cut out of the sleeves that every other women seems to be wearing at the moment

    madonna: i tried watching what was titled as the official video for this on yt, and it turned out to be some crappy contemporary remix! i got what i was after in the end, which although no "holiday" is a pretty decent 80's dance/r&b effort that i would like better were it done by someone else. i wonder if the video was deliberately sparse, or if her record company weren't convinced she was a good investment?

    thompson twins: this isn't as bad as i actually remember it, although i shan't be adding it to my mp3 collection. has their 15 minutes really come up already?

    wacko: this obviously should have remained as album filler, and shame on all those who went out and bought it. however, i thought at the time that perhaps one of the greatest tracks on "thriller" was never released as a single, and perhaps should have been in preference to at least two of the others - a typically-polished rod temperton ballad with a superb extended coda called "the lady of my life"

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    1. re simple minds: i should have written "a chum of mine taped the "sparkle in the rain" album for me"!

      as far as i was concerned they walked on water(front) at this point with what i thought was their best alum so far. so i thought i would be in for a treat when i went to see them on tour later that year. but despite their massive back catalogue, they just did interminable semi-improvised jams of the new album material, with jim doing the old "let's bring it down now, let's build it up again now" stadium rock routine. drummer mel gaynor seemed as disinterested in this as i was, as each time he had to find some variaton of drum roll to try and keep things going you could almost see a thought bubble saying "oh no jim - please, not again!". of course after that the real stadium shite kicked in, and so it was shark-jumping territory for me. but it could have been worse, as at least the crimes were simply musical and jim didn't delude himself he could do things like end world poverty a la his irish peer! so after many years of being out of my life, in more recent times i was able to return to their glory days without the dilemma of trying to overcome my personal dislike of the prats they had turned into!

      by the way, when jim mentions "deodata" in this single, is that an erroneous reference to the once-great brazilian bossa nova and jazz-funk-fusion musician and arranger who in more recent times was slumming it by producing the crappy kool and the gang 80's recordings?

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    2. For a really rubbish Nelson Mandela-themed single, Simple Minds were happy to furnish your needs.

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    3. was "up on the catwalk" really about nelson mandela? i would never have guessed that in a thousand years. thx i'm guessing that even though they are compatriots, simple minds are not big favourites of yours? if so, you're not the first scottish aquaintance of mine to think they're hideously over-rated!

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    4. talking of which: i have wondered on occasion if there were those who lived in provincial cities such as liverpool, manchester and glasgow at the time who felt compelled to support the notably high number of acts originally from their local music scene that went on to national success, in the same way as supporting the local football teams? coming from dorset i had no such decisions to make as no local acts ever made it, so i was free to like, follow and support whoever regardless of their roots (and the same applied to football teams ha ha!)

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    5. No, Simple Minds' rubbish Mandela song was called Mandela Day, it wasn't a hit in spite of being tied into the big concert.

      I have no beef with Simple Minds, I'm not one for "tall poppy syndrome", but most of the time they were not to my taste. My favourite of theirs was All the Things She Said, which I really enjoyed at the time, though it seems to be a forgotten hit in their repertoire.

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    6. appropriately enough my getting-off point for simple minds was "don't you forget about me".. whereupon i practically did for many years! i have a vague recollection that "all the things she said" was a clone of "book of brilliant things" (although i'm not going to listen to get confirmation!), and (probably just as well given the subject matter) i can't remember how "mandela day" went at all..

      as for "tall poppy syndrome": i didn't stop liking simple minds because they got massive (level 42 more-or-less took the same career path, and i remained a fan of theirs until well past the point where they could easily fill wembley arena several times over), i stopped liking them because they got rubbish! i suspect a major reason for their musical decline was the departure of bassist derek forbes after "sparkle in the rain"...

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    7. Just had a listen to Book of Brilliant Things, it's OK but I like All the Things She Said a lot better.

      I wasn't accusing you of tall poppy syndrome, though! Merely following on from your comment about not supporting local bands, but there is a tipping point when an artist's inspiration runs out, it's almost inevitable for most of them, which is not quite the same as former fans wanting people to know "I liked them before they were famous and they were much better then!" which happens too. The resentment of success is something I notice, it can be justified, but popularity doesn't mean they're suddenly too big for their boots or way overpraised. Well, not all the time!

      Anyway, Mandela Day is about equal with Belfast Child on the Simple Minds "we want you to take us very seriously" scale of later yawnfests.

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    8. THX - you said Mandela Day wasn't a hit but it was actually a chart topper!

      It was on the 'Ballad Of The Streets EP' along with 'Belfast Child' which you also mention above.

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    9. i did support my local band scene very much back then (and indeed played in several myself), but unlike scousers, mancs and weegees i never got the opportunity to say "i saw them before they got famous" ha ha!

      i've said similar here before regarding the limited creativity that any successful music artist has within them, and that sadly most never know when to quit - i personally think there should have been some be some kind-of "logan's run" statute made whereby those concerned should have been made to retire 10 years on from signing their first record deal... as you could almost guarantee that they would have been creatively washed-up by then!

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    10. @Noax: Of course it was! Hush my mouth. Thanks for the correction! The song's still rubbish, though.

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    11. @Wilberforce: many musicians do retire once it becomes clear the success has dried up, of course. But others don't give up on their dream, which is either admirable or foolish, depending on your point of view - or whether the success is still there or not! I don't begrudge anyone making a career in the music industry, I imagine it's bloody difficult at the best of times.

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    12. of course in the wake of diminishing returns, then a recording artist is much more likely to call it a day. but i'm thinking of the megastars that know even if they put out a record of themselves just farting their loyal audience will still rush out and buy it. do any of them ever stop and consider that by carrying on well past their best, they are actually tarnishing the legacy that made them in the first place? the only exception i know of where an artist deliberately retired as a creative force whilst still a going concern was billy joel (whose last original rock album was released in 1993). although he's hardly a favourite of mine, i doff my hat to him for (unlike many of his peers) knowing when to call it a day!

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  11. This wasn't the Thompson Twins' swansong by any means, but it was their last top ten single. They followed this with an 11, a 13, a 15 and a 22 then managed just five singles between the mid-40's and mid-60's. Not sure if anyone's mentioned they had a mugshot dodger during their golden era, "Watching", which peaked at 33.

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    1. Yes indeed Arthur, perhaps 'swansong' was a bit harsh, but it was a perfect gradual 'uphill' to the current single and then similar gradual 'downhill' for the next singles up to their demise:

      Hold Me now (No.4)
      Doctor Doctor (No.3)
      You Take Me Up (No.2)
      Sister Of Mercy ((No.11)
      Lay Your Hands On Me (No.13)
      Don't Mess With Dr Dream (No.15)
      King For A Day (No.22)
      Revolution (No.56)
      Get That Love (No.66)

      Has this ever happened before where a band has had such a perfectly smooth curve up and then down? This must be very rare.

      Suffice to say that after Get That Love peaked at No.66 in 1987, they still attempted a brief comeback in 1991-1992, but No.53 was the best they could achieve with their very last single called The Saint in early 1992.

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    2. in case anyone's wondering, the "revolution" single in question was a cover of the beatles song

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    3. 'The Saint' was actually quite good, I bought that when it hit the bargain bins!

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    5. sorry, that was a "no-ball" bowled above. what i wanted to say as my alter ego was that when tom bailey realised that the hits were drying up, did he think to himself "i'm getting better and better as a songwriter, but nobody wants to buy my records anymore!"?

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  12. This show was broadcast on my 12th Birthday. Some Birthdays are very memorable, but I can't recall anything about that one and probably didn't watch this show.

    Mike Read's mic sounds weird, at times he's inaudible. The intro to Simple Minds was so appalling that I was convinced that something had been edited out! I could also have done without the extreme close-up on Peebles at the end of one of his links.

    Special AKA - Chalk me up as another who knew nothing about Mandela. I enjoyed the jaunty tune, though can't think of it now without imagining Peter Kay as Geraldine segueing it into 'Umbrella'!!!

    John Lennon - I certainly wouldn't have regarded this as a Birthday treat. More drivel from one of the most over-rated artists ever.

    Captain Sensible - A good one, and also used as the last song on 'Trigger Happy TV' (the brilliant original series, not the endless remakes since)

    Simple Minds - This is a return to form after the previous couple of singles they released. For all those who had Simple Minds down as U2 copyists, it's interesting that Jim's act here is almost like Bono's later on!

    Siouxsie - Not keen on this, it's in a weird time signature (Waltz?) which is quite interesting though I suppose.

    Madonna - Cheap though the video is, it's good to hear one of her less regarded earlier tracks. I'm another who regards 'Borderline' as the finest of her singles from this period.

    Thompson Twins - For me this is better than their previous couple. They look awful though - oh, who designed their costumes? Yes, her of the silly hats. Although their hits got smaller, I think they have some really good songs still to come.

    Jacko - Not for me, thanks. Sounds horribly dated.

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    1. A few shows before this, i.e., 23rd Feb 1984, it was on my 16th birthday sharing the birthday honours with Howard Jones who appeared on that show on his birthday. So it makes you 45 now, and me 49, but I think some of the other regulars are well into their fifties, like Wilberforce, Bama Boogiewoogie, and Shakey Shakerson to name but a few.

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    2. I've just turned 55 so I was 21 when these 1984 shows were aired.

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    3. in the interests of trying to answer noax's question about the time signature for "swimmimg horses" i watched the yt clip again. it's standard 4/4 time as opposed to the 3/4 time of a waltz (where it goes "1,2,3" over and over again), but budgie's doing some kind of half-time rhythm pattern which is what makes it sound a bit odd. a second listen has endeared itself to me a bit more, although it's still far from their best. what was the point in the bassist prodding away at a synth for a few seconds every now and then (and to what actually sounded like an electric sitar) when robert smith was pretending to play one anyway?

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    4. Shakey Shakerson24 July 2017 at 23:12

      Like Arthur and Bama, I too am 55. Jesus - just writing that makes my joints ache.

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    5. i'm 55 only in a physical sense - mentally i'm the same age as i was when these re-runs were originally transmitted!

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    6. That is four people all 55 years old - Wilberforce, Arthur Nibble, Bamaboogiewoogie, and Shakey Shakerson. Me and Noax are still in our 40s, me only just. I think John G is still 30something? What about THX, or is it a secret?

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    7. I'll be 38 in October.

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    8. Looks like I am the old fogey at 62...

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    9. 48 next birthday here.

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    10. charlie we're pretty much all old fogeys around here, as most of us are reliving our memories from when these shows were originally broadcast. and even john g (who would only have been around 3 years old in 1984) writes as if he had been there with us!

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    11. I was 4 at the point in time the repeats have reached, and so I am now able to remember some of the featured songs from the time, and that will become even more the case as '84 goes on (I started school that September). My Dad was a big music fan, so I was watching TOTP from a very early age.

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    12. @Dory: No, not a secret, in fact I already told you my age a few months ago, I'm 45 and wondering how that Voice of the Beehive song I heard on the radio the other day is somehow thirty years old...

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    13. So the bulk is in the 45-55 age group, with John G at 37 and Charlie Cook at 62 being at the two extremes.

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    14. what - no 20-somethings posting here? quel surprise. tragically of course they don't know what they're missing out on. quite recently i had the misfortune to have to frequently walk past a billboard for a local radio station, whereby all the contemporary crap was listed alongside the slogan "more hits than ever". but of course in my view it read "more SHIT than ever"!

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    15. ... further to the above: check out this "before and after" montage of said billboard:

      https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1567149256660414&set=p.1567149256660414&type=3&theater

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    16. I was 11 at this stage of the repeats so 44 now.

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    18. I have just turned 40 which makes me 7 in 1984. Vivid memories of TOTP for me started with uptown girl being number 1 and now we're into 1984 this is when I become obsessed with pop music and tape the top 40 every week

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    19. My earliest memories of pop music were also at 6 years old, but in 1974 when the Wombles were the big thing on TV. 'Underground overground wombling free, the Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we....." Although I wasn't watching them on TOTP, but they appeared on their own TV show of course.

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    20. I'm only 35 so I was two when this show originally went out!

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    21. So far you have come up as the youngest, taking over the mantle from John G, although you're not exactly one of the regulars on here, more like a part-timer Zenon.

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    22. we still don't know how old our apparent only regular female contributor julie is yet. but then again they say you should never ask a lady her age:

      https://www.thefword.org.uk/2013/05/you_never_ask_a/

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    23. Julie would come up as most knowledgeable on the blog, if not more youthful than Zenon.

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    24. unlike age, that's a matter of opinion dory - not fact! and as such i would say that several other members of this forum are as well-informed as julie, if not more so. perhaps we should all convene somewhere to take part in a quiz that proves who amongst us knows most about pop music? as long as there aren't any questions about "music" from this century, then i think i would be in a shout...

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    25. I live in London, so as long as it is somewhere near the M25 or first few junctions of the M1 then I can oblige.

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    26. as most regular contributors are scattered around the country, i don't think any such pop quiz "summit" is likely to happen - i for one am too poor to travel halfway across blighty for that purpose. but perhaps if all concerned really want to do a bit of muscle-flexing to prove they are the "gambo" of pop knowledge in our world (i'm ambivalent about it myself) then maybe our host could provide some kind of cyber-quiz? but if so, would we all be able to avoid the easy temptation of cheating?

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    27. Even if this quiz doesn't happen (and as a one-time member of a school team who triumphed in a national general knowledge competition, I am always up for a quiz), this discussion has at least propelled this post beyond 100 comments!

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    28. hoorah - that's two centuries in four innings! i don't suppose anybody had been keeping count of the total number made since we started doing this six years or so ago now?

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  13. Welcome to another edition of Top Of The 20’s, with only one non-chart topper inside the top 19.

    Very little to say about this duffer of an edition that hasn’t already been said.

    A very worthy and danceable start by The Special AKA with “Free Nelson Mandela With Every Four Gallons”.

    John Lennon isn’t living on borrowed time – he’s already gone. The best part about his was the “John Lennon – Oh No” comment earlier.

    I agree Captain Sensible’s “Snakes And Ladders” single deserved better, but I was glad to see this off kilter, tin can sound backing, anti-war effort do so well, and Mister Burns definitely looked pleased to be there, but Morrissey beat you to the flowers vibe, mate.

    A decent Simple Minds song ruined by Jim Kerr poncing about the stage and looking irritating yet again.

    Siouxsie’s song took ages to get to the nonsensical chorus. “Hong Kong Garden” this ain’t.

    A really boring video for what I thought was a really boring Madonna video.

    Possibly the turn of the night by the three Twins in what must have been really heavy jackets. Surprised they didn’t topple over. ‘Shadow Man’ should really have been working on a lathe or an anvil to signify the lyrical hardness of working on machines.

    It’s Brian Kilcline again!

    And we finish with Michael Jackson’s “FTP” (Fleece the Public, by releasing a 20th single off the album).

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    1. so arthur am i right in that the coventry and newcastle hard-man defender brian kilcline was the "hello" bust look-a-like?

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  14. Angelo - I enjoyed the link to Smash Hits (or Sma Shits as someone once called it). I used to buy that at one point and still have some old copies somewhere.

    Interesting to see that they featured the words to some singles that didn't chart highly ie Jah Mo Be There by James Ingram, Ghost Of Love by Fiction Factory and Birds Fly by The Icicle Works. I also enjoyed reading the Mutterings page where we learned that George Michael looked like Benny from Crossroads at the Rock and Pop Awards and when The Weather Girls flew from America to the UK they needed two seats each.

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    1. "smash hits" was practically my bible for three or four years in the early 80's, although i never read the song lyrics that were printed as they were of little if any interest to me. i presume like the creators of those "top of the pops" records, the editors had to guess in advance what would likely be a hit or not and publish accordingly (it was printed fortnightly, so in the cut-throat world of pop the smash hits in question were less likely to be predicted correctly). james ingram of course finally had a hit with (a horribly remixed version of) "jah mo be there" a few months on, but even if that hadn't happened he had co-wrote wacko's "PYT" so was hardly likely to end up selling big issues. of course once something takes off then others cash-in on it, and "smash hits" was no exception in that it spawned a copycat competitor in the shape of the weekly "number 1" magazine... that i used to buy and read equally voraciously (apart from the song lyrics of course!)

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  15. Again tracks i don't remember. The john Lennon and Captain Sensible tracks were pleasant but bland. Sensible seemed to be wanting to dance at twice the speed.
    Generally don't like Simple Minds, but quite like Catwalk - the start of the keyboard riff reminded me of another song (Big Country?), then bursts into Oygene... Loved the girl in the pink dress half heartedly air guitaring :-)
    Swimming Horses another unfamiliar track - wonder what i was doing in 1984 that made me ignore so many tracks from the year...

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