Top of the bobs
06/11/86 (Peter Powell & Steve Wright)
Bon Jovi – “Livin’ On A Prayer” (15)
Bon Jovi get our Top of the Pops marathon underway tonight with what became their first of eighteen top ten hits when it peaked at number 4.
Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush – “Don’t Give Up” (16) (video)
A very cuddly video to prmote this second single from Peter's number one album, So. It peaked at number 9 and would be Kate's last top ten hit for nineteen years!
Red Box – “For America” (22)
Became their second and final top ten hit when it peaked at number 10.
Swing Out Sister – “Breakout” (17)
One of the best songs of the year, and it became their first of two top ten hits when it peaked at number 4.
Bob Geldof – “This Is The World Calling” (25) (breaker)
His first solo hit, but it got no higher than number 25.
Shakin’ Stevens – “Because I Love You” (24) (breaker)
Looking and sounding all moody, and it went up ten more places.
Spandau Ballet – “Through The Barricades” (20) (breaker)
Became their tenth and final top ten hit when it peaked at number 6.
Duran Duran – “Notorious” (7)
The remaining members make it into the studio, but the song was at its peak.
Berlin – “Take My Breath Away” (1) (video)
First of four weeks at number one.
The Pretenders – “Don’t Get Me Wrong” (10) (video/credits)
At its peak.
Next up is November 13th, but it's a Mike Smith edition.
Back to a double act of hosts again. Can’t keep up with this solo/duo set up. Good selection on show tonight however and I watched it without recourse to FF.
ReplyDeleteBon Jovi – Livin’ on a Prayer – Surprisingly in the studio but at the end the cat’s out of the bag as Jon, Ritchie and co are on tour. They’re certainly having fun here. Best of the voicebox songs for me are ‘Rocky Mountain Way’ by Joe Walsh, ‘Show me the way’ by Peter Frampton, this song….and of course, ‘S-s-s-Single Bed’ by Fox.
Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush – Don’t give up – I have to admit not being a fan of this video. After the fabulous ‘Sledgehammer’ this is stripped bare. Nice song though, which PG sang on his own when I heard it on the ‘So’ tour.
Red Box – For America – Never heard this before. Not a particular highlight.
Swing out Sister – Breakout – A nice and smooth piece of music that I really enjoyed hearing after many years.
Breakers – Bob Geldof & Shakin’ Stevens – Not heard these before, Spandau Ballet – Through the Barricades – Definitely a good way to go out.
Duran Duran – Notorious – Down to a four piece now with a very moody looking keyboard player. I quite liked the ‘Notorious’ album although the subsequent singles didn’t reach the usual heights.
Berlin – Take my breath away – PP finally gets the title right but SW doesn’t! I have another record by a different group called Berlin in my collection. Released on the Famous Charisma Label in 1980, ‘Over 21’ didn’t trouble the scorers unlike this sumptuous tune.
Pretenders – Don’t get me wrong – Ah what a great video! Never seen this before. Spotted the obvious Avengers links and then, hey presto, Patrick MacNee as John Steed appears at the end. Love it.
Now then, we’ve reached a significant event in 1986 for music in the US charts. At no1 is one of my favourite records of the year – ‘Amanda’ by Boston. Unfortunately (and bafflingly) the record failed to register over here, managing a pitiful no84 peak. It’s a great vocal performance by Brad Gelp of a song that Tom Scholz had been knocking into shape for six years! I can only say that the wait was worth it and my copy, purchased at the time still sits in my record collection and I often look the track up on YT as it’s so good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=F96lemYryXo
(In 1973, another song called ‘Amanda’ by Stuart Gillies did reach no13 in the UK charts)
Voicebox hits? I'd like to add "Doctor kiss Kiss" by 5000 Volts.
Deletei have to admit that a couple of their early singles apart, i've not really heard any boston. but i find it amusing that tom scholz felt so unhappy about having to follow-up their debut album within a year that he felt his record company had compromised his creative muse (to the point that he sued them to leave i think) and then spent more than half a decade nurturing their third before finally being releases on a different label... that the critics generally concurred sounded hardly any different from the first two!
DeleteA decent show, this one, with PP hosting efficiently while Wrighty does very little as usual, though he does appear to have stolen Rupert Bear's scarf.
ReplyDeleteBon Jovi are back in the studio, their latest release conveniently climbing the charts just as they begin a UK tour. Probably their most famous track, and it still sounds good - the blue collar American dream lyrics are a bit cliched, but it's all delivered with such conviction you can't help but be carried along. Good performance too, with lots of matey larking about and perhaps the first sight of a double-necked guitar on TOTP since about 1977. The finest tune from the So album next, a haunting duet about a man badly down on his luck, and a song I associate closely with the bitterly cold winter of 1986-87. The video is not so impressive, certainly not compared to the tour-de-force that was the Sledgehammer promo, and I would have thought Kate would have been getting a full-on sniff of Pete's BO with her face buried close to his arm pit for so long! Unfortunately this gets cut off just as it reaches the best bit of the song.
Here's Red Box, with their other big hit. I really liked For America at the time, but it's another one I have seldom heard since. It still sounds pretty good with its jaunty, catchy chorus, and good to see the multiple drummers are in the studio again for this performance, one of them pounding one of the biggest drums to have been seen in the TOTP studio; there's some extravagant accordion miming to enjoy too. Breakout is a song I am not so keen on. It's been overplayed a bit down the years and while Corinne was certainly a style icon of the time, as demonstrated by this performance, her dreary voice helps to drain the life out of the song.
Duran Duran are back, minus two Taylors, and clearly happy to be back in the Top 10, though their golden years were now over. This is a decent comeback effort though, a nice mix of pop and funk enhanced by Nile Rodgers' production. Steve Ferrone, of Average White Band and Heartbreakers fame, is on drums here. The Pretenders' Avengers homage makes for a nice way to close proceedings, and I was impressed by how seamlessly Chrissie was spliced into that old footage featuring Steed - it would have looked even more impressive back then.
bon jovi: debut hit apart, it's the only thing of theirs i'm familar with, and even then mostly just the chorus. however to give them credit: if i'm ever in the middle of doing something i find somewhat onerous, i still find myself thinking (and sometimes even singing out aloud) "woh, we're half way there! woh-hoh!!"
ReplyDeletegabriel/bush: other than kate's contribution of the title, this one had slipped from my memory. listening again kate's bits are the least interesting bits (especially the cod-gospel section), with the superior verses having a pseudo-african feel in keeping with gabriel's interest in promoting what was becoming known as world music
red box: this explains why howard jones'es latest single was a flop - this lot had taken over as token purveyors of bland and lightweight synth pop
swing out sister: originally a splinter project of mancunian indie band a certain ratio, whom i had been recently been introduced to by a neighbour of mine (i actually went to at least three gigs of theirs in london in less than 18 months as a result - at one of which i spotted SOS singer corinne in the audience). although far superior to the likes of red box, this turned out to be one of the least impressive tracks on their consequent debut album (although corinne's limited vocal style a la sade was a chink in their armour). visually everyone's heard of the "orange jumpsuits" (aka US prison inmate uniforms) these days, but if the guys were parodying that, then the joke probably went over most people's heads at the time
bob geldof: call me cynical, but as a result of his unstinting efforts for charidee big gob basically set himself up for life financially via consequent media cash-ins. and where he would have been facing a far more uncertain future otherwise. part of that was of course trying to re-establish himself musically as a solo artist, but i'm sure i wasn't the only one who felt a sense of schadenfreude that live aid never came to his aid on that particular front?
duran duran: a partly reformed band (andy and roger taylor had gone awol to hard rock country and farming country respectively) with probably their funkiest-ever track, due in no small part to working with their mentor nile rodgers. however, despite that it all sounds a bit plastic-y. john got in there before me with the steve ferrone spot!
"It doesn't make a difference if we're naked or not"?! By Jovi's best known song, though as noted they were remarkably successful in the UK charts as we evidently couldn't get enough of American rockers as long as they sounded kind of poppy. They're certainly enjoying themselves here, and I might have been too had I not heard this about a billion times since.
ReplyDeletePete and Kate's song I thought pretty boring when I was a teenager, I preferred Sledgehammer, but you get older, things happen, and now I get it. It's almost embarrassing in its simple sincerity, lyrics-wise, but as an aural comfort blanket it succeeds very nicely. The video tried for the same, but since the Brian Pern parody it's a bit harder to take seriously.
Red Box with their second hit of, er about two and a half. Really liked this at the time with their pop take on world music, definitely a thing in 1986 and after, and its pleas for compassion from the US of A seem more timely than ever. No, he's not singing "Go Trump, dance, that sound on sound", but it sounds like it now. Funnily enough the performance I most recall was from Roland Rat: The Series, where they all thumbed their noses at the "Na-na-na" bit. Here we got peace signs. A reflection on Roland?
Man, you couldn't get away from Swing Out Sister at this point, that Breakout song was everywhere. Sort of light, jazzy pop with a deep female voice reminiscent of the recent Communards' number one. I don't hear this as much now, so it's more tolerable. The Louise Brooks bob never quite goes out of fashion, does it?
Presumably we won't be hearing Sir Bob again with this? He seems to be straying into Sting territory, and nobody wants that. Don't recall Steven Shakins hit either, seems to be going for the Nick Berry market. Weirdly we get the middle eight of ver Spands but not the chorus.
Ah, here's their old rivals, with a Niled-up bit of funk pop, though maybe more on the pop side. Memorably used in cult movie Donnie Darko, of course. At least it's more interesting than Ordinary World.
Berlin, all this talk of the Cruiser maybe being gay, well his Top Gun co-star Kelly McGillis really is, so a better performance from her than she's given credit for.
To end on, Chrissie channels her inner Emma Peel for this video, which is a lot of fun as it acknowledges, yes, The Avengers is one of the greatest television programmes ever made, so why not pay it a tribute? Patrick Macnee had a fascinating life, if you care to look him up.
i remember reading that patrick macnee's death was reported back in the early 80's, which caused great consternation to his family as it was the first they'd heard of it (he was living in the states at the time) - it actually turned out to be his near-namesake and fellow actor patrick magee!
DeleteAfter a run of pretty awful shows, this was an improvement, bar Steve Wright's presence naturally. Peter Powell's opinion of him is clearly visible and audible and who can blame him...
ReplyDeleteBon Jovi - Ohhhhh, it's really shiiiiiteee, Woooohh, it's a housewife classic!
Gabriel / Bush - Much better, though it does go on a little too long. I've always taken the slightly odd video to mean that this is yet another song about nuclear war, but I could be wrong.
Red Box - Great pop song with Anthony Head on backing vocals but sadly not in the studio.
Swing Out Sister - As wilby said, it's not the best track on their album by any means. My favourite was the very small hit 'Twilight World' which for some ludicrous reason never appears on their hits collections except those released outside the UK.
Breakers - All utterly dreadful.
Duran Duran - I'm off to see Nile Rodgers in concert very soon and this will be in his set I'm sure. It's a good tune, although I think follow-up 'Skin Trade' is even better.
Berlin - Yawn.
The Pretenders video is a fun one to end on. Fun fact - my Father-in-law looks a bit like Patrick Macnee
Don't Give Up was about struggling under Fatcher's Britain: unemployment, Miners' Strike, that sort of thing, but could be applicable to any "man in personal crisis" scenario, I suppose, it's not that lyrically specific.
DeleteI bet Nile's great in concert - I've only seen him and his band on TV, but even there it looks like a great show.
I always remember Gabriel's lyrics on Don't Give up, when he says "moved on to another town, tried hard to settle down; for every job so many men, so many men no-one needs."
DeleteMove forward a generation or two to today's musical stars, and lyrics like these would be seen as demotivating and morbid, and would not be signed off for production.
November has arrived in 1986. 5 days til Christmas in 2018.
ReplyDeleteMy two least favorite presenter kick off with Bon Jovi.
So much hair...are Bon Jovi responsible for the hole in the ozone layer? Great singalong pop song. Still a radio favourite today. Love the double guitar. They seem to be having fun. Obviously found the BBC bar.
Wake up Powell...put some effort into it.
Oh no. It's the rather odd video to the rather dull Gabriel/Bush collaboration. Never been a fan of this song but it's well performed.
Red Box are back. Their second hit and both of them are great and bring back fond memories, that is a BIG drum. Have we had accordions before?
Swing Out sister, catchy, annoying, singalong Breakout. Sound quality on this is really off for some reason.
This song bugs me for some reason I can't explain. Maybe because she looks like a french mime artist, Should love it but I don't. You can clearly see where Sophie Ellis-Bextor got her look from.
Breakers:
Bob solo hits I don't recall. World calling, is he being preachy again.
Shaky with a dreary ballad that won't get him very far.
Spandau. Sounding like anyone but Spandau. Always forget this is them. Nice song though.
Duran Duran. Back in the studio. Down to a three piece and with a new sound. This is quite a good song actually. Unlike Spandau it still sounds like them. Less screaming girls this time though.
Big jump for Berlin and finally a decent Number One.
Pretenders spoofing The Avengers, marvellous,
Gallagher and Lyle definitely had an accordion with them when they performed Heart On My Sleeve in 1976.
Deletedidn't one of dexy's have some kind of accordian?
DeleteYes, they did, during the Celtic gypsy phase. We'll see another one in the studio when The Pogues show up.
DeleteBack in the saddle again with a six-show backlog after life getting in the way!
ReplyDeleteA strong edition overall, and what chemistry between our hosts!
Big hair, leather, jacket fringes, a double neck guitar – it can only be Des O’Connor and Roger Whittaker”. Seriously, a good warm-up for Bradford as Bon Jovi lark about and have a blast. Give us a twirl, Jon! Unusual mic stand set-up for the bassist.
“So, Peter, what do you want to do for your video?” “Hug Kate Bush for hours and do lots of intentional re-takes!” A pseudo Central TV logo in the background there.
A lack of kids for the backing vocals and a different instrument assortment for Red Box, complete with what must be the biggest drum ever on the show. Nice crowd wave by the singer in his reverse vicar shirt and collar. Shame there was never a mash-up of the “oo-ra-lye” bit with “Come On Eileen”.
Glass Tiger couldn’t all fit into the Polaroid shot for their mugshot, but at least they weren’t as poncey and pretentious as The Spands in their pic. Did Pete call the rundown the ‘chats’ in the out-link?
A very grey and black look for a colourful,sparkly song by Swing Out Sister. It sounded a bit muddy, though.
Bob Geldof – dull song, dull vid. Next.
A change for Shaky – electronic keyboards, a slower song and Welsh Elvis looking sombre (downright miserable) in the shoot.
I’d have hated to be the poor sods tidying up after that Spandau ballet mess.
From one slappable lead singer to another, as Duran Duran (out of money for a video?) mix a decent white boy soul groove with awful whiny vocals.
Brilliant Avengers video for Chrissie (shame the lads weren’t employed as baddies). I couldn’t make out the place names on that signpost – anyone know where it was filmed? XTC used a similar Avengers vibe for the video accompanying their wonderful and overlooked top 50 track “Mayor Of Simpleton”.
Hello 2018. Voice from 2022 commenting on 1986.
ReplyDeleteRepeat of repeats No.3 and it's the last year I'm keen to revisit. Really sterile pop music with ugly grey synths all around and way too many tacky novelties but actually I really enjoyed this edition. They picked some good hits and the ones I thought I disliked turned out to be pretty good. Peter Powell (obliging, professional, slightly bored) and Steve Wright (distracted, frequently annoying) present and get on reasonably well if a little distant.
Some very stylish looking acts on here though that may just seem that way in relation to Peter's choice of evening wear. A tracksuit that may have been literally the first thing to hand in his wardrobe. Steve wearing a Rupert Bear scarf the joker.
Bon Jovi; I've heard this so many times that it's genuinely weird to see it as a new arrival in the charts. I watched this with my parents last night and my Dad has always liked this more than me. For me they really hit form around '92 but this remains an unignorable rock monster with a hammer blow chorus and a career's worth of vocal tricks for Jon to exhibit. Good fun too with the keyboardist virtually leaping from his place to piss about with the rhythm guitarist. Wouldn't it have made more sense for an extra hand to be on the keyboard? Shows they were a good laugh at this point.
Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush; I thought this was terribly gloomy at the time but 'Don't Give Up' has held up marvellously. What a great tune. Forgotten how simple the video was with just Peter and Kate locked in an embrace and facing the camera to sing. Very moving.
Red Box; Introduced by Steve in his own way (slow fingerpoint it's general direction, tongue out, bobbing up and down) Red Box with their 'other one'. Well done BBC4 for alighting on an edition with this pair. The arrangement of this is a bit of a racket (synth folk?) and metrically it's all over the place but it all works with that fantastic tune. Though provoking lyrics too. Love this single. Simon Toulson-Clarke looks like Graham Norton; he smiles and waves at an audience member and his bandmate smiles as well. They probably don't know the person. They're just nice guys.
I went to The Royal Tournament with primary school the year before (on the same bloody day as Live Aid!!!!) and I don't think there was a drum in Earl's Court that large.
Swing Out Sister; Corinne Drewery certainly looks a perfect '86 pop star and friendly with it. The moves suggest she'd been listening to 'The Locomotion' before filming. Never liked the brass on this and her voice always makes me think of Victoria Wood without the gags but it's a great performance and 'You On My Mind' was one of the suprise highlights of the '89 repeats.
Breakers; More to see but still pretty dull. Geldof; Forgot he was left handed. Shakin' Stevens; How about being a bit like that Nick Berry fella. Spandau Ballet; Serious shite.
Duran Duran; Thought I hated this but that was good. Bridge better than the chorus. The tambourine just for the cameras I would imagine. If only Gene Clark was that self confident.
Berlin; Peter introduces as "up 8 places to No 1 for the 1st time". He probably just wanted to hear the record. Me too. Glorious single. Awful movie. Terri Nunn looks stunning amongst the wreckage even with the hair affected by an inky pen accident. So obviously No 1.
The Pretenders; A great song to finish on. The Pretenders by then had just totally mastered writing songs that were simple and brilliant. Enjoyed the video which made me think of Bob Mills' 'In Bed With Medinner' in the '90s and of course Patrick McNee was in the most recent Bond movie.
It's still amazing how the Berlin No.1 still radiates so well over 30 years later, and qudos to TOTP for showing the whole video to the final fadeout, as on future weeks at No.1 they left out the final scenes with the plane and the runway, and stopping at the snog between the two lovers on the motorbike.
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