Queen clean up their act
19/04/84 (Gary Davies & Peter Powell)
The Special AKA – “Nelson Mandela” (9)
The getting the show underway for a second time, but the song was now at its peak.
Thompson Twins – “You Take Me Up” (2) (video)
Also at its peak.
Blancmange – “Don’t Tell Me” (15)
Became the duo's third and final top ten hit when it peaked at number 8.
Queen – “I Want To Break Free” (5) (video)
The legendary video for this second single from their number 2 album The Works, I Want To Break Free peaked at number 3.
The Bluebells – “I’m Falling” (26)
With their first top 30 hit, peaking at number 11.
Jonathan King – US chart rundown:
Michael Jackson – “Beat It” (video clip)
Weird Al Yankovic – “Eat It” (video clip)
The Pointer Sisters – “Automatic” (video clip)
Phil Collins – “Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)” (video clip)
Nik Kershaw – “Dancing Girls” (25)
Went up to number 13.
OMD – “Locomotion” (19)
Became their first top ten hit for over two years when it reached number 5, but they'd have to wait seven more years for their next one.
Lionel Richie – “Hello” (1) (video)
Now in its fifth of six weeks at number one.
Kool & The Gang – “(When You Say You Love Somebody) In The Heart” (11) (audience dancing/credits)
The follow up to Joanna peaked at number 7.
Next up is April 26th.
hosts: i don't think i've ever heard anyone say the title of the dead or alive KC cover merely as "that's the way" as gaz does in the chart rundown before - it's a kind-of inverted thing to the wild cherry classic now erroneously thought-of as "play that funky music white boy" (i checked the labels of the releases in question, and i can assure you there was no "white boy" in the title!). and in contrast he also refers to OMD (as they now styled themselves) by their original somewhat-cumbersome name. meanwhile pp is relieved to finally present the show with someone who doesn't make him look such a shortarse. if they watched this now, i wonder which one would be more embarrassed by the baggy leisure suits they're wearing?
ReplyDeletespecial aka: the only thing i can add to this is that a have a chum who (much more amusingly on his part than mine) refers to it as "free nelson piquet"
blancmange: it's "living on the ceiling" part ii! they've even got the indian guys back in again as well. a shame really, as if i wasn't already very familiar with what i consider a synth-pop classic then i think i would actually quite like this otherwise
queen: would this rather banal tune (by "fourth man" john deacon) have been anywhere near as big a hit without the notorious video made for it? unlikely i would have said. not surprisingly pretty boy roger taylor scrubs up far better than the rest in drag, and no doubt made more than a few red-blooded heteros feel rather guilty as a result. freddie's hemline may be high, but his heels are fairly low as he apparently couldn't easily strut about in a classic pair of stilettos (he should have put some practice in beforehand, as sean bean did when he played a transvestite in a bbc drama a few years back), but why did he keep the tache for the tart role, and then shave it off for the ballet bit? presumably to assure viewers and/or fans that it was simply just a big hoot in the grand tradition of panto dames, and that no way would he do that kind of subversive thing for real?
bluebells: you mean they actually recorded something other than "young at heart"? this is real indie-pop banality as far as i'm concerned, to the point where i think i might even prefer to listen to "hello" if i had to choose between the two!
nik kershaw: i'm sure i must have heard this at the time, but if so then it's pretty disappeared my radar now (sadly his bigger hits haven't done likewise). it sounds to me like a cross between a poor-man's level 42 and the midge ure band - sorry, later ultravox. i wish he would make his mind up to either play the synth or just jig about, rather than fall between two stools trying to do both. better still, maybe they should have brought back legs & co for this one?
OMD: having seemingly learned their lesson that up-your-own-arse experimentation does not garner hit singles and thus threaten your very existence as a going concern, they've now gone the other extreme into pop central. i suppose it's pleasant enough, but they've now removed whatever quirkiness they had about them that appealed in the first place
kool: and the crappy hits just keep on coming, as unlike OMD they realised years ago that doing stuff to please themselves rather than the morons that make up most of the record-buying public just doesn't pay the rent!
The Queen song is strange, the best part for me is just before the break, but it's not repeated later at all. The main emphasis is on the opening part which feels a bit leaden to me. Radio Gaga is a better done song.
ReplyDeleteOMD went on to do better with Tesla Girls and Talking Loud and Clear.
The Bluebells song is catchy, though their album had other stuff that was at least as good.
The Kool and the Gang song I think is good, beautiful lead vocal, brass adds a different touch, the middle 8 is well done.
The Bluebells had one other top 40 hit, "Kath", which contained the rhyming couplet "Kath / It takes a lot to make me laff (laugh)". Ahem.
ReplyDeletearthur presumably you've spent your life living dahn sarf where they put an imaginary letter "r" in words like "can't" and "bath"? well, the same applies to "laugh"! i raise this query as a fellow southern softie who's lived oop north for nearly 20 years now, where i noticed very early on that they pronunce such words in the correct fashion (and NOT in the queen's english)!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteIndeed, Middlesex born and bred - oh, and I pronounce scone to rhyme with "gone"!
DeleteI was actually referring to the way the Bluebells' chorus has a "th" ending to a line followed by an "ff" in the next one. The next line of the chorus of "Kath" finishes with a northern "path".
okay arthur you're partly excused, although there's many a rhyming couplet that ends with words where the last syllable in the second line isn't quite the same as the one in the first
Deletei don't know if there is an official north/south divide on how to pronounce "scone"? i originally came from about as far south as you could get, and there such a thing was always referred to as rhyming with "moan"...
Brilliant band though they were, I reckon Squeeze were the kings of the almost rhyming couplet!
Deleteperhaps the most shockingly bad not-really-rhyming-at-all couplet in this run was this one in al hudson's "you can do it":
Delete"get up and do your thing
and don't you feel ashamed"
admittedly it does scan a little better on record (in african-american vernacular) than on the page, but even so there's more than a little liberty taken here!
did you know there is a book that lyricists can buy where all the words that end the same way are listed together? i remember reading that annie lennox was one who admitted to using it. did you also know that the only word in the english dictionary that apparently has no rhyming equivalent is "orange"?
Silver, purple, month, ninth, pint, wolf, opus, dangerous, marathon and discombobulate have no rhymes either. Yes, I looked them up, I'm not that much of a smartarse.
DeleteAlthough it says here "sporange" rhymes with orange. It's a biological term.
I'm not sure that any north-south divide applies to "scone." I pronounce it the "moan" way, but that's because I think it sounds better, rather than because I was brought up to say it that way!
DeleteThis is turning into an episode of The Goodies...
DeleteNow I'm totally confused
DeleteHaliborange? :-)
Deleteto say that dangerous doesn't rhyme with anything is surely fatuous?
Delete@Wilberforce: Blame Google, that's where I got the list from!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThere's Alice Cooper's Schools Out where he sings "And we got no principals, And we got no innocence, We can't even think of a word that rhymes".
DeletePlus there's an episode of The Golden Girls where Rose and Dorothy argue about using the word "intrauterine" in the lyrics of a song about Miami. They end up with "Miami, you're cuter than an intrauterine!".
i loved watching "the golden girls" (on late-night channel 4?) in the 90's, and the spin-off "empty nest" too. however i do wonder if they are "of their time" with regard to viewing them again now? another (now largely forgotten) comedy series from that era i also really loved was "dream on" - i've just got the first season on dvd and have now watched the first two episodes... and the jury's still out!
DeleteMany thanks Angelo for your normal dedication in getting the blog out on time, even when you are on holiday. We are finally back in the big studio, and to my mind this is the best show of '84 so far. Gazza and PP make for an amiable partnership, despite the former fluffing his opening link. PP now seems much happier than he was a few months previously, though I'm sure he would have been even more so if they had paired him with Janice again. The bunny girl business at the end is however pretty cringeworthy, and clearly designed to foster the running joke that Gazza was now the resident Radio 1 stud. This was actually the first Easter that I can remember, primarily because we went to Leeds Castle on the Good Friday (the day after this was first broadcast), and I cut my knee badly after falling on some gravel.
ReplyDeleteAs the Special AKA kick us off, Michael Hurll pulls that trick of playing the start of the song before doing the introductory link, but in this case it works quite well. This was another fun performance, the band given more room to breathe this time and Jerry being a little more visible, if still inconspicuous. A relatively short snatch of The Thompson Twins video to follow, as they slave away on the chain gang in the same kinds of quarries that Doctor Who film crews used to frequent.
Blancmange have brought their Indian musicians back to the studio, even though it's hard to detect much of an Eastern influence on this one. Perhaps they were hoping to recapture the magic of Living on the Ceiling; this isn't quite as good, but it's still very respectable, and Neil Arthur's sudden outbreak of dad dancing in the end made me wonder if it was some kind of tribute to Andy McCluskey, also of course in the studio that night! The video for I Want to Break Free was my first exposure to Queen, and though I am not a big fan of the band I still think this is one of their best songs. The domestic scenes in the video also still have great comedy value, particularly Brian in his curlers, though the other parts come over as quite pretentious.
Such a shame The Bluebells got the chop from the early showing, as this is my favourite song of theirs and far preferable to their most famous hit. Good, confident performance too - anyone know what those badges were that they were wearing? JK is in what appears to be some millionaires' yachting playground in LA. The caption person manages to misspell both JK's first name and Weird Al "Yancovic," but it's always good to hear a snatch of the amusing Eat It, and to see the video. While this remains his most famous parody, there are a host of others and he is still active today. Apparently, Macca once vetoed a Live and Let Die parody that Al wanted to call "Chicken Pot Pie," because the title offended his vegetarian sensibilities!
Back in the studio, Nik Kershaw inevitably has some dancing girls to accompany him for this performance, though he succeeds in largely keeping the camera on him thanks to his own repertoire of moves, including quite a lengthy spin which I'm sure would have made him dizzy if carried on for much longer! The song itself is OK, listenable enough but not one of his best. OMD next, with a song that marked a real watershed in their career, the relative failure of the Dazzle Ships album having prompted them to curb their more experimental instincts and to take a much more mainstream direction. That decision paid off handsomely with Locomotion, a jolly little tune which demonstrated Andy and Paul had not lost their pop nous, but this and their subsequent work would never quite reach the same giddy creative heights as their early material. Andy's trousers here are something to behold, and it's amusing to see him swiftly knock the mic stand over after the mic falls out of it. Kool and the Gang to finish, as so often seems to be the case on the playout in this era, with a pleasant song to which the crowd, taking advantage of having more space again, seem to enjoy having a dance.
i recently did a "weird al yankovic" and re-wrote some lyrics to a well-known pop song as a humourous interpretation, keeping as much of the original lyrics as i could (or at least replacing them with soundalike words). so i've been wondering where i stand with regard to copyright. i note that mr yankovic always gets a co-credit for the songs that he parodies in that fashion, so does that mean he gets some of the royalties too? i think i'm right in he has to approach the original composer(s) in order to gain their permission/approval before releasing his versions. if anyone can offer advice here, that would be appreciated. thanks
DeleteThis is what Wikipedia has to say about Al's dealings with the original artists: "under the "fair use" provision of U.S. copyright law, affirmed by the United States Supreme Court in the 1994 case Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., artists such as Yankovic do not need permission to record a parody. However, as a personal rule and as a means of maintaining good relationships, Yankovic has always sought permission from the original artist before commercially releasing a parody." Unfortunately, it is silent on the English legal position, so may need to do some research or take some legal advice, depending on what you want to do with your parody.
DeleteDefinitely a strong show this one, although why PP came dressed as a mechanic is anyone's guess.
Deletethanks for the advice regarding copyright john. i've done a few public performances of the parody in question so far, but as yet i'm still miles off the radar of those holding copyright. i suppose if and when i make a video for youtube, then that will likely be when it gets noticed?
DeleteI'm no lawyer, but I would guess that if you were making money out of the parody it might make the copyright holders more interested in your activities! Putting it on YT would obviously make it more likely to come to their attention.
DeleteNever mind the Special AKA, what did Gary think when he showed up in the studio to discover Not Duncan Chase Me Norvelle was wearing the same white jumpsuit as he was? Is that why his sartorial rival is nowhere to be seen for the rest of the episode?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Jerry and his amazing friends get us off to a rousing start, then we are offered the video from The Thompson Twins which sees them at the beach, making a sandcastle. Something like that. No idea what a chain gang has to do with the song, what were the band sentenced for, crimes against hairdressing?
Blancmange have their Indian pals back, but you need a good ear to hear them on the song itself. Another solid ditty from these boys, they seem to be doing the interview rounds again at the moment. Doesn't Neil have long Mr Tickle arms?
Queen with a tune inseparable from the video, you can't think of one without the other. Danny La Rue eat your heart out. If you can analyse the song, the best bit is right after the lengthy instrumental/show off break when Freddie sings "But life still goes on...", it lifts the whole thing a notch and makes it genuinely wistful after the usual bombast of the band.
Agree with John G above this was The Bluebells' finest three minutes, a classic item of jangly guitar indie pop from the 80s home of that sound. Great harmonising near the end. I like Young at Heart too, but you hear that (too) often, I'm Falling was their true gem.
I remember Nik Kershaw's Dancing Girls at the time and wondering how you were supposed to dance to it. Mind you, they have a fair crack at it on TOTP, Nik was always that bit more experimental than Howard Jones, though I don't know why he's showed up in his pyjama bottoms.
OMD's tribute to Little Eva (sadly they didn't Turkey Trot on their following single), a sinuous melody with synth brass stings that you really can dance to, or Andy is certainly having a go at least. Top marks for ploughing ahead after the mic mishap, we never thought you were miming, honest.
Lionel continues his reign of terror, thought we were getting the whole video but the producers obviously thought "Sod this" yet again a couple of minutes before the end. Is dancing blind advisable?
Kool and the Gang, ah, this is much better than Joanna, like the Crown Heights Affair-esque hoo-hoo-hoo vocals, a sunny little thing.
I like both Joanna and this one, both have decent melodies. Maybe the arrangement could have been filled out a little more in the latest one, but as I said before it's a memorable song for me (and really for quite a few others).
DeleteI'm Falling is a catchy number and it turns up the soul even more as it gets to the end. I like that it doesn't do the usual more lazy thing and concentrate on the chorus hook at the end like most songs.
Yeah, the new melody introduced in the latter stages of I'm Falling is a great way to end in a flourish.
DeleteAlso noticed liked John G that after a two month hiatus TOTP are back to their original studio and at last out of the temporary 'canteen' studio. Was this for much-needed repairs, or what was the reason for the two month break since the 16th Feb edition with Nena at No.1?
ReplyDeleteThe only difference I could see was that the main stage video screen appeared to be a new one, and slightly larger, but what else had changed that needed two months in a temporary studio??
Anyway, back to the music, and The Thomson Twins here at No.2 would be the highest chart position for any single they released, with this one being their most successful hit. Everything after this performed less well, and there was no going back to top 3 levels.
The Kool & The Gang playout was by far the best music on the show (sorry Wilberforce), and a fantastic follow-up to Joanna, and a pity it did not get a main play through its run, but the way that TOTP was heading, i.e., no more than 35 minutes per show, and still persevering with JK sections three years on, meant that a number of bands in the charts were not even getting playout status, let alone a main play, like The Gap Band, and Phil Collins who had no play until getting to No.2 the following week to show it for the first time.
TOTP seemed to be slowly losing its core of featuring everything going up in the charts at least once, and not going back to the 40 or 45 minute length shows that were commonplace between 1980-1983. The current 35-minute length in 1984 would later be reduced to 30-minutes maximum in 1985 when Eastenders was launched, and was also a Thursday night regular adjacent to TOTP.
i recently felt compelled to prematurely leave a store i was in, thanks to being subjected to kool and the gang's "celebration" on the PA system. but at least i managed to get out of earshot before the real vomit-inducing bit that starts with "it's time to get together"!
DeleteDory - I think there had been a scene shifters' strike running since February, which forced TOTP to use less elaborate sets in the smaller studio. At least it seems to have been resolved at this point, unlike the contemporaneous miners' strike which would last a whole year.
DeleteIncidentally, we are not quite done with 40 minute shows yet - the next one is 40 minutes, and there are a few more to come in 1984 and '85.
DeleteIn reply to Wilberforce, I no longer have any time for Kool's Celebration hit, cos it was played to death over the years, and I just switch off if ever I hear it, but the rest of their catalogue still sounds so good, especially the 1984-1985 period which for me was their finest period, moving from plain disco beats pre-1984 to songs and videos that now had some romantic meaning.
DeleteDory is right about some songs not being seen at all though at least Phil Collins has had a couple of short plays (albeit in one show we didn't see and then a JK segment we didn't see!) and I'm not that bothered about The Gap Band to be honest.
DeleteIt would've been nice to see The SOS Band and the under-rated Propaganda on the show though!
It would also have been nice to hear the great Dr Mabuse's title pronounced correctly, Pete! Sara Cox played the full version on Sounds of the 80s last night, so someone's been taking note of these reruns.
Deletewell, the pronounciation of "dr mabuse" is open to abuse...
Deleteif this one doesn't appear on totp (i remember the video being shown on the tube, that featured 60's cult character actor vladek sheybal as the titular character), then i'd better get in a mention for their first album "a secret wish" which has some storming tracks on it - especially the epic "a dream within a dream", which came to my attention via annie nightingale's radio show!
'A Secret Wish' is a great album, and the remix album has some great interpretations of the tracks too (especially 'Jewelled')
Delete'P Machinery' won't be featured on TOTP as it missed the Top 40 but it's probably my favourite from the album now.
It seems Blancmange are still going, releasing their fourth album in the last two years this September, though the duo is now Neil Arthur and some bloke called Benge (me neither).
ReplyDeleteI notice that Blancmange's first 3 albums have been re-released today in those book style packaging things (I think they had been out in that format before but only in limited numbers)
DeleteStephen Luscombe has a rare illness and can't perform any longer I believe.
although i didn't get the joke at the time, blancmange surely came up with one of the greatest titles ever for their second album: "mange tout"
DeleteI have a special place in my heart for Blancmange for a reason that will become apparent later in the year.
DeleteBest Abba cover ever perhaps Bama?
DeleteBlancmange - Another great pop song from the duo and a lively and fun performance too.
ReplyDeleteQueen - I agree with THX above that the 'But life still goes on..' really lifts the song, and it's one of my favourite singles of theirs. The album version, weirdly, is shorter as it doesn't have the long intro. A straight friend of mine at University once described Roger Taylor as 'surprisingly sexy' in the video and he got the piss taken out of him forever more after that.
The Bluebells - A great little pop song, much better than the big hit but on Absolute 80s if anything it actually gets more airplay!
The JK bit isn't particularly interesting as we have seen / will get to see all of it presumably except Weird Al Yankovic which is a bit of a shame as it's a good parody.
Nik Kershaw - Probably his worst single, it just doesn't sound coherent somehow.
OMD - By some distance my least favourite single of theirs (and there are loads to choose from!) and I've never really been sure why, it just annoys the hell out of me.
Kool & The Gang - Better than 'Joanna' but only in the sense that being kicked in the balls is better than being kicked in the head.
Just an observation about the Queen video. This was their eighth top three single nd they would have three more before Freddie Mercury's death. In short they were big before and would remain big for some time to come. however in the US it was a different story. They hadn't made the top 10 since late 1980 and Freddie didn't lie to see any US top 40 action after Radio Ga Ga. Even their Live Aid performance couldn't send US record buyers back to the shop. Is it possible that this video was the straw that broke the camel's back as far as their US popularity was concerned?
ReplyDeleteAs no-one else noticed it I would mention that the man who added an L to the Sade caption a few weeks ago now seems to have turned his attention to Julio Iglesias...
I recall one of those TV nostalgia shows that were big 15 years ago mentioning Queen harmed their popularity with their drag in their Break Free video, so there is probably truth in it. Considering the big hair, leather and lace the macho rock acts would soon embrace in the States it's more than a little hypocritical.
DeleteThe Rolling Stones did a drag promo film for Have You Seen You Mother Baby back in 1968. Didn't stop them from having hits.
Deletei dont think it was just "i want to break free" that made queen unpopular in the states - they were already wary of them (well, freddie anyway) thanks to homo-erotic stuff like "body language". still, it was their loss as the band cleaned up practically everywhere else on the planet, including south america that had hitherto been pretty much a rock-free zone...
Deletei suspect that the rolling stones "got away" with their drag experiment (which was pretty frightening to be honest - even jaggar looked awful) because they were well-known for having an eye for the ladies in normal circumstances... unlike mr mercury. i remember u2 doing something similar in the 90's, although sadly that didn't put people off buying their records!
Yeah, but the Stones in drag was like Monty Python in drag, Freddy in miniskirt, stockings and suspenders was a lot more sexual. As was Roger Taylor as a teenage schoolgirl, which might have been even more problematic.
DeleteSurely Freddie keeping his moustache when he dragged up made the video an obvious joke, but I think you're right that Roger Taylor as a schoolgirl was perhaps more worrying.
DeleteThese antics with men dressed as women were commonplace on British comedy series like The Two Ronnies, Dick Emery and The Benny Hill Show, to name but a few, and us Brits were used to it on our televisions in the early 80s, so perhaps in America this was not commonplace, and they could not handle pop videos like I Want To Break Free by Queen.
Deletelike most british comedy of the era, python normally made no secret of the fact that they were men playing women in drag. but in what i think is the last sketch of "the meaning of life" featured three couples at a dinner party, and those playing the female partners (eric idle, michael palin and terry jones to my recollection) were actually quite convincing!
Deletehowever, if you want a comedy troupe that really goes for it when it comes to believable (and downright pretty at times) drag, then look no further than 90's canadian crew the kids in the hall:
https://liveforfilms.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/3.jpg
i remember one of the monthly rock magazines of the early/mid 90's (either "vox" or "select") doing a feature on pop stars in drag. apart from the usual suspects (the dame, the stones, queen et al), they also featured miles hunt of the (then-massive) wonder stuff dressed up as lady miss keir of dee-lite (who was actually suspected of being a man herself, although no proof of that has ever surfaced), plus damon albarn doing a debbie harry impression:
Deletehttps://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e5/3f/65/e53f6528d0a1423dc81d81dd0362d351.jpg
A rather clever idea this week, from the producers. Get the two worst/irritating presenters and get shot of them in one fell swoop. Terrible, terrible dress sense as well. Did ANYONE go out looking like that?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the music.
The Specials start us off and whilst the majority of the group put in a shift, singer Stan Campbell seems less animated. He has a good voice, though, and its a bit weird that he never went on to achieve much.
The Thompson Twins activate the old FF finger as, not only was the video on last week, but the song itself was on the radio this morning. Thats enough of them for me.
Blancmange. Nope not for me Im afraid.
Queen. By this time in their career I had ceased to have any interest in them, and this poppy John Deacon effort did little to change my mind. The video was interesting at first but over-exposure has even killed that off now.
Nik Kershaw. Christ this is grim. Terrible, tuneless song, weird self conscious 'dancing' and a worse dress sense than the presenters. Horrible.
OMD. Like Queen, another act whose early stuff I found to be appealing, but whose descent down the pop ladder alienated me. You can see in this the mind that would one day inflict that horrible Atomic Kitten record on us.
With no rreal competition, Lionel Ritchie holds on to the top spot, and Kool & The Gang close the show.
I am sure there were a couple of other snarky comments I wanted to make, but I can't remember now ( I watched the 7.30 show as it went out) and damned if I'm going back to re-watch it. 2 for the music.
Ooh Gary Davies and Smiley-Voice were appalling too. Davies' opening sentence had more slip-ups than any twenty-word sentence had any right to have. The 'joke' at the show's end was appalling as indeed were their chart rundowns. 2.
i actually quite like pp and gaz in relative terms (despite the cheesy attempt to make out that the latter is some kind of laydeez man). in my view, surely the worst presenters have to be slimey and smarmy?
DeleteIt seems to be a TOTP tradition for the presenters to start off really hyper then calm down after a year or so, PP being the obvious example. Gary Davies was actually a decent presenter both on TOTP and Radio 1 when he stuck to the music.
DeleteSlimes on the other hand has always been enthusiastically obnoxious, as well as overkeen to show off his latest watch purchase.
Gary Davies always reminded me of Animal from The Muppets. It's the teeth and eyebrows.
DeleteNext time he's on I'll have to do a compare and contrast.
DeleteI'm no fan of PP but Bates, Read and especially Wright are much worse.
DeleteJust for the hell of it my favourite presenters of the run so far are Peel, Jensen and Vance, my least favourite are Bates, Wright and Peebles.
DeleteAnd following on from Bama's comment some TOTP/Muppetalikes...
DeleteBates = Gonzo
Powell = Fozzy Bear
Peel & Jensen = The two muppets in the box who made snarky comments.
Btw I'm scone as in drone, but then I'm a soft southerner ;-).
Plus, The Muppets also had their own Janice - the lead guitarist in the Electric Mayhem Band!
DeleteThe most famous send-off at the end of a Muppet Show was when those to old muppets in the box said 'if you have nothing good to say, don't say it at all, hahahahah!'
DeleteRe Scones - my mum's mate was Scottish and used to pronounce it Scone as in Schooner.
DeleteAnd following on from Bama's comment some TOTP/Muppetalikes...
DeleteBates = Gonzo
Powell = Fozzy Bear
Peel & Jensen = The two muppets in the box who made snarky comments.
Btw I'm scone as in drone, but then I'm a soft southerner ;-).
Oops, forget to add my twopence worth to a couple of things in this thread.
ReplyDelete1) I am a scone-as-in-gone guy. Scone-as-in-drone definitely sounds like some soft Southern nonsense to me.
2) Steve Harley did attemp to rhyme Orange with syringe in a Cockney Rebel album track. Didn't work.
3) I might have mentioned this before. But Dean Friedman also confessed to owning and making use of a rhyming dictionary. And yet in his -infamous- hit Lucky Stars, still came up with the rhyming couplet "She still goes around as if - she's always stumbling off a cliff". *Involuntary shudder*
Has anyone got a WeTransfer link to this whole show with the JK section? The Vimeo one put up last week got taken down as quickly as it went up, so I still have not been able to see it.
ReplyDeleteI missed out on it as well. Tried to get it this am.
DeleteAt last, here is the link with the JK section:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1uY0kldq5Q
dory, you can finally sleep at night now!
DeleteCouldn't quite clear the boundary for the century. I'll have to settle for a single on 98 comments.
DeleteThe Specials open the show for the second time and it's a better performance thanks to a larger stage. The band look a bit put out by the audience's inability to clap along in time but it all goes well.
ReplyDeleteThe T Twins on video or "promo" as PP puts it. This looks like the sort of labour camp that Therese May would like us all to work in. Even though it's filmed straight with no comedy and the song has serious message (being clearly based on old negro spiritual) it is still a feel-good song with a positive message. Interestingly the other two chanting "boy" in response to lead singer Tom's vocals makes the it unclear whether the song is about a man or a woman.
Another serving of Blancmange who are back with their two Indian mates. Good upbeat dance number with another positive message. I had forgotten about this and how good it is although it does borrow a bit from Living On The Ceiling.
Queen on video. This is so well known now it's hard to recall just how surprising/shocking this was back then with all the band in grotesque drag and Freddie going from hairy housewife, to leather biker to etherial dancer at the press of a sythesiser key. Brilliant!
Loved The Bluebells. They showed a live concert of thier's on London Live a few months back. The band look a bit depleted here (were the other two ill or on holiday?) but it's great to hear one of their lesser songs which of course don't played much anymore.
As for the JK American chart section - I was never a massive fan of comedy records but Weird Al's spoof of Jacko was funny if a little obvious, I loved Automatic even if the video is really boring. The lead Pointer sister looks like and sounds like a black version of Dorothy Zbornak from The Golden Girls. Phil Collins being downed in coloured rain competes the line up but it's a shame we didn't hear/see Culture Club's Miss Me Blind which of course wasn't a hit over here.
Charts and Lots of new entries this week and several songs further up the rundown that we haven't see yet namely - The Psychedelic Furs, The SOS Band, Cliff, Shannon, Gap Band and Propaganda.
Nik Kershaw doing more dancing than keyboard playing and wearing more ill-advised nasty pleated trousers that make him look even smaller than he actually was. "Bring on the dancing girls" cries Nik, they're already behind you love, dancing they're arses off! A nice synthi groove but not much of a song but it's good to hear it again.
OMD - OMG what on earth is Paul wearing, he has even worse taste than Mr Kershaw. They look like the bottom half of a pantomime horse outfit. Great song though with a lovely repeated horn riff even if the lyrics about locomotives and the ocean are confusing. This is were the band crossed over into pop territory and was the start of a string of similar hits although this was their last top 10 hit until 1991.
Hello, AGAIN. "Tell me how to win your heart, 'cause I haven't got a clue" sings Lionel but goes on to say "Let me start by saying 'I love you'" thus proving he DID have a clue, so he was a liar as well as a stalker of blind girls. The swine.
The less said about Gary's Bunny girl the better. Stick with Easter Eggs I say, the may rot your teeth but you won't get arrested thirty years later.
They end with a Kool and the Gang song that I had no memories of but at the same time I seemed to start singing along to.
The long-awaited return of The Pointer Sisters after three years, and here at No.6 in JK's American chart was at last a piece of disco heaven, albeit they could have dressed better in that video, in what looked to be clothing bought at a local jumble sale or car boot sale on a Sunday morning.
DeleteSuffice to say that The Pointer Sisters seemed to have the green light to wearing such lacklustre clothing in 1984, given their huge success in the 1979-1981 period with superb hits like Slow Hand which even made No.11 in Britain in 1981.
June pointer died of cancer in 2006 at the age of only 52, following years of drug addiction for much of her career. She was replaced shortly after by Ruth Pointer's daughter Issa, and then added a 4th Pointer 'Sister' in 2009 with (would you believe) Ruth's granddaughter Sadako Pointer.
However, they still perform now as a trio only, rotating the line-up as needed, among the four available 'Sisters'. Very clever, and good thinking by lead Pointer.
In the video for Jump which follows a few months later the sisters looked young, vibrant and sexy but in Automatic they look old and frumpy. They must have used the money they made on a makeover.
Deletebama: never mind not being a hit, as i pointed out a few shows back "miss me blind" wasn't even released as single in blighty... despite being by far the best thing on their second album!
DeleteThe scariest thing about Nik's 'Dancing Girls' is that they all looked roughly like Princess Diana.
DeleteThe next person to sing 'bring on the dancing girls' on the show won't get an airing of course....
you've got me there noax - i guessed that line might be from "another rock n roll christmas", but apparently that's not the case
DeleteRight artist, wrong song. The song is dance me up and opens the show in a couple of months when at number 48.
DeleteAnother mostly entertaining episode except THAT video...
ReplyDeleteThompson twins track a lot drearier than i remember...
...whilst the Blancmange track, which i don't remember, was rather good.
Bluebells - who played the bass and lead guitar on the record? Were they overdubbed, session musicians, or is the rest of the band missing?
Nic Kershaw's dancing girls were a curious combination.
OMD do a 'Flick Colby literal translation of the lyrics' dance. Laughed out loud at the microphone 'malfunction' but top marks for not getting phased.
Did he say 'Gladys all over' in the chart rundown..
I wonder why Lionel Richie in his first solo year of 1983-84 did not come to the TOTP studio to perform any of his singles? I mean was this a continuation of The Commodores also never appearing on TOTP? You would think at with a six-week stint at No.1 in our charts taking up half of March and the whole of April 1984 at No.1, that they could have enticed him over.
DeleteBut just think, if he did, then who in the studio would he dote over while singing Hello? I mean there was Janice Long the following week who introduced him as 6th week at No.1, albeit this particular show on his 5th week at No.1 was all male performers, so perhaps we could have turned to the studio audience for him to choose from.
The Commodores did appear in the studio in 1979, performing Sail On - we did also see Lionel singing Truly solo in the studio in 1982. By the time of his 1983-84 hits, he had become a huge star, and I suspect he may just have been too busy to appear on TOTP in person.
DeleteOh yes, I forgot about the 1982 appearances by him in the TOTP studio, but I was just thinking that he could have appeared in the studio for the long No.1 Hello for six rock-solid weeks at the top.
DeleteI could be wrong but I think he did a studio performance for My Destiny in 1992.
Deleteto my dim rocellection mr richie appeared on totp in the late 90's/early 2000's doing a house tune called "don't stop the music" - given the drivel he'd inflicted on us ever since the late 70's, i was surprised at how good it actually was!
DeleteThat's right, he had quite a few modest late 90s / early 00s hits and the one you mention was indeed pretty good, I seem to remember playing it on the radio.
DeleteThanks to Neil.B for providing the full version; I've edited the missing JK section into the BBC4HD version as usual:
ReplyDeleteTOTP 19/04/1984
(full list of restored eps)
Thanks Drykid, any chance of getting this on WeTransfer?
DeleteI can do it for this one as a one-off if you want, but I'm not sure I'd want to get into the habit of doing this each time as it would take eight hours or so to upload just for a link that only lasts seven days. I know 4shared is a crappy site in a lot of ways (although an adblocker helps) , but at least when you upload stuff there it stays around. OK the same is true for youtube and vimeo, but the way those sites are policed make them a no-go for these unfortunately.
Deleteit seems quite strange to me that the vast majority of individual performances from totp shows can apparently stay on youtube indefinitely without a problem, whilst complete editions rarely if ever seem to there - presumably due to the copyright police. can anyone shed any more light why?
DeleteOnly speculation, but youtube has pro-active automated processes in place for identifying copyrighted material. Basically it has a database of "signatures" of copyrighted songs that it compares to user-uploaded material and then flags any infringements it finds. These are then processed according to whatever arrangement is in place for that particular copyright owner, which might mean adding adverts or just taking down the video altogether. With large record companies it's more likely to be the latter as they take a dimmer view of youtube than the indie labels.
DeleteAnyway if you upload an enitre TOTP episode it's more likely than not that it will identify at least one song that is on the copyright database, and if the matched song is one that is not allowed at all then the whole episode will get taken down as a result. It can still happen with an upload of a single song obviously, but if an episode of TOTP contains ten songs then it's ten times more likely to get taken down as a result as there are ten different songs that potentially could get matched and you'd be very lucky to not have an issue with at least one.
What an intricate science to all this
Deletethanks drykid, that explanation makes some sort of sense. i did recently discover that there is a database on yt of tracks that are covered by copyright, and what happens if they are picked up on uploaded videos (presumably by song-recognition software). i think in most cases those concerned are happy to make money from the ads that then get imposed on the videos (does anyone actually click on them? i certainly don't, but i think that's the only way cash can be generated that way), as well as get some free publicity whereby punters are more likely to buy the track as a download as a result. but presumably the industry giants are now firmly in the process of uploading their own official versions (complete with videos) and don't want anything getting in the way of that, hence removal of "unofficial" versions!
Deletethere is a legal system relating to films whereby every so often the copyright holders have to renew that, otherwise it falls into the public domain and can be seen, sold or whatever without having to shell out for licencing rights (perhaps the most famous example of that is "night of the living dead", although as an independent film made on a wafer-thin budget and likely to only be seen by a handful of people i don't suppose george a romero and his partners thought it worthwhile registering copyright in the first place). sadly though that isn't the case with music, as they still have that ludicrous law whereby copyright remains until 75 years after the death of the last credited composer. and they wonder why people try and blag music without paying for it?
Drykid - any chance of you uploading the 18.8.1983 show - I missed it at the time and have never seen it.
DeleteThat was the best show of 1983 in my opinion, even though it had DLT in it.
Deletebama: I already uploaded it the last time you asked me for it :P
Deletehttps://www.4shared.com/video/gTwMYJe0ei/TOTP_180883.html
I'm sure I put the link in reply to your original request, but I guess you never went back again to look...
Dory, I re-uploaded my restored edit of 19/04/84 to wetransfer:
Deletehttps://we.tl/yQEgM51gAE
Like I said before I probably won't do this for future ones as the 7 days it'll be available for at wetransfer doesn't really justify the time spent uploading. Obviously other people with faster connections than me are welcome to download from 4shared and re-upload to wetransfer if they want to help out though.
Brilliant stuff drykid
DeleteHi Dry. Thanks for letting me know about the 18.8.83 show. I've just downloaded it to keep. I did go back and look before but I asked in two different posts and got mixed up. Apologies for missing it.
Deleteno prob :) much as I like this blog there are times when I wish it was a forum as it would be much easier to follow tangential discussions like this one. I have the same problem myself where I remember discussing something with someone, but have no idea what particular episode it ended up being discussed under.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGood grief! Some awful presenting (faffed links, a number of song titles chopped by both Kwikfit fitter hosts in the rundown) and even worse outfits throughout the show – this edition simply screamed 1980’s for its fashion sense.
ReplyDeleteIt was also live, as seen by the starting pregnant pause by The, Erm, Special AKA’s backing vocalists, who couldn’t move in synch, especially the woman to our left. Stan Campbell actually got a solo deal with WEA and released a handful of singles, at least a couple were perfunctory covers, and he reached number 65 with his joint composition “Years Go By” in 1987. Sadly, he had mental health issues and got sectioned.
The armpit girl next to and wiggy muscleman behind PP in his link to “You Take me Up” were far more interesting than that glum video.
Neil Arthur’s fine balloon work was more convincing than his tribute Indian forehead dot. Don’t tell me this was a re-hash of “Living On The Ceiling”. See what I did there?
I stopped watching “Corrie” years ago and had no desire to see the Queen pastiche now or ever again.
Nice matching shirts by The Bluebells. Did they think they would be in the canteen and two didn’t fancy the crush and decided not to turn up? First sighting of a drummer both sitting and standing since Liquid Gold, I reckon.
You could tell Nik Kershaw’s song wasn’t one of the four which helped pay for his kids’ university fees. This should have been called “Bring On The Tune”. Oooo, look, it’s Armpit Girl from earlier!
No bass for OMD meant more room for an even more awkward dad dance – but what a brilliant reaction to the catapulting mic!
Kool and the Gang’s song sounded like a slower version of one of the fast ones and didn’t sound too bad, probably through chronic lack of airplay since.
The Queen video can't be an actual pastiche of Coronation Street because it's set in 1957 three years before Corrie started (and there was only one schoolgirl in Corrie until 1968, Lucile Hewitt played by Jennifer Moss and she looked nothing like Roger Taylor!).
DeleteThis is set in 1957 because of the headline on Brian's Daily Mirror - "Rock 'n' Roll Ear Weds The Typist" - dated 7 July 1957, a reference to part time jazz drummer and real life peer the Earl Of Wharnclifee who married his 20 year old typist Aline Bruce.
didn't someone (bama?) mention in a recent thread that in "the golden girls", they discussed the fact that songs never have the word "nice" in them (i trawled for the comment but couldn't find it)? well, by chance i've just listened to "feel so real" by steve arrington, that has the following couplet:
ReplyDelete"oh, i feel so nice
with you here by my side"
so it not just has the word "nice" in it, but the last words on each line are non-rhyming as well!
If Paradise Is Half As Nice (a No.1 single!) and Wouldn't It Be nice spring to mind straight away, and that's just songs with 'nice' in the title!
Deleteas i say, it wasn't me that originally suggested that "nice" was not a good word to use in songs. another one has now come to mind, but a cole porter standard rather than pop stuff: "you'd be so nice to come home to"...
Delete... and the stranglers have used it in not one but two titles: "nice n sleazy" and "nice in nice", which of course is a play on words. presumably the latter was written as irony as it wasn't so nice in nice for them due to a riot erupting at a gig they did there, and then they got sent to the slammer as a result!
Deletei think a monty python "what have the romans ever done for us?" scenario might be looming here...?
Nice one Cyril, nice one son, nice one Cyril, let's have another one... uh, Spurs!
DeleteSorry this is such a late entry to the thread but I have been away and not had access to watch and comment…
Just a few thoughts from this show:-
Thomson Twins – You take me up – Curiously the first time I saw this video was a snatch shown on Mike Smith’s ‘Breakfast Time’ Chart review which I believe was on Wednesdays. I also saw Chicago’s wonderful ‘Hard habit to break’ for the first time there too (coming up later in 1984).
Blancmange – Don’t tell me – The Indian musicians are back and all I think of when I hear this is green budgies (check out the sleeve on 45cat!). A great cover version of a great song will follow shortly.
Queen – I want to break free – Noax mentions the album version being much shorter. Apparently John Deacon who wrote the song wasn’t happy with the original mix and boy didn’t they improve it for single release? The girl standing next to Gary Davies after the showing doesn’t seem that impressed with what she has just seen and heard however.
OMD – Locomotion – Yes it’s poppy but the steel drums and brass were quite innovative and they had to change course after the dire ‘Dazzle Ships’ sunk. Incidentally another hit to make innovative use of steel drums was none other than one of the Sweet’s early releases; ‘Co-Co’.
Kool & the Gang – When you say you love somebody – Agree with everyone that this is underrated and really quite enjoyable.
No Phil Collins so I can’t comment on the star of ‘Against all Odds’ who shone in ‘The Thorn Birds’. Next week perhaps…..