When you think the future looks bright
09/01/86 (Mike Smith & Steve Wright)
Feargal Sharkey – “You Little Thief” (26)
This follow up to A Good Heart peaked at number 5 and was Feargal's final top ten hit.
Full Force – “Alice I Want You Just For Me” (27) (video)
With their only top ten hit, peaking as it did at number 9.
Jennifer Rush – “Ring Of Ice” (23)
Peaked at number 14.
Mr Mister – “Broken Wings” (31) (breaker)
Peaked at number 4 to become their only top ten hit.
Dire Straits – “Walk Of Life” (30) (breaker)
The fourth single from their Brothers in Arms album, and it became the most successful peaking at number 2.
King – “Torture” (34)
Their final hit, it peaked at number 23.
Sting – “Russians” (20) (video)
Peaked at number 12.
Pet Shop Boys – “West End Girls” (1)
The first of two weeks at number one.
Aretha Franklin – “Who’s Zoomin’ Who” (25) (audience dancing/credits)
Peaked at number 11.
January 16th is next.
The Gruesome Twosome team up again, though they manage to avoid being seriously annoying until the final link, when Smitty makes some punchable facial expressions and hand gestures while giving us two crap jokes in a row. The Pet Shop Boys one was particularly awful, and if you are going to deliberately get Urethra Franklin’s name wrong, at least try to be a bit more imaginative…
ReplyDeleteWrighty’s comparison of Feargal Sharkey to Michael Heseltine was highly topical at the time, as this show went out on the very day that Hezza resigned mid-Cabinet meeting and stormed out of Number 10 over the Westland affair. Feargal is in a much more affable mood, and he and his band certainly throw themselves into this performance, with the annoying sax player present and correct but the contingent of backing singers now reduced to just two. As has already been mentioned in an earlier blog, Heartbreaker keyboardist Benmont Tench wrote this as an answer record to A Good Heart, which Maria McKee had written about their split. As Feargal was friends with both of them, he decided the diplomatic thing to do was record both songs! While energetic and well-produced, I don’t think this is as catchy or memorable as the previous hit, and indeed he would not reach the Top 20 again after this until 1991. Still, at least there were no cock-ups here of the kind that plagued his performance of the song on a plane during a Noel Edmonds Christmas morning live show, when he couldn’t hear the backing track and just stood there like a lemon while the song played!
Full Force next, with quite a slinky little soul tune which is marred a bit by some Art of Noise-style production gimmickry which now sounds very dated. The video is simple but effective, with the audience giving off a bit of a Cabaret-style vibe. Ms Rush meanwhile returns to the studio for what I think must be her final appearance. I remember this one from the time, though I have barely heard it at all since then, and it’s a decent enough slice of pop-rock, just not especially memorable. However, Jen puts in an energetic display here and does a her best to sell the record.
Both breakers will be on again, so we come to King with the kind of performance we have come to expect from them, and a song that starts sluggishly but gets better as it builds, with Paul managing to inject some real soul into his vocal. Not only was this their last hit, but they split up soon afterwards. Mr Sumner proceeds to give us his gloomy take on the Cold War, which was already being overtaken by events with Gorbachev now in power in the USSR and the first signs of thaw beginning to appear. I do actually quite like this from a musical perspective, as the tune and the arrangement are powerful, but there is a clunkiness and sense of self-importance about the lyrics which bring the song down a bit. Rather a pretentious video too - was the old chap supposed to remind viewers of all those ageing Soviet leaders who had died one after the other over the preceding few years?
Part 2 - PSB arrive at number 1 and celebrate with yet another trip to the studio, but it's hard to know why they bothered when they do nothing different to before. Aretha then plays us out, with the camera focus once again firmly on the cheerleaders rather than the wider crowd. A decent enough dancey effort from the Queen of Soul, if rather lightweight compared to the hits of her late 60s heyday - I have no idea what "zooming" is supposed to mean in this context, either. It was nice to see the death of Phil Lynott acknowledged by Smitty during the show, though of course TOTP wouldn't honour his memory for long as Yellow Pearl was dropped as the theme tune a couple of months later. I remember Dustin Gee, Les Dennis' comedy partner, died at about the same time and that the 6-year-old me was shocked by both deaths as they had both been on TV quite a bit over the previous few months. Smitty also mentions the demise of Ricky Nelson, who was killed when his plane crash-landed - I read somewhere once that he was freebasing cocaine at the time, but I've no idea if that is true...
Deletejohn you've reminded me of what i think was one of my first experiences of playing one of those "give us a break" pub quiz machines that were based on the DLT radio show quiz of the same name. i visited a friend who lived in yeovil, who suggested we go to the westland (helicopters) social club for a drink. which seemed odd to me, but he said there was such a quiz machine there that we could play. so we went along and cleaned it out - which pretty much paid for the rest of our jugging that evening! that was the start of three or four fruitful years of playing such machines that heavily augmented my day job salary, before the manufacturers finally cottoned on and made them too hard to play!
DeleteBet you don't see those in pubs now?
DeleteAnyone remember Tidybeard's Telly Addicts pub quiz machine?
not that i visit pubs a lot these days, but i have noticed some have a machine that contains several quiz and game shows - none of which you can walk away from in profit, unlike the likes of "give us a break"! even at the peak of the pub trivia machine craze in the late 80's, although i was good i was only ever a talented amateur who netted perhaps three or four grand a year. however i did once meet a guy who was a full-timer that i witnessed cleaning out a machine after i had failed to do so. after that i became his "chauffeur" for the evening as i drove him around north london to various other places where he did likewise to similar machines with my occasional help (estimated profit for the night £50). he then bought me a curry in return and told me about his transient life, renting rooms for short lets whilst drifting around bars and clubas on his own emptying the machines until his face became too familar and he had to move on. i have to say that although i envied his skill, i didn't feel the same about his lifestyle!
Deletenot much to say about this one: three lesser efforts chart-wise by artists of whom i hated their big hits (feargal/ms rush/king) so not bothered about checking them out - even if i've forgotten them; full force just average club/dance music with samples sadly coming to the fore; sting carries on going up his own arse as a solo artist. and in my opinion aretha wasn't even the best soul singer in her own household (both erma and carolyn are preferable to my ears) - never mind the world! hmm, probably indicative of how the year will continue?
ReplyDeleteIf pushed, I would say I prefer You Little Thief to A Good Heart, it's a lot punchier and I like the brass section and the bitterness of the lyrics (does he really call the lady a "whore"?! That's what it sounds like!). Horrible tops on the backing singers.
ReplyDeleteFull Force, hmm, almost a not bad soul dance tune, but it sounds awkward when they try to fit it to the 80s up-to-the-minute production that hadn't been perfected yet. Why does the keyboardist have baby bottles? What is the rugby ball-headed bloke with the gramophone supposed to be? So many questions.
Jennifer Rush struggles with the follow up to a massive hit syndrome, this is more up tempo but it never gets going, stuck in a lower gear throughout despite her attempts to make it look more exciting than it is. Sounds oddly like Body Rock by Maria Vidal.
Breakers we'll see on Friday, presumably, then King with their forgotten last try at a hit, I'd forgotten it anyway, and nothing here makes me sorry about that. Paul conservatively dressed for a change. Asking for trouble to call your tune Torture.
Sting with his "I want you to take me very seriously" Cold War ditty (how about a Cod War ditty, Gordon?). I suppose we hadn't had a nuclear Armageddon tune for a while, and here's another one. Musically suitably portentous, but not exactly a wow at parties.
Pet Shop Boys commence a great career in style (not sure this is the right song to clap along to, mind), and then Aretha Franklin with a hit I'd much rather hear on the radio than Respect or A Little Prayer for the billionth time.
Thanks meer2. A few good reasons to see this one, so much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteFeargal Sharkey – You little Thief – Frankly underwhelming compared to the previous smash. I see the two drummers have been retained but this song hasn’t got the same pounding beat to it, so one would have done.
Full Force – Alice – FF stands for ‘Full force’ or ‘Fast forward’… ugh!
Jennifer Rush – Ring of Ice – Just not in the same league as the big hit and, as noted before, my next favourite tracks from the album were on the B Side of ‘The Power of love’. Hold that thought…
Breakers – Mr Mister – Broken Wings - USA were having a pretty fine run of no1s, some of which inexplicably failed to take off over here. This one did thank goodness and it’s a radio staple to this day. Not seen the video before; look forward to seeing more of it. Dire Straits – Walk of Life - …continuing the thought on B Sides. This was the B Side to the first single from ‘Brothers in Arms’ – ‘So far away’. Upon first playing that single having not heard either side before, I was bewildered as to why the sides weren’t reversed. After the concert tour when this went down so well, someone at the record company must have woken up to its hit potential and, given the relatively poor sales of ‘So far away’, whacked it out as a single release. Every party I went to at the time had it on the turntable and a no2 chart position (equal highest chart placing for the band) doesn’t flatter it at all. With the equally danceable ‘Two Young Lovers’ live version on the B Side, this was a record buyers treat. Two great breakers in summary.
King – Torture – Not so! Don’t recall this, and checking, it is the band’s last single release (perhaps they split up?).
Sting – Russians – Everything he did wasn’t magic…
Pet Shop Boys – West End Girls – Came from nowhere seemingly at the time, but how many people have heard the quite dreadful original release from April 1984? As for this itself, it’s eerily endearing despite the lack of tuneful singing and I have to say that I have never got tired of hearing it. Like our friend on the ‘Number ones of the 80s’ blog, I agree that Neil Tennant sounds exactly like Al Stewart (of ‘Year of the Cat’ fame) but have never thought about it in comparison to Marshall Hain’s ‘Dancing in the City’. Here’s the original if you haven’t heard it before.
http://www.45cat.com/record/a4292
Arthur Franklin – Who’s zoomin’ who danceout – Dreadful effort, but vaguely funny attempt at humour on the intro!
The original West End Girls is not great. Recorded in the US with Bobby O, the original Opportunities single flopped as well. On remix later and once this song had hit Number One the whole album was remixed before release.
DeleteThe original Opportunities video was pretty strange, with Neil in a manhole. Ahem.
Deletethx the penny just dropped on me (and a consequent laugh-out-loud moment ensued) after reading the above comment for the third or fourth time!
DeleteAh, yes, creeps up on you, that one. But the video really does feature Neil in the ground, so maybe it was an intentional pun?
Deleteit's still making me chuckle thx! slighty related to the above was the fact that renowned 50's jazz drummer shelly manne (who was often behind the kit for henry mancini's classic early recordings) opened up his own jazz club - that he called "shelly's manne hole" ho ho!
DeletePick of the bunch this week for me was Full Force. On the outset, this might not seem to be anything out of the ordinary, but considering that Full Force was around in the USA for some time, with rare or no footage, this new video seemed somewhat of a relief for Full Force fans.
ReplyDeleteDespite this effort being their only top ten hit in the UK, Full Force were soon to be making one of the most dynamic partnerships ever seen in pop music, i.e., when they joined forces with Samantha Fox in 1988, and had numerous number ones in America with here, most notably Naughty Girls Need Love Too.
As Samantha Fox's solo career was somewhat average here in the UK in 1986-1987, the clever collaboration with Full Force when she left these shores for the US, was to be a career defining moment for her, and at the same time, took Full Force to another level themselves, i.e., to a No.1 band. Absolutely brilliant!
We'll be enjoying Sam's fabulous debut hit 'Touch me (I want your body)' very soon...another parenthesised song title!
ReplyDeleteIndeed we will sct353, her solo story has not started yet in 1986, but I feel her best came when she moved to America in 1987-1988 when Full Force took her career to a completely new level by being her backing band, and changing over from their lesser successful collaboration with Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam.
DeleteIt just occurred to me that this was Full Force's first single on their own, as their previous singles in the UK and USA were as a 'featuring' entity with Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam 'featuring' Full Force.
DeleteThe success of this first one on their own called Alice I Want You Just For Me, and making it to No.9 in the UK, meant that Full Force were a 'force' to be reckoned with, and they were soon to take Samantha Fox into a whole new success level in the USA at least, as Full Force 'featuring' S-S-S-S-S-Samantha Fox, and all the way N-N-N-N-Number one!
Check out these two massive number ones for her in the USA with Full Force:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB6b5puSpLw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXEN57rFnIM
sct i hope you're not being serious about that samantha fox track?
DeleteWhen I was in English class in school we had a lesson or two on song lyrics, and Sting's Russians was one of those discussed. Sadly Samantha Fox never came up.
ReplyDeleteWe has those lessons too.. although we did Morriseys "Every day is like sunday"
DeleteHey, that has a nuclear bomb theme too!
DeleteThe class were invited to suggest their own songs, hence hours devoted to the very doomiest of heavy metal angst. "Yeah, it's about a soldier in hospital without any arms, legs or face..."
I was quite saddened today when I watched MTV Classic when they showed the video of Into The Groove by Madonna. Why? Because they pixelled out several pieces, including Madonna and her co-stars in the video every time they lit up a cigarette and took a puff, and also other things which I could not understand what exactly was being pixelled out.
ReplyDeleteIn fact it was a pixel fest, and a sad state of the times, as these golden classics of videos are being mauled and disrespected by people working on channels like MTV Classic who were probably not even born in 1985, and jealous of these pop stars and the whole fun element of the 1980s which they themselves cannot enjoy in the 2010's because of the forced technology/PC era that they are living in, i.e., an era of robots, not people.
I mean even BBC4 in the TOTP reruns did not stoop this low to hide images of smoking within pop videos, thank goodness, but I sincerely hope I don't see any more of these so called MTV channels destroying classic pop videos like this, but somehow I may be disappointed as the new post-80s born generation take over along with their jealousy of the previous generation who were able to have more freedom and liberty than they have now.
I'm a non-smoker myself but I can't stand these people who try to pretend that smoking never existed, as it is more rife now in 2018 than ever before, despite not being shown on TV, so it is really hypocritical in my opinion.
Dory, the video of Into the Groove was pixelated on TOTP (even on a Smith edition, so it was done at the time).
DeleteOk, but what were they pixelating out?
DeleteA Miller Beer advert :-)
DeleteGood Lord
DeleteAverage songs with appalling presentation - not a great loss to BBC4 viewers, this one.
ReplyDeleteFirst duff link of the night comes as Mike Smith throws to Steve Wright clearly expecting him to announce some of the acts on the show. Instead he just introduced Feargal Sharkey, that well known 'band'...
As for his song, it's OK but not as good as his previous single.
Full Force - Awful rubbish that with its constant stings, just reminds me of Fur Q's 'Uzi Lover' from the genius mind of Chris Morris (if you've never watched The Day Today, you really should!)
The charts are introduced by Mike Smith who is supposed to be in blubmungous mode but just sounds incredibly insincere and the awful version of 'Yellow Pearl' they're using is in no way a fitting tribute to Phil Lynott in any case. Steve Wright then yet AGAIN refers to the breakers as 'bubbling under the chart'.No. They're. Not. Both breakers are dull anyway, so let's move on...
King - Here's one I did listen to all the way through as I must admit that I didn't know it. I was quite impressed, it has an interesting sound to it but I can see why it wasn't a massive hit as it's quite different to their earlier poppier stuff.
PSB affected by the curse of Mike Smith again though (shock!) we'll actually get to see them this week. Mike Smith has obviously never heard of the concept of a duo and therefore his 'joke' just makes him sound like a massive bell-end.
The Aretha Franklin song is her only decent one of the decade and I'm hoping it gets featured properly later.
Thanks, Meer. This link was way quicker than that there WeTransfer on my PC.
ReplyDeleteIt’s the return of the retards!
The Feargal Sharkey Band, apparently minus the bikini police cop backing singer. Are these two vocalists the duo who’d become the Wee Papa Girl Rappers?
Nodding Dog then points across the studio to a video. Par for the course. Dreadful annoying high pitched gimmicky noise from Full Force.
Here’s Heidi Stern again (Jennifer Rush’s real name) with that awkward type of follow-up, the anonymous mid-tempo pop canon.
My niece played ukulele and sang Train’s “Hey Soul Sister” to me recently, whereupon I proceeded to bore the life out of her by describing Mr. Mister, who were mentioned in the song’s lyrics. How to nurture the vacant look in an 11-year-old’s eyes.
“Walk Of Life”? I didn’t walk, I ran fast and FF’d this.
King with a song all about our hosts, and an apt title for this tosh which sounded like a B-side at best.
What’s Russian for FF?
Nice audience handclap action there for Neil Tennant’s first smash hit. See what I did there?
We finish with a decent soul disco effort from Aretha (sorry, Noax, this is all we get of it), stupidly mis-named by Shitty. One load of bollocks from him done, only 15 more this year to contend with.
perhaps the answer to what's russian for FF is in the question?
ReplyDeleteBlimey, just heard about Sir Cliff Richard winning £210,000 damages from the BBC for covering live footage of the raid on his home. Justice at last for him, but it was a hell of a long fight, wasn't it?
ReplyDeleteQuite right too in my opinion. I know the press have to have freedom to report genuine facts and investigate these cases but they went too far with this one. And then they nominated it for an award! Expect that sort of thing from The Sun but not the Beeb.
DeletePersonally, I think Sir Cliff should be awarded £210,000 damages from the bloody liar who made the accusations in the first place, not the BBC.
Deletemy personal belief regarding cliff (just in case nobody's aware already) is that he's been in lifelong public denial with regard to his sexuality, and that as such it's a case of no smoke without fire. but it looks like it won't be until he croaks before any dirt there might be surfaces s*vile-style...
DeleteI agree with you wilby, but I'm also glad that in this case, the judge - foe once - made a sensible decision. The hounding of people like him and Paul Gambaccini without even a charge being issued against them just exemplifies the media's current obsession with paedophiles, and the BBC should really have known better. No surprise to see one of the worst DGs in recent memory, Mark 'ginger prick' Thompson saying the BBC should appeal. No, they shouldn't. Not least because it would be wasting more public money.
Deletethanks for the support noax! i'm not implying that cliff is a pedo, just that he has some gay skeletons in his closet that he'll do anything to stop from becoming public knowledge. as for gambo, i heard him on what i think was radio 2 in a charity shop fairly recently, so i presume he has now officially been given the all-clear (but was he awarded financial damages a la cliff? i know he complained about loss of earnings whilst on the yewtree radar). however despite being "pardoned" the experience must have had an effect, as i had to ask the lady behind the counter if it was indeed him as he sounded so old and frail!
DeleteJust for clarification (who knows who reads this stuff?) - I was agreeing over the skeletons in the closet point. I have heard some stories, let's leave it there...
Delete16 Smithy shows means we are going to rattle though 86... And onto show 2 (with thanks to Meer)
ReplyDeleteOh no not Wrighthy. Hand clapping society 😂😂😂😂
I love this Feargal song. Not quite A Good Heart but it's a great pop song.
Fab start to the show. 😀
Full Force with possibly the most overused sample ever. Had forgotten about this. Singing along now though.
Video isn't up to much. Bit of imagination required.
Jennifer gets a chance to plug her new song. It's still not great. Hugely over produced but unlike Power it hasn't got the basic tune and lyrics to survive it. She's still doing that annoying clapping thing with her mic hand.
So long Phil Lynott and thanks for a great TOTP theme.
Breakers:
TUNE... Mister Mister. Quality song. And a US number one as well. Dad Rock at its finest.
Dire Staits with one of my Mums all time favourite, and most over played, songs. My god is 12 year old me sick of this song..
King back again.. How many hits did they chalk up? They just keep going don't they. No recollection of this one at all. Did he just sing "Cover me in cheesecake Swallow me whole " OMG
Sting. A full play for a fantastic song. Hugely impressed by the video too.
Will we get to see Charelle?
Pet Shop Boys... Miss a BBC4 showing again. 3 times theyve missed out now..
Shocking. Song of the 80s. They can afford the rest of the band now 😂😂
Who's Zoomin Who? You are Arthur.
I do like this tune. Not a classic though. Nice play out..
2nd good show in a row. 😀
You're correct, Morgie. Those King lyrics are "Love me like your favorite sweet, Your just desserts and more,
DeleteCover me in cheesecake mix, Swallow me up whole"! This was King's last hit. Paul King went on to be a Video DJ and also teamed up with Janice Long as judges on Sky's "Star Search", hosted by her bruvver. There's a great clip of them eulogising over Charlie Chalk ("Woof bark donkey", the mad drummer on Reeves and Mortimer's show).
morgie i presume you are referring to cherrelle and her top 10 hit "saturday love"? if so then pleasingly she'll be on the next edition to drag the show out of the doldrums it's been in thus far this year. it was actually a duet with featured guest alexander o'neal, and she reciprocated a couple of years later with his hit "never knew love like this" (both were written and produced by those gods of 80's dance music jam & lewis). o'neal had a solo hit the following month of this year with "if you were here tonight", which although not a j&l production is possibly better than both the above in my view. and will fortunately also be performing that on the show very soon
DeleteThanks Wilberforce. I don't recall the Cherelle song so will look forward to hearing it.
DeleteRussians was the forth single to be lifted from Sting's first solo album The Dream of The Blue Turtles and the only one to crack the Top 12.
ReplyDeleteI downloaded it the other day and couldn't help feel that if Sting's massive ego had allowed it to be a Police album what might have been, certainly not the pretentious effort it turned out to be.
Fortress Around Your Heart is a cracking song and with Andy's guitar and especially Stewart's drumming worthy of a Top 5, not the No.46 jazzy effort it was.
Also interesting that since leaving the Police, Sting has only had one Top 10 solo hit.
sting didn't really get back to form until he'd worked out all the jazzer-wannabe and other pretentiousnous out of his system and went back to basics (albeit very refined basics) with the early 90's album "ten summoner's tales" - complete with andy summers-replacement dominic miller (who was an early member of level 42 btw) and stewart copeland-alike vinnie colaiuta!
Deletetotp 23rd January 1986 is here:https://we.tl/7JxjVcUdJu
ReplyDeleteThanks gia. I notice that file is a VOB one, which may be difficult for some people to view - I can only get sound from it, and not vision. Hopefully Neil B will make an ordinary MP4 file available shortly.
DeleteFor playing vob files I would recommend downloading the K-Lite Codec Pack. It plays all known formats. The picture quality of vob is generally much better as this is commonly the first generation recording before re-converting again to mp4. Hope this helps.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sean, I'll bear that in mind.
Delete