Jumpering up the charts
17/09/87 (Gary Davies & Mike Smith)
Def Leppard – “Pour Some Sugar On Me” (31)
Getting the show undeway with a song that peaked at number 18.
Luther Vandross – “Stop To Love” (24) (video)
Went up no higher.
House Master Boyz & The Rude Boy Of House – “House Nation” (12)
Their only hit and it peaked at number 8.
Cliff Richard – “Some People” (6)
Clocking up his 54th top ten hit, this one peaking at number 3.
The Communards – “Tomorrow” (25)
Went up two more places.
Karel Fialka – “Hey Matthew” (20)
Apparently he had a bucket list that included things like publishing a novel, climbing Everest and having a top ten hit - so he was able to tick one of those off when this song peaked at number 9.
Rick Astley – “Never Gonna Give You Up” (1)
Fourth week at number one.
M/A/R/R/S – “Pump Up The Volume” (2) (video/credits)
And here's our blog title tune that we won't ever get to see on BBC4.
September 24th is next.
So many TOTP to watch in such a short space of time...lucky then that Mrs. Noax is away this weekend watching one of the bands we've seen recently (clue: not WASP) and that I have one of these 4 shows not on BBC4 on shiny disc....
ReplyDeleteDef Leppard - We've already seen the only song by this band that I like. Sadly there are many more duffers like this one to come.
Luther Vandross - Bland tune.
House Master Boyz - I'm probably the only house music fan and even I find this dull and repetitive. I'm pretty sure this isn't the single version either, which is even more repetitive!
The Communards - Their first original release for some time (ie not a cover or reissue) and it doesn't even make the Top 20! I think this is a brilliant tune that deserved to do better, it's very catchy.
Karel Fialka - I think you either love or hate this song. I love it. Weirdly I can clearly remember this performance too. It seems like only a few weeks ago that we saw his early 80s song 'The Eyes Have It'...
MARRS - I know 2 people now (one on this forum, one in real life) who absolutely despise this. I think it's a brilliantly crafted piece of dance music, certainly way better than the likes of 'House Nation' that give the genre a band name.
The House Master Boyz bit should read '..only house music fan on here...' - I'm sure there are others out there!
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DeleteThe reason that The Communards couldn't make the top 20 with this one, is that it sounded too much like their previous hit called So Cold The Night in late 1986. Let's face, it this is all they could come up with a year later in late 1987, it was hardly new music from them!
DeleteAnd besides, where was Sarah Jane, the co-lead singer with Jimmy? Had they ditched her since 1986, or had she had enough when this new single in 1987 sounded too much like So Cold The Night which she did appear on?
I don't think they sound similar at all. Jimmy Somerville doesn't do his falsetto on 'Tomorrow' and 'So Cold The Night' has a more classical style to it rather than being a straight down the line pop song.
DeleteOff we go then with our mini-Smitty marathon. This was also the first of seven consecutive shows to be hosted by Gazza, which seems to have been connected to his new role as the regular co-host of the freshly-launched American version of TOTP. Quite why Smitty hosted four in a row I don't know, but it could be that Michael Hurll was experimenting with having regular weekly hosts for the British show. Thankfully for us now, that didn't happen, but they do work well together here and Smitty was much better than on his previous appearance - I even liked his funny voice when introducing MARRS at the end.
ReplyDeleteDef Leppard to start, doing the cliched thing of having the singer and guitarist share a mic while belting out the chorus. This is decent pop-rock, precision-tooled for the American market, but it's not as good as Animal. Luther is on video, with a song that by his standards is relatively upbeat and catchy, though it gets brutally cut short. It looks as if he is on roller skates in the video, though the moving scenery behind him could just be back projection.
What with MARRS and the House Master Boyz, you can tell that the native house music scene was now really taking off, but the HMB prove to be classically untelegenic exponents of the genre, just playing their instruments while the director tries desperately to jazz things up by plastering the performance with video effects. The tune itself is mind-numbingly repetitive, one of those dance tracks which I am sure works great in a club but is tedious to listen to in any other context. Cliff next, with a more restrained performance than last time, though he can't resist another Christ-like pose towards the end.
The Communards are back with a new single that, while melodic, does not really do anything musically that we hadn't already heard from them. June Miles-Kingston is still there on drums, and the Rev Coles is clad in a fetching cardie. That is followed by the highlight of the show for me, the wonderful Hey Matthew. I remember taking a real shine to this at the time, perhaps in part because young Matthew Fialka was roughly the same age as me and had the same Spiderman costume as I did. It's an incredibly atmospheric record too, almost unsettling, and that is enhanced by Karel's creepy squinting at the camera during this performance - his eyes most definitely did have "it"! The mixing of studio performance with clips from the video works on this occasion - I remember the video well, as at the time I used to watch No Limits on BBC2 and it featured on that show every week during its chart run.
Rick continues his chart domination with a new appearance, seemingly wearing a strange cardie of his own which barely reaches his waist. We finish with the record that would knock him off the top. I hated this as the time, as it just sounded like a noise to me and the music combined with the old footage of astronauts in training seemed really creepy. I can appreciate the production more now, and it's definitely better than the offering from the House Master Boyz, but it's still not my thing.
Thanks John, that seems to explain why Gary Davies had so many consecutive shows to present in late 1987, as I'm sure the American version of TOTP just launched at the time would have had the same American presenter every week, so it all seems to make sense now, that they tried Mike Smith as regular host every week, to mirror the American regular host every week.
DeleteDef Leppard, ah, you can tell that despite the pseudo-American posturing, they were actually English because of the line "Do you take sugar? One lump or two?!" You can take the boys out of Sheffield... Anyway, compared to W.A.S.P. last week this is pretty decent, maybe it's the nostalgia talking because I wouldn't have said that at the time.
ReplyDeleteLuther Vandross barely getting a cough and a spit in there before the director moves him briskly along. A pity, since it's one of his better, least played records, very easy on the ear with its slick production. Luther and his backing singers look like they're standing up through the sunroof of a limousine in the video. Is Idris Elba's most famous character named after Mr Vandross?
Who are the Housemaster Boyz? Is this even them?! How would you know? Are we expected to believe they recorded this with those instruments?! So many questions. Interesting to see how TOTP struggled to present dance, anyway, here a throwback to the "something's wrong with the telly" effect from a few years back. As for the tune, eh, I vaguely remember it, but it makes little impression.
Cliff Richard with his ninety-fourth hit, Gary? Are you sure about that? Has anyone had a hundred hits on the UK singles charts?
The Communards with a strange combination of electropop and chamber music, and I must confess I have no recollection of it, but I kind of like it. It's unusual enough to be worth reviving, not that it ever will as long as there are copies of Don't Leave Me This Way around. Thought Jimmy was wearing a bowtie for a few seconds, there.
Well, Karel Fialka isn't creepy at all, is he? And sanctimonious with it. Mind you, I suppose every parent worries about what their kids see on TV, or more probably the internet these days. Plus ca change. I wonder what Matthew thinks of this now? Technically, it's his hit single too. It certainly worms its way into your brain.
Yeah, yeah, Rick, but here's one of my choices for single of the year, along with Sly and Robbie's Boops. Loved M/A/R/R/S at the time, and it stills sounds seriously exciting today, the sound of what someone who's actually good at sampling can conjure up, a terrific collage of clips. Take note, Fatboy Slim and your lazy ilk, remixes and samples don't mean you press "repeat" on your machine and put your feet up.
I remember a big deal was made about Cliff's 100th single release in 89 so for 'Some People' to be No.94 sounds about right.
DeleteI did think that having only one-and-a-half minutes of the Luther Vandross video on a main play slow was a little mean. If they really found it that bland, why did they bother showing it at all?
DeleteIf they were not going to put MAARS in the customary second slot (video slot) on the show, then there were some fine new entries in the same 20-30 chart positions with good videos that they could have shown!
Good on Cliff, then, that's staying power. And the power of the grey pound!
Deletebut not the pink pound in cliff's case, as that was one demographic market he seemingly went out of his way to avoid...
Deletedef leppard: after unexpectedly liking their last hit a lot, i was hoping for more of the same i suppose. it's alright (if somewhat ripping off "we will rock you") but not in the same league sadly. phil collen really does look like he's got on the wrong stage by mistake - the most obviously visually ill-suited member of a heavy metal act since graham bonnet was in rainbow. mind you, probably unlike the rest i bet he's not embarrassed about how he looked back in those days?
ReplyDeleteluther vandross: i wonder if the extensive weight loss was a factor in his early demise? also, i don't suppose it was his idea to put a pretty young woman in his video as his supposed love interest? as regards the actual music, the days of him singing on good stuff by the likes of bowie and change are now long-gone
house master boyz etc: a difficult one to keep the interest when there's no vocal as such, just someone playing about with a cheap sampler - maybe that's why they told that bloke to jig about with a bass guitar, even though there's obviously no such thing on the record. i remember actually borrowing a novelty sampler off a mate at work and doing my own DIY version of the main riff of this at home... which didn't take long to put together! still, rather this than that luther van dross that came before it
communards: they may be surrounded by a bevy of female musicians, but unlike luther at least they're not pretending to have any interest in them sexually. don't remember this one at all, nor does it leave any lasting memory - perhaps they should have covered another old disco record instead?
karel fialka: what exactly did this guy get up to inbetween this and his last novelty hit (anything with kids in it has to considered as that in my view - even "another brick in the wall") seven years earlier? was he actually releasing records in that time? if the rest of his thinning thatch fell out, then he would be a dead ringer for the hood in "thunderbirds" as "the eyes have it" ho ho
marrs: that video they used must have taken all of 5 minutes to put together - was the stuff they were using in the public domain? i think i'll leave critique of the "music" to another regular here
First of a quartet of Smitty shows and it’s gonna be tough to keep up! Too much of a good thing and all that. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
ReplyDeleteDef Leppard – Pour some sugar on me – Another Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange production and a good job he’s done too. Reminds me a little of Joan Jett and the Blackheart’s ‘I love Rock n’Roll’. Not quite in the ‘Animal’ league but so much better than most of the rubbish in the charts.
Luther Vandross – Stop to Love – Next.
House Master Boyz – House Nation – Title says it all. Next.
Cliff Richard – Some People – How many of the 96 can everyone name without checking….and which is the best? I’ve always had a soft spot for ‘All my Love’ and ‘Visions’ along with the perennial ‘Miss you Nights’ but ‘Some People’ would be pretty high up in my list as well.
The Communards – Tomorrow – I almost skipped this when I saw the artist but the string quartet made me have a listen and it turned out to be the surprise package! Really nice song and miles better than the whining and wailing of ‘So cold the Night’ so I’m very surprised to see it didn’t penetrate the top20. This was great and I’m going to listen to it again!
Karel Fialka – Hey Matthew – Unfortunately this I do recall and it’s excruciating. What on earth was the appeal of this to the record buying public? On the other hand…trouble was looming at no2.
Rick Astley – Never gonna give you up – Enjoyed the latest of Rick’s appearances.
Mars - Pump up the volume Hasty FF!!! Worth quoting Nigel’s immortal words (Hi Nige if you’re still around this site) “Later in the year something just as bad repeated the trick, "Pump up the Volume" by M.A.R.R.S. I had always been a fan of dance music, but that changed during those last 3 years of the 80s. As 1988 rolled in, the chart began to get dominated by these awful noises that made me feel irritable”.
Opinion may be divided on this. All I can say is that at the time I sat amongst a total majority of people who, without exception, thought this to be quite dreadful (or words to that effect!).
Re Cliff's best song, Move It has to be up there, but I also really like Throw Down a Line, which is perhaps as close as Cliff ever ventured in the direction of heavy rock. I also recently discovered a great track he did in the early 70s called Silvery Rain, an early environmental anthem.
Delete"Fly away Peter, fly away Paul....". Written by Hank Marvin, this excellent single reached a mere no27 in March 1971.
DeleteFor Cliff tunes, it doesn't get more carefree and joyous than In the Country. But Wired for Sound is my favourite of his career's second half.
Deletewhen it comes to cliff's hits, for me it's a case of 100+ bald men fighting over a comb. but i suppose if someone held a gun to my head i would pick either this current one or "devil woman"
DeleteDef Leppard - hated it at the time. Sill do. Right to the very top of 1987 Turkeys.
ReplyDeleteA new presenting combination and 2 regulars who normally go solo...and what a mixed bag of a show
ReplyDeletePour Some Sugar On Me - Never as sexy a phrase as it is here. What a great start to the show, full of energy. Not as big a hit as Animal but just as good in my opinion.
Oh Luther what have you done, Stop To Love had dated so badly. This really is the full cheese and thankfully it fades out rather quickly. Was wondering if the camera was ever going to stop moving..answer NO
House Master Boyz & The Rude Boy Of House with House Nation next. I had forgotten this and it's a fine club tune, can see myself busting some moves to this late at night. Not a radio friendly song though.
"I've got a great new video effect for your next dance number on TOTP"
"That's great, just for the start of the song though, turn it off now"
"Off....hmmmm….where's the manual"
Cliff Richard with an identical performance to last time of the excellent "Some People"
Don't recall this Communards hit. It gets going from the off and doesn't draw breath meaning there very little difference between the verse and the chorus which probably didn't help it's chances of success.
Karel Fialka – WHO?
I do remember this very odd man and his very odd song and video. Really liked it at the time but then the song just disappeared and no-one ever played it again. Very of it's time. Wonder what happened to Matthew?
Nice jumper Rick - didn't think they were ever going to fade him up. Fourth week at number one and still not bored of this yet.
This is going to be the greatest "dance" record of the year. "Pump Up The Volume" is a proper 80s classic. Love this and a nice collection of space clips they've thrown together.
Good show...onwards....
I don't know what happened to Matthew, but on this evidence his careers advisor would have been pissed off.
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