No one is ever happier to be here than Marti
21/05/87 (Simon Bates & Peter Powell - who were wishing their microphones were working properly!)
Marillion – “Incommunicado” (6)
Fish is in the studio, and I bet he was wishing so was a wee bit more of his hair, to get tonight's show underway with the band's third and final top ten hit with him on vocals, and number 6 was its peak.
Wet Wet Wet – “Wishing I Was Lucky” (14)
Making their debut in the studio and - all their dreams came true! - the song became their first of a lucky thirteen top ten hits when it peaked at number 6.
Cameo – “Back & Forth” (11)
Another band in the studio, and he's wearing his lucky codpiece again, but the song would go no higher.
Donna Allen – “Serious” (26) (breaker)
Became her first of two ten ten hits when it peaked at number 8.
Johnny Logan – “Hold Me Now” (25) (breaker)
This year's Eurovision winner, and it peaked at number 2.
Bruce Springsteen – “Born To Run” (23) (breaker)
From his top four album Live 1975 - 1985, this classic song peaked at number 16.
Tottenham Hotspur FC/Chas & Dave – “Hot Shot Tottenham” (18) (breaker)
The rockney lads are back again, but they didn't get their wish this time around, and number 18 was as good as it got. Ah well, can't win 'em all.
Whitney Houston – “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” (10)
She's in the studio performing a storming live vocal, and her wish will come true in two weeks time when the song will be number one.
Starship – “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” (1) (video)
Third week of four at number one. Pity they never made it into the studio.
Fleetwood Mac – “Big Love” (9) (video/credits)
And you couldn't wish for a better video to play out with, but the song was at its peak.
28th May is next, but it is another Mike Smith edition.
Back to a double act of hosts again and what an eclectic line up tonight. Seeing the chart rundown reminded me that it was at this stage where the percentage of stuff I liked and disliked really shifted in favour of the latter, and never recovered. Yet another ‘Jack’ record in the chart, but mercifully not given airtime.
ReplyDeleteMarillion – Incommunicado – Great rousing start to the show. Even without the gradual climax of the song’s intro it still sounds mighty fine and was a live favourite that really got the crowd singing. Fish once again regales us with his tartan and I can’t help thinking that Ian Mosely on drums looks just like Steve Hackett, who he once played drums with. Steve Rothery doesn’t have too much to do on his guitar here whilst Mark Kelly on keyboards gets the instrumental break. Short chart run for this after crashing in at no6.
Wet wet wet – Wishing I was lucky – Never was a fan of the Wets and I much preferred the Troggs original of ‘love is all around’ just like practically anyone I ask.
Cameo – Back and forth – Forth is right…
Breakers – Donna Allen – vaguely recall this. Johnny Logan – Thompson twins. Bruce Springsteen – finally a hit. Tottenham - An absolute classic.
Whitney Houston – I wanna dance with somebody – One of my most hated records of all time along with practically every other single she recorded. I tell you a funny story about WH. When I first met my girlfriend (now wife) she persuaded me to go along to a WH concert at Wembley in early 1988. Like a fool I went along (but I was anxious to please as you are…). The concert was excruciating, but I felt that something wasn’t quite right with the artist. When it came to the encore……there wasn’t one. No explanations, nothing. This song hadn’t been performed, so I was spared that until people started singing it on the tube home, as nobody could fathom out why there was no encore and no rendition of this. Anyway, live or not on this ToTP show, I didn’t wait to find out before hitting FF.
Starship – Nothing’s gonna stop us now – Well worth four weeks at no1. Recorded on the wonderfully named ‘Grunt’ record label.
Fleetwood Mac – Big Love – Another chance to see the intriguing video….well they were never going to rock up in the studio were they? Presumably as this was a playout we get the entire video here and well worth it is to see the reversal ending. I bought the 12” but was disappointed as it is a totally different mix and not the better for it in my opinion.
p.s. did anyone else notice the sound going funny in places? I listened on iPlayer with headphones and it was odd at times.
Yep, the only two records I liked on this show were the last two videos, ie, Starship at No.1 and Fleetwood Mac stuck at No.9. At this point in the 80s, I must say that the American output was far superior in music quality and style, in song and video, and this particular show is a case in point.
DeleteI mean, just seeing that Fleetwood mac video flow through to its very end like that was something very special, as it certainly didn't get its full showing on the show a couple of weeks earlier when at No.13. Big Love!
sct - now that we know Whitney's drug problems pre-dated Bobby Brown, it isn't hard to deduce what might have lain behind her indisposition that evening.
DeleteDory - strictly speaking Fleetwood Mac were Anglo-American, but the American element of the band was certainly dominant on this song!
Yes very poor sound on this edition. My surround sound system was all over the place at times. They seemed to be experimenting with mono and stereo and jumping between the two. I would be interested if our favourite uploader anonymous is reading this and could maybe upload the bbc archive version and see if it like this on the original tape or if it was a fault with BBC Fours copy.
ReplyDeleteThis Neil B.'s original broadcast version https:we.tl/t-wxF2Ay3ha0
DeleteVery interesting, so the original broadcast in 1987 did not take the Fleetwood Mac video to its very end, as BBC4 did last night, so it goes to show that we are seeing the fuller editions now in 2019, and fuller playout videos only now in these reruns!
Deletefound 3 copies of it here they are :
Deletehttps://we.tl/t-2Eqknq7F2q
Wow 3 versions of this edition? Many thanks Anonymous! Something very strange going on with all this! I wonder if BBC Four used all 3 versions to create their broadcast version hence why the sound was all over the place! Either way thanks for the uploads and will probably end up keeping one of these rather than BBC Fours version!
Deletemarillion: sounding far more genesis than genesis themselves were at this point - especially the portamento synth playing that tony banks was doing 10 years prior to this
ReplyDeletewet wet wet: i remember actually being quite impressed with this energetic-yet-stylish dance-pop effort at the time (the main bass line is somewhat derivative of the sos band's "just be good to me") and hoped for more. but sadly with only one exception they got gradually worse and worse after that. plus marti pellow's over-enthusiastic grinning didn't help (nor does his constant bouncing up and down here). i think that's the "fifth" member on guitar, who for some reason despite always being involved in the creative process was never officially part of the band when it came to publicity - perhaps the reason being that with one massive ego in the band, there wasn't enough room for him?
cameo: ah, the infamous codpiece is back - this time alligned to what appears to be some sort of curious cut-off apron. plus the brillo pad hair was getting a bit out of control at this point (reminding me of that guy in steel pulse that had a dreadlocked leaning tower of pisa on the top of his head). what is becoming a little alarming is that although we are now close to the halfway point this year, so far i only have two contenders for my "top 10 crackers" list (this being one of them) pencilled in. hopefully things will get better in the second half, although i'm not counting on it
spurs/chas & dave: i have good memories of that year's FA cup final, where the star-studded spurs team (plus mitchell thomas) were expected to take coventry's plucky journeymen (plus cyrille regis) to the cleaners but failed. maybe they should have focussed on the actual football a bit more beforehand, rather than taking time off to make yet another rubbish football record?
whitney houston: as well as being yet another song with a stupid and unnecessary bracketed bit at the end, it also falls firmly into noax's dreaded "HC" category. every time i've been to an 80's-themed club over the last few years it inevitably gets played - unlike the similar but superior "how will i know", that has been washed away in the tides of time
Marillion: my chief memory of this was that it came off a concept album about Fish being a drunkard, and the follow up to Incommunicado was called Warm Wet Circles, which a friend of mine informed me he thought was about vaginas. It's not, it's about circles of warm beer left by pint glasses, in case you thought that too. Anyway, this single is better, rocks along with come energy, and despite the subject doesn't sound as doleful as a lot of their material.
ReplyDeleteAh, the Scots are on display this episode, with the band I'll always think of as Wee Wee Wee after what a music journalist in the newspaper used to call them. I know Marti's been through his hard times, but there was always something resistible in his permagrin jollity. This, well, it was OK, and the next single was inoffensive, but they quickly became the epitome of bland.
Hey, Cameo, this is more like it, another typically idiosyncratic effort from them (laughed at them reacting to the bullets!). Catchy as all heck, and their synchronised moves in the studio show commendable dedication to putting their material across (mind you, I suppose you could say that about 5 Star, only 5 Star had no sense of humour).
Presumably the only Breaker we won't see again is the football one, seen here in the Blue Peter Studio, oddly, and it's full of misplaced hubris that does not endear. Did Coventry have a single out too? They could have got Frank Ifield to record it.
Aaaaand that's why Whitney made it to number one. Seemingly effortlessly hitting the high notes, dominating the stage with her voice, steamrollering everything in her path with volume, yup, that's Whitney all right. But I don't mind this, really, it's upbeat and wistful underneath the brash power.
Starship still there, and time to bring up more Kim Cattrall films, like one of my favourites of hers, Split Second, a cheerfully naff monster on the loose sci-fi non-epic with London sinking into the Thames thanks to global warming. Kim's shower scene is highly entertaining, but not for the reason you think.
The Fleetwood Mac video again, who's the lady doing the grunting at Lindsey, with the dark hair? Random model?
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Delete(Typos corrected - sorry!)
ReplyDeleteA storming live version of 'Incommunicado' recorded at Lorley appeared on the 12" and CD single versions of 'Warm Wet Circles' and featured a warning for material that may cause offence. Presumably for Fish shouting 'Here we F***ing go' during the intro to 'Incommunicado'. Incidentally the second single from 'Clutching at Straws' was the excellent 'Sugar Mice' which we'll be seeing soon.
I also noticed sound problems with the links on this edition, and if it was a problem confined to the BBC4 version it makes you wonder why nobody noticed before last night's transmission. In any case, while I couldn't hear everything they said PP and Master Bates seemed to do a professional enough job, even if the chemistry between them was not exactly fizzing.
ReplyDeleteMarillion were now approaching the end of the Fish era, but their love of 70s Genesis was clearly not waning, as demonstrated by this track. It's OK, but as with a lot of their stuff the derivative nature of it gets on my nerves. In this performance, Mr Dick once again tries hard not to remind us he comes from Scotland. More Jocks next, as Wet Wet Wet make their studio debut. Seldom have a band been more appropriately named, but I do like some of the early, poppy stuff that preceded the descent into terminally tedious pony-tailed balladry. This lively first hit, which even has a political subtext, is their best, and not even Marti's ever-annoying grin can spoil it. As with Johnny Hates Jazz, my sister had a bit of a thing for the Wets at the time, and readily believed a bit of scuttlebutt she read in Smash Hits that Marti had been born while his mother was on the toilet...
The codpiece returns to the studio, accompanied by some very dodgy hairstyles and a song that, while quite funky and promising in the verses, completely loses momentum when it reaches the chorus. This is all we will get of Hot Shot Tottenham, which is no great loss - I assume Chas & Dave were drafted in yet again in the hope that they were a lucky charm and this Spurs side would replicate the back-to-back Cup wins in '81 and '82, but it wasn't to be on this occasion. Did Hoddle and Waddle both feature on this? If so, they rather improbably had two hits in the chart simultaneously.
I remember this live Whitney performance well from the time. Though you can't deny the excellence of her live vocals, this rather bland song has always left me a bit cold and its ubiquity down the years hasn't helped its cause. For many years I thought SAW produced it, as it does sound like something they could easily have done - in fact, Narada Michael Walden did the honours. The rest we have seen before, but good to get Big Love right through to the frenetic conclusion this time.
Videos win... could have done with more of Brucie
ReplyDeleteMarillion - A simply brilliant song, it never fails to get me going. As usual Fish gives an energetic performance too.
ReplyDeleteWet Wet Wet - My wife's favourite band! Fortunately I like them too. She's very happy that they've ditched Marti given that his ego got out of control and is looking forward to seeing them in concert with Kevin Simm (who is very good I might add!)
As to the song, it's a good one and seems to be the one that even not Wets fans like.
Cameo - As I said last time, I'm not a fan of this.
Breakers - Being a Hammers fan, I won't talk about that other lot.
Whitney Houston - Housewife song it may be (though not as much as others we've seen in the last few months) but I actually don't mind it and her vocal is very good to be fair. I think it was with 'One Moment In Time' that the vocal gymnastics began and things were never the same again...
Second TOTP of the day. Same viewers as before. Bring on PP and Slimes.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if it's my recording or TV but sound is well off on this one tonight, really quiet and no bass at all.
Marillion not a fan of. Nice tartan suit though. Song cant decide what it wants to be. Fast, slow, rock, synth - it's a bit of a mess. Another band who are still going. I have a friend who goes to a Marillion get together in Germany every year.
Wet wet wet. Loveable Scots and another band still going with a different frontman. Marti looking all pure and innocent and very happy to be here. Great pop song this. A radio favourite. Lot of denim love going on.
Poor Sybil. Never got to see her. She'll be back.
Cameo. Proper 70s throwback this one. Cod piece in check. Some love for this song on last week's chat but I must say this does nothing for me.
Sound is all the place even the mics are playing up
Breakers :
Donna Allen with a song I really like. Was sampled for the Strike hit? Very good this one.
Jonny Eurovison up next. This is not one of the better Eurovison winners. Next year will be better.
Bruce back with more US MOR. Its not a bad number. Very radio friendly.
Spurs. FF. I hate this. But probably because I'm as Man City fan. Nice Blue Peter clip though.
Whitney in tbe studio! With one of her best songs as well. Love love love this. Great performance and another live vocal this week. 😀 What a voice.
Statship. Licence fee obviously couldn't afford the plane fare to get them into the studio.
Fleetwood Mac great video play out. Excellent show tonight marred bn terrible sound quality.
Worst sound in the re-runs by a quadrophonic mile.
ReplyDeleteOo, Marillion go disco, sort of. Is the singer Scottish (and balding) by any chance?
The ever slappable rictus grin of Marti Pellow, bobbing up and down like a Thunderbirds puppet. Intruiging side saddle drummer there.
Worth watching just to hear Slimes announce both The Fall and Zodiac Mindwarp in the mugshots. Oh, look, The Housemartins’ new drummer!
The return of Cameo’s viewer- baiting codpiece, which I found marginally more interesting than the song.
Donna Allen, a Janet Jackson wannabe dressed like a banana.
Johnny Logan. Wanker.
Brucie’s best song, the American “Rat Trap”!
Listen to those production values on the Chas and Dave single, probably recorded in a pub. This sounded like the template to their “Crackerjack” theme. As for me, it’s Super Bees, and absolutely delighted Brentford thumped QPArse 3-0 on Saturday.
Whitney Houston – bitch died on my 50th birthday.
Slimes, we’ve just discovered what positon Houston’s at in the charts. You’d be better off giving us a timecheck!
Before it reverses, I counted 16 different Lindsey Buckinghams in that video.