Friday 5 January 2018

You Spin Me Round Like Top of the Pops 1985

Featuring samples of randy dogs, incredibly expensive videos, big hair, even bigger power ballads, a little bit of politics, and even an encouraging clip of Mike Smith, welcome to Top of the Pops n-n-n-1985!

Pete just can't wait for 1985 to start!


Dead or Alive ~ You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)
With their only number one hit, indeed their only top ten hit.

Tears For Fears ~ Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Made it to number two in the spring.


Aha ~ Take on Me
Their ear splitting debut which made it to number two.

Eurythmics ~ There Must be an Angel (Playing With My Heart)
The duo's only number one hit.

The Smiths ~ How Soon is Now?
Their albums all made the top ten, but they fared less well in the singles chart, How Soon is Now peaked at number 24.

Wham ~ Everything She Wants
The flip side of Last Christmas - the biggest number two hit of all time.

Kate Bush ~ Running Up That Hill
After four years away Kate returned to the charts with this fabulous number 3 hit.

Doug E Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew ~ The Show
Their only hit which peaked at number 7.

Jennifer Rush ~ The Power of Love
The biggest selling single of 1985. And the last million seller of the 80's too.

Colonel Abrams ~ Trapped
His only top ten hit peaking at number 3

The Cure ~ In Between Days
Didn't get as high as you might think - peaking at number 15

Bonnie Tyler ~ Holding Out For a Hero
Her final top ten hit and it reached number 2

Sister Sledge ~ Frankie
This song about Frank Sinatra was the girls' only number one hit

Fine Young Cannibals ~ Johnny Come Home
Their debut hit which peaked at number 8

Phyllis Nelson ~ Move Closer
A genuine one hit wonder.

The Cult ~ She Sells Sanctuary
They somehow never had a top ten hit, this one peaked at number 15

Feargal Sharkey ~ A Good Heart
We finish with Feargal a long way from the Undertones with his only number one hit.


Next up then is January 3rd 1985.










82 comments:

  1. blimey - i was around at a friend's watching this and left to walk home when phyllis nelson was on. i got in about 15 minutes later, booted up my computer and found angelo had already posted the show!

    sadly for me the biggest of 1985 is by a some distance not the best, but then again i could say that about all the years they've shown so far. here's hoping better turns up on the shows proper...?

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  2. Was it me, or was there a big clue at the end of "The Story of 1985" that the re-runs will continue until either 1994 or 1996? Exhibit A...

    Mel Giedroyc: "As the song goes...."
    "Woh, We're halfway there" (cut to TOTP performance "Living On A Prayer" by Bon Jovi).

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    1. We'll definitely get 1986 judging by the big tease at the end. And if the repeats do continue 1996 would be a good place to stop as that's when TOTP moved off Thursday nights.

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    2. i have to admit that although i was no longer obsessed with the pop charts as i had been up this point (mid-80's), i still followed what was going on in that regard until around the mid 90's (the "blur vs oasis" thing comes to mind, even though i saw that "battle" much akin to two bald men fighting over a comb!). anyway, there's some food for thought with regard to my continuing participation here. but from now (unlike before) it's going to be very much one step at a time for me...

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    3. I see no reason, assuming BBC4 remains on air, why the repeats should not continue indefinitely. There is a proven audience for them, and they make for a convenient schedule filler. Having said that, if they do get as far as 1996 I will have long since jumped ship...

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    4. what's your shark-jumping moment then john?

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    5. my problem is that i consider late 80's chart music abysmal on the whole (doug e fresh on the best of 85 show was a sobering reminder of the crap that is to come!), but that things picked up a bit again in the early 90's once musicians started using the technology avalable to them again rather than the technology using them. but does that mean i should drop out of this blog and then return, or stay with it in the thin patch that lies ahead?

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    6. I think 1988 is the real tipping point for me, as rap and dance music were really starting to take over the charts by then, while SAW were becoming ever more ubiquitous and formulaic. That's not to say there wasn't still some good stuff around, and that would remain the case into the early 90s, but it was thinner on the ground and by then I had largely lost interest in the charts. As you say, Doug E Fresh is an ominous taster of things to come...

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    7. I have no recollection of the Doug E Fresh song first time round. I suspect my local radio station didn't have it on high rotation on their playlist!

      For me 1991/92 - especially 1992 - was when the charts and TOTP were at their worst. The latter did itself no favours with the insistence on live singing and the ditching of the Radio 1 regulars.

      That said if the repeats continue I'd keep watching until we reach 1996, after that I think the show lost something when it was shunted to Fridays.

      As for 1986, I suspect the 'Story Of' documentary will make the year seem rather better musically than it actually was!

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  3. I see Angelo has gone with another left-field choice for this year's blog title. Alas, Since Yesterday almost certainly won't feature on BBC4, as both appearances were on Smitty shows. Although Smitty made an unexpected appearance in The Story of 1985, there has been no word that his episodes are to be reinstated - we will find out for definite very soon, as he co-hosted the second show of the year.

    I thought the Big Hits selection was decent for the most part, and demonstrated that there was still life in the 1985 charts. The documentary was particularly good, covering most of the year's major musical trends and gathering together quite an impressive range of talking heads. We never did find out though - as the commentary implied - if the Style Council's political attitudes underwent any revision after their trip behind the Iron Curtain.

    Good to see the BBC realised their mistake in the 1984 doc and now acknowledged that Dixie Peach was not the first black TOTP host, though they made a fresh one by saying he was the first "since the 70s," thus ignoring Lenny Henry! You also get the impression that the chief reason Gary Davies was brought in to contribute was so that he could explain away his unfortunate "suntan" comment...

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    1. one has to ask: if shitty wouldn't allow his shows to be re-broadcast, then why did the beeb allow the bastard to be seen in "the story of"?

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    2. Who knows? Maybe they want to taunt the viewers with a glimpse of shows they won't see.

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    3. ... in the same way they used to show clips on the "story of" reviews of performances from yewtree'd editions!

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    4. BBC4 listings show 3/1/85 followed by 17/1/85, so there's no change on the Mike Smith policy for '85 sadly.

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    5. That's a real shame as I think he did about 13 this year!

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    6. I'm not that fussed about seeing Shitty's shows but I wonder why there's no issue with using clips of him in the documentaries when he was so against repeats of his TOTP appearances?

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    7. He did 16 regular shows in total, and we may also lose the Xmas Day show as both him and JK appear in it.

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    8. In the past some of the missing weeks would've been filled by the Proms and Young Musician Of The Year but I don't recall TOTP having a break last year until December.

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    9. It's possible we may go back to having a Proms break this year, particularly if we are just going back to one show per week. It's also likely that some of the World Cup coverage will be on BBC4, so the repeats may have a rest then.

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    10. It's because the use of clips comes under a different agreement and also comes under different rules regards royalties. (There are less barriers to showing a clip also)

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    11. whatever the reason: as shitty chose to deny others the chance to see the re-runs of these shows for apparent reasons of personal vanity, the beeb should airbrush the selfish and vainglorious prick out of anything related to them as well!

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    12. Thanks for that Dan. So it looks like we won't get a full year of re-runs until 1989 when Shitty is off the presenting roster!

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  4. Whitney Houston, Red Box, Kirsty McCall, Level 42, Simple Minds among the things that could have been included.

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  5. regarding the "story of 1985" doc: whatever the reason he was there (although obviously deemed in poor taste in today's pc world, i personally didn't think his "suntan" joke was something to throw the rattle out of the pram over), it was good to see gary davies on the show as one of the old regular presenters who have since slipped from public profile (i haven't the slightest recollection of dixie peach who presumably wasn't on the show or radio 1 for long, so i can't say i have the same "where are they now" interest). although it was evident he was still presenting the programme at this point, it seems peter powell is not willing to reminisce in the way some of the other old jocks are (talking of which: janice long, please make an appointment with a decent hairdresser now!). which makes me curious as to why not?

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  6. I'm a bit worried now that we might see some "suntan" related edits for 1985. I know they showed some of the links in question in the doc, but then again they showed the infamous Roger Daltrey "watch your backs" bit in The Story of 1980, but dropped it from the repeat of 14/8/80 itself. Hopefully I'm wrong though.

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    1. i'm not sure if gary explained it this way on the programme or not, but it came over as self-deprecating (i.e. sending up his "stud" image) rather than racist to me. but then again it doesn't matter about the intent these days, as demonstrated by the blacklisting (ho ho) of "love thy neighbour" from the telly. yes, the white guy threw out casual racist terms and slurs with abandon, but what many people don't seem to know or realise is that a: the black guy gave back as good as he got if not better, and b: the black guy also got the last laugh most if not all of the time!

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    2. I think the late night repeat featured the 'watch your backs' moment but not the 7.30 edit.

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    3. In the social media culture we now live in, there seems to be no room for any subtlety or nuance when it comes to anything involving issues like race or sexuality - virtue signalling is far more important than trying to understand the context. In a way, I wouldn't blame the Beeb if the "suntan" comment is edited when they repeat the source show, as there would doubtless be paroxysms of rage directed at them from the Twittersphere if they left it in.

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    4. Very true, and the outrage would come from people who've never watched the TOTP repeats in their lives

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  7. Well this is more like it. 1985
    The year I became a regular TOTP viewer and a regular R1 Chart listener. The year I bought my first single (which I will reveal when we get there..spoilers!)

    A great Story of.. 10/11 year old me is ready for...

    Dead or Alive. The best thing SAW ever touched. Proper, dancing around the bedroom, singing into a pretend mic, being told to keep quiet by my Dad, pop song.

    "world" and "shout" were my introduction to Tears For Fears. Discovered their back catalogue later on and a firm favourite now.

    A-HA. TV performance is a bit of a let down after that amazing video but I was a huge fan at the time. There was a lot of A-ha and PSB in the 80s for me.

    Angel was my introduction to the Eurythmics. Such a great voice and sound. Their greatest hits (along with tears for fears) were cassettes of choice in my Walkman in the late 80s.

    The Smiths I was never a fan of but this is their best song. If I recall from my childhood correctly (which I probably don't) they always seemed to have a really dull song stuck at number 11 and played just before the Top 10 rundown). My memory probably cheats.
    Also can't hear this without being reminded of Soho's Hippychick.

    Wham! just got better with age. Worked with a huge Wham! fan in the WHSmith sounds department in the mid 90s and we inflicted "The Final" on all our customers.

    This Kate Bush song was used in a kids TV show at the time which was really creepy, as a result this song has always scared the life out of me. Such a spooky record...

    Didn't recognise the artist or title of this "the show" one from the tracklisting above.
    Inspector Gadget hip-hop style...next...

    This Jennifer Rush song is an out and out classic. Even Celine couldn't ruin it.
    Remember the red leather look well. My Dad (a non totp watcher) always seemed to be in the room when this came on...
    Interesting this was the last 80s million seller, I think single sales took a bit of dip in the last 80s/early 90s never to quite recover.
    Nice that Andrew and Fergie danced to this. Fergie came in WHSmith once back in the 90s and I got called down to authorise the cheque payment as the card was declined and she told me "Andrew" hadn't paid the bill. She just had "Sarah" as her signature and we were all taking about if for weeks...

    whatever happened to Colonel Abrams? A one-hit wonder?
    Was a big fan of this one and it still sounds good today.

    The Cure with a song I didn't recognise from the title for some reason but obviously did as soon as it started. Thought this was a hit much later and very "Lightning Seeds" in it's sound which is probably why I got confused with the dating.

    Bonnie - what a voice. This was the theme to the C4 American Football coverage at the time. My dad, brother and I used to watch every Sunday and I was allowed to stay up for the Superbowl. Memories.....Go 49ers!

    FRANKIE... Do you remember... oh god yes. How could I forget. Great at the time, annoying ever since.

    FYC would do much better than this imho, but a good start for them. Again cheating memory didn't really think this was as early as 85.

    Move Closer one of those songs I skipped by in younger days but a good song. A parental favourite I recall.

    The Cult. Not a favourite from the time but one I discovered much later and it is a great song.

    And finally we finish with, at the time, my favourite song from 1985. A Good Heart was the perfect pop song for 11 year old me to sing along to. By the end of 85 I really wanted to be a pop star and music became everything in mu childhood and my chart obsession started...

    Well that was a blast...bring on the rest of 85!

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    1. 1985 was also when I purchased my first single, which I think will be on the repeats very soon!

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    2. Mine's towards the end I believe. ...

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    3. I see that the kids' show Running Up That Hill was used on was called Running Scared. I do vaguely recall that from the time, though I don't remember ever watching it. There was another BBC kids' drama from a couple of years later called The Country Boy which I remember finding quite disturbing, as the eponymous boy fell seriously ill after coming into contact with polluted water. Zammo's smack habit in Grange Hill also scared me a lot, not just because of the hideous song that the cast released as a result of that storyline, which we will see come 1986!

      By the way, I loved the Fergie anecdote!

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    4. BBC4 showed the Zammo overdose episode a couple of years ago. At the time I thought it was pretty scary but watching the show nearly 30 years it felt very pedestrian.

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    5. If I saw it again now, I suspect I would be more likely to laugh than hide behind the sofa!

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    6. These days Fergie would be asked if she wanted a cheap Chocolate Orange if she went in Smith's!

      After the highs of 1984 single sales dropped every year until 1989 when they climbed marginally, then didn't start climbing again until 1993 when CD singles became the main format. Kylie & Jason's 'Especially For You' got the closest to selling a million, with sales of around 950,000 split over 1988/89.

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    7. Thanks Steve. I thought we were about to enter a sales dip.

      Although if Fergie went into WHS today she'd be offered a Creme Egg...chocolate oranges are so last season

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    8. Running Scared. That was the one . Thank you John G

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    9. Very true!

      I do have a soft spot for WHS as a lot of my music buying was done there, my home town not having much in the way of music buying options. And they were the only shop I could find stocking the new issue of Long Live Vinyl yesterday.

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    10. Colonel Abrahms died last year sadly.
      http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/colonel-abrams-dead-homeless-new-york-gofund-me-funeral-a7445461.html

      I personally much prefer Saving All My Love For You to The Power of Love.

      I'm more an 84 person, so Wake Me Up Before You Go Go was the song I was dancing in my bedroom to, to others amusement. I feel S/A/W did better than their big hit in 85.

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    11. End of 2016 his death actually, so just over a year.

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    12. SAW did quite a few good tunes, the trouble was they had so much stuff in the charts in the late eighties the good ones got lost in the dross.

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    2. I seem to recall 85 Christmas being shown on bbc4 5 or 6 years ago at Christmas time.

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    3. It was on Channel 5 around Christmas 2010 before BBC4 started the repeats. They did a night of retro shows.

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    4. Oh thanks, don't know why I thought it was on bbc4, just remember watching it at Christmas, they did a few other years too I think.

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  9. Shakey Shakerson8 January 2018 at 11:24

    Hello 1985,and, complying with Full Disclosure, I would like you to know that this was a bit of a shit year in the Shakey household. As a result a anumber of songs will suffer the full width and length of my tongue not neccesarily because of their quality but because they are reminders of 'dark times'.

    But this highlights compilation shows that there was still plenty to enjoy and the opening double salvo of DoA and Tears For Fears is a good start. "You Spin...." was about the only decent thing Pete Burns wrote. Actually, I think it would have sounded better without the HiNRG drumbeat all over it but Burns' vocals - especially in the verses - are great and visually he looks every inch an 80s pop star. "Rule The World" Curt's vocals are top-notch and Roland's guitar is excellent. It's lost a bit of sheen due to over-familiarity in the ensuing years, but still a great song.

    A-Ha. Awful.

    Eurythmics. I have mentioned before, my dislike of St Annie's voice. What I haven't mentioned is my dislike of Stevie Wonder's harmonica playing sound. Put them together andyou get this load of twonk.

    But the bad stuff doesn't last for long as we go three-in-a-row of absolute gems. The Smiths. Everything that Johnny Marr is involved in is a sheer delight and this is no different. Even Morrisey's histrionics can't hide how bloody good this song is. WHAM. George Michael's finest song - one of those compositions that take a while to burrow into your brain but once there never leaves. Kate Bush. Likewise, Kate's finest effort to. Remember seeing this on the Wogan show with - i think - about six hooded drummers doing the same one-step forward march thing. Thought it was awesome then. Haven't changed my mind.

    Jennifer Rush. THE worst song I have ever had to endure. Overblown theatrical tosh of the highest order that moves at a glacial pace without the slightest bit of real emotion behind it. Deservedly,the woman never troubled the top of the charts ever again. Think she's a toilet cleaner in a Krakow petrol station now. Good.

    Col Abrams with the least-believable Colonel outfit going. Liked in 1985 - hasn't stood the test of time.

    Loved the Cure, and this was one of their best.Now in full blown 'massive-hair' mode.

    Frankie. First listen- "Hey, thats really catchy". Second listen - "Hey there's that catchy song I was tellin you about". Third listen - "Oh". Fourth listen - *switches radio off*.

    Bonnie Tyler. Annoying ( and how annoying was the woman herself in the accompanying doc?).

    The Cult. One of my favourites of the year and still sounds good today. Hadn't realised how much Ian Astbury stole his rock-singer moves from Jagger.

    Fergal Sharkey. The phrase 'slappable' has been applied - by me - to many deserving causes. None deserve it more than this git. An appalling song sung by an appalling man with an appalling voice.

    Not a bad guide to how 1985 is going to play out. Some excellent stuff, some tosh and nothing much in the way of innovation. A fairly decent score of 7.

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    1. There is a Peel Session recorded by early Dead or Alive that reveals You Spin Me Around was failry so-so before the remix...

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    2. I don't mind 'A Good Heart' but Sharkey deserves a slap for that haircut, and the backing singers were mildly annoying too.

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    3. Trivia fact: A good Heart' was about a break up between Maria McKee and her partner. 'You Little Thief', Feargel's follow up, was written by the partner about the same break up.

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  10. A surprisingly good show. I suspect the the full year will not be as entertaining
    Always liked You Spin me Around, so a good start.
    Aha's recent album is worth searching if you like their early stuff - still know how to write a good tune.
    I didn't really like the Smiths at the time, but i am now enjoying them
    Don't remember Everything She Wants being performed on TOTP. A good value single!
    Faltered slightly with freshie and ms 'couldn't do my hair cos i came out in a' rush...
    Bonnie singing one of favourite Steinman tracks - and that's a high bar!
    Fine Young Cannibals performance reminded me of the story about Colonel Parker showing dancing chickens by heating the floor of their cage...
    Given their current ridiculous sensitivity, I am surprised that the BBC let through the Iron Cross in the Cult performance.
    Roll on the new year :-)

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    1. colonel parker's dancing chickens! i used to lodge with a big fan of "the king", which was how i became aware of the colonel pulling the wool over the eyes of the hillbillies with his notorious sideshow when he was a carny in his younger days - we are still in touch, and always have a chuckle about that story when it comes up in conversation. you could say he later did much the same with the king, who apparently didn't have a lot more intellect than the average chicken...

      i suppose the iron cross managed to escape the censors in the belief that it wasn't the symbol of the nazis, but of the teutonic military of that era in general (even though without their co-operation, the nazis would never have had the means to force their ideaology onto others!). but i don't suppose anybody would be allowed to wear one (even if as some kind of fashion statement) if they appeared on the telly nowadays?

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    2. Sad news in the paper today; death of Moody Blues Flautist and founder member Ray Thomas. That wonderful flute solo realy makes 'Nights in White Satin' - surely one of the greatest singles never to reach no1.

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    3. Very sad to hear that news, though Ray had been ill for a long time. Apart from his prowess on the flute, he was no slouch either as a singer or a songwriter - And the Tide Rushes In and For My Lady are two of the best Moodies songs.

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    4. I agree those two are great, also Lazy Day and Dear Diary are pretty good too. Legend of a Mind is quite ambitious also.

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    5. i have to say that ray thomas very much seemed a spare part of the moody blues to me. yes he may have contributed to the songwriting, but what did he do on stage and in the studio when he wasn't playing his flute (which wasn't that often, if what little i've heard by them is to go by)? perhaps as such it was not that big a surprise that he left the band in the end, in that he'd had enough of just standing around like a lemon much of the time!

      i see that another recent rock casualty is the producer chris tsangarides - i wasn't a collector of heavy metal/hard rock, so i only became familar with him as a result of getting hold of gary moore's "parisienne walkways" single, where i remember seeing his credit on the label and thinking "that's an interesting and unusual surname... but how the hell is it pronounced?!?"

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    6. further to the above, i've checked tsangarides' wiki entry and i suspect i was far from alone in wondering how his surname was pronounced back then (i presumed "t-sang-a-rides" at the time, with the last syllable as in riding a horse) as that gary moore single was in fact his first official production credit!

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    7. ... and even further to the above, i have now learned that he was also the studio engineer for this novelty hit in the early days of these totp re-runs that was much-beloved by arthur nibble to my recollection:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMPth4LlO2M

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    8. Naughty (naughty naughty)! I wasn't a Joy Sarney fan - it was Glamourpuss for me!

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    9. I think Ray Thomas was an integral part of the band in the early years, but I think it's fair to say he had become a bit part by the 80s, as his songwriting contributions diminished and Hayward and Lodge came to be very much promoted as the faces of the band; there was no space for the flute in their songs by then, either! When Ray eventually left, poor health was cited as the cause, but given he only ever got to perform one or two of his own songs live during their regular tours I wonder if that was another factor.

      Starry - all the songs you mention there are very good. Legend of a Mind in particular is a definite psychedelic classic.

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    10. I think I was one of the few openly admitting to enjoying the Joy Sarney song at the time wilberforce!

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    11. thanks for "owning up" noax. so i wasn't totally deluded - i just got the wrong person!

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  11. I'm sorry to say that there's nothing in this selection I can really enthuse about, in complete contrast to the Big Hits of 1979 a few years back. Indeed, there are one or two I can't remember at all, although they'll probably come back to me if I heard them. I can well remember the Doug E Fresh thing being played on Capital Radio and wondering what on Earth it was! On the other hand, 'She Sells Sanctuary' was very much 'old school' but strangely didn't register with me at the time. For me, the two big standout singles of 1985 were Katrina & The Waves 'Walking On Sunshine' and Propaganda's 'Duel'.

    1985 was the year when I left the protective bubble of full-time education and entered the shark-infested waters of employment, despite being ill-prepared in terms of social skills. It may have been 'Best Years Of Our Lives' for some but grim times for me, with memories tarnished by the white noise of bitterness. As I think I've mentioned before, it wasn't until 1988 when I landed a job with like-minded people and my adult life took off from there.

    So I'll just say that I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas and New Year break, and have a good 1985!

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    1. although school was not that pleasant an experience for me at times, it was a picnic compared to what 20th aptly describes as the shark-infested waters of employment (or in my case unemployment for much of the time) that followed it from the late 70's onwards. so i have similar bitter memories in that respect, and recall the realisation for the first time what a hard and lonely place the world could be. but i have to say that pop music served as a much-needed refuge from all that shit, and in fact thinking about it in retrospect could even have been a life-saver!

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    2. I was just stating senior school in September 85. Hated every minute of it. Left in 1990 and the charts and TOTP were probably the only thing that kept me going..

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    3. Hey, I didn't know the above thing had posted - it didn't appear straightaway. I was going to have another go tonight. I now know why there are so many double posts in forums and things.

      I too hated school (except field days!) but have fond childhood memories of weekends and holidays. Right from a very early age - when I got my first radio - I had this really anal policy of not listening to any music on schoolday mornings. Certainly by the early '80s I can remember joining my parents who had LBC blasting round the house (Doug Cameron and Bob Holness!). Today I'm glad I did, because of all the great music as chronicled by these re-runs to date, very, very little reminds me of school. It worked a treat!

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    4. i joined the sixth form after mandatory secondary school education as i had no interest in working for a living. but neither did i have any interest in more education either, so just did so in order to hang out in the common room and play records! as well as that joy, a highlight of the week was when myself and a few other guys got together with the latest edition of the "record mirror" music mag and gave marks out of ten to the records in the new singles charts (not surprisingly there was some tit-for-tat going on, whereby if i gave something someone else liked a particularly low score then they would do likewise with something i liked!). however because i basically stopped bothering attending lessons soon after i started, the year head started doing whatever he could to winkle me out. and finally succeeded in doing so by the end of the first term. but it was fun while it lasted, and certainly preferable to my consequent life of either signing on whilst looking for shitty jobs, or doing shitty jobs for shitty pay in shitty places with shitty people!

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    5. I like Duel, much better for me than Trevor Horn's production on p:Machinery. With Katrina I prefer their release Que Te Quiero, it flows quite well.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_FIotq2XR8

      Both Katrina songs seem to have been originally released in 83, so they took a while to break through.

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    6. Another Katrina & the Waves song, Going Down to Liverpool, was originally released in 1982 with writer Kimberly Rew on lead vocals, and then re-recorded with a Katrina vocal in 1985, and made the b-side to Walking on Sunshine. In the interim, The Bangles recorded their own version for their debut album, and their cover became a minor UK hit in both '85 and '86. All three versions are worth a listen, but for me The Bangles' take is the best, and indeed probably the best thing they ever did.

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    7. I like the fact that Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy (Spock) took a main role in the video for The Bangles version of Going Down To Liverpool later in the decade. How did the girls manage to get him on it, and why I wonder?

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  12. i moved to london in 1985, and one of the few things i found an improvement on my previous life in the sticks was being able to listen to capital radio's daily daytime soul show... presented by tony blackburn of all people, who had suddenly and completely unexpctedly acquired an aura of hipness! i certainly remember doug e fresh being played on a regular basis, but mercifully the (c)rap was kept to a minimum with plenty of excellent dance/club music being played which i may not have been exposed to otherwise (some of which will hopefully appear on the show this year?)

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  13. Seems BBC FOUR back twice weekly totp. Digiguide are listing 1985 episodes for both Thursday 25th and Friday 26th at 7.30.

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    1. Hopefully this is a one off!

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    2. Yeah, I hope so too. I'm more comfortable with one show a week, like most people on this blog I think.

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  14. In case anyone missed it, Gary Davies is taking over Sounds of the 80s on Radio 2 each Friday from the springtime. Good move.

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    1. It seems that Gazza is enjoying a real radio renaissance. I wonder if the TOTP repeats were a motivating factor in his comeback?

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    2. He got a really good reaction when he covered the show last Summer and he sounded like he was enjoying it.

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    3. Damn good choice, he came across really well on The Story of 85 and his stand-ins on Sot80s were pretty good too.

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  15. no one else seems to have mentioned it yet so i thought i'd remark on the passing of "fast" eddie clarke, the last remaining member (and "third man") of the classic motorhead line-up - has there ever been a case where the entire band membership have expired so close to each other (within just over a year to my estimation)?

    that reminds me of the time i saw motorhead live in the late 70's - fast eddie started playing a riff that kicked off a song, but instead of joining in lemmy walked over to him and whispered in his ear. eddie then stopped, and after lemmy got back to his mic he commented "he was playing the wrong fucking song!". eddie then started up what i presumed was the correct riff.. which sounded exactly the same as the last one!

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    1. The closest equivalent I can think of is The Ramones - Joey, Dee Dee and Johnny all died between 2001 and 2004, but Tommy clung on until 2014.

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