The ladies in pink
31/07/86 (Janice Long & Mike Read)
Spandau Ballet – “Fight For Ourselves” (15)
Getting the show off to a fashionable start, but the song got no higher.
The Jesus & Mary Chain – “Some Candy Talking” (13) (video)
Their debut top 40 hit was now at its peak.
Five Star – “Find The Time” (10)
In the studio with another dance routine and the song went up three more places.
Paul McCartney – “Press” (31) (breaker)
A relative failure for Paul, peaking at number 25.
The Smiths – “Panic” (18) (breaker)
Peaked at number 11.
Stan Ridgway – “Camouflage” (6)
The studio has become a jungle and Stan's only hit went up two more places.
Chris De Burgh – “The Lady In Red” (1)
The first of three weeks for Chris's only number one hit.
It Bites – “Calling All The Heroes” (36) (video/credits)
Became their only top ten hit when it peaked at number 6.
7th August is next but it is yet another Mike Smith edition.
Janice not that responsive to Mike's attempts to make her laugh, I notice. Must have been that dig at her fashion sense. Great idea, Mike!
ReplyDeleteSpandau Ballet go for the quasi-inspirational anthem then fall a bit flat. Don't know what Gary Kemp thought he was dressed as. You have to be suspicious of a pop record that includes its own cheering (see also: Ray Stevens).
Jesus and Mary Chain with a solid piece of noise rock indie, not their best, but a good introduction to a respectable if not spectacular chart career. Nice to hear a sound that was striving to be different in a welcome way. Unless you were Mike Smith, who after seeing this banned them from his Breakfast Show because he thought the song was about heroin, a claim hotly denied by the Reid brothers who said it was about a girl named Candy. Dunno who was right, but the publicity did them no harm.
Then a crunching gear change to Five Star, and a backhanded compliment from Janice. Were they wearing bubble wrap? Usual military drilling, song's not bad, better in the chorus though, which is tuneful enough without being inspired.
Breakers: going Underground in his video, Paul McCartney proving his man of the people credentials, to himself if nobody else, but this was real autopilot stuff, seemingly inspired by reading an instruction manual for his new VHS recorder. Then the famed Panic video, one of The Smiths' best tunes and maybe the only hit to mention Dundee. Steve Wright convinced himself the DJ they wanted to hang was him.
Stan's back, despite a bunch of other possible candidates for a studio appearance. Much the same as before, except the band have pissed off (though the shop dummy GI is still there), and the set designer has just seen Platoon.
Smart casual for Chris as he ascends to the top spot, and I hope that bloke down the front trying to steal his thunder was pleased with himself. Was Chris inspired by the famed woman who was present at the FBI's shooting of John Dillinger, and who was portrayed in a movie by former Nancy Drew Pamela Sue Martin? Er, maybe.
It Bites - shouldn't they have been in the studio? They seem the type. Another one hit wonder (how many has that been this year?), but novel lyrics and a jaunty production made this a popular radio hit. I liked their follow up too, but it flopped, and they retreated into prog, oddly.
Still no sign of Gwen Guthrie - I could have sworn she had a studio appearance. Forgot Lulu was flogging a Shout remix, thankfully despite what the continuity announcer said she didn't appear tonight.
Apparently William Reid did admit later that the song was about drugs. Lulu (sadly) and Gwen will both be on next time.
DeleteThe Paul McCartney video was quite poignant here, as the London Underground only a few weeks later in September 1986 suffered the famous Kings Cross fire, so perhaps it was just as well that we saw no more of this Macca video and that it got no higher, cos it would likely have been shown more in the following weeks had it got to top ten or top 5, which would probably have done so at around the time of the fire. Spooky!
DeleteThe Kings Cross fire was over a year later in November 1987.
DeleteThanks for the correction, it is becoming so long ago now that 31 or 32 years does not seem to be distinct from each other in the memory!
DeleteMike Read and Janice once again form an effective partnership here, though I'm not sure Janice was completely enamoured of her co-host's comments about her stripy jumper - it certainly did have a rugby quality about it, however. This is the last we will see of Mike for almost 18 months, which perhaps suggests that his relations with Michael Hurll were still rocky.
ReplyDeleteThe Spands return to the studio for the first time since 1984, and were doubtless hoping this new single would be the start of a big comeback. Although there was one further Top 10 hit to come, the underwhelming performance of this lively but ultimately rather bland effort was a warning sign that their time was passing. Tony's hair is less appalling here than it was in the video, but Gary looks very slappable indeed in that big baggy cap. Those controversial Scottish miserabilists Jesus and Mary Chain provide a bracing contrast with this defiantly low-key and depressing number, but it gets better as it goes along and the urgent guitar parts sound as if they might have been an influence on Coldplay. The video is as subdued as the song, though the rapid intercutting between the band playing and the shots of the couples walking around outside near the end is quite effective. Apparently that idiot Smitty, taking a leaf from Mr Read's book, convinced Radio 1 to ban the song for promoting drug use.
Janice was clearly a big fan of the Chain, but reading between the lines not so enamoured of Five Star, with her barbed comment about them never being out of the charts. Their outfits here are probably the worst yet, and the song is less distinctive than their two previous hits, very much following the now-established formula without doing anything interesting. We will see no more of Macca's effort, which is no great loss as it is utterly forgettable, the first single from his critically-panned Press to Play album. Cringey video as well, as he does his patronising, thumbs aloft, man of the people act on the Tube.
Stan clearly didn't let that Smitty interview put him off making another appearance, and the dummy's back too, along with as much greenery as the local garden centre could provide. CDB celebrates reaching number 1 with a second performance of his own, wearing a horrible baggy jacket and sadly just miming this time. The playout track is decent, straight-ahead pop from a Cumbrian group who had waited several years for success, but would never make the Top 40 again after this brief taste of the big time. The video is nothing special, but enlivened by some fancy camera trickery.
I always thought there was a hit of Steely Dan about It Bites. Follow-up "Whole New World" was awesome but stalled at 54.
Deletein much later years i got to hear a macca track only released on the 12" version of "play" called "hang glide", which is a quite interesting instrumental groove that pre-dates his electronica/dance efforts under the alias the fireman:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKKOwBPoIgc
after the drubbing of the "press to play" album macca then collaborated with elvis costello on several songs for "flowers in the dirt", that was hailed as a return to form and his best work since the beatles (with costello being compared to lennon). funnily enough though nobody ever seems to rave about that album nowadays as they do the later beatles ones!
As I think we've mentioned before, virtually every new album Macca has released in the last 30 years seems to get hailed as a return to form, and then promptly gets forgotten about!
DeleteThe follow up to Press (Pretty Little Head) didn't chart and the third single (Only Love Remains) struggled to get in the top 40. Macca recorded a studio performance for the latter but it was never shown as the single went down the charts.
DeletePress To Play has its moments but it is Macca on autopilot and Flowers In The Dirt was much better, although nowhere near being his best album in 30 years!
Six of the tracks on Press to Play were actually co-written by 10cc's Eric Stewart, who collaborated with Macca quite extensively during the 80s.
Deletei'd forgotten that eric stewart (presumably twiddling his thumbs since splitting from graham gouldman?) became one of macca's cohorts back then. another one was the sadly-wasted hamish stuart, who was the soaring falsetto voice of the brilliant average white band. what must have musicians of that stature thought about having to deal with/tollerate the lovely linda?
DeleteEric Stewart was in the video for Take It Away which we saw during the 82 re-runs and, if it appears in the top 40 breakers, he's in the video for Only Love Remains
DeleteHe was reportedly disappointed with the way his co-writes turned out, saying that they were really good songs that got overworked by Macca in the studio. Some other co-writes from the same sessions ended up as b sides for Macca's singles around this time.
For completeness' sake, here is the missing chunk of the final link:
ReplyDeletehttps://we.tl/t-tpQ7OELP09
Stan Ridgway: I remember his performance well. My dear Dad put his head round the door, believing he was hearing a comeback single by Frankie Laine!
ReplyDeleteOf course, I knew 'Panic' was not a new single by T.Rex. Hanged DJ, is it you?
Five Star's 'Find The Time' was co-written by Paul Gurvitz - brother of 'Classic' hitmaker Adrian, who performed alongside him in hard rock supergroup The Baker Gurvitz Army. The sibling quintet's pool of seasoned song sources also included glam rock star turned disco producer Barry Blue, and one-time Tina Turner sideman Billy Livsey; both 'System Addict' and 'Rain Or Shine' are in the latter's song collection.
It Bites have gone down in history as one of the great one-hit wonders. Despite their obvious enthusiasm and high level of musicianship, they were somehow unable to build on the exposure that had resulted from their astounding debut.
Not sure if It Bites are still going, their last album according to Amazon was in 2012. But if you want a Best Of, they seem to have released about three! Plus live albums!
Deletei was informed that a guy from my year at school once worked as a roadie for them on tour, so presumably they were a bit more than the flash in the pan their singles chart statistic suggests?
DeleteJulie, I must admit that when hearing this Stan Ridgeway effort, I was thinking it sounded more like something from 1975/76 rather than 1986. The song No Charge by JM Barrie came to mind!
Deletespandau: another one that's slipped into virtual darkness for me, as they were well past their shark-jumping moment by now. actually on another listen the chorus is quite punchy, although all that momentum is lost once we hit the snore-fest verses. i wonder if gary kemp always had to bear steve norman's sax-playing role in mind when he wrote the songs, as he would be utterly redundant otherwise. visually it seems that gary's becoming aware that he's no longer as hirsute as the rest up top
ReplyDeletejesus & mary chain: i'm not totally sure of the origins of their name, but no doubt it was used as an ironic means of inciting controversy and eliciting disgust from the god-fearing masses - of which there were a lot more of back then than now (i certainly remember a middle-aged woman in my workplace not being impressed). the real irony though is that the likes of the NME somehow managed to convince a whole generation of disaffected youth that they were god-like visionaries and soothsayers, when in fact they were merely untalented oiks making a crude form of noise barely qualifying as music (was the film "forrest gump" inspired by them?). a classic case of "the emperor's new clothes". i know a glaswegian guy who told me he was invited to audition for them before they broke nationally, but that the racket emanating through the rehearsal room doors was so horrendous he didn't even bother going inside!
five star: janice echoes my thoughts exactly about the omnipresent pearsons, although i don't suppose her rather snarky intro went down too well with their dad? not one of their better-remembered efforts, and actually if i didn't know this was them i might actually think it quite good - why oh why couldn't they just have had a hit with this, and then disappeared without trace?
The JAMC said they got their name from a line in the Pat Boone Christathon movie The Cross and the Switchblade, where Pat is asked by a gang "What chain are you from, Father?" and get the reply "The Jesus and Mary Chain, my son". I've seen this repeated in a few places, but in actual fact there's no such scene in the film, and the Reids were taking the piss for their own amusement.
Deletei forgot to mention above that as far as the spands were concerned, 10 years on from here it was a case of "fight among ourselves"!
DeleteCan't believe we have reached August already. Anyone got the 7th Aug Mike Smith edition? Gia? John G (Neil B)?
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see Sinitta at No.2 already, and those legs!
And yes THX, Gwen Guthrie is on at last with Ain't Nothing Going On But Mike Smith (I mean The Rent).
No sign of it yet Dory, but I'm keeping my eyes peeled...
DeleteI found but only uncomplete version (missing quo,smiths) wait Neil B.
DeleteI've started downloading the equivalent You Tube clips, to fill the gaps, but obviously these don't have Smitty's links.
DeleteI haven't looked at the main download yet, but does this have the links on at least, else I'll have to add this to my home made DVD's as a TOTP 2 style format, taking out all the links!
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/90d7aad68faa95e2c4b1038ec20cca2920181027091243/119eb9
DeleteBrilliant, how did you manage to get hold of a official BBC Archive copy, considering they don't show Mike Smith hosted shows?
DeleteSome typically 80s fashion on display from the hosts here. Love that pink dress Janice is wearing or is it a two piece? The continuity announcer mentions some artists still performing but forgets (deliberately?) Chris De Burgh.
ReplyDeleteSpandau Ballet – Fight for ourselves – Not one of the best from the boys. Steve from Eastenders is looking more like Steve from Eastenders as time passes.
Jesus and Mary Chain – Some Candy talking – Did Janice like this by any chance? I let it play through and aside from a slightly strobe-like video it was Ok I suppose without really grabbing me like (say) Cock Robin the other week.
Five Star – Find the Time – FF – did people really buy this stuff? A quick check and there’s plenty more singles to come…zzzz
Breakers- Paul McCartney – Press – Macca manages to effortlessly shift between the Jubilee and Central line in this amusing video. 1962 tube stock on the Central Line lasted around 30 years whilst the Jubilee line stock on show is the short lived 1983 stock which lasted a mere 14 years. Didn’t really take much notice of the song as I was too busy train spotting. Smiths – Panic – More London locations this time back and forth across Waterloo Bridge in a similar strobe like manner to J&MC.
Stan Ridgway – Camouflage – Must have taken a while to setup that Jungle – reminds me a little of the Doctor Who story ‘Planet of Evil’. Nah, don’t like the song much.
Chris De Burgh – The Lady in Red – Thanks again to Gia for letting us see the previous outing for this where Chris sung brilliantly live. Here for some reason he resorts to mime. For me this single was a double A Side. On the B Side is ‘Say goodbye to it all’ which, for those of you who recall me harking on about Chris’s superb song called ‘Borderline’ when Madonna was in the charts with her own song of that name, this song is effectively ‘Borderline Part 2’. Great stuff, and yes I have bought my ticket for the ‘Into the Light’ show next year at Southend Cliffs Pavilion.
It Bites – Calling all the Heroes – I recall this song well but don’t remember the artist nor have I heard much about them. They’re a somewhat anonymous lot, but I do like this.
Come to think of it, the Stan Ridgeway jungle set on TOTP on this show reminds me of one performance by Pans People in 1976 called Jungle Rock, and also Legs & Co in 1978 doing Cerrone's Supernature:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A3D_lCZDsE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMxIHtGMVC8&t=11s
Any fans of Kenny Everett here? This is relevant, honest - he was a TOTP presenter! The entire three series of The Kenny Everett Video Show he did for Thames are coming out on DVD for Christmas, including the New Year specials. I have very fond memories of watching this as a kid, though curiously the set is a 15 certificate. I suppose those Hot Gossip routines could get racy. Anyway, should be plenty of musical interest there too.
ReplyDeleteProbably the most famous Hot Gossip clip from those Kenny Everett ITV shows is dancing to Supernature by Cerrone, which was very raunchy and more typical of ITV, and then on TOTP shortly after, we saw Legs & Co trying to get just as raunchy to dance to the same song on TOTP, but only as far as the BBC would allow, which was not in the realms of ITV in those days. Nowadays you couldn't distinguish between BBC and ITV of course, as they have both evolved into one melting pot.
DeleteThe 1973 show he hosted with the Simon Park Orchestra at no1 is just great! A very unique approach to presenting!
DeleteI will probably purchase that Kenny DVD set. Apparently some of the music couldn't be cleared but the fact that they managed to clear most of it is pretty remarkable!
DeleteNice all matching outfit I thought, Janice. Take no notice of the Cliff wannabe!
ReplyDeleteThe Spands there with “Fight For Our Royalties”. The return of old Three Notes Hadley and the ever slappable Gary Kemp.
At least the Jesus and Mary Chain track didn’t contain the feedback prevalent in some of their other stuff, but the earthquake bit of the video was annoying (I feel a theme coming on...).
It was always Deniece as lead vocalist for Five Star. Surely the others got fed up and wanted a turn, or were they just happy to let her take all the heavy lifting?
Mike Read trying to say sorry to Janice by saying she had a brilliant mind during the countdown, which also seemed to depict Boris Gardiner in a prison breaking rocks.
Good “Tube”“ gag by Mike Read before Macca and Press FF in this household.
Ohhh, The Smiths. Look at your fate now. Not so long ago a shoe-in for a studio outing with each hit, but not even played last time and now a horrible vid takes the place of a stage slot. Maybe this video was on and solely as a breaker because the BBC didn’t want the repeated refrain “Hang the DJ” to be heard.
Glad to see and hear Stan Ridgway again. Fascinated by his overworking cheek muscles.
Chris De Bleurggh. FF.
It Bites with obvious Steely Dan influences and a song way better than the video whose effects got grating pretty quickly. I wish we had more studio turns and less celluloid shite on the show.
of course the story of sole songwriter gary kemp keeping all the royalties of spandau's tunes after they split up is well-known, as is the court case brought (without success) by messrs hadley, norman & keeble who were rather upset that their noses had been removed from the trough. but no one seems to want to talk about if that arrangement was changed after they made up their personal differences and reformed about 10 years back?
DeleteMike Read's last appearance for a while then? I won't be crying over that, he's not as annoying as Steve Wright or Mike Smith maybe but links like the one into Stan Ridgway are totally ego driven.
ReplyDeleteSo the 3 breakers last time occupy the first 3 slots in this show then...
Spandau Ballet - Awful lumpen pile of crap with Gary Kemp achieving the seemingly impossible feat of looking even more smackable than ever before.
J&MC - Tuneless dirge (see also 95% of their other singles)
Five Star - Almost a relief after the previous pair. Not their best stuff but not their worst either.
Breakers - An average Macca tune and a decent Smiths one that was never likely to get a full outing given the 'hang the DJ' lyric!
Stan Ridgway - Good to see this, though the band have maybe fallen foul of musician union rules since none of them probably played on the song hence they've had to sling their hooks...
Chris de Burgh - Fast forward...
It Bites - 2 different people I know have tried to convince me that their other material was really good and they were robbed etc. but having heard some of it I can totally see why this was their only hit.
Another day...another TOTP...
ReplyDeleteMike almost makes Spandau miss their cue as we kick off with a mid 80s style Ballet song. It's one of their best imho. A good solid pop song.
Tony and Spandau now gone their separate ways of course.
Janice takes great pleasure in introducing the Jesus and very dull Mary Chain. zzzzzzz…
Five Star - Like this one. At least the two at the back aren't in shadow this time. My wife saw them at the Hexagon in Reading in 1986. Very stylised show but very good apparently. This is one of favourites of theirs.
Breakers:
McCartney on the underground. Hair going a bit grey Paul. Bemused onlookers "he was in the beatles"... yes he was mate!
The Smiths - Like this one. Can't say that about a lot of their stuff. Maybe because it had a decent tune.
Stan Ridgway - on his own this week but still taking the Pxxx. Great song.
New No 1. Come back Madonna....Miming De Burgh this week.
Nice reference to Brittania - Princess Di being a fan I seem to recall.
I have a friend who is a huge It Bites fan and reckons this is their worst record. He keeps trying to persuade me to listen to the rest of their stuff but I haven't given in yet! Personally I like this song.
Not bad tonight.