Fresh air guitar
06/06/85 (Simon Bates & Richard Skinner)
Gary Moore & Phil Lynott – “Out In The Fields” (5)
The Thin Lizzie duo get the show underway this week but the song went up no higher.
The Crowd – “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (4) (video)
It was a dark time for football, and this charity record was in aid of the Bradford City fire. It would be next week's number one.
Mai Tai – “History” (16)
On its way to number 8.
Kool & The Gang – “Cherish” (22) (Montreux clip)
With their final proper top ten hit, discounting remixes and samples, which peaked at number 4.
Propaganda – “Duel” (21)
Got no higher.
Sister Sledge – “Frankie” (29) (breaker)
A future number one.
Madonna – “Crazy For You” (25) (breaker)
A future number two.
David Bowie – “Loving The Alien” (23) (breaker)
A future number 19.
Paul Hardcastle – “19” (remix) (1) (video/credits)
Fifth and final week at number one!
June 13th is next.
"Duel" is good, but am I right in thinking TOTP completely overlooked Propaganda's top 30 hit of 1984, the brilliantly majestic "Dr. Mabuse"? The best thing ZTT released along with Frankie's "The Power Of Love" if you ask me - I know, you didn't, but hey.
ReplyDeleteDr Mabuse would have been eligible for 12/4/84 which was only 25 minutes long. We would have missed it anyway as DLT was one of the hosts.
Deleteyes arthur i think you're right there, although i remember watching an interview with propaganda on "the tube" and the video being shown - which featured 60's bond villain and ITC regular vladek sheybal as the titular character:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHKm4mLTLs8
Dickie and Master Bates don silly headgear at the beginning and end of this show, and it seems to scramble the headmaster's brain as what is supposed to be an intro to Kool and the Gang almost turns into one for Duran Duran, while nobody of sound mind would regard A View to a Kill as the best Bond film yet! Thankfully Dickie keeps things on an even keel, and at least Bates does correctly predict next week's number 1.
ReplyDeleteMoore and Lynott are back in the studio, in black military tunics this time, with a flying-V guitar for Gary and plenty of low-angle camera shots to accompany them. This must be Phil's final TOTP performance, though he did release one further single before his death called Nineteen, produced by none other than Paul Hardcastle! It's not the same song though, and only got to 76 on the chart. The presence of DLT and Rolf Harris means we get a very truncated slice of The Crowd, the first of two charity chart-toppers orchestrated by Gerry Marsden. This was actually the first version of this evergreen classic I ever heard, though since 1985 I have only come across it on one other occasion. It sounds a bit ropey now, with some nasty synth noises at the start, but the video is fascinating for the highly diverse range of "artists" featured, everybody from Lemmy to Brucie and Bernie Winters!
History is one of those songs I am familiar with but have never known who performed it, until now. I get a definite Pointer Sisters vibe from Mai Tai, here showing off their best Daz whites, thanks to the deep voices and the bright and breezy dance-pop they are serving up. The BBC seemed obsessed with the Montreux Festival at this time - I wonder if it is still going? Anyway, Kool and the Gang are back with one of their most popular songs, though this one is a tad too soppy and saccharine for my tastes.
I never knew Propaganda were German, so that explains the unusual vocals on this accomplished, well-produced effort. Lead singer Claudia looks good here; she was romantically involved with Paul Morley at the time, and it seems shacked up later on with OMD's Paul Humphreys, also forming a duo with him called Onetwo. Having listened to that snatch of Loving the Alien, I can now see where Howard Goodall nicked the intro to the Red Dwarf theme from! Hardly Bowie's finest moment, however innovative the video might be - Dickie didn't seem too impressed by it. I wonder what the big announcement involving the Thin White Duke was that Bates was alluding to? That he was going to play Live Aid?
We get to see a bit more of the Marillion video, which was filmed in Berlin. "Kayleigh" is played by another German woman, Tamara Nowy, who subsequently became Mrs Fish! 19 plays over the credits this week, a sure sign that the BBC (or Michael Hurll, at any rate) were now fed up with it...
After a quick Google, and wading through the superfluous results for the Monterey Pop Festival, it seems only the Montreux Jazz Festival survives, though they do have pop included in it, oddly.
DeleteI remember Richard Skinner commenting 'Awful' after the Bowie video was given it's first showing on Whistle Test. It's parent album 'Tonight' was panned by critics, but I thought it was a good album, unlike his later output until 2013's 'The Next Day'.
DeleteI always thought that 'Cherish' sounding more like a single from Chicago, REO Speedwagon or someone of that ilk than a typical Kool and the Gang record.
'Duel' was a great record as was it's B side 'Jewel' (a fast version of the A Side). Later in '85, Claudia released a duet with Glenn Gregory titled 'When Your Heart Runs Out Of Time'. Decent enough, but failed to make the top 40. An almost completely new line up of Propaganda had a minor hit in 1990 with 'Heaven Give Me Words'. I don't remember why I bought the 12 inch, but most probably because it was the same price as the 7 inch, a quite common practice in the early '90s.
Incidentally, Mr Bates was one of the members of 'The Crowd', (as he was 'Ferry Aid' two years later). I heard a story that the proceeds of 'You'll Never Walk Alone' didn't go to the disaster fund as intended, but went to the burns unit at a Bradford hospital instead. Something to do with the appeal closing before Gerry Marsden was able to hand over the money.
Jewel has a punk styled vocal but I don't think it suits her. The contrast between the smooth production in Duel and the lyrics help make the song even more interesting.
DeleteThere's Bowie stuff I like between Tonight and his comeback just before he died: Time Will Crawl, Little Wonder, Hallo Spaceboy, Buddha of Suburbia theme, but I wasn't buying any of it on disc!
Deletejohn you may be right in that no one regards "a view to a kill" as their favourite bond film, but then again i know someone who thinks exactly that of "licence to kill" - which in my opinion is surely the worst one ever (and the shark-jumping moment for me)?
Deletealso i can't help but be reminded of the classic "i'm alan partridge" episode where he invites what few acquaintances he has to his caravan to spend the bank holiday watching all the bond movies in chronological order... and his assistant drops one of the video cassettes into his jug of sunny delight by accident, which means (as an obsessive/completist) he has to spend the time pretending to play bass guitar to a gary numan record instead!
i always thought "loving the alien" was a great track overall, but sadly spoiled by the bit that sounds like the theme to "red dwarf"! like many i thought he was pretty washed-up by this point, a bit like a veteran athlete that once used to win races with ease but now struggling just to keep up with the pack. but like thx i do like a handful of his latter-day tracks, especially "jump"
DeleteYes, Jump They Say was a very respectable track, a tribute to his tragic brother.
DeleteAlso, we still have Absolute Beginners to come.
THX - thanks for the info re Montreux. It makes you wonder why they don't just call it "Montreux Jazz and Pop Festival" in that case.
DeleteNigel - I have heard the same as you about the ultimate destination of Gerry's Bradford fire fund. At least the money found a good home in the end.
Wilberforce - I actually like Licence to Kill too! Admittedly it is much more a revenge thriller than a proper Bond film, but I found it quite gripping and Timothy Dalton is a much more believable Bond than Roger Moore ever was. Having said that, my all-time favourite Bond film is From Russia with Love.
After reading a review that pointed out Licence to Kill was basically Bond as slasher movie, complete with Freddy Krueger horrible deaths and flippant quips, I can't see the film in any other way!
DeleteOh, yeah, and there was a Montreux Jazz Festival long before there was the pop one, so presumably that's why they've kept that name.
DeleteTHX: Sorry, where I stated 'output', I should have stated 'albums'. I liked some of the individual tracks, including the 4 you mentioned along with Absolute Beginners, Underground, Thursday's Child, Miracle Goodnight and You Belong In Rock And Roll. But I found his albums difficult to listen to after 'Tonight' until 'The Next Day', even though I bought them all. Having said that, I don't rate the 'Heroes' album that highly, so what do I know ?
Deletethe myth is that every album bowie recorded in his 70's heyday was choc-a-block with crucial tracks, unlike anything since then. but as far as i'm concerned even the best of his so-called classic albums are patchy affairs, with maybe three or four good tracks on them at best ("station to station" is probably the most consistent in my opinion, with only a couple of duffers among the six tracks on it)
DeleteThe only Bowie album I own is his first, which I really like a lot. But I've heard others of his classic period, and found they held together as albums, if you see what I mean, in a way that modern efforts of sticking one song after another tend not to.
DeleteI keep hearing nobody listens to albums all the way through now anyway. Well, I do.
this might sound like heresy (although i like to think of it as the boy in the "emperor's new clothers"), but i rarely if ever listened to albums all the way through if i could help it, as inevitably some tracks bored the pants off me and so were a complete waste of my time as far as i was concerned! most of the records i bought as a teeenager were either 7" or 12" singles, but on the odd occasion i had access to an album (usually borrowed from friends) i would only listen to them once or twice to decide which tracks i liked before copying them over to cassette tape (via my parents' "music centre") - in the order I wanted to listen to them in. as i got more refined at the practice, i used to tape albums that had enough decent tracks to fill up most of one side of a C90 cassette in a kind of "pyramid" order, with the best tracks in the middle and the lesser ones at each end. i would then do likewise with the other side, so if i just wanted to listen to the best of those two albums i could just stop the tape and flip it over. in the early 80's i also bought one of those cassette players that had a "search" facility, so if i had an album on tape that someone had recorded for me in its original order then i could fast-forward through up to to 10 weaker tracks on to the next decent one!
DeleteBowie's best album by far would be his greatest hits for me.
DeleteThere's no right or wrong way to listen to music, if you want to cherry pick your favourites that's fine. For me, I like to listen to an album all the way through with all its ebbs and flows.
DeleteThere's loads of albums I like, from the 70s there's well over 300.
DeleteI just think Bowie is overrated as an album artist, I normally don't follow all those rock magazines like the NME and others and what they pushed. It's even worse in modern times most of the hyped albums are just not in the running for best albums for me, but at least now we can search for ourselves more than we could in the past.
each to their own i suppose, but as far as i'm concerned long playing records were one of the greatest cons of the last century! most things may be shit today compared to the era of these totp re-runs, but at least youtube and suchlike means people can choose to listen to what they want and then make up their minds accordingly with regard to owning that music. and which means record companies can no longer try and dictate what punters buy in order to maximise their profits by offloading the fat and gristle along with the prime cuts - that incredibly in retrospect was sold without even being able to sample beforehand. what really bugged me about it all was that despite the questionable quality of the goods, you paid the same price for an album of 10 tracks as you did for 5 singles (and even there you were shelling out for something you likely didn't want on the b-side) with no guarantee of customer satisfaction in return!
Deletejust to make things clear with regard to my diatribe above, i am NOT making reference to greatest hits and various artist compilations (where you knew exactly what you were paying for - most of the albums i bought were of that nature), but "original" albums by artists where the vast majority of what was on them would not likely have been heard before being purchased
DeleteThe thing about albums is that while they might suit some genres (like progressive, jazz, and singer songwriters, mixes, longer classical works) they really don't suit all. And that doesn't mean other genres are inferior as some critics might think.
DeleteWhile many albums do indeed fail to live up to expectations, to me there are few greater pleasures than coming across one that is pretty much flawless from beginning to end, as there are not too many that fall into that category. Cat Stevens' Tea For the Tillerman, Fairport Convention's What We Did on Our Holidays and OMD's Architecture and Morality are some examples of that select few for me.
Deletethe very few original rock/pop albums that i could still listen to today from beginning to end without feeling the urge to fast-forward/move the needle on (but even then they are not in the order i would put them in) are the following:
Deletesteely dan - aja
kraftwerk - the man machine
steely dan - gaucho
donald fagen - the nightfly
bryan ferry - boys and girls
one major act that were never going to release a completely-satisfying album all the way through were the police, thanks to sting's more-experienced colleagues' insistence on having at least one mediocre song of their own on each of them in order to grab some royalties!
I agree with John's comments about the pleasure of coming across a flawless album. I've only come across one such album in 2018 out of the eight I've bought so far and that's the new MGMT album. A couple of others are good, but mainly it's a case of a few good songs and lots of filler.
DeleteI remember that being my favourite Kraftwerk album.
DeleteI think one problems albums have is hype, and that's always been the case, critics hyping things as unassailable masterpieces. Lesser known works by others can often be more impressive.
Definitely. One recent example was the Franz Ferdinand/Sparks collaboration FFS a couple of years back. It got rave reviews from the critics, but I played it once, was unimpressed and haven't played it since.
DeleteSeems my comment below on The Crowd video being a bit short is because it was cut. Thanks for the info.
DeleteWilberforce I have to admit to being a Licence To Kill fan as well and one of the best Bond themes in my opinion from Gladys Knight.
Steve - I loved the FFS album and the performance they did at Glastonbury is one of my favourites.
ah, but morgie is "licence to kill" your all-time favourite bond film? what i'm saying is that wouldn't be the case for most people (mine is probably "diamonds are forever" - possibly because it was the first one i saw, and also possibly because it has the best john barry soundtrack in my opinion).
Deletealso: is anyone else here aware that the original title of the second timothy dalton bond film was "licence revoked" (which reflected the plot of bond going rogue)? however it was decided to rename it (to actually mean the opposite!) as it was thought most of the target american audience would have no idea what the word "revoked" meant! yet 20 years on that didn't stop them giving another bond film a title ("quantum of solace") that NOBODY had any idea what it meant!
My favourites would have to be Goldfinger and Goldeneye
DeleteQuantum is an odd film but I prefered to Casino Royale which I know puts me in the minority
I did read Ian Fleming's original short story called Quantum of Solace, so I knew what he meant by it (basically a measure of comfort, however small it might be). It's quite a bizarre little tale really, involving a wholly passive Bond being told the sad story of a doomed marriage.
DeleteThanks to Chesney Hawkes on Pointless Celebrities last week we now know that Phil's surname was pronounced Lin-ot (not Line-ot). Sounds like Phil and Gary were overkeen on Iron Maiden when they composed this one, but it's muscular enough.
ReplyDeleteThe Crowd, ah, they got around the problem celebs by showing 30 seconds of it, though that's still 30 seconds too much. No matter how good the cause, almost every charity record after Band Aid just sounds tasteless to me, however well-intentioned. Covers especially.
Ah, the big hair, the shoulder pads, the white stilettos, the trio of singers named after a cocktail, it must be 1985! Big, lumbering bit of pop soul that beats you into submission, prefer their other top tenner, but this is good to hear again.
Kool and the Gang calming a noisy audience at Montreux with a song like Billy Ocean last week seems to be channelling Lionel Ritchie. Not my kind of thing, but it is slick. Not much lead singing to be done in that chorus, is there?
Propaganda with a pop masterpiece from a terrific album, like Arthur indicates the best thing ZTT released overall. This seems to be an edited version, so the magnificent instrumental break (which as Stuart Maconie observed, is almost TOO good) is truncated, but you get the idea. Claudia looks like she's just gotten out of bed. Traumatised lyrics plus killer melody equals a cult classic.
Then the Breakers, the horror of Frankie (but not THAT Frankie), Madonna with this week's song from a movie (the incredibly boring college wrestling drama Vision Quest, which she appears in - but it wasn't her debut), and a video for Bowie which Dickie Skinner makes no secret of hating. After a look on YouTube, I kind of like it, it's wacky.
Paul Hardcastle's last week at the top, and I wonder what the Combat Veteran's Administration thought about Sylvester Stallone making Vietnam War vets cool again with Rambo: First Blood Part 2 this year? "Do we get to win this time?" Made up for Taxi Driver and all those movies where the veterans were raging maniacs. Oh, wait, wasn't Rambo a maniac too? The bit where he exploded a Vietnamese soldier and left his smoking boots behind was the talk of my school.
madonna's film debut was in this amateur college short, when she was around 14 years old - but that didn't stop the brazen hussy from flaunting her already well-developed body!:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZsIiOyf4uM
Never seen that before, thanks! But I was thinking of A Certain Sacrifice, the barely professional movie she made about 1979 which was edited together and released when she (finally) became famous in the 80s. It is absolutely dreadful, and features Madge's character getting raped. She tried to sue to get its release stopped, but failed. Anyone who has seen it will wish she succeeded.
Deletei looked that film up on IMDB and was a little amused by the rather unfortunate name of the "star" jeremy pattnosh (other family members were in support toles, which gives a good idea of the low budget concerned). it was also interesting to learn that despite it being an amateur production, louise ciccone (as she was billed in it) demanded to be paid (receiving a fee of a hundred dollars) - that ironically was the reason she couldn't get the film banned after she became famous
Deletei think i've mentioned this before, but the above reminds me of actress anoushka hempel who made several sleazy sexploitation flicks in the 70's. after which she married into high society, and used her new-found wealth to try and buy the rights to said films in order to stop anyone else from seeing them!
Anoushka was slightly notorious for starring in a Russ Meyer movie, Black Snake, but needing a body double for the topless scenes. Insisted on by the disappointed director! It's on DVD, so I guess her efforts at censorship were in vain.
Deletemabe the reason ms hempel didn't buy the rights to that particular film was because she knew that the tits seen in it were not actually hers, but someone else's?
Deleteregarding how to pronounce phil lynott's surname: i have just emailed the old acquaintance of mine that i recently discovered was a thin lizzy roadie in their early days, and he has told me even he doesn't know or remember which one is correct!
Deletemai tai: it's the dutch version of the pointer sisters, with something i remember getting a lot of club play at the time and becoming immune to as a result. however a break of thirty years has now given it a fresh appeal (were stock, aitken and waterman taking notes for the princess debut?). the dreads of middle and right lady are pretty dreadful, but lady on the left gets the award for worst haircut with her 10-years-out-of-date afro
ReplyDeletecrowd: surely this lame charidee effort should have been for the heysal disaster - not the bradford one? regarding the former: i seem to have a memory of watching a much-delayed match after the crowd trouble, where neither team really made any effort to play - thus making the whole thing rather surreal
propaganda: the band's musical mainstay appears to be awol here, but not their own version of bez i.e. the blonde at the back with the tambourine. this was pleasant enough but not as good as the much darker "dr mabuse", and i have to concur with stuart "sellout" maconie that the most interesting bit by far was the instrumental break (i never got to hear the clever thrash alternative "jewel" verson until much later). it wasn't until two or three years after this that i really got into the propaganda album "a secret wish", as a result of hearing the epic "a dream within a dream" (where susannah/bez actually puts in a bit of work for a change with some heavily-accented intonations) on the annie nightingale radio show - although i was rather shocked to learn that marillion's drummer played on it!
The Heysel disaster took place 18 days after the Bradford one, by which time I would assume The Crowd's record had already been made. As far as I'm aware no single for Heysel was ever released, at least not in this country. That may partly be down to charity record overkill, but perhaps also because hardly any of the victims in this case were British.
DeleteThey must have got The Crowd song done quickly, unfortunately I don't think it resulted in that good a record, but I suppose the main thing was they got more money for their cause.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteSome good stuff here tonight (bar the no1 that even the BBC weren’t keen on, relegating to playout, although no1 playouts have featured before with Smokey Robinson and Pussycat for example).
ReplyDeletePhil Lynott and Gary Moore – Out in the Fields – second appearance from the hard rockin’ duo. Some artists could manage one in this era.
The Crowd – You’ll never walk alone – Well at least they showed some of it I guess. Shame the second verse from the Nolans is missing and that the enjoyable ‘who’s that?’ of celebrities is denied us just because of two individuals who don’t get that much screen time really.
Mai Tai – History – FF
Kool and the Gang - Cherish – Three songs of this title (David Cassidy and Madonna are the other two) and I like them all. This was a classic 80s ‘slowie’.
Propaganda – Duel – I really liked this having not really heard it before.
Breakers – Sister Sledge and Madonna – taste of great things to come. David Bowie – not one of his best.
Top10 – With Phyllis finally out of the top10, it’s saved them having to play half a second of it. We get a nice extended look at the ‘Kayleigh’ video which actually features the complete Steve Rothery guitar solo when played in full.
Paul Hardcastle – 19 - zzzzzz
you can't blame the programme's producers for relegating a track that's been number one for ages to credits fodder - although the mere fact that they were still there after so long suggests that not everybody was sick of them by that point. one has to ask: what sort of people only bought a single after it had been at the top for several weeks?
Deletehowever it's a bit of shame that this is the last week at the summit for "19", as sct won't get another opportunity to shoot it down!
19 stayed at the top as long as it did because, well, people liked it, and also there were a bunch of remixes Hardcastle released, in the style of Frankie Goes to Hollywood before him.
Deleteyes, the feeding out of remixes would explain the longevity at the top for this particular single (as like the frankie ones) with punters buying more than one mix - presumably they all counted as sales for that particular track, regardless of format? but that doesn't explain why people were still buying hits that had been at the top of the charts for eons before the remix market took off. who was running out to buy "bohemian rhapsody" in its seventh week at number one for example? maybe it was people who listened to the radio and thought "well, once it starts plummetting down the charts then i won't hear it there again, so maybe i should buy myself a copy now?". but whatever the reason, i'm afraid it still beats me. in my case (assuming i hadn't already taped someone else's copy) i would simply wait until a hit single i liked had exited both the charts and radio airplay, so i could then buy it from the ex-chart/surplus stock bin or as an ex-jukebox copy for next-to-nothing!
Deletefurther to the above: in contrast to most, one big hit single i remember having a really hard time acquiring second-hand was "boogie nights" by heatwave - probably because it was still being regularly played in discos long after it had left the charts. in fact it wasn't until nearly a year after its chart run that i finally managed to pick up a cheap copy - via a friend of my sister whose family owned a boozer, with whom i made an arrangement to buy it once the jukebox was updated!
DeleteOne of the first (if not the first) Bargain Bin single I ever purchased (from Debenhams, Romford) was 'Silver Star' by the Four Seasons. I had been fascinated by the song since its first play on Tom Browne's Sunday Chart show where he (mistakenly?) played the long version which was on the B Side. I really wanted to hear it again, and hear it right to the end as he stopped it at around 3:45, just where it starts to pick up speed again after the slow middle section. You never heard the long version on the radio usually and it's a real treat.
Deleteback in the mid-70's when we were in our mid-teens a couple of friends and i used to regularly play subbuteo, with the playing time determined by choice of records by the players in turn (three tracks a half). so of course whoever was losing chose a longer track as their last pick from our pooled collection of singles and one or two albums in order to try and draw or even win the game, and i remember the extended 6 minute version of "silver star" that one of my chums owned getting an awful lot of play as a result! as did the equally long disco mix version on the other side of a previous single of theirs called "who loves you" (the bits that were left out of the single edit were far better than the rest to my recollection). but the track that almost inevitably got picked as a match saver/winner more than any other was "won't get fooled again" from "the story of the who" album, as clocking in at close to 10 minutes it was at least three minutes longer than anything else we had to hand!
Deletewas it here that i pointed out it was a bit disappointing in retrospect that tom browne the DJ stopped doing the top 40 show not long before his musical namesake first appeared in it? talking of which: i went to a retro disco for the middle-youth last weekend, and one of the tracks i made a point of running out onto the dance floor to boogie on down to was "funkin' for jamaica"!
DeleteWon't Get Fooled Again originally appeared on the Who's Next album, of course - another all-time classic album as far as I am concerned.
DeleteMoore & Lynott - Great rock track, and a driving performance to help us forget the dreadful CSO in the video.
ReplyDeleteThe Crowd - Not very good, but in an honourable cause. If you've done fire marshal training as I have, then you will have probably seen footage of the Bradford fire. Once seen, never forgotten. Awful.
Mai Tai - Not bad but inevitably not as amusing as the video. And 'Body And Soul' is better.
Kool & The Gang - Dross.
Propaganda - Best thing on the show, I am frankly amazed that it don't go rocketing up the chart afterwards. Maybe people were scared of Claudia. 'A Secret Wish' is a mostly terrific album, and as with FGTH there are multiple interesting mixes of many of the songs.
Breakers - One of the WORST singles ever made, sadly we'll see more of it, followed by one of Madge's songs, followed by mid-80s therefore not very good Bowie.
So Paul Hardcastle didn't remix 19 every week as he seemed to claim on 'The Story Of..' documentary. Just once.
There seems to have been about a hundred-odd remixes of 19 from that day to this, as far as Google tells me anyway. TOTP just played one of them.
DeleteIndeed, but in the doco, the inference from Mr. Hardcastle is that they were remixing specifically FOR TOTP to keep it interesting. Which would evidently seem to be not the case.
DeleteAs we say goodbye to Paul Hardcastle's 19, I just recalled a similar novelty cricket tune called "19 Not Out" by The Commentators, which charted shortly after Hardcastle's No.1.
DeleteI remember the lyrics "Lords, Headingley, Oval, cucumber sandwich." Notoriously led by Rory Bremner who loved impersonating Richie Benaud. I guess this one's for you sct353:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3bl4xaFZMM
Yep, England (Allan Lamb excepting) were rubbish in that series, but saying that anyone facing Marshall, Garner, Holding and Baptiste would struggle to make inroads. Read 'Absolutely Foxed' by Graeme Fowler and he tells of how the relentless pace just wore you down. I went along to day 1 of the 1984 Lords Test in that series and saw Foxy make a lot of his runs, but rain stopped play and I never saw him complete his admirable century on day 2. England should have won that game actually, but they were blown away by Greenidge and Gomes on the final day. Soul destroying.
DeleteNothing to do with ToTP or Bremner's record really!
... and allan lamb of course wasn't even actually english!
DeleteI noticed that Gary Moore's miming was terrible on this studio performance, being out of synch on several occasions right from the start, and right up to the instrumental break.
ReplyDeleteAlso, no-one mentioned whether the 30-second short clip of the Crowd video was this short in the original TOTP broadcast in 1985, or was this only done now by BBC4?
You could say that the entire Top 5 got a fair old play this week, with Moore & Lynott played in full, along with the No.1 Paul Hardcastle, and The Crowd as a main feature, and then Marrilion (No.3) and Duran Duran (No.2) getting their fair share of above-average play in the top 10 video rundown, especially as these two 'potential' No.1s were getting stuck in the system behind a rock-solid No.1 for 5 weeks, and refusing to budge!
Dory, it was mentioned above that both DLT and Rolf Harris were part of the Crowd ensemble, so it's BBC4 cutting it short.
DeleteRestored version of 6/6/85 with the full Crowd video (taken from a youtube upload) re-inserted back in:
ReplyDeleteTOTP 06/06/1985
Full restored list:
https://drykid.github.io/
Has anyone (Neil B?) got an original copy of this episode, so that we can see how The Crowd single was shown in full, as BBC4 has reduced it down to a measly 35 seconds this week in 2018, and I'm sure the Beeb showed a good 3 minutes or so of it at least, way back in 1985!
ReplyDeleteI haven't got it Dory. However, the song clocked in at just 2:37. There was an 'extended' 12" version but I have never heard that.
DeleteIncidentally, on the subject of long songs on 7" and harking back to the 'Silver Star' thread above, I've just seen that 'We are the World' clocked in at a horrifying 7:05!
The unedited clip is on YouTube, which shows that the whole song got played originally; given it is quite a short song, I would imagine the same was also the case during the two weeks it was at number 1. I haven't seen any links to a full original recording of this show.
DeleteHas anyone got any contact with Neil B? I guess he would have a copy of the original 7th June 1985 show.
DeleteJohn, I suppose you mean this clip, and yep, TOTP did show the full video from first frame to closing frame as you can see here with Simon Bates introducing it:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKTe2o6q6xY
Good Lord, didn't The Nolans look absolutely fantastic in it!
That's the one, Dory.
DeleteFor goodness sake, nobody you shouldn't see appears until around 1:18 and then only fleetingly. Blink and you'd miss him!
Deletecouldn't they have just pixelled out the "offending" faces? mind you as far as i'm concerned every single performer involved can be a pedo/sexual deviant, as i have no interest in watching or even listening to a second of it!
DeleteYeah just blurring the faces would be far more sensible. I remember Elton John's "Are You Ready For Love?" video doing that, I think because it featured his ex-manager who he had since fallen out with.
DeleteCertainly if BBC4 had done that with this episode then I wouldn't have even bothered doing a restored version. It would still have been close enough to the show as originally broadcast to make it a pointless exercise. I only felt the need to do a restored version beause their preferred solution was to cut out about 80% of the song instead.
Noticing DryKid has put a restored version of this episode & the next on his site, with the full Crowd clip, the sound is louder on those, than on the You Tube clip mentioned above.
DeleteOnly small gripe/query I have with DryKid's restoration is with this edition, the BBC Four section has been 'patched into' his copy, causing a sound jump.
Was there a technical reason why you had to 'patch' it in, as the rest of the clip is ok, plus the next edition wasn't 'patched'
Dickie’s worn that triangular pocket top before, and goodness knows how many times Slimes has worn that charismatic jacket. No “Tin Tin” in the rundown for Dickie and Slimes just refers to “Bowie”!
ReplyDeleteGary and Phil (or Phil and Gary, as Dickie announces them first time round) in a field of their own. Until scouring the web tonight I didn’t know Gary Moore was from Northern Ireland and he got his rugged features by having a pint glass shoved in his face in a bar. When was the last time we saw a Flying V guitar on TOTP, then?
The Crowd, cut to even bigger ribbons than “Touch Too Much” by AC/DC. Being something of a football groundhopper, I was in the club bar at Wimbledon after they’d beaten Blackpool 5-0 in a Fourth DIvision game when the telly started showing the horror at Valley Parade. It numbed the senses.
Come on, Mai Tai, either you all wear one glove / mitten, two, or none. Have some symmetry! And where’s Pretend Prince gone? Shame they didn’t do a medley of a certain TV theme and a Slade slowie, otherwise we could’ve had Mai Tai Chai Mai My Oh My.
Heavily permed syrup from Kool etc. Montreux? Try getting away with that in Montrose!
Claudia, why the long nose? Why have we lost one mugshot Propaganda lad and why were we unable to properly see the one on show? Great tambourine work there but minus points for the lack of cymbal. The ladies’ gear made me hungry for a pack of Pacers.
“Frankie”, shit of the highest order.
Madge, much better. One of only three of hers I liked enough to buy.
We were missing Rimmer, Cat, Kryton and the other one from that Bowie video. Extraordinary facial critique afterwards by Dickie!
Boooo! We’ll never hear Phyllis Nelson again. Bastards!
No, Slimes, Katrina’s not from Norfolk, but fair play for properly placing the origin of the band (this being an incarnation of Mama’s Cookin’ from just outside Thetford).
A decent slice of Marillion there. Did Fish dance in stilettoes in the snow, then? Enduring image.
Slimes, who’s Dixie Peach? Never heard of him. At least mention it’ll be his debut next week. Sheesh. By the way, what’s the fecking time? You normally tell us every five minutes.
i think the last flying v guitar used on the show belonged to kk downing of judas priest. but before that i have a dim memory of the doll playing one too. didn't gary moore's fellow thin lizzy guitarist brian robertson also sustain some serious injuries in a bar brawl?
Deleteas for katrina, i suppose she could have come from norfolk, virginia?
Alas, Katrina hails from Topeka, Kansas.
DeleteArthur, Slimy's Accurist sponsorship deal had run out hence the lack of time checks. And the clothing deal with Man At C&A had run out for both presenters, in Bates' case at some point back in 1979.
DeleteI don't think anyone has mentioned the sad passing of Sir Ken Dodd at the grand old age of 90. Second biggest seller with 'Tears' in 1965, my favourite single of his was the no21 hit from 1975; 'Think of me (wherever you are)'.
ReplyDeleteRIP Ken.
I rather liked the way Ken stuck his fingers up at the Inland Revenue one final time by marrying his partner two days before he died. We also lost The Real Thing's Eddy Amoo a few weeks back.
Deletedoddy might have been a fine comdedian, but i still resent him for feeling the need to use his connections within the beeb to appear on totp in the early 80's with some rubbish that was about 20 years out of date and nodody was ever going to buy. and (as i discovered afterwards) by doing so putting paid to blue rondo a la turk's chances of ever having a hit single - thus paving the way for their mediocre imitators modern romance to clean up when it came to the new romantic latin revival of the early 80's!
DeleteThat would be the not-so-memorable minor hit 'Hold my Hand' from late 1981. I think we all gave that the 'thumbs down' when it was shown on the repeat run!
DeleteI've looked to see if Ken's 11/12/75 performance of 'Think of me (wherever you are)' is on YT. It's not there, so I guess the show is wiped. What I did chance upon was these on the search results, which was a nice surprise and I certainly haven't seen before:-
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrQiP2Hqy8o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKp-Kgw_wsA
*** NOTICE ***
ReplyDeleteIn reply to sct353 above, I am sharing this video, which I am dedicating not only to Sir Ken Dodd's memory but also to my favourite musician of all time: Benny Gallagher, whose retirement has just been announced on another site. Graham Lyle has been officially retired since 2009, but has periodically reunited with Benny for live performances since then.
I compiled the video myself, mainly from snaps I have taken on my travels to see Gallagher & Lyle in concert since 2010. Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSdoR_6uvpE
From what I can gather, Tina Turner's performances on TOTP of 'We Don't Need Another Hero' - written by Graham Lyle with Terry Britten - will not be shown on BBC4.
*** THE CURTAIN FALLS ***
Thanks Julie....some familiar scenes in that montage.
Delete2 TOTP in one day... I am spoilt..
ReplyDeleteOh no it's Slimes... never mind.
A bit of rock to kick us off this evening. Now I know this song but not sure if it's this version. Did someone else do this? Or does it just sound like "Run to the hills" Was that Iron Maiden???
First time I've heard this all the way through and it's not as bad as I thought.
Next up The Crowd which is all for a good cause so I'll move on...though we didn't get much of it did we..
Mai Tai. Myself and Wifey (yes she's still around - although losing her to The Durrells in 20 minutes) both tapping our feet to this one. Proper school disco tune. Big fan of this one.. The one glove was not just an MJ thing then...
Wifey tells me she used to wear one white, lace, fingerless glove but she has no idea why. Fashion???
The Montreaux festival was a big thing at the time. Remember lots of performances being shown on the BBC, Cherish is a nice song, not a classic, but still not bad from the gang.
"I like this one" chips in Wifey.
Duel is a big fave as I mentioned last week (this morning).
Amazing this got no higher it's such a classic tune. Gets so much airplay and it's a brilliant pop song.
Was this their only hit?? Article in last months Classic Pop Mag I think, will dig it out for a read.
Breakers:
Frankie... aaahhhhh..... my goodness I hate this song. And I LOVED it when I was 10.
Madonna. Great tune here. One of her finest.
David Bowie - Silly song, silly video, everyone has an off day.
That Moore/Lynott video is so dodgy.
Nice to see a bit more of Marillion. Will we get a Katrina performance though?
Duran Duran - and Wifey misses out as she's already left the room....
Paul Hardcastle with 19 for the last time, enjoying it still. Never grows old for me..
Not too bad a show..
As a side note - we never get to hear the Philip Bailey follow up that only got to 39 last week so I dug it out. The only thing of note (cos it's not a great song) was the cover had a sticker on plugging "Easy Lover" as the B side. A desperate attempt to pick up some extra sales..
DeleteI much prefer Philip Bailey's Chinese Wall to Easy Lover, to be honest.
DeleteAnother good episode. Seems to be going through a good parch - hardly touched the FF.
ReplyDeleteNot sure why Simes said the Propoganda ‘woman’ was ‘susan’. The singer was Claudia Brucken. Does that mean the other woman wasn’t Anne Dudley?
Delete