Friday 23 February 2018

No Top of the Pops Rest

Here's another edition of Top of the Pops that will not be shown on BBC4 because Mike Smith did not sign his repeats contract. This one from May 2nd 1985. Once again a huge thanks goes to Neil B if making it available here at We Transfer.

There is no rest for punk


02/05/85  (Richard Skinner & Mike Smith)

Eurythmics – “Would I Lie To You?” (25)
Peaked at number 17.

Paul Hardcastle – “19” (4) (video)
Will get to number one next week.

Chris Rea – “Stainsby Girls” (27)
Went up one more place.

Vikki – “Love Is” (74) (video clip)
Our 1985 Eurovision hopeful. She came fourth and the song peaked at number 49.

U2 – “The Unforgettable Fire” (8) (video)
From their number one album of the same name, this single peaked at number 6.

New Model Army – “No Rest” (30)
Went up two more places.

Toyah – “Don’t Fall In Love (I Said)” (32) (breaker)
Her final top 30 hit, peaking at number 22.

Godley & Crème – “Cry” (29) (breaker)
Their third and final hit, peaking at number 19.

Curtis Hairston – “I Want Your Lovin’ (Just A Little Bit)” (22) (breaker)
His only top 30 hit peaking at number 13.

Top Ten Videos:
David Grant & Jaki Graham - "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love" (10) (video clip)
RAH Band - "Clouds Across The Moon" (9) (video clip)
U2 – “The Unforgettable Fire” (8) (video clip)
Simple Minds - "Don't You (Forget About Me)" (7) (video clip)
Phil Collins - "One More Night" (6) (video clip)
Bronski Beat & Marc Almond - "I Feel Love" (5) (video clip)
Paul Hardcastle – “19” (4) (video clip)
Tears For Fears - "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" (3) (video clip)
USA For Africa - "We Are The World" (2) (video clip)

Phyllis Nelson – “Move Closer” (1) (rpt from 04/04/85)
Finally makes it to the top spot, but just for one week.

Debarge – “Rhythm Of The Night” (17) (audience dancing/credits)
Peaked at number 4.


May 9th 1985 is next.

36 comments:

  1. Neil B. You, sir, are a legend.

    Thats a badly-compiled edition that is. Halfway through, and we pretty much are done and dusted as the countdown is followed by the breakers followed by the top ten in clip form followed by a repeat of Phyllis at the top and then the playout. Would it not have been better to spread this lot about a bit more?

    Anyway - the music. A change of style for the Eurythmics, but still no change in my overall dislike for them. This feels like there is a decent song in there somewhere if only someone could dig it out.

    Paul Hardcastle. Christ - this was everywhere wasn't it? At the time it was quite revolutionary - splicing documentary commentary onto a simple but beguiling soundtrack. When you add the Vietnam facts to it and the video, you can't really argue that it is going to be a deserved number 1. (Shame no one thought to do something similar for the Iraq War).

    Chris Rea. There is an honesty about Mr Rea that I quite like. He just strikes me as a decent cove, that you could enjoy a pint and discuss the footy with. The song's merely so-so, but his general likeability earns it an extra mark.

    After a ten-second, one sentence interview last week, Vicki is back actually singing (a bit). A forgettable mid-70s pop song that I can't remember at all, but which somehow finishes 4th. These days we could throw The Beatles into the comp and still struggle NOT to get nul points. Bloody foreigners!!!

    U2. The last of their 'beginning phase' hits. In a couple of years they will release Joshua Tree and go on to be all kinds of enormous all over the place - at the cost of Bono becoming a total wazzock. A decent enough tune, but a low scorer if 'U2 Hits' comes up on Pointless one day.

    New Model Army. Oh god. Never got this lot at all, and from this song I can understand why. The singer's 'sweary' t-shirt is edited by the clever use of a strip of white tape. If they were really as punk as they claimed, he would have tore a strip off himself mid-way through.

    Scores. A bit better this week, but not by much. Lets say a 4.

    Hosts. Dicky's as alright as he usually is, but I feel Smitty drags him down to his level. - 4

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    1. Yeah, I thought the same about the Breakers which should have been earlier on in the show as customary, and not between the two chart rundowns, which I agree, made a badly-compiled edition.

      The change of style for The Eurythmics made for an excellent party-atmosphere start to the show, despite it not being The Eurythmics usual style. Still it is my favourite of their catalogue of hits, with the video helping it get there for me. Lennox had certainly come a long way since her 1979 TOTP debut with The Tourists in the pre-Eurythmics days.

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  2. Is it just me, or was anyone else sick of the breakers section which meant on many occasions we got the same (usually nondescript) song shown in successive weeks with the 'double whammy' effect that many worthy songs missed out completely as a result?

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    1. looks like it's just you arthur! i see the breakers as a good thing in that they are featuring at least snippets of stuff that hasn't yet made the top 30 (and maybe wouldn't get to do so otherwise), but perhaps they should have enforced the rule that no one could appear on the show two weeks running (other than as no.1) even if the record in question had only been a breaker the previous week? but it has to taken into account that at the time there weren't people like us deconstructing and analysing the thing to death!

      what really was unnecessary and superfluous was a top 10 video countdown wasting precious time on showing songs on their way down that no one was interested in any more - without that they could have shoehorned in either one more complete act, or even several more breakers

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  3. hosts: is it me, or is shitty now very much hamming up some kind of "kid let loose in a sweet shop" act? whatever, he's coming over as more nauseous than ever (if that's possible)

    eurythmics: the bad news is that their synths have now seemingly been bagged up and put out for the dustmen, as guitars dominate on this horrible mix of cod-soul and arena rock - urrgghhh

    paul hardcastle: what can one say about this that went on to dominate to the point where it relentlessly burned itself into everybody's brains for ever, and even spawned a hit parody? maybe just that it wasn't anywhere near as good as "rain forest" that had flopped the previous year

    chris rea: snoozesville central that i lasted just about as long watching on yt as i did annie and dave's latest effort (about 30 seconds) - how the hell did this guy manage to sell 30 million albums?

    u2: one of the last good things they did before stadium rock and messiah-complex kicked in. but i will never forgive bozo for turning into a sanctimonious (and hypocritical) twat, so i'm not bothering giving it a listen again this time

    new model army: for some reason i always get this lot mixed up with the levellers! i had just left a provincial music scene where although the majority had moved on from basic thrash to more sophisticated attempts at making music, there was still a hardcore of punk-type bands (and their followers) that was locked into a time-warp like the 80's had never happened. and despite their name this is hardly new as it falls straight into that category. and is pretty forgettable apart than the delay effect on the bass (which i like), plus the singer's political posturing and affected vocal delivery (which i hate)

    breakers: thankfully to my recollection toyah was now drinking in the last chance saloon as far as her music career went. but in contrast hopefully the godley & creme video will go on to get a full run on the show as not only was it ground-breaking with it's pre-morphing techniques (even though it looks a bit amateur now), but was one of the finest hits of the year in my view to boot. the track by the unfortunately-named curtis hairston is okay as far as club music goes, but not a patch on the bb&q band's "genie" (on which he was the uncredited lead singer) that was a minor hit later on this year

    debarge: i don't know if this gets more exposure in later episodes, but i'll just say for the record now that in my view it's absolute rubbish that i have no desire to ever hear again in my lifetime

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    1. Perfectly understandable why you get New Model Army mixed up with The Levellers, as NMA's lead singer Justin went by the stage name of Slade the Leveller. Now that would have been a mash-up for you - a band doing Slade and Levellers covers!

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    2. Justin was obviously very into the English Civil War.

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    3. I certainly don't recall Toyah still being around musically in 1985 with this one, and I thought she'd already been in and out of the last chance saloon a while back!

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  4. No great loss to BBC4 viewers, this one. The 2 songs I liked best were both on video anyhow.

    Eurythmics - Dreadful rock sound on this one, miles awa from their best songs.

    Paul Hardcastle - I can't overstate how amazing this sounded at the time, and how exciting the whole package seemed. Desrvedl a massive hit, and still stands up toda.

    Chris Rea - Average fare.

    Vikki - Our mid-80s were uniformly forgettable rubbish, and this is possibly the worst. Amazing that it got as high in the Charts and in the Contest as it did, really.

    U2 - One of their best ever singles. Which naturally, because radio stick to 2 or 3 other songs, you never hear.

    New Model Army - Oh dearie me. Talentless, tuneless, awful sung, dated dirge. And they carried on peddling this shite until well into the 90s...

    Breakers - The Toyah song is rubbish, Godley & Creme's is good and Curtis Hairston's I've already forgotten.

    And that does it. 3 TOTP in a day for me. Again.

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    1. Indeed Noax, U2 coming up with this absolute gem of a single and video to go with it, makes for my favourite of the entire U2 hits catalogue. Couldn't heap more praise on it. Absolutely brilliant stuff. I especially like the lyrics "and if the mountains should tumble....."

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    2. Really? Mountains, rivers and seas in lyrics are as cliched as hell. Very common too.

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  5. Eurythmics with their drum pounding (minor) comeback, Annie seems unsure of which of her vocals to mime to, while Dave tries and fails to invent a classic guitar riff. It's OK, but you can hear why it isn't revived that often.

    Paul Hardcastle we'll hear a lot of, especially as he wrote a TOTP theme tune, so onto Chris Rea with a tune that starts out sleepy and subdued then ends up VERY LOUD. Sub-Clapton stuff, but Chris hasn't been very well recently and he is a nice bloke so I wish him the best.

    Vikki, oh yeah, I recognised this when it got going, but this is the first time I've heard it since the night of the contest. All rather thin and reedy.

    U2, even their early, supposedly classic singles do little for me, and this is the usual pompous affair with the novelty of not mentioning the song title in the lyrics (correct me if I'm wrong).

    New Model Army just make me feel tired, I could never get into their right-on bombast, no wonder hardly anyone in the audience is dancing.

    Breakers, well, bye then, Toyah, with a song I don't remember, she must have been catching her death Jennifer Lawrence-style in that dress. Godley and Crème, classic video and the song has a attractive menace to it. Curtis Hairston? Was that his real name? Anyway, could have been any number of soul boys in 85, undistinguished.

    Hey, well done Phyllis, you can't begrudge her that success, it was definitely hard-won. But the song remains a Quiet Storm yawner.

    DeBarge to finish, with a misty eyed hymn to dancing the night away, always quite liked this, though the film it comes from is pretty ridiculous, an attempt by Berry Gordy to cash in on African Americans' love of kung fu. The baddie's fun, though. RIP Vanity.

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    1. Yes, that was Curtis Hairston's real name. His middle name was Kinnard. Be fair, would you give yourself that as a made up stage name? Very sadly, Curtis barely made it through another decade, dying of diabetes-linked kidney failure aged just 34.

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    2. I think Curtis Hairston is a rather good name, myself - sad to hear that he died so young.

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    3. Poor old Curtis! He seemed such a bright little chap on the show.

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    4. i did actually already know that curtis hairston died quite young, and perhaps i should have mentioned that before to show off my depth of knowledge. but why is it that i retain such peripheral if not useless information in my head? sometimes i think i might be better-off were i somehow able to give my mind a "spring clean" and get rid of stuff like that to make room for more important things!

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    5. Wilberforce, that was very much the Sherlock Holmes approach to memory and recall - don't clutter up the brain with trivia, and only retain what is important. For that reason, much to Watson's astonishment in their very first adventure, he admits he doesn't know the Earth goes round the sun, as it just isn't important for him to know it...

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    6. i'm reminded that i think it was around this time the chairman of british steel or some other state corporation was asked if his wife liked sugar in her tea. to which he replied (to much disbelief) something like "i've no idea - i have no need to know that sort of thing as that's HER department, not mine"

      plus also around this time "the fly" was released, and at one point the scientist (jeff goldblum) shows his wardrobe to a lady friend, that consists of nothing but several identical jackets, shirts and trousers. when asked why they're all the same, he replies "it's an idea i got from einstein - it means i don't have to think about what to choose to wear each day, so i can focus more of my brain on my work"

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    7. a belated comment on sherlock holmes: i've been watching the "contemporary holmes in new york" tv series starring jonny lee miller (which i highly reccommend), and one thing he feels is not worthy of acquiring knowledge of is pop music - especially of the recent variety!

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  6. Big thanks to Neil B yet again.

    Poor Dickie! Slimes’s suffering partner for a while, now he gets stuck with Shitty. He only needs Nodding Dog Wright for the full set of idiots.

    “Would I tell A Lie”, Shitty? Jesus. I think I’d have preferred Eurythmics’ cod rock (or cock for short) if that pounding drum had been on every other beat.

    Who painted a red goatee on that poor bloke in the black and white photos in “19”?

    Stainsby doesn’t have the same ring as London, New York, Paris or Munich (see what I did there? Ahem) but a nice touch by Chris Rea to give a tribute to his home town. Great beanie hat there on the keyboardist. TURN IT DOWN A BIT, WILL YOU?

    We get a minute and a half of Vikki’s Eurovision outing, though fair play to Smithy for bigging her up in the intro. That video was apparently filmed in The Ritz. You’d be crackers to expect that song to win. Boom boom tish! It’s not “My Lovely Horse”, now, is it?

    U2 with a forgettable song (boom bo…oh okay!) and that’s either Bono or Paul King with a new mullet. Both love themselves so it’s hard to tell.

    Naughty! Justin of New Model Army mouthing “feck off, feck you” before singing, though fair play for the sentiment on his redacted T-shirt. By the way, why do they call it redacted when red isn’t normally used as the masking colour? NMA would have to wait nearly 8 years for their only other top 30 hit. Having heard this, I’m really surprised they had a second one.

    Toyah looked too similar to neighbouring Divine in her mugshot, but I can see why Robert Fripp made a move on the evidence of the video outfit. As for the song, erm…

    Some of those faces in Godley and Creme’s video were plain scary, and I don’t mean the morphed ones!

    Curtis’s track may have sounded okay on the dancefloor at the time. For a 56-year-old hearing it on his home PC tonight, it was just okay.

    I’m glad they showed Phyllis’s “Am I really on this show?” beaming debut for the top spot reprise this week.

    We finish with less perms and bumfluff ‘taches in the studio than in Debarge’s video, thank goodness.

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  7. Thankfully a much more enjoyable show than the last one, with a much greater variation of musical styles and plenty of new songs as well. Sadly Smitty once again casts a shadow on proceedings, though in the company of the ever-sensible Dickie (who pleasingly labels him a "groper" towards the end) he seems a bit more subdued this time.

    Nobody here seems to like this Annie and Dave offering very much, but I think it makes a refreshing change of pace for them, credibly mixing rock and soul elements with a superb vocal from Annie. The only thing I am not too keen on is the brass section, but overall I like this a lot more than their next hit. The dreaded 19 next - I really didn't like this at the time, I think in large part because I found all that 'Nam footage quite creepy and disturbing. Listening to it now I am still not keen. There is no question it was breaking new territory musically, but it was also pointing the way towards ever more sampling and the rise of anonymous dance/rave music, which is far from being my favourite genre.

    Chris Rea is someone I can admire as both a songwriter and a guitarist, though it is often hard to get too excited about his music. This is a typically well-crafted if unspectacular effort, and it's nice to see him in the studio for I think the first time since 1978. The performance was made memorable by the menacing drummer, who I thought looked faintly Dickensian. You feel this clip of Vikki was included more as a contractual obligation than anything. The song is bland as bland could be, and the scene where Vikki tries to crawl sexily over the cocktail bar is laughable, given that she looks like someone's mum...

    U2 were already getting too big and grand to bother with the studio by this point, but this is quite an atmospheric video with some nice snowy scenes, which is appropriate given the way the weather is turning at the moment. The song itself doesn't grab as hard as Pride did, but the chorus is a typically stirring and anthemic one. Judging from the length of their hair, I would say the New Model Army were rather more Cavalier than Roundhead, though I don't imagine they had much in the way of royalist sympathies! This is pretty turgid stuff, though like Wilberforce I quite like the bass, and the song does at least make a bit of a change from the slick sounds that were dominating the charts at this time. A sensible message from the singer on his t-shirt - Grange Hill should have recruited him for their Just Say No campaign...

    I agree with the comment above that it was stupid having the two chart rundowns and the breakers all in a row, rather than spreading them through the show. Two of the breakers will be on again, but this may well be the last we ever see of Toyah on the show, not that I care too much. Her hair looked worse than ever here, and despite trying to move with the times in production terms this song still sounded several years out of date. A much more contemporary sound from Debarge to close, another highly danceable feelgood tune, though sadly the audience's efforts are more or less completely ignored in favour of the camera-hogging cheerleaders this week.

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    1. Paul Hardcastle's 19 did make morbid listening at the time, and I didn't like it either, not least having a long 5-week spell at No.1, and 6 consecutive weeks of TOTP main feature plays...yawn.

      The fact that the average of combat fighters in Vietnam was 19, was far too low in my opinion, hence as Hardcastle mentions in the song, that the majority of these fighters had irreversible post-war traumatic stress for an average of 8 years after coming home from that war. Dire listening indeed!

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  8. Thanks again Neil B. You must have quite a collection of these. It is surprising how many shows Smitty was in – more than I would have said. This show is a slight improvement on last week’s ‘dire straits’.

    Eurythmics – Would I lie to you – It’s lively but although better than a similarly titled song released a few years later is not really up to much. Didn’t like Whitesnake’s song of this title either.

    Paul Harcastle – 19 – n-n-n-n-n-no thanks. One of the most irritating records every recorded.

    Chris Rea – Stainsby Girls – A real classy record and nice performance from Chris. A highlight this week.

    Vikki – Love is – I don’t remember this, but the song and the sultry Vikki are quite appealing. Co-written by Miss Watson too.

    U2 – The unforgettable Fire – I’d forgotten this, or at least never realise the song title and I have to say it’s one of their best. Most of u2’s output from then on just left me cold. Don’t get me started on their no1 single ‘The Fly...

    New Model Army – No rest – What a racket!

    Breakers – New image for Toyah in a figure hugging black dress walking along swing her hips! Don’t recall the song. Godley and Crème’s ‘Cry’ is on their ‘10cc & Godley and Crème’ compilations and I don’t ever recall seeing the video which is very clever for its time. Is anyone else famous in the facial montage?

    Top10 – Surprised Phil Collins went down; he topped the US charts with this song as well as ‘Sussudio’. Relief that Phyllis Nelson has grabbed the no1 spot but there’s 5 weeks of something not very n-n-n-nice to follow next!

    Debarge – Rhythm of the Night – One of the better disco records of the time and a good way to play out.

    I think the breakers section was an attempt to paper over the fact that at 30 minutes the show was too short. I keep returning to the endless repeats of Gillan’s ‘New Orleans’ when the show was longer and they were looking to fill time. But by now in 1985 some acts were clearly losing out. Didn’t we get one show in around 1981 where they featured about 3 or 4 records outside the top30?

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    1. sct, trevor horn (producer of the track in question) appears at the end of the "cry" video. you wouldn't call him a household name by any means, but in musical circles he's a legend!

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    2. He's certainly a legend in my book for fronting up Yes on the 'Drama' album and then kick starting their career on '90125'.

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    3. There were regularly a few editions of TOTP around Christmas / New Year when it was somehow difficult to bus 'mugshot' bands in, so lesser top 50 / 75 acts got a nudge onto the show. There were other notable shows - soon after the 'great strike', when TOTP came back revamped and they first trialled the top 10 in video / clip form plus guest presenters, five songs on the then top 30 mugshot show of 28th August 1980 were between 33 and 49 in the chart. This was unusual but not quite as rare as you think.

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    4. Yeah, I also thought that Vikki was rather sultry in that video, making her quite appealing as you say. I think it was her whole sensual approach to the video and audience for it, despite the fact that I don't remember this one at all.

      As far as Toyah goes, that 'figure-hugging' black dress may have got her picked up in those freezing cold woods, but if you saw her now, I don't think you would term 'figure-hugging' for her. I actually thought her walk in that video clip was a take on Michael Jackson's Thriller video!

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    5. sct - I'm amazed you have never seen the Cry video before, as it was quite widely played at the time of release and subsequently became a staple of MTV and VH1. Definitely one of the all-time classic videos, in my view.

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    7. Good Lord, I think sct was gladly spared some of the ugly faces on that Godley & Creme video

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    1. Love Is isn't up to the standard (extremely high) of the previous 5 BBC entries to Eurovision but is pleasant enough. The Finnish song was spectacular though only finished 9th.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM5IJPhHnN8

      No Rest is a good live, but I think this group did better.

      Toyah did better, quite mainstream sounding single they chose here. This would have served her better.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfqPZSvW0qU

      After the undeserved failure of Julia back in January the Eurythmics go for a rock effort. Good performance but their next single should have surely been the lead single off their new album.

      The Unforgettable Fire doesn't have a big hook, but I like the slow burning atmosphere of it.

      Debarge, catchy, I think I remember finding a good Spanish language cover of this from around the same time, may have flowed even better.

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    2. I think ths single you mention here 'I'll serve you well' is ok but perhaps needed editing if considered for single release as it's over 6 minutes long?

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  10. So this is the second show today and some quick thoughts from my Sudafed, Lemsip filled and Vicks head.

    Eurythmics - I seem to be one of the few that likes this one on here. Oh well. I think its a great tune and a fine start to the show

    Paul Hardcastle - nothing to add really, agree this was so big at the time and was everywhere, We talked about it at school as well I recall.

    Chris Rea - this has grown on me since last week (this morning) and actually it's not too bad.

    Vikki - passed me by this one - and it's easy to see why, it's quite poor.

    Nobody told NMA that punk was dead - oh well, this song has killed it off for good.

    Breakers:
    Toyah - no familiar with her mid 80s music, just remember her always being on Saturday morning TV, This songs not too bad.
    Godley And Crème - great song and video, shame it was their last.
    Curtis Hairston I'd not heard of and this sounds like a lot of other records we've already heard. Its OK.

    Great to see Phyliss gets her week at the top.

    And I also like the debarge song...so there.

    Better show this time.

    Night...

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    1. morgie lol creme's surname didn't have a slant over the first "e" (lol!) - it was actually pronounced as "cream". i know this for a fact, as i once met his dad in a second-hand record shop where he was trying to get a few quid (off the shop owner, that he knew personally) for lol's old childhood dansette!

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    2. Think that may have been my auto correct on my laptop. Its a bit odd like that.
      😀

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