Friday 4 August 2017

Top of the Pops in Glove

I'm still on my hols so again I'm posting the blog for the April 26th 1984 edition prior to watching it :-)

Being on Top of the Pops can be more tiring than you might think....


26/04/84 (Simon Bates & Janice Long)

Sandie Shaw & The Smiths – “Hand In Glove” (36)
This became Sandie's first top 30 hit since 1969, when it peaked at number 27, and it was also to be her final top 30 hit too.

Phil Collins – “Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)” (2) (video)
At its peak.

Belle & The Devotions – “Love Games” (39)
It's Eurovision time again ~ and this year's entry finished in 7th place, and the song peaked at number 11.

Bob Marley & The Wailers – “One Love-People Get Ready” (22) (video)
Somehow Bob had yet another posthumous hit up his sleeve, this one reaching number 5.

Duran Duran – “The Reflex” (5)
Soon to say hello to the number one spot.

Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson – “To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before” (35) (US TV clip)
This was Willie Nelson's only top 30 hit, peaking at number 17.

Echo & The Bunnymen – “Silver” (30)
Went up no higher.

The Flying Pickets – “When You’re Young & In Love” (13)
The follow up to Only You made it to number 7, but it was their final top 40 hit.

Lionel Richie – “Hello” (1) (video)
And after six weeks at number one, it was time to say goodbye.

The Pointer Sisters – “Automatic” (20) (video/audience dancing/credits)
Their first hit for three years and it became their biggest when it peaked at number 2.


Next up is May 3rd.

88 comments:

  1. Yet another live show for Master Bates, with trademark time check, verbosity and insincere smiles. Janice makes a good foil for the headmaster, and even manages to avoid looking annoyed when he talks all over her "happy birthday" to Duran Duran's Roger Taylor. I can't help feeling that she's a teeny bit overdressed for the occasion, however, and if it really is that hot (I do remember that it was warm and sunny that Easter), why is she wearing those long gloves?

    There must have been plenty of pop kids in 1984 who had no idea who Sandie Shaw was, or why she appeared to be filling in for Morrissey in this opening performance. She was still only 37 at this time and looks pretty good in her leather, though it's disappointing that she didn't go barefoot, for old time's sake - maybe that bizarre bit where she lay on the floor was intended to be her new gimmick! Never blessed with the greatest of voices, the production of this track does disguise her vocal inadequacies, but it sounds thoroughly leaden and forgettable. As I've already mentioned on a previous blog, I think Against All Odds is one of Phil's best solo efforts, and it has endured much better than the film from which it comes. I have never seen it, but on the evidence of the clips in this video it looks thoroughly depressing!

    As has also been mentioned in the past by others, Belle and the Devotions had a tough time at that year's Eurovision, being booed by some of the audience for reasons relating to football hooliganism. It also came out that the Devotions were not actually doing most of the backing singing, the lion's share being done by three other singers hidden away. As Eurovision offerings go, this is a pleasantly inoffensive 60s pastiche, and as Bates mentions it's very appropriate they should find themselves on the same show as Sandie Shaw. Alas, it appears from this performance that they could not afford a decent stylist...

    One of the better Bob Marley tracks gets a posthumous release, with a Don Letts-directed video featuring a brief appearance from Letts himself. Macca and Madness aside this hardly looked that star-studded to me (I can't say I recognised anyone else apart from a couple of Belle Stars), but the mini-Bob (real name Jesse Lawrence) was a nice touch. I absolutely loved The Reflex at the time, and I remember dancing around the front room to it while it was number 1. It still sounds pretty good today, thanks in part to Nile Rodgers' work remixing the song, and the band are in their full pomp in this performance, birthday boy Roger looking very serious and intense as he whacks those drums.

    Presumably Janice felt that the pop kids had never heard of "another guy called Willie Nelson," given the way she introduces the country legend, but this dreary chalk 'n' cheese duet does not exactly count as one of his finest moments. The performance clip provides some amusing contrasts between Julio and Willie in the sartorial department, but there is also a bit of a bizarre homoerotic vibe going on, with Julio tenderly touching and pointing at Willie's t-shirt, while they sing at each other at pretty close quarters. This Echo and the Bunnymen effort sounds like a less memorable retread of The Killing Moon, but it's decent enough and there is a nice little guitar solo to enliven a rather colourless, earnest performance.

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    1. Agreed regarding Janice Long being overdressed, and in the same ball gown as she had on previous shows. I mean all that jewellery around the neck, you would have thought she was going to a Hollywood Oscars ceremony. Then when you see Simon bates next to her, he is wearing a casual afternoon jacket, and not exactly dressed for the evening at all.

      What an odd pairing, but I guess Janice did not have the looks that would turn heads, and so she was going all out to impress on these shows, however, I was still not impressed. Put that ball gown over someone else that was slim and sexy, and then my arm could be twisted.

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    2. i think janice would have been better-advised to have gone with the alternative rock chick look - after all, that's what she was really. this may seem sexist, but have you noticed that most women who take a serious interest in rock music are not exactly what one would call "a looker"? mind you, much the same could be said about men too ha ha!

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    3. John, if Willie Nelson was a 'country legend' as you put it, I don't think anyone in 1984 had heard of him in Britain, as I don't think he was on TOTP before, and remember that TOTP was the only show at the time that got bands noticed, as it was really our only regular weekly pop show over the years leading up to 1984, and a show that never took a summer break like some occasional ITV pop music shows that never seemed to last more than a season or two.

      I think it was his first time on TOTP as far as I'm aware, and I also found it uncomfortable when Janice referred to him and Julio as 'guys' and not men. Julio for sure would have objected to this roll call no doubt, although Willie did not look manly in that attire at all, and would perhaps have brushed aside the 'guy' reference.

      I wonder if Julio and Willie ever got to see this edition of TOTP and how they were introduced this badly by Janice? It was like when she introduced the Meat Loaf clip Midnight At The Lost And Found a few months earlier on TOTP as 'they' instead of 'him'. Good Lord!

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    4. As I mentioned in my original post, I think Janice may have introduced Willie in that way because she wasn't convinced that the TOTP audience would have heard of him. He'd been a big star on the American country scene for years by this point, but this was his first British hit single of any significance in his own right. Patsy Cline's version of Crazy, so revered these days, didn't chart in the UK on initial release.

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    5. There was a regular country music show on the BBC at this point but a lot of young people didn't watch it (me included) and thus hadn't heard of Willie Nelson. Perhaps they should have done a cover of Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard.

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    6. nice one, bama - if senor iglesias released that song as a duet with any other guy now, the yewtree squad would be on them like a ton of bricks!

      i don't remember the country programme in question, but i do recall those televised annual events they used to put on at wembley arena in the late 70's/early 80's - i never watched them either, and i probably felt relieved at the time that despite that c&w never really took off in blighty as it bored the pants off me. however, i am very partial to bluegrass these days...

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  2. Part 2 - Hark, is that the sound of a barrel being scraped? The Pickets may have somehow managed to get another Top 10 hit out of this lifeless, insipid version of The Marvelettes' 1967 classic (one of the best ever Motown hits, in my view), but they really should have quit while they were ahead. Even performance-wise they seem to have run out of ideas, boringly standing in a line while the dry ice billows around them. Happily the best is saved until last, as The Pointer Sisters offer up one of the year's greatest dance tracks, crowd dancing interspersed with a basic, Blame it on the Boogie-style video. Quite how Ruth Pointer managed to get her voice down to that remarkably masculine low I don't know, but this is a song that defies you not to dance.

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  3. Judging by her outfit Janice was expecting PP to be on co-host duties tonight, and was surely disappointed when Slimes turned up with his nasty blouson and unnecessary time checks.

    Not as good a show as the previous one, my highlights were Duran Duran and the Pointer Sisters. The Julio/Willie duet was definitely something from another era, and having played this song numerous times on hospital radio I could've done without hearing it again.

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    1. You'd think that Julio would have chosen a woman to sing a song with this title, which I found bizarre that it was Willie Nelson with him. But maybe it was Willie who wrote the song and chose Julio? Somehow I don't think so.

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    2. With those lyrics Julio would have to be dueting with a lesbian.

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    3. Good Lord, just seen how Simon Bates signed off on that song at the end saying that it was slushy and that Willie Nelson's wife chose Julio DoubleGlazias to duet with her husband, so I think that is our answer if Bates is to be believed, haha!

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    4. I think Bates was eyeing up this song for Our Tune.

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    5. Willie Nelson wouldn't have minded if people thought he and Julio were an item, he did a great song called Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond Of Each Other:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u4CXlIYjyE

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  4. hosts: janice always makes a sartorial effort for these shows, even though to be frank she's never going to be the belle of the ball (other than in comparison with her male jock colleagues). meanwhile slimy picks one from what seems only about three jackets he ever seems to wear on the show

    sandie shaw: brought out of retirement by devotee morrissey (she might have thought the adulation a bit creepy, but if it helped pay the mortgage...), the joke here is that whilst she's fully shoed the other smiths aren't. those with long memories here will remember the last thing she did before her decade-long hiatus was some quite dreadful cod-reggae thing on a tv show

    belle & devotions: are tracey, are you tracey, are you tracey ullman in disguise?

    duran duran: i never particularly like any of their upbeat 80's numbers, but this is probably the pick of them if push comes to shove (especially after the last couple of duffers). i could do without the nile rodgers sampling/remix elements though. why is roger playing the hi-hat when it's patently timbales on the recording? bearing in mind the previous show, i suppose this is a good time to ask: which roger taylor was the prettiest?

    julio/willie: there have been plenty of odd-couple pairings in the last year or so, but perhaps this is the oddest of the lot. i would certainly not have heard of willie nelson at this time, but although i'm well aware of the guy now whatever appeal he has is utterly lost on me i'm afraid

    echo and the bunnymen: quite jaunty and thus probably the best of their hits, helped somewhat by the ethnic feel of the string arrangement and sitar solo. with regard to our new hot topic of (non) rhyming couplets, surely mr mcculloch is in with a shout for the worst effort with "salver" and "saviour"?

    flying pickets: one that had flown from my memory, although listening again stirs vague recollections. a pleasant enough tune, but given that none of this bunch would see 30 (if not 40) again surely this was some kind of in-joke?

    pointer sisters: i didn't care much for this to start with, but it certainly grew on me over time. the same thing happened with "jump" too, however the third sup at the electro-dance-rock well (by which time my expectations were a lot higher) almost inevitably proved one time too many!

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    1. Sandie Shaw seems to have doubled her age in 1984 from the 60s girl on TOTP in the early days of Coronation Street times when we are still on Black & White television, aged 37 on this performance. I must say that I didn't know she was that tall and a great figure to go with it, and I must admit that I would have preferred her wearing the ball gown on the show instead of Janice Long, and also add the neck jewellery to go with it from Janice to Sandie. Now that would turn heads me thinks.

      I couldn't help thinking that under that black leather dress tied up like a dressing gown, there could not have been more than black underwear with stockings and suspenders, judging by also the stockings worn with that dress.

      Suffice to say that Sandie Shaw turned 70 this year, along with an MBE to her name, which I didn't know until now, so here's to plenty more years for the Essex girl, and not too late to mack another comeback!

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    2. regarding sandie shaw's height: maybe the smiths were shortarses?

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    3. Indeed John G, I also thought that Belle & the Devotion looked like another Tracey Ullman-style group as on Breakaway with the three miniskirted girls singing and dancing like that, even before I saw your post, but I would add to that as three Jay-Aston lookalikes. Well it was Eurovision after all, and if you are going to follow anyones inspiration it had to be a Eurovision winner like Jay Aston and Bucks Fizz.

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    4. Sorry I meant Wilberforce, not John G!

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    5. Morrissey didn't bring Sandie Shaw out of retirement, she released a cover of Anyone Who Had A Heart with the BEF guys (Martyn Ware, Ian Craig Marsh) in 1982, her last single before that had been in 1977. But Morrissey and Marr got her back in the chart. She also released a song of her own at this point called Wish I Was but it didn't chart.

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    6. bama i bow to your superior knowledge regarding sandie shaw, although she was at least semi-retired for much of that period (as mrs jeff banks)

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  5. Very pleasant episode.
    Belle and the devotions 'love games' was quite a catchy eurovision track. wiki suggests they weren't helped by football hooligans rampaging around Europe - politics eh, glad that doesn't happen nowadays...
    Presumably the didy happy birthday sequence would have re-recorded if it hadn't been live :-) Dodgy notes at the end of the Julio/Willie video...
    Echo song sounded like 'The Cutter' - or was that just me?

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    1. I did like Belle & The Devotions on this performance. As with many pop music offerings, the packaging and sexy outfits, i.e., minidress/miniskirt is part of the game in order to get the desired outcome on Eurovision, and in their case to win all the mens votes. In my case they won my vote on this TOTP edition watching it now in 2017, despite not recalling this at all in 1984! Love the different colours from the hairstyles to the different colour tights. More candy please!

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    2. dory, never mind drooling over the blart on this show - you haven't answered my question of who is the prettiest roger taylor yet!

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    3. Good Lord, I wasn't going to comment on Duran Duran at all this week, nor for the next three shows at No.1, cos I'm not into all that pretty-boy look, so in answer to your question Wilberforce, none of them! I'd rather comment on the next act on the show, i.e., Julio Doubleglazias (Russ Abbot character no less) and Willie Nelson.

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  6. TOTP's very own speaking clock is paired with the ever-enthusiastic Janice, and to start with a very credible Smiths cover, probably because most of the band were on it. Is it sacrilege to say I prefer Sandie's vocals to Moz's? It's amusing to hear her trilling in her 60s voice about the sun shining out of her behind while Johnny Marr powers along on the guitar.

    Phil Collins singing in front of what looks like the Media Asia logo (for you Hong Kong DVD devotees), and the editor of the video has gone all out to find clips that match the lyrics. Against All Odds was a remake of film noir cult classic Out of the Past - you think movies have pointless remakes now! Rachel Ward was doing well in picking projects with hit theme tunes this year, wasn't she? The best thing about the film wasn't this advance of the power ballads on the 80s ramparts, it was James Woods, no matter that he's turned out to be a nasty piece of work since.

    Belle and the Devotions with their cutesy Motown throwback, light and fluffy and not deserving of the frosty reception it got on the big night. These days we'd be delighted to have a song that did as well as this one.

    For some reason the image of Suggs feeling his face on the "feel all right" line of this Bob Marley video has stuck with me all these years, but I'd forgotten everything else in the video. Was that Bryan Murphy?! Nice enough tune, I suppose, positive at least.

    In Nile Rodgers' excellent autobiography he said the record company initially refused to release The Reflex with his production on it because it sounded "too black". That's right, the first thing you think of when you hear Duran Duran was that they were too black, isn't it? Anyway, one of their better tunes, no idea what it's about though.

    Man, Willie must have been truly stoned off his head when he agreed to record this one. Basically "to all the girls I've shagged before" with bowdlerised lyrics, and about as palatable as that sounds. Was Willie ever young? What were these US TV specials where they insisted on teaming up various stars for duets? All we got were Des O'Connor and Kenny Lynch.

    Echo and the Bunnymen with an impeccably produced lesser hit, those strings really make the track, give it a touch of class. Not their most immediate record, but they were in a purple patch right here.

    The Flying Pickets with a real chicken in a basket version of a golden oldie, somehow this went top ten too in spite of the one trick pony sound. Nice enough, but pretty thin.

    Lionel Ritchie, ah, at last we get the punchline again! Wow, it's as if she can see him! That's quite enough.

    A great playout with the Pointer Sisters, although it may be the worst video for a major hit of the 80s. I always thought it was a male backing singer doing the deep bits, but apparently not.

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    1. When you say 'ever-enthusiastic Janice, could it be because at this stage she was still the first and only female presenter on the show to date, and seemed to hold that unique accolade for about a year since early 1983. Not sure how long that lasted until the second-ever female presenter of TOTP came along, but probably well after 1984!

      With regard to the Phil Collins video, I most liked the fluorescent colours against the raining effect backdrop. Brilliant camera and video work, which for me really made this video stand out, and pity it stopped its charge up the charts at No.2. I would have liked this one to be the new No.1 after Lionel Richie, and not Duran Duran, which is how it turned out in the end.

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    2. I think Janice just has a naturally bright and friendly personality.

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    3. Is that because she is from Manchester? I usually find those in Scotland on the rare occasions there.

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    4. Janice is Liverpudlian, isn't she?

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    5. Yes, I guess I meant that THX. All the same to me, considering I'm a Southerner and don't know the difference.

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    6. Indeed she is - and Keith Chegwin's sister, of course.

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    7. I suppose the clichés of it being grim oop North and dour Scots ring true for some, but it's not always the case. The sun's out here today!

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    8. I think Janice remained the only regular female TOTP presenter until the late eighties when the likes of Anthea Turner and Caron Keating were brought in. The next female Radio 1 DJ to be a regular presenter was probably Jakki Brambles.

      Incidentally there's a full episode of a 1989 TOTP on Youtube I watched a while back where Steve Wright was paired with a forgettable CBBC presenter. Said presenter made a lickass comment along the lines of 'I've got to say it's a pleasure to be working with you Steve' only to be completely blanked by Wright.

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    9. Seemingly Samantha Juste was the first female TOTP presenter from 1965-1967 (she later married mickey Dolenz) and Lulu co-presented one edition in 1968.

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    10. Samantha Juste was more of a sidekick than a host, as her role was to put the records on the studio turntable at the start of each performance. She met Micky Dolenz on TOTP, and left the show to move to California with him ahead of their marriage.

      As you say, Lulu did co-host one show with Jim'll in 1968 (she was 19 by then, so presumably old enough to be safe from his attentions), but Janice was the first true female TOTP presenter.

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    11. Being pedantic Annie Nightingale co-hosted the show on 30 September 1982 which celebrated Radio 1's 15th birthday, so technically she also pre-dates Janice.

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    12. This entry from Simon's original TOTP blog may be of interest - the presenters who made the most appearances on the show.

      yesitsnumberone.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/mike-controllers.html?m=1

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  7. Julio DoubleGlazias & Willie Nelson - now this was the highlight of the show as far as I'm concerned, and deservedly getting a whole posting to themselves on this blog, with some interesting points here:

    1. Julio in his first appearance across the waters in America, in what appeared to be that same American stage/show as Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton a few months earlier with Islands In The Stream, except this time we didn't see Willie Nelson walking up to the stage, but went straight to the first line.

    2. We talked about the contrast in dress style between Bates and Long this week, but this was just something on another level. I mean we got Julio's customary tuxedo which was no surprise, but Willie's idea of eveningwear to join Julio on the stage, was his very best T-shirt and jeans. Good Lord how funny that on the same TOTP we had the two presenters of TOTP in the London studio and then their US show equivalents performing a song on some American show that I would like to know which it was.

    3. Willie's strange voice had that Aged P voice from Great Expectations, and I don't think British audiences had ever heard of him before this TOTP episode. In fact I don't recall this one at all, and the first time I remember that voice was on one of the lines on USA For Africa - We Are The World - which was a big No.1 on both sides of the Atlantic exactly a year later in April 1985.

    4. The platted girlie ponytails on Willie Nelson was just something not seen before in male performers on TOTP. I mean they were something like the early ABBA look or those Swedish movies of the 60s and 70s with girls in ponytails. Add this to his very best T-shirt and jeans, and Willie was at his most unique style on evening TV. Although to Willie's detriment, he forgot to dye his white beard to match his hair and goldilocks ponytails!

    5. Julio seemed to be the more grateful of the two to be on that stage as the non-American of course, and in his graciousness we see also his admiration for Willie Nelson who was to continue his burgeoning career the following year on USA For Africa, albeit this time sharing the stage with about 30 other people!

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    1. Willie released his first-ever record in 1956, and then went on to write Patsy Cline's classic hit Crazy in the early 60s. In the early years of his career he had a conventional short-haired, clean-cut look, but grew his hair in the early 70s when he changed his musical style and began cultivating an outlaw image. He has just released his 72nd (!) studio album, at the age of 84.

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    2. Willie's plats were to encourage a Native American look, I believe, rather than look like a 6-year-old girl.

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    3. John G and THX, you don't cease to amaze me with your knowledge of country music legends. I thought it was the Americans who were privy to all that knowledge!

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    4. I'm no expert, Dory, I've just picked these things up by watching and listening to a wide range of media! Willie's best known for being one of the universe's biggest potheads these days.

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    5. That probably explains him sporting goldilocks ponytails in the video, and then forgetting to dye his white beard to match them. The mind boggles, does it not?

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    6. I'm no expert on country music either, but I know the broad outlines of Willie's career - Wikipedia helped supply some of the details!

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    7. here's more info on willie: john mentions his "outlaw" look, which perhaps was inspired as a result of forming a country supergroup called the outlaws along with (to my recollection) johnny cash, kris kristofferson and waylon jennings...

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  8. It's such a pity that The Gap Band, The SOS Band and Shannon got no plays on TOTP considering each making the top 20 and now on the slide after it was too late, and with no embarrassment by TOTP for overlooking them.

    There was surely some video or Soul Train footage of them available, but perhaps the shortening of these shows in recent weeks from 40 to 35 minutes on a BBC1 Thursday did not allow them to feature at all, not even a playout!

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    1. There doesn't seem to be any footage or video of The Gap Band's Someday but there's a great video for Shannon's Give Me Tonight. There's also great Soul Train performances of the SOS Band and The Pointer Sisters' automatic, the latter which knocks spots off the video.

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    2. the gap band are a pet hate of mine so i was hardly broken up at their absence, but out of curiosity i had a listen to the shannon track/vid on yt (which i had no recollection of)... just to discover it was simply "let the music play pt ii"! and presumably the sos band track in question is "just be good to me", which for me pales into insignificance next to the aptly-named later hit "the finest"

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  9. Against All Odds reminds me of another film, the middling romcom Forces of Nature. There's a scene where Sandra Bullock's old boyfriend sings the song to her to persuade her to stay, performed by comedy actor David Strickland. Tragically, he committed suicide before the film was released, which made his delivery of the line "Take a look at me now, there's just an empty space" eerily prophetic.

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  10. Janice mentions it being hot. It was warm at that time and I recall going sunbathing in Regents Park a few days after this.

    I couldn't get enough of The Smiths back in early 1984. I went with a group of mates from Our Price to see them at the Hammersmith Palais in February and Sandie Shaw was guest and sung three songs with them. We didn't know at that point that she was to release a single with them and it was a nice surprise. This was never going to be as good as the original but I'm glad it was a hit with a new feisty arrangement. And it was great to see Sandie who we all thought was really old at the time (she was only 36!!). I love the bit where she rolls around on the floor and the camerman doesn't know what to do.

    Phil Collins being half drowned in red, green and blue rain, some might say that was a good idea. Never saw the film, never liked the song much so this was something of a comedown after Sandie Shaw.

    Oh dear it's Eurovision time and the Brits are reduced to dusting off an old Motown tune and getting three badly dressed women to sing to it, or in this case mime to it. They look like three mentally-deranged holidfay reps on ther day off doing a bad kaoroke in a bar. Not sure what the crowd are geting so excited about but maybe like Donald Trump's supporters they're geting paid to be enthusiastic.

    Loved this Mob Barley song and the video which was one of a few they made to accompany the single issed from the Legend album. It uses clips from an old Marley video and Madness's Return Of The Los Palmas Seven video plus new footage. In a way in predates the Peter Kay charity video for Amarillo by using celebs miming to the song. I managed to identify most of then people in the video (Macca, Aswad, Belle Stars, Junior, Don Letts, etc) except for the bald bloke, the woman with dark curly hair and the androdynous person dancing in a hat and scarf (who they?).

    "De Relex". I had began to hate Duran Duran by this point. It wasn't so much the songs which to be honest were catchy, carefully crafted pop songs but it was the band's image and the fact that they were everywhere. Also it was difficult to respect Simon Le Bon-Bon who could ever pronounce the word The (as in The Reflex) without making it sound like De Reflex. Also he looks a proper nana attempting to mime the bit where his vocals are cut up.

    Julio and Willie and theit ode to Chlamydia. At the time I knew who Julio was but I had never heard of Willie Nelson and I was slightly bemused and scared to be honest, especially the bit when Julio pats Willie on the tummy as if he wished he were of those girls, well he has pigtails even if they may be attached to his headband.

    Chart time and more songs we ain't never gonna here ie The Cocteau Twins, Propaganda, Jocelyn Brown and Shannon who drpped a place after hanging on for grim death.

    I really liked Echo and The Bunnymen at this point. Silver was such a brilliant song and deserved to be in the Top Ten. For once Ian Mac resists the temptation to undress or do silly stuff and just let the song speak for itself.

    The Flying Pickets stop being one hit wonders thanks to this arrangement of the Marvellettes classic. They haven't got any better at miming and still look like what they are, a motley crew of 30-something actors with bad dress sense and they do look a bit silly singing about being young at their age. But for al that I quite like it.

    Lionel - You say Hello and we say Goodbye, to paraphrase an old song.

    Playout with The Golden Girls' Automatic, the weierd video interspered with the crowd dancing. This week Not Duncan Norvelle has been allowed to dance on his own little stage with two girl dancers. Was that really the best they could do? Where's Reg The Vest Hollis when you need him?.

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    1. i never bothered with watching the bob marley video for my own review (on the basis of average song by dead pop star that otherwise would have remained in the archives), but i had to do so now just to try and spot the "famous" people in it. and like you i'm stumped as to who the three you don't recognise are (plus the black guy in baggy cap in my case). of course they could have been identified in the yt video comments, but i'm not bothered enough to wade through over 500 of them to try and find out! however dory will be pleased to learn that i'm fairly sure a cleaned-up version of the hazy fantayzee woman (literally) uses up the last few seconds of her 15 minutes of fame!

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    2. what - jocelyn brown's "somebody else's guy" was never on totp? that was possibly the biggest club record of 1984 as well as a top 20 hit, which makes its absence somewhat scandalous. although i quite liked it, i preferred the superior follow-up "i wish you would" - that was not only also ignored by totp, but never troubled the mugshot compilers either:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq_OU8cNjMU

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    3. ... and no cocteau twins either, with what was a great indie/goth track (see, i'm not just a disco bunny!). however, perhaps the only surprise in this case is that it actually made the top 30 given the dense and uncompromising nature of it (i bet it hardly got played on daytime radio 1). and the miserable woman fronting the band wouldn't have done it any favours had they appeared on the show either!

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    4. Haysi Fantaysee were by now all washed up and were a 1982-1983 fixture and nothing beyond that, but I must admit I did not spot any Kate Garner in the video. However I did spot Aswad, Madness, Paul McCartney, Junior, and what was a George Roper lookalike of George & Mildred. Remember that ITV comedy series anyone?

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    5. thx has already mentioned brian murphy, who was of course the actor who played george roper. who was of couse also in the classic sitcom "man about the house" before he and mildred got their own series. as did richard o'sullivan with "robin's nest" can anyone else think of any other sitcoms that spawned at least two spin-offs?

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    6. 1. Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi.
      2. Wacky Races actually had three spin-offs - Dastardly & Muttley, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop and Captain Caveman.

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    7. to me a true "spin-off" is where main or at least regularly-occurring characters get their own tv series. happy days wasn't a spin-off of anything, although i suppose "laverne and shirley" counts as another one from that show ("mork and mindy" too, although robin williams only appeared in one episode). as for "wacky races" and its spin-offs: that was an animated cartoon series - not a sitcom!

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    8. Apologies for the confusion, but I meant that Joanie Loves Chachi was a spin-off of Happy Days.

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    9. Dory - Captain Caveman wasn't a spin-off from The Wacky Races. The cavemen in that were called 'The Slagg Brothers' (!) and although they looked awfully like Captain Caveman had nothing to do with that series.

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    10. Re Jocelyn Brown - she will feature on the next show.

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    11. Ultimate spin off has to be the divine Frasier from the equally fantastic Cheers.

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    12. i enjoyed "cheers" at the time of broadcast (another late-night channel 4 show - they seemed to hold the monopoly on quality US sitcoms at the time), although watching a dvd of the early years a while back was quite hard work and i only really persisted for nostaglia reasons. but even though the early episodes of frasier are now over 20 years old, in my view they are still ageless and essential viewing - far surpassing the original show from whence the character came!

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  11. No-one's mentioned what seemed to be a caption writers strike affecting this edition. Both No.40 & No.39 in the chart had arrows going up when they were new entries, the positioning of the artist names in the rundowns was all over the place and Duran Duran were captioned as being at No.2 instead of No.5!!

    As for the show itself, not a great start. I can't stand Sandie Shaw as she's always been a mardy bitch, disrespectful of her Eurovision song even though it made her famous despite her average voice. A while back BBC4 showed one of her 60s variety shows and unlike similar affairs hosted by Dusty Springfield, Cilla (and god knos I can't stand her either) Tom Jones etc. she had no charisma or personality onscreen at all. So clearly the writhing around on the floor was just a gimmick. Glad it didn't make the song a big hit as it's not that great anyway.

    Phil Collins - as I've said before, one of his finest solo performances.

    Belle & The Devotions - Riding on the back of Tracey Ullman, Carmel, Matt Bianco, Flying Pickets old-fashioned sound and committing the cardinal sin of thinking a sound that works in the British chart will transfer to Eurovision (see also Gina G in 1996) For me it's average fare, not our worst entry ever, far from the best.

    Bob Marley - A fun video for a nice tune, even if it is yet another cash-in.

    Duran Duran - Brilliant song, about to release us from the yoke of drivel at the top of the chart, thank goodness. They didn't perform it when I saw them live a couple of years ago though!

    Iglesias / Nelson - Just no.

    Echo & The Bunnymen - Most of their songs have grown on me rapidly in the last few years, and this is another catchy tune which deserved to go higher.

    Flying Pickets - Not much love for this here it seems, but I rather like it even if it is fairly straightforward stuff.

    Pointer Sisters - This one is good, but the thought of their next 2 singles turning up fills me with dread....

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    1. I saw a live Sandie Shaw concert from 1985 on London live and she was backed by the guys from The Joboxers (minus the vocalist) and future Fairground Attraction and Morrissey guitarist Mark Nevin. It was pretty good except she bizarrely changed the words of the chorus of I'll Stop At Nothing to be "until I get the GIRL I love" suggesting that she was coming out as a lesbian, but she wasn't.

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    2. she also recorded a cover version of "satisfaction" where she didn't change the words, thus giving it a somewhat sapphic vibe

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    3. Sandie Shaw had already enjoyed considerable success before 'Puppet', though it could be said that this revived her career. To be honest, it's easy to see why she doesn't like it. There's an audio recording (Ed Doolan's collection?) of her singing the song on whatever show profiled the six contenders, where she misses her cue and asks the band to start again (don't know if this made it to air), and then on the big night the sound man forgot to turn her mic on!

      I used to like her - she seemed to have a friendly personality (she once presented Sounds Of The Sixties when Brian Matthew had an extended absence - they tried a few guest presenters (Joe Brown was another) before settling on Johnnie Walker) and looked well fit for her age! But a few years ago she went on record whining about an affair she had with a much older married man when she was 17 and how it ruined her life, etc. Yeah right, so she went through the '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s and countless interviews with no mention of this and then decided to capitalise on that Yewtree thing. Stupid cow.

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    4. i saw a programme about lulu a few years back, where she declared that she didn't perform a lot of her old pop hits live any more (presumably including "boom bang a bang"?) as she saw it as naff compared to the cooler/bluesier/funkier stuff that she wanted to do now. although in her case at least she has a decent voice that is more suited to that kind of thing. but that raises the old question about what do punters expect to hear at gigs? the other week someone reported that a glasto audiuence was disappointed when shakin' stevens refused to perform "green door" (one of the few of his many hits that anybody remembers). surely when these nostalgia acts do a gig, in the interests of giving their fans their money's worth (if not to avoid being reported to the trading standards authority!) they should advertise their setlist in advance?

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    5. The best description of Lulu I heard a few years back after she was on countless TV shows was from Ally Ross TV critic. He declared he was bored of everybody "pretending to fancy Lulu".

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    6. I'm bored of Lulu "lapsing" into a broad Glaswegian accent every interview to "prove" she hasn't lost touch with her "roots".

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    7. does she nomally otherwise sound like sheena easton?

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    8. No, she's not that bad, she just affects a stronger accent than she usually uses every so often and it's embarrassing.

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    9. She probably went to the same 'Fake local accent school for people who don't live there any more but want to pretend they do' as Cilla Black I expect....

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  12. The wonky captions happens quite regularly with the artists names although they were more error strewn than usual this time. Presumably the person responsible for making the captions centered was on strike...

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  13. I actually thought Janice looked really good in that outfit. Were her gloves a nod to the first song on tonight? Excellent swap of shoe / non-shoe people on stage, but dreadful vocals by Sandie on a song I absolutely love even now. If only Morrissey had been defiantly positive romantic more often in his lyrics.

    The very start of Phil Collins’s video, where you see his mouth through the mask, reminded me of an incredibly cheap US cartoon series called “Clutch Cargo”, where the makers used one frame of the character’s heads on screen for seconds at a time, but superimposed someone’s mouth moving on the face and that was the only part of the head that moved. Really, REALLY creepy.

    BOOOO! It’s Belle and the Devotions, with one of four songs Paul Curtis wrote or co-wrote out of the eight Song For Europe finalists, who included Hazell Dean and Sinitta.

    That Bob Marley video was a lip-synch pre-cursor to Live Aid as far as I’m concerned.

    What a rude old bastard Slimes was to interrupt Janice’s birthday song! I didn’t like Re-Flex, I hate “The Reflex” so imagine how much I’d have enjoyed Re-Flex covering “The Reflex”!

    I could feel the vom rising with those two old soaks duetting. Slimes hit the nail right on the head.

    Was it me, or was the lighting or video quality misty and substandard for Echo and the Bunnymen? I’d forgotten this song until the “T-t-t-t-tips” ending kicked in.

    How on Earth did the public fall for The Flying Pickets a second time? I was fascinated by what looked like Paul Heaton’s dad far right with his werid specs and ‘tache combo.

    What a fantastic Pointers Sisters video! Well worth the $2.50 they spent on that phasing effect.

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    1. There's a clip of Clutch Cargo in the film Pulp Fiction. That's the only place I've ever seen it.

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  14. I forgot to ask, does anyone know why Janice gave a very late mention to Motherwell Football Club?

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  15. I forgot to mention, if you wanted a different take on Sandie Shaw's big Eurovision hit, art punk band Big Hair did a version of "Puppet On A String" which Peelie loved, and so did I - it got played as the second song at my wedding reception!

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  16. Dressed to the nines is our Jan here and it’s an interesting choice of outfit indeed.

    I am writing this oblivious of the comments already made, so apologies for any repetition.

    Sandie Shaw / Smiths – Hand in Glove – An enjoyable song and strange bit of writhing on the floor by Ms Shaw in her leather dress come coat. “We meet every night at eight” this ain’t!

    Phi Collins – Against all odds – Phil’s book gives a detailed explanation about this song’s origins which I won’t go into. The video shows the delectable Rachel Ward from ‘The Thorn Birds’ who starred in this film as well and wow! Not sure I prefer the shorter haircut though, but she was definitely hot property in 1984. Can’t recall much about the film’s plot though! Has anyone mentioned Westlife & Mariah Carey’s cover? (which I bought and liked). Reached no1 in 2000.

    This leads me to a little diversion here….Ms. Carey covered ‘I want to know what love is’ in 2009 (why??????!!!!!) but I always think of ‘Just be good to me’ by the SOS Band when the song reaches that little instrumental bit after the ‘oooo---eeee---aaahhh’… at about 47 seconds in. Hey, Foreigner are coming later this year and it’s one of my all-time favourite videos as well as the song being a classic. Diversion over.

    Belle and the Devotions – Love Games – This has aged well. Slightly Supremes sounding and very catchy and, um eye-catching!

    Bob Marley – One Love – Ouch! Hated this, heard it too many times along with people inflicting the ‘Legend’ compilation on me. FF

    Duran Duran – The Reflex – This was remixed for single release….don’t believe that I have ever heard the original. I don’t like the jerky bits at all, but undeniably commercial.

    Julio & Willie – To all the Girls – Very slushy indeed. Willie teamed up with Diana Ross next.

    Echo & the Bunnymen – Silver – Don’t recall this but it’s good! Love the guitar solo.

    Flying Pickets – When you’re young and in love – I heard the Marvelettes version of this just the other day and it’s simply wonderful. I don’t know why the Flying Pickets chose this song, but I would have had more respect if they had had a crack at singing it live given its acapella.

    Lionel Richie – Hello – Last week at the top and as if to celebrate we’re treated to the entire video. I still enjoy it!

    Pointer Sisters – Automatic – Another great release from the girls who are on a roll in 1984. Noticed the new roller credits and find them a little garish.

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  17. Hi.
    I know this is a little off subject but I missed the download of top of the pops 12-4-84
    Could someone please upload it again.
    Many thanks.

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    1. Specially for Sean, totp 12th April 1984 is here https://we.tl/6d7AmR40Jg

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    2. Thank you so much gia.
      Appreciate it.

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  18. Just read that the 'Rhinestone Cowboy' Glen Campbell has sadly passed away aged 81. RIP Glen, some great records.

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    1. i suppose this might be the time to mention a budget album that was in my mother's easy listening collection called "tribute to glen campbell"? not only was it very well-done (the versions of "by the time i get to phoenix" and "wichita lineman" are immaculate), but i actually thought the singer (a guy called mark duffy, who apparently never recorded anything else) had a better voice than campbell!:

      https://www.discogs.com/Mark-Duffy-Tribute-To-Glen-Campbell/release/3756599

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    2. The good old 'Contour' budget label. I owned 'Children's TV Themes' on that label! Cy Payne's rendition of the Dr Who theme was certainly different - sort of keyboard style with bass riff!

      https://www.discogs.com/Cy-Payne-His-Orchestra-Childrens-TV-Themes/release/1440842

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsOYkEDAjnw

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    4. the versions of "captain scarlet" and "UFO" from that cy payne album are quite well done in my view. contour may have been a budget label (owned by polydor), but there was some good stuff to be found on it. i've already mentioned the "sounds like the carpenters" album in a previous post with its excellent version of "this masquerade", and other goodies include assagai (afro rock band) plus the funky soundtrack for cult 70's adventure series "the hanged man" (that i've just watched recently for the first time on DVD) which still fetches high prices despite now being available on CD. i also remember liking the really glossy/shiny front covers!

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