Seeing red
14/05/87 (Gary Davies)
Johnny Hates Jazz – “Shattered Dreams” (18)
Getting the 1213th show underway with what would be their only top ten hit when it peaked at number 5.
The Cult – “Lil’ Devil” (11) (video)
Looking a bit like Adam Ant and sounding a bit like Mick Jagger, this was the band's biggest hit and it was now at its peak.
Europe – “Carrie” (22) (video)
Also at its peak.
Labi Siffre – “(Something Inside) So Strong” (4)
A second studio performance but Labi's final to 40 hit got no higher.
Wet Wet Wet – “Wishing I Was Lucky” (21) (breaker)
Became their first of thirteen top ten hits when it peaked at number 6.
Cameo – “Back & Forth” (13) (breaker)
Peaked at number 11.
Tom Jones – “A Boy From Nowhere” (3)
Singing a live vocal in the studio and the song went up one more place.
Starship – “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” (1) (video)
At 47 years old, Grace Slick was at the time the oldest woman to sing on a number one hit, and this was her second of four weeks at the top.
Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction – “Prime Mover” (24) (video/credits)
Crikey! Bon Jovi meets the Rocky Horror Show! This was their only top 40 hit and it peaked at number 18.
May 21st is up next.
Tom Jones - they say that musicians evolve with the times, but not in the case of Tom Jones who sounded like he was still stuck in the 60s as a sequel to Delilah with this 1987 top 3 hit for him. Good Lord, how the mighty stand firm!
ReplyDeleteStarship - interesting point by Angelo regarding Grace Slick being 47 on this hit. I guess she must have stayed right through from the original Jefferson Airplane from the 60s (when she was probably in her twenties then) which then became Jefferson Starship which then became just Starship. However, contrary to Tom Jones, she indeed had evolved nicely to an 80s sound with this new No.1 so late in her career. Well done her!
Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction - it was certainly a huge love reaction by the convent girls to become sexy girls in raunchy gear. Good Lord, this takes me back to a time when men were men (alpha male) and women were women (doting after men). You'd never see such love reaction nowadays on a pop video, as men can't magnetise or seduce women anymore. Must watch the whole video on YouTube this weekend, as what we saw of the video on this TOTP episode, it was like a Star Trek episode when they took off into outer space at the end!
Jefferson Airplane had hit the big time exactly 20 years earlier, when Grace Slick was 27. Strange to think that she will turn 80 later this year!
DeleteYeah, strange how in the same show and same top 3 chart, that Tom Jones and Grace Slick were returning 20 years after their 1967 hits, and finding themselves competing for a 1987 No.1. Indeed she is 79 now and Jones is 78, both heading rapidly towards their 80th birthday in the coming year!
Deletejohn i've read via wiki that the who's original drummer has just died... and he was nearly 90, which came as a bit of a shock!
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ReplyDeleteTake 2 (I made a few grammatical errors with the last one) -
ReplyDeleteI watched this ‘live’ with The Old Girl, whose comments I’ll sprinkle in this critique.
Johnny Hates Jazz with something very synthetic, polished and 80’s and quite good. Great shot of the bongo drummer picking up his sticks during an on-camera drum mini-solo.
Of The Cult, Mrs. Nibble called them idiots, unoriginal and uninteresting. Hark at her! Iain Astbury was a pretend Mick Jagger with Freddie Starr-style leg workouts in the video. I’ve heard far worse but this didn’t top “She Sells Sanctuary”.
I remembered this Europe ballad. Not bad, let alone one for a group with English as a second language. Quite an understated drumkit for a metal band. Slightly unusual squeaky vocals according to the missus. How much shampoo and conditioner was needed there?
I thought at first Labi’s budget didn’t run to backing vocalists this time, and I guess once they turned up he couldn’t afford the ‘leccie’ on his keyboard.
Our first sighting of Wet Wet Wet, with their best song and it was downhill from here though, to be far, they did sponsor their local football team, Clydebank (who folded and re-formed).
Not Cameo’s best and a bit of a weird video. Slightly more than a cameo appearance in the charts, though.
The old girl thought Tom Jones looked like an ape in an undersized suit. As Spike Lee said of “Green Book”, not my cup of tea, but you couldn’t fault the vocal delivery.
After Grace the Fossil, we get shock rock (yawn) with Zodiac Mindwarp’s hybrid of metal and poodle rock which doesn’t fully gel. Mrs, Nibble asked “Is he singing “I’m a groomer?” ”.
Gazza goes for a more casual look this week, and has plenty of girls draping themselves on him at one point. I liked the way he couldn't resist saying "Sybil" in a Fawlty Towers style...
ReplyDeleteJohnny Hates Jazz are an archetypal late 80s pop act, with a name that pretty much reflects what I think about jazz, or most of it anyway! My sister was quite fond of this lot at the time, and Clark Datchler is quite good looking, but their image in this performance is fairly nondescript and was perhaps a factor in their rapidly diminishing chart returns. As for the song, it was everywhere back then and still sounds good now, with a cool, sophisticated sound very evocative of the era - some nice conga action too. Something rather less slick from The Cult next, a lively but not especially memorable rocker accompanied by a basic video in which Big Chief Astbury looks more than a little stupid. Funny that this was their biggest hit, and yet She Sells Sanctuary is the only one that people seem to remember today.
More long haired rock next, as Europe decide that the time has come to wheel out their big power ballad, complete with grand piano in the promo and some impassioned emoting from Joey Tempest. It's all very cliched and dull, and nowhere near as good as Cliff's Carrie. Not sure that we will see any more of Europe after this, as their only other Top 30 hit was a number 28 smash four years later. Back in the studio, Labi returns with a keyboard as well as his posse from two shows previously. Another memorable performance, with the various personnel gradually filling the stage again before Labi strides out to the front for the final chorus.
Post-breakers, we come to the first appearance of Tom Jones in the TOTP studio for about 15 years. I wasn't sure if he was singing live or not, but Gazza assures us at the end that he was - a very good effort, then, as his vocals sound eerily similar to how they do on the record. Not a very exciting performance, however, as Tom is pretty static and there are no knickers to be seen anywhere! Zodiac Mindwarp and co provide a memorable playout, the effects-heavy, amusing video rather overshadowing the generic rock tune it is promoting. Zodiac himself was Mark Manning, a former graphic artist, and I think you can see the influence of his former occupation in this video - Jimmy Cauty of the KLF had been in the band, but I think had left by this time. Their tongue-in-cheek, hard rock image makes them look in retrospect like a proto-Darkness.
The whole long-haired rock concept seems like a time capsule when we look at it now, and was sported at the time by men born in the 1940s and 1950s. As the 1980s were reaching their final furlong, those born in the 1960s were now gradually taking over in the charts and not being pulled in by the long-haired rocker look of their elders (except for Europe I guess), and we would never see it come back, even to this day.
DeleteHair metal/poodle rock was big in the late 80s, so there were still quite a few long locks about in the pop world, and the early 90s would see grunge popularise long hair again for a while, especially "curtain" hair.
DeleteI forgot to say about the chart rundown...
ReplyDeleteGreat photo for Mirage.
Oo! The Fall! If only Peelie was here!
Clark Datchler (or Clark Kent, according to their chart rundown pic) heads up his moment of glory with the anaemic Shattered Dreams, an inescapable, super-slick but none too substantial bit of wine bar pop. Always bugged me how he ended every chorus with the line "This empty hah..." What's an empty hah?! Enunciate, man!
ReplyDeleteThe Cult with Ian's ripped leather trousers - I knew ripped jeans were in, but leather? Or had he fallen over just before the video was made? Anyway, a video very much from the Status Quo approach, though at least the song is lively.
Europe with their paean to Stephen King's first hit book, er, probably. Maybe Joey was a big Sissy Spacek fan. Every metal act had their big ballad, though not all of them had a grand piano (that you're pushed to hear on the record itself!). This cliché does suit Europe better than some, but it's still a dirge at best.
What's the point in miming the keyboard, Labi, when you're just going to abandon it for the grand finale? To give your hands something to do for the rest of the song? Anyway, another sincere performance, but he wasn't half sweating.
Tom Jones brushes down his whistle, and indeed his vocal chords, for a live version of a groaner of a showtune. Say what you like, the man has enormous stage presence, but it's difficult to get excited by the song.
Starship, with a song that was from a film based on One Touch of Venus, an old 50s movie which in turn was based on a hit musical. Except in the 50s film, they cut all the songs out, so we never got to find out how well Ava Gardner could sing. If only Kim Cattrall had lent her pipes to the soundtrack of Mannequin.
The following programme contains scenes which some viewers may find offensive. Ah, it's OK, it was Zodiac Mindwarp, and it was a massive pisstake, as if the lyrics about "I'm a sex Fuhrer, baby!" and "Open your knees!" didn't give you the hint. Liked this at the time, though I suspect the joke hasn't travelled too well into the 21st Century. The video was directed by Adrian Edmonson, of The Young Ones, in case you were in any doubt. Though the knowledge that Zodiac was the target of Voice of the Beehive's hit Don't Call Me Baby does take the fun out of it a tad.
johnny hates jazz: surely a candidate for the worst band name ever? songwise it's a catchy chorus and generally all-round pleasant-enough radio pop if nothing to really jump up and down about. i wonder how much of a push this got from mickie most (that's most jr on keyboards)?
ReplyDeletecult: more meat-and-potatoes mediocrity. were they meant to be goths? they sound more like bad metal to me
cameo: oh why oh why aren't this lot (codpiece apart) remembered for this excellent groove rather than "word up"? and unlike that drivel, this actually has a decent tune too. i love the look on larry's henchman's face when he discovers the woman he fancies is a transvestite
zodiac mindwarp: more goth-meets-metal that seemed to be popular at the time, but did and still does nothing for me
Johnny Hates Jazz - They weren't around for long, but they made some decent pop songs and this is probably their best.
ReplyDeleteThe Cult - I'd never have guessed that this was their biggest hit. It's alright but both She Sells Sanctuary and Edie (Ciao Baby) are much better.
Europe - Awful
Cameo - Sorry wilby, I'm not keen on any of their songs other than the big hit!
Zodiac Mindwarp - This is baffling. It's obviously not meant to be taken seriously, but it's not hilarious enough to be a good parody either...
Nice bit of hosting from Carrie, sorry Gary Davies.
ReplyDeleteJHJ – Shattered Dreams – You gotta love this song from Clark Datchler and Mike Nicito that you can’t help singing along to. Great opener.
The Cult – Lil Devil – Hmmmm, not sure about this at all. Not really my cup of tea.
Europe – Carrie - …doesn’t live here anymore. Predictable soft metal ballad and pretty harmless. Europe were ‘doing an Alice Cooper’ at this stage by each hit placing lower than the previous one.
Labi Siffre – (something inside) so strong – Powerful stuff that grabs attention.
Breaker1
Wet wet wet – Wishing I was lucky – no! no! no!
Breaker2
Cameo – Back and Forth – Someone can’t spell ‘fourth’? Give me the Lindisfarne album of the same name any day, this is rotten!
Tom Jones – A Boy from Nowhere – I have just taken delivery of the ‘Matador’ soundtrack CD from eBay today on the back of hearing this again. I’ve forgotten how good this was and Sir Tom’s live performance is a treat, even if he does look a bit worn out at the end.
Starship – Nothing’s gonna stop us now – Grace and Mickey really make this a duet and it’s just a delight to keep hearing again. The engaging video makes more sense if you watch it from end to end, as Mickey rocks up on his motorbike seeing mannequin Grace in the window but ends up being mannequinned himself at the end with the ever lovely Grace.
Zodiac Mindwarp – Prime Mover – I don’t know what this was all about but I gave it a few seconds before switching off.
….fourth week at no2 for Judy.
Didn’t remember the Johnny Hates Jazz tune at all, but it was quite pleasant - reminiscent of Silent Running...
ReplyDeleteAnd the same with The Cult track - Don’t remember it, liked it, but again reminded me of something else.
Must be something in the water - Europe track sounds like Boston...
And finally, as stated above, zodiac play Bon Jovi (with a soupçon of Alice Cooper)
I agree Angelo the year is flying by..
ReplyDeleteMyself and Wifey in attendance this morning with ooh Gary and show 1213.
JHJ - arrive in the scene with by far and away their best song. Big fan of this one, very radio friendly as well but never outstays it's welcome. Very much the same scene as Curiosity and Simply Red.
The Cult. Said last week this is a poor Rolling Stones knock off. Red Indian up front, cowboys on guitar and edwinn starr on drums.
Yet another video. Europe. Wifey informs me the hair makes women jealous. 😀 😀 😀
Good job as the song is awful.
It's all going downhill fast tonight.
Labi back and now a top ten hit. Any reason they stuck him to one side of the stage? Ah.. Backing singers have turned up late. Now a clarinet, where are all these people coming from.
He's stood up now! 😜
Breakers :
Wet wet wet. First time on the show and gonna be massive for the next 5 years or so. Don't they look so young and clean cut. They were a question on Pointless yesterday wifey informs me.
Cameo. This is pure cheese 🧀.
Tom Jones. Finally makes it to the studio and singing live as well. No recollection of this from the time at all. Good performance though and a nice song.
Judy Boucher STILL at number two!
Starship again. Very clever video.
Zodiac Mindwarp. What fresh hell is this. I don't know what to say...
The guitar riff in the Cult song is so good it was used in a trendy TV holiday advert last year.
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